Who was your Mentor?

Rick Tyson · Post by **Rick Tyson** » 8 Jan 2002 2:53 pm

Not the person who inspired you to play, but the one who sat there with you & cracked them knuckles with the pointer, barked out the orders for licks & scales to be practiced over & over

VIAGRA....90% filler....10% fix-a-flat

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Pat Burns · Post by **Pat Burns** » 8 Jan 2002 3:03 pm

..mine isn't in the past, he's presently cracking whenever we get the time to get together with it..Buck Dilly, who lives a few miles away from where I live..professional musician who's been around for 25 or 30 years..

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 8 Jan 2002 3:30 pm

Unfortunately, there was no one around.

Oops, I take that back. The guys that helped me out the most were Greg Lasser, Carlos Claveria, Bobby Black, and Barry Blackwood.

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Carter D10 9p/10k
Richard Sinkler

[This message was edited by Richard Sinkler on 08 January 2002 at 03:31 PM.]

Glenn Suchan · Post by **Glenn Suchan** » 8 Jan 2002 3:33 pm

My mentor is Paul Carestia. A great player and one of the nicest folks I've met.

Paul, if you're reading this post, best wishes to you and yours.

Happy new year, pal!

Glenn

Tom Stolaski · Post by **Tom Stolaski** » 8 Jan 2002 4:56 pm

Thunderstorm Bob
Nice guy, but somtimes he could come down pretty hard.[This message was edited by Tom Stolaski on 11 January 2002 at 11:11 AM.]

Post by **Joey Ace** » 8 Jan 2002 5:05 pm

Al Brisco, still is.

Joe Wright is next,but he lives far away, so it's only thru tapes and seminars. Even so, joe has cracked my knuckles more than Al.

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<img align=left src="http://www.pedalsteel.tv/img/joey.jpg" >
-j0ey-
www.pedalsteel.tv

Bob Carlson · Post by **Bob Carlson** » 8 Jan 2002 5:25 pm

Oh to be so lucky to have had someone to have taught me a lick or a new and harder scale.

I have some scales from Steel Guitar Magazine and I work on them a lot and feel people who don't are missing the boat.

BC.

Steven Knapper · Post by **Steven Knapper** » 8 Jan 2002 5:49 pm

The legendary West Coast Blackie Taylor. He is one of the great ones when it come to teaching and he has been a mentor and now a good friend. Just yesterday he said I was becoming a part of the family as his Daughter lives behind the shop, she came in for something, he said he was in lesson, she said "is Steve here" I think I got the best all away around. PS Blackie has cracked my knuckles with the pointer, yelled blocking, blocking but with complete compassion and understanding.[This message was edited by Steven Knapper on 09 January 2002 at 09:09 PM.]

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 8 Jan 2002 6:07 pm

Ricky Davis, thanks pal...

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Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 8 Jan 2002 7:09 pm

In the early 60s,when I first played standard guitar,it was Duane Allman.We roomed in the same dormitory at Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon,Tenn.He was the first real good guitar player I ever knew personally and after observing on a daily basis how much he practiced,a light went off in my head like BINGO! So THAT'S what it takes to get good! He never cracked my knuckles per se,but his enthusiasm and love of music was infectious and he showed me how to learn by example really.Right around the time I took up steel,he got killed on a motorcycle and so I had to crack my own knuckles from then on.I also played in several bands with a very driven,intense-almost psychotic jazz piano player named Art Wheeler from Charlottesville,Va who showed me a lot of theory,jazz shortcuts,subs,turnarounds and so on.He was the type of guy who would come to a birthday party and work the room quizzing people about scales,chords,jazz trivia or reciting Beethoven's biography.Nobody could stand to be around him very long cause he'd wear a hole in you,but he was a great teacher and I learned a whole lot from him in a short time. -MJ-

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 8 Jan 2002 7:37 pm

Red Rhodes. He recommended me for gigs, found me steel guitars, fixed my amps, and showed me licks during many wonderful hours in his shop. I miss him.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

Tim Rowley · Post by **Tim Rowley** » 8 Jan 2002 8:50 pm

I wish I had one...

Tim R.

John Paul Jones · Post by **John Paul Jones** » 8 Jan 2002 9:05 pm

Dave Menefee taught me intervals, what they mean, and how to use them.

Blackie Taylor trusted me, believed in me, and inspired me. God bless 'em both.

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John Paul Jones

GFI U-12
Evans FET500 amp
ART T2 effects
HM-4 harmony machine

[This message was edited by John Paul Jones on 08 January 2002 at 09:13 PM.]

Terry Downs · Post by **Terry Downs** » 8 Jan 2002 9:26 pm

Maurice Anderson

He was a great mentor and instructor. I learned more than just steel guitar. He always had a music ethics lesson to share with me too.

Brendan Mitchell · Post by **Brendan Mitchell** » 8 Jan 2002 10:11 pm

As with most other steel players in Melbourne
Ben Joiner was my teacher, music historian, mentor and all round good bloke.He championed the steel in this neck of the woods almost single handed.BJ left us 3 years ago and is sadly missed but I can see him playing up there with some of his friends and heros and showing them a lick or two.
Regards Brendan

Steven Knapper · Post by **Steven Knapper** » 8 Jan 2002 10:18 pm

John Paul, right on with Blackie!!!
Steve.

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 8 Jan 2002 10:45 pm

I really didn't have one. There wasn't anybody around here. I did ask Mike Cass a bunch of questions when he was a teacher in Minneapolis. I never did take any lessons, but got a lot of information while I was waiting for the service to get done on my guitar. (An Emmons PP 9x9 with a cluster on the left knee.)
I'd have to say both Mike and Buddy Emmons were close to being my mentors! Neither one of them realize it, but they were, each in their own way.

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My best,
Ernie

The Official Buddy Emmons Website
www.buddyemmons.com

Bobby Boggs · Post by **Bobby Boggs** » 8 Jan 2002 11:12 pm

Buddy Emmons is the one to blame for me taking up PSG.

I sure would have a lot more money if I'd never heard him play.

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 9 Jan 2002 1:08 am

Gary Carpenter......and your Welcome Bill Terry.....and I believe your behind on your lessons pal...so get your butt in gear and lets do it.....ah.....ha.
Ricky

Larry Behm · Post by **Larry Behm** » 9 Jan 2002 5:16 am

Chaulk up another one for Greg Lasser, he was a ZB freak at the time so I got one also and he turned me on to LDG playing with Jim and Jesse etc. He sat with me and helped me get a good foundation. Also more importantly he taught me the ring finger under style of blocking, need I say more. www.aracnet.com/~lcbehm

Thanks Greg.

Larry

David Wright · Post by **David Wright** » 9 Jan 2002 5:18 am

Maurice Anderson.............

Chuck S. Lettes · Post by **Chuck S. Lettes** » 9 Jan 2002 6:05 am

Ed Black from Florence, Kansas showed me how it's done. I still remember just listening to him tune up my guitar and then effortlessly making my old MSA semi-classic sound like I knew it should. He was patient with my endless questions, and he had such a sweet tone and vibrato. Ed Black set the standard for me, and I am grateful that he got me started on the steel. Thanks, Ed.
Chuck

John Lacey · Post by **John Lacey** » 9 Jan 2002 7:18 am

In those early days, it was probably Al Brisco. He was only a few blocks down from where I was living, playing a house gig with Ronnie Hawkins. He was always generous with his time and advice on breaks. The other strong influence was Ron Dann. He introduced me to a lot of steel records that were hard to get, like early Emmons 45's and Jimmy Day. He was a mentor for a lot of steelers in the Toronto area.

Ray Jenkins · Post by **Ray Jenkins** » 9 Jan 2002 7:31 am

Mark Frederick.

Ray
OOPS!!! I better go practice now.

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Steeling is still legal in Arizona[This message was edited by Ray Jenkins on 09 January 2002 at 07:32 AM.]

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 9 Jan 2002 7:41 am

My mentor was a gentleman named Pat Griffin. Pat went back all the way to vaudeville. He played both regular guitar and "Hawaiian" guitar. He talked of playing on the same program with the likes of Will Rogers. He had an excellent touch and feel for the guitar. He and his wife, Evie, were both graduates of the Chicago Conservatory of Music. They lived in Buffalo, MN and during the week they went to different towns in central MN giving guitar and accordian lessons. Evie had more patience than Pat and would usually start out with the beginning strudents and if you showed any talent at all, she would turn you over to Pat. His fuse was rather short but if you were interested in learning the guitar in particular and music in general, he was the man. I forget what he would charge for a lesson but he gave you more sheet music for free that what he charged. One Sunday afternoon a month they would open up their home to their students for a jam session. What a loving and caring couple. They couldn't have any children of their own so their music students were their "adopted" family. They were devout Catholics and you should have heard the feeling that Pat would put into Ava Maria. He tried to teach it to me but being the foot washing Baptist that I am, I just couldn't get the same expression into this piece.

The left-handed Norwegian.
Erv