Your favorite Pete Drake?

[Andrew Roblin]

School me, please. What are your favorite Pete Drake steel parts?

[Per Berner]

Most of what he did for artists like John Anderson, George Jones and (early) Tanya Tucker. "Avoid the Talking steel guitar".

[Bobby D. Jones]

There is a lot of discussions on how the deep bass sounds of George Jones's, "He Stopped Loving Her Today". Pete Drake is listed playing steel. I read somewhere that Pete Drake had a 12 string steel.

When I played a 10 string, I could never come close to the first part of, "He Stopped Loving Her Today". I wondered if Mr. Drake tuned some of the big strings on the C6th neck to E-G#-B and used them.

When I went to 12U, It has the notes, Have not found what stomp box he used to get the sound on the recording.

[Per Berner]

That was Phil Baugh and his pedal guitar, not Pete's steel.

[Greg Cutshaw]

Phil Baugh plays that part live on one of the Emmons/Baugh videos on YouTube.

So many favorite Pete Drake solos and backup fills it's hard to pick just one. He and Bobby Garrett were lick creating machines.

But here's one where Pete Drake does a fine job of singing Color Of The Blues:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3zfGLIsZK8

[Gary Spaeth]

giddy up go deserves a listen. phantom 309. my elusive dreams. he was a great backup player.

[John Swain]

Gary Stewart's " She's Acting Single" Pete's intro and turnaround are genius!

[Jerry Overstreet]

What John said. Very catchy run. Sounds difficult but it's really not.

I remember hearing him on Dylan's Lay Lady Lay long before I started playing pedal steel. Nothing very complicated there either but fits the song perfectly....I guess maybe that really is the genius of Pete Drake.

[Pete Finney]

Tracy Nelson's album from 1969, produced by Pete Drake and Scotty Moore, has some of my favorite Drake playing. "Mother Earth presents Tracy Nelson Country" is the full title of the album.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... m2jhyIVbpT

All the early '70s Johnny Rodriguez albums on Mercury that Jerry Kennedy produced have a lot of great Pete Drake, and way up in the mix.

Lots of great stuff on early Tammy Wynette records.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsaQoSBJ7PQ

[robert kramer]

John Anderson, the newest Country Music Hall of Fame inductee:

"She Just Started Liking Cheatin' Songs Today" 1980 Warner Brothers #13 Billboard Country
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSa2GYH_R_w

[scott murray]

Pete’s intro/turnaround on Tammy’s original version of Apartment #9 is sublime and one of the most perfect parts ever played
https://youtu.be/zsaQoSBJ7PQ

here’s a few other favorites
Willie Nelson - Funny How Time Slips Away

Bob Dylan - I Forgot More

George Harrison - Behind That Locked Door

[John Larson]

All of Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline album.
Especially "Lay Lady Lay" and "Nashville Skyline Rag"

George Harrison's "I Live For You"

David Allan Coe's "Longhaired Redneck"

[Joe A. Roberts]

That Tammy Wynette cut seems to be around when he switched (exclusively?) to the E9th and stopped playing the C6th neck
Before that his signature sound that made him such an in demand player were E9th like sounds which were actually coming from the C6th neck.

The secret to getting those beautiful chimey E9th sounds was to raise the high G string up to A with the fifth pedal.
At first the norm for P5 was, at first, to drop it to F#.
And then it became popular to raise it to G# (before replacing the high G with the D caught on).

But raising the G to A, the fifth and sixth pedals can then be used like the E9th A and B pedals.
Changing the C E G triad on top to C F A.
The licks and sound can be approximated on the E9th, but not entirely imitated.

Anyway, I think an obscure cut like this from 1960 shows why Pete caught on so much and was so valued in the studio:

Connie Hall - Yellow Roses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHJgkbo ... 93IHJvc2Vz

In that track, Pete plays a beautiful intro, backing and solo that suit the song.
What else could you want from your steel player?
He certainly had a bag of stock tricks and licks, but to me it is obvious he had a deep musical intelligence, his own style and most of all, a good ear for knowing what to play and when.

Some hits that showcase his signature early, bouncy, pretty C6th sound:

Roy Drusky - Anymore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbx2i6Vf7mc

Jim Reeves - Little Ole Dime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9QO85RGDV8

Webb Pierce - Walking the Streets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbhuYJj49no

Reading some old criticisms and posts on here of Pete from throughout the years you’d think he completely sucks, I don’t get it.
He could be repetitive, but I think some animosity must stem from his personal character.
There is also probably some irritation that he was getting work while other guys were struggling to find any.

There is that often repeated story where Curly Chalker is playing in some bar and is playing some amazing mind bending stuff and he noticed Pete Drake watching and so he asks him “Can you do that?”
To which Pete replies “No, but can you do this?” and waves a big wad of bills…

Curly Chalker of course had his own, truly genius jazz influenced C6th country music style that couldn’t be more different from Pete’s.
As much as I love Pete Drake, I sure wish there was more 1960s Curly Chalker studio work:

Hank Thompson - Stirring Up the Ashes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz58afPAQt4

Bill Bledsoe - Tell Me Why
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkf1v8vKic

Bill Bledsoe - That Same Old Feeling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOCL2sih-tg

[Peter Dollard]

The song "I pity anybody who isnt me tonight" had a really nice very minimal steel part by Pete; it kind of rolls around the melody and it is gone very quickly but sounds really nice to my ears. Casey Kelly said that when they recorded it everyone was all smiles at the recording session....

[Gary Hoetker]

His intro on the Little Jimmy Dickens’s ballad “Twice The Fool” circa 1965. Spine-tingling.

[Franklin]

That was Phil Baugh and his pedal guitar, not Pete's steel.

The first verse is Phil Baugh's pedal guitar on the low strings then the rest is Pete Drake...

[John Sluszny]

Some of the songs on Beatles' Ringo Starr's album "Beaucoup of Blues" produced by Pete Drake himself in 1970. Amazing production too!

[Andrew Roblin]

Thanks for the listening material, guys.

And thank you, Joe, for the info about Pete on C6. I had no idea...

[Jack Stanton]

Pete might have been the first steel player to have caught my attention with his work on Dylan's John Wesley Harding, and his impact on steel can't be discounted, witnessed by all the great tracks listed above, but for my money his most emotive work was on George Harison's Behind That Locked Door

[Glenn Suchan]

Ray Pillow’s “Take Your Hands Off My Heart”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zj0pX2lB6 ... 15IGhlYXJ0

Keep on pickin’!
Glenn

[Peter Dollard]

Didn't he play the intro on Simon and Garfunkel's... song the Boxer?

[Damir Besic]

Pete played on original recording of “He stop loving her today “ … after session was over , he turned around , and said “ guys, I think we have a hit” .. and he was right …

[Kenny Davis]

My favorite is She’s Acting Single. In my opinion, his most eclectic recording was
All I Ever Need Is You by Kenny Rogers & Dottie West. His quirky licks fit the song’s bouncy tempo perfect. He had quite the command of his volume pedal for sure.

His pre-E9th recordings with different artists had variants and actual licks from his instrumental For Pete’s Sake. I’m wondering which came first?

[Dan Kelly]

My favorite is "Nashville 1 A.M." which he played with Harvey Mandel... Psychedelic Pete Drake! Betcha never heard this one!

Very cool!

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

[John Larson]

Pete played on original recording of “He stop loving her today “ … after session was over , he turned around , and said “ guys, I think we have a hit” .. and he was right …

His playing on that whole album of Jones' is nothing short of sublime, perfect steel playing.