James Burton on Pedal Steel with Ricky Nelson

Henry Matthews · Post by **Henry Matthews** » 15 Oct 2022 9:55 am

That crash happened not to far from Texarkana at Dekalb Texas. They were in a DC-3 and was a fire in airplane and they made an emergency landing in a field. Think the pilot got out but the rest perished in the fire. Later determined that fire was caused by a heater in rear of plane by FAA.

Josh Dubin · Post by **Josh Dubin** » 15 Oct 2022 8:39 pm

That's Ricky with Burton and James Kirkland the bass player on the show. This is just a promo for Rickenbacker. That arch top was a dud and never played by Nelson. (Not sure but I don't think Kirkland ever played the Rick on the show). I have never seen another picture of or heard of James playing steel, live or on record. He certainly loved it and was was influenced by it, but didn't seem interested in messing with it. He did play excellent dobro, both Spanish (fretted) and barred..

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 16 Oct 2022 11:24 am

I first saw some of those Ric promo photos in Richard Smith's 1987 Rickenbacker book:

A prominent example of Burton's simple but effective Dobro work is featured on Richie Furay's classic A Child's Claim To Fame from Buffalo Springfield Again, circa 1967:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inKBgmFy6oo

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 19 Oct 2022 7:53 am

It's just a guess: it's maybe him, since he played guitar on the record. There are a few splashes of steel on there like at 9:00 on Sing Me Back Home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeKIrHa3AjI
the steel at the 19:50 mark sounds more like Sneaky Pete though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeKIrHa3AjI

Andy DePaule · Post by **Andy DePaule** » 20 Oct 2022 11:13 am

Henry Matthews wrote:That crash happened not to far from Texarkana at Dekalb Texas. They were in a DC-3 and was a fire in airplane and they made an emergency landing in a field. Think the pilot got out but the rest perished in the fire. Later determined that fire was caused by a heater in rear of plane by FAA.

The DC-3 is generally a very reliable aircraft. When I used to skydive back in the 80's & 90's they had one at the drop zone in Lodi, California.
Used to pack about 25 to 30 of us in theirs on the floor.

Some have been in operation since the 30's I think both as passenger and military aircraft. In fact I made my first 5 jumps from them when I was 17 and a new recruit.

Some 3rd world airlines still have them in operation.
I seem to remember that Henry is right about the sad details of the accident.

Does anyone know for sure if Tom had left the band already or had just not been on that tour?

Dave Hopping · Post by **Dave Hopping** » 20 Oct 2022 12:17 pm

I recall seeing James play a Ric 6-string on the show.

Looked like a 330.

Skip Edwards · Post by **Skip Edwards** » 21 Oct 2022 6:56 am

Andy, Tom had left the band quite a while before. They weren't traveling with a steel player at that time.