Ricochet Grand Ole Opry Steel Player

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 20 Oct 2022 7:45 am

Last week, I heard that Ricochet played the Grand Ole Opry, and they've got another steel player named Larry Hight. Ricochet is the band Teddy Carr played steel for from February of 1994 until July of 2000. Larry Hight plays a Carter steel, and the only original member is lead singer/guitarist Heath Wright. Ricochet's steel player before Teddy came along was Monte Good, who left Ricochet to tour with John Michael Montgomery, and Teddy had worked with Little Jimmy Dickens and Clay Walker.

Jeff Garden · Post by **Jeff Garden** » 20 Oct 2022 8:31 am

As our resident expert on who played with who, Brett, you should draw out a giant steel guitar "family tree" like on ancestry.com. List all steel players down the left side and then follow all the bands or solo artists they played with as the years went by.

Don R Brown · Post by **Don R Brown** » 20 Oct 2022 5:21 pm

Jeff Garden wrote:As our resident expert on who played with who, Brett, you should draw out a giant steel guitar "family tree" like on ancestry.com. List all steel players down the left side and then follow all the bands or solo artists they played with as the years went by.

And then another chart with the bands on one side, then all the various players who they had through the years. Shouldn't take much time at all!

Frank Freniere · Post by **Frank Freniere** » 20 Oct 2022 7:00 pm

I bought a black Carter D-10 from Teddy Carr many years ago.

Jeff Garden · Post by **Jeff Garden** » 21 Oct 2022 2:50 am

Don R Brown wrote:
Jeff Garden wrote:As our resident expert on who played with who, Brett, you should draw out a giant steel guitar "family tree" like on ancestry.com. List all steel players down the left side and then follow all the bands or solo artists they played with as the years went by.
And then another chart with the bands on one side, then all the various players who they had through the years. Shouldn't take much time at all!

My cousin and I got talking about the "incestuous" country rock world over a few beers years ago and our chart got real busy in a hurry. And these were only some bandmembers we came up with.

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 21 Oct 2022 3:46 am

Back in the 70's they had a book of rock family trees, based on different genres, didt purchase it but wish Ihad, I think some of it is online though. The country rock one like yours Jeff is great.

Joe Goldmark · Post by **Joe Goldmark** » 23 Oct 2022 11:32 am

Back in the 20th Century I published many editions of "The International Steel Guitar Discography" It was a book that attempted to list every steel guitar instrumental performance known to man...

The last one (red cover) was in 1997. Included was a section that listed every "notable" steeler (steelers i had heard of), and the bands they had played with. There was also a cross index of every recording country band that I was aware of and the players who had occupied the steel chair with them. Of course there were omissions, but it was pretty comprehensive up to that date. Long out of print, but pops up occasionally.

Joe

Mike Sweeney · Post by **Mike Sweeney** » 24 Oct 2022 7:01 am

I worked with them a short time after Monte quit. I already had a gig with Shawn Camp at the time and didn't want to make the move full time, even though it was offered.
It was then they hired Teddy Carr.

Bob Shilling · Post by **Bob Shilling** » 24 Oct 2022 10:21 am

The last one (red cover) was in 1997

Joe,

I still have a '94 edition (yellow cover). That was a monumental work in which I still look up old players.

Bob

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 24 Oct 2022 2:10 pm

Mike Sweeney wrote:I worked with them a short time after Monte quit. I already had a gig with Shawn Camp at the time and didn't want to make the move full time, even though it was offered.
It was then they hired Teddy Carr.

There's a video where lead singer/guitarist Heath Wright said they auditioned Teddy on the road, and when they saw how well he played, they knew he was their steel player. According to Heath, they flew Teddy in in the middle of a tour, and when he wasn't playing steel parts, he was dancing around from behind the steel. In 2000, I was reading the forum here, and saw Teddy's Franklin steel for sale-it'd been seen in three of Ricochet's music videos, and it kinda shocked me that he was leaving Ricochet, because at that time, I'd just gotten started playing steel, and wanted to hear him play more songs with the band. I saw Teddy playing steel with Ricochet live in 1999, and he waved at me from behind the Franklin, then I met him, along with the other five members of Ricochet, after the show.

Mike Sweeney · Post by **Mike Sweeney** » 24 Oct 2022 2:44 pm

Brett,They hadn't put out anything at the time I filled in. They asked me if I wanted the gig. I told them I had one. And that's when the got Teddy.
I will say this, those boys could dig back in the archives and do some great Bob Wills, Ray Price etc..
They were doing some original songs but, they were doing a lot of covers. Everything from Joe Diffie to Merle Haggard. And did it all well.

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 24 Oct 2022 3:47 pm

Mike Sweeney wrote:Brett,They hadn't put out anything at the time I filled in. They asked me if I wanted the gig. I told them I had one. And that's when the got Teddy.
I will say this, those boys could dig back in the archives and do some great Bob Wills, Ray Price etc..
They were doing some original songs but, they were doing a lot of covers. Everything from Joe Diffie to Merle Haggard. And did it all well.

They performed at a place called The Silver Bullet, and Teddy had just joined the band. He'd also played steel with Clay Walker before Ricochet came along. He joined Ricochet February 8, 1994. I remember how they were talking about how they used to cover artists like George Strait and Vince Gill, then several years later, fans are singing with their hits! Bass player Greg Cook joined the band in January of '94 after he and Heath Wright had played music together before Ricochet came together. The first three members were brothers Junior(fiddle) and Jeff(drums) Bryant, and lead singer/guitarist Heath Wright, who Jeff had called, wanting him to join the band after graduating college then came keyboardist Eddie Kilgallon in October of '93, after Heath responded to an ad Eddie had put in the newspaper about a keyboardist looking for work. There was a temporary bass player who had agreed to stay with the band until the end of the year, and Heath decided to call on his friend Greg Cook to play bass, then came Teddy on steel. Junior and Jeff had a band called Lariat, but when Heath joined and the other guys left, the three guys decided to change the band's name to Ricochet.

Mike Sweeney · Post by **Mike Sweeney** » 25 Oct 2022 5:23 pm

That's about right. I worked with the 2 weeks in January of '94. Played Mystic Lake Casino in Minnesota and a big club in Indianapolis.