Establishing a local club- looking for pointers

Pete McAvity · Post by **Pete McAvity** » 1 Feb 2022 3:52 pm

Hello, all. A few fellow forumites & I are in the process of putting together a monthly meetup in St. Louis with our first gathering in about six weeks. As of now we’re planning on having some workshops and hoping to grow to be able to host featured players. Pretty much open ended format for the time being as we’re just putting the pieces together. Looking for feedback how how other regional steel guitar clubs operate, how gatherings are structured & what has been successful. Do you have jams with live backup bands regularly? Are you set up w/ appointed/elected organizers? I’m in the process of setting up a website & we have a solid reputable venue available, just doing research on how best to get off the boards.

We’ll be posting in the Events section shortly. Til then any pointers are welcome & anyone interested in joining can reach me here via PM or email.

Be good,
-Pete

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 2 Feb 2022 9:18 am

Here are links to some steel guitar organizations
https://b0b.com/wp/links/

I don’t know of any that have monthly meetings. A few of them have regular annual or semi-annual conventions/jamborees that could be considered “high profile”, notably the Texas, Georgia, Southwest, and Nashville associations. Those four and several others have excellent websites where you can see a lot of how the events are organized and advertised.

You are retracing some pretty legendary footsteps there in St. Louis. Good luck!

Larry Baker · Post by **Larry Baker** » 11 Feb 2022 3:43 pm

Pete, hope this works out. It is much needed. I'm sure you know, but before Pat Heller passed, he was sponsoring a few shows a Year that seemed to go over quite well. I was never able to make any of them, but I heard it was quite successful.
Good Luck.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 Feb 2022 3:37 am

I started the Florida Steel Guitar Club with the help of fellow steeler's Don Sulesky and Blake Hawkins. I managed it from its start in 2002. Due to moving (and age) and loss of place to hold club jams it was dissolved in 2020.

Our aim was not to have workshops (we tried to some extent but it didn't go over) and we found featured steeler's didn't work well. The guys just wanted to play. We only had a 3 hour timeframe. In the peak winter months we had as many as 14 steels. We did have a band, no tracks. We did have a few shows that allowed steeler's that would never have a chance to play on a big show have their time in the limelight.
We tried to have monthly jams but as many members were winter residents we limited it to September to April.

Nick Reed, who is a "snowbird" is having winter months jams to replace the old club jams.

I've been to a couple of the old Kansas City Heartland Steel Guitar Club jams and they used tracks (the last one I was at Bruce Zumsteg was running the track computer).

Pete McAvity · Post by **Pete McAvity** » 12 Feb 2022 4:38 am

Thanks guys! Keep ‘em coming!

Fred- you are absolutely right. This town is special. Any endeavor here will live in the shadow of the Mecca of Scotty’s and the Scott family. I’m incredibly lucky to live where the international community was born, and the shop was a magical place.

Jack- I had the good fortune to catch one of the KC gatherings in 2012. They had a live band at the time. One thing we’re trying to feel out is how to have a place to get together and play, but also to serve as a gateway for anyone new to or interested in the instrument. Trying to get as much for as many as we can in a 3 hour window once a month.

Larry Dering · Post by **Larry Dering** » 12 Feb 2022 1:50 pm

Pete, are you aware of the yearly jam that was done in Swansea Illinois? John McGuire was doing these in April at a Civic center. I attended a few. At one time there was over 12 players. He had a band for backing up the steel. Steve Hitsman was involved and he's a Forum member. I attended the ISGC St Louis for nearly 30 years. Now at 72 I'm slowing down.

Pete McAvity · Post by **Pete McAvity** » 12 Feb 2022 1:57 pm

Larry,

Yup! Steve Hitsman is in on the ground floor of this one.

Larry Dering · Post by **Larry Dering** » 13 Feb 2022 5:37 am

Good deal. I will be watching for future development. Best wishes for a active club. Beverly Harris has a club in Oklahoma that has a decent following. Her club and yearly show is held at a local church. We attended last year and enjoyed the venue and performance. It's called the OSGA, not to be confused with the Ozark OSGA. I was a member of the Ozark OSGA for years. in 2021 they sent my dues back and there's been no updates since then. Pat Heller was a friend and had some local shows in Pevely on Sunday at Gene's Country Club, Indian Foot Lake. It was in development with decent turn out. Sadly we lost him to Covid19. Pat was involved with Scotty in his early days with the ISGC.

Pete McAvity · Post by **Pete McAvity** » 13 Feb 2022 6:49 am

Thanks again Larry. I only met Pat in person once, after a show he played near my house. I’d told him I was in search of a replacement E9 pickup & he was kind enough to give me a BL705 he’d removed from a client’s guitar. He was an incredible player, gracious & funny. I took for granted that I’d have plenty of opportunity to see him play regularly 5 minutes from my front door.