It would be great to have some Steel Without Pedals sub-forums.)
A Youtube channel which archives videotapes from the late George "Keoki" Lake's great collection, has, for the first time in 10+ years, recently uploaded more videos:
https://www.youtube.com/@HalfMoonSteel/videos
Interestingly, some of the new tapes are from 1988 featuring Jerry Byrd playing a borrowed 24.5" blond T8 Stringmaster, he even says "I've never played a Fender in all my life"!
One standout for me is a gorgeous version of Deep Purple, starting at around 3:45 in this vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTSbU5Fg5yQ
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In the 1988 HSGA convention tape of his set, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uij4e8eTUmk
Jerry Byrd gives candid explanation as to why he quit hotel work in Hawaii.
Transcription:
"Everybody wants to know why I quit... well, I'm already living proof that some people don't know when to quit! I should've quit a long time ago.
There's a lot about the music business that you don't know. You come to Hawaii, you go to Halekulani Hotel... a beautiful setting, best in the world.
Here are three guys [Byrd's trio], in an ideal job, all of you would love to have a job like that. Now that is on the face of it, and that is good.
But you don't know what we have to put up with from the management of the hotel. We are not appreciated. We are tolerated. And they'll tell you so.
We are considered to be like all the help; we can't go through the front door of the hotel, and have to go around the back and go through the back door to get in.
Generally, they import all of the hotel managers from Germany. Now, I don't like Germans because I'm about half German, you see.
But anyhow, we have to try to deal with these people. They come to Hawaii. They know not a damn thing about Hawaii. And they don't care to know.
They learn how to make nickels and dimes at the bottom of the page. And they deal in nickels and dimes. And they expect you to do the same.
So they are forever wanting to see how cheap you work. How many jobs you can do for the hotel for nothing.
We worked at the Halekalani for two years without a raise... and now I'm getting down to stuff you don't know about, see.
They changed hotel managers regularly, about every two years, and in essence, when they do this, you have to start all over again with the new manager.
I'm 68 this year, I'm not starting over again, with another manager, right?
I got a short fuse talking to these guys...Anyway, the new manager's name is Ernst Abbe (sp?) ...and he's managing the Halekulani Hotel in Hawaii, eh?
So I went up, we had a meeting, and he said they are not going to sign any new contracts (our contracts have already been expired for like 6 months).
Those that we could, would be a maximum 5% raise, and with that you would do one free job per month for the hotel. I said, "No. Not me."
You can't talk to them, it's a closed thing. All the time they're telling you they can't afford it. I asked them for 15%, which is nothing. They couldn't afford it.
But while we're doing this, they're building another new hotel across the street. There's a new hotel!
I asked them: "Have you raised your room rates in the last two years?" (I know they have, about every three months they raise them, cheapest room they got is $250, on up to $600.) They have an apartment that rents for $14,000 a week... yet they "can't afford it").
So I say: "In terms you can understand, all we're asking you for is for three guys for three nights, which is less than one half-night's room rent of the cheapest room you've got in the hotel."
One half-night. And we're not worth that? After two years?
I said: "We're never late, we play anything you want, we look like professionals, we act like professionals, that's what you're paying for."
You might as well talk to a wall. But I tried another way:
"I know the price of your drinks... it's the most expensive place on the beach to drink. You take 4 people, who have 3 drinks. That's the same as our raise."
... "Can't afford it"
But that's what we need. So, I told my two guys. We've been together 10 years: "This is the end of an era for me. I cannot swallow this any more."
I have been there for 16 years, and it's been like that for 12 of them. And I worked for 6 German hotel managers.
And they're all the same. They don't know Jerry Byrd from a hole in the wall. They don't care. People come in and ask if Jerry Byrd is playing here: "Who?"
And people call, saying they want to make a reservation to hear Jerry Byrd:
"Hm? He's not playing here."
Yes, he is!
"No he isn't."
If they make reservations anyway, they come and tell me this. That manager doesn't even know I'm playing there, and this time for two years!
So enough already, I didn't want to bore you. I thought you'd be interested in the whole "why I quit".
You know what we do? We go to Japan, by God, where they love Hawaiian music and they appreciate what we do. They sit totally mesmerized, crying (and they do not cry in public).
They come up apologizing after the show "I'm sorry I cried when you played." I told them it's great! Don't apologize for that. And that's the way they are. So we go over there and play."
- Jerry Byrd at the 1988 HSGA convention in Joliet, Illinois
Picture from Chris Templeton
