Looking for Academic Papers about Steel Guitar

[John Egenes]

Not sure where to post this, so I figured "Music" was as good a place as any.

I'm doing some research for an academic paper I'm writing. I'm looking for ACADEMIC sources and references to include in this paper, and here's what I'm writing about: Being a pedal steel player and a multi-instrumentalist, I've long thought about why certain instruments migrated into country music and became mainstays. For this paper, I'm not concerned about guitar, banjo, mandolin, etc. I'm concerned more with Steel Guitar (including PSG), Dobro, fiddle, and some electric guitar, including B Benders.

These share something in common: the ability to play glissando and portamento, covering ALL frequencies between one note and the next. Piano, fretted instruments, woodwinds and some horns... these instruments play DISCRETE notes, separated from each other. Guitar has evolved so that players bend notes (and use B Benders) to achieve a little bit of glissando, so I'm including them in my paper.

The violin was originally designed to emulate the human voice, and it still does the best job of that of any instrument. I'm thinking that the steel guitar (including Dobro, Weisenborn, and other lap guitars) comes close to achieving the same sort of result, and I think it has to do with glissando....We don't speak or sing in rigid scale tones, our voices "slide" up and down as we talk or sing.

Country music is about storytelling, whereas rock's main theme has always been about the beat. Sure, they cross-pollinate, but from the 1920s to the 1950s, as steel guitar and fiddle were becoming firmly implanted in country music, they did not find homes in popular music. The closest was in big western swing bands that emulated the swing jazz bands.

I'm not looking for the HISTORY of the steel guitar. I already have all that data. I'm trying to pin down WHY the fiddle and the steel guitar found their place in modern country music, especially in the 1950s through the 1980s or so. I know the historical reasons (movements of diaspora around the world, etc), but I'm talking about the ACCEPTANCE of the instruments. So, no need to get into when the steel was introduced, or who played on what, etc. And again, I'm trying to find ACADEMIC references where possible, though any good books or articles are fine. Via the university I teach at, I have access to databases all over the world, so if you know where something's buried, I can probably access it [grin]. Thanks a lot.

--john

[Donny Hinson]

You've probably already seen this, but I'm posting just it in case you didn't. There may be some pertinent material in this paper:

http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/ ... 2440/86478

[Bill McCloskey]

https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/dissertations/0r967514v

[Guy Cundell]

John, reception is an interesting question. I am not sure I have the answers but my dissertation on steel guitar in western swing is certainly relevant.

All my stuff is hosted here on the SGF.

https://b0b.com/wp/articles/guy-cundell/

[John Egenes]

Thanks for the tips, folks. I appreciate 'em. I do have those papers, and yes Guy Cundell, I have your dissertaion as well. It's a fine work, by the way, and probably the only in-depth academic paper I've seen on the subject. Well done!

best,
--john