What song made you buy a steel guitar?

jim milewski · Post by **jim milewski** » 9 Sep 2002 2:11 am

with Bob S, "Someday Soon", still in awe of it, my buddy who can't do anything musical has me put the CD on whenever he is here, I listen to rock stations then and Pure Prairie League, "Country Song" was an eye opener

Don Sulesky · Post by **Don Sulesky** » 9 Sep 2002 3:29 am

"Kind Woman". Rusty Young, with Buffalo Springfield.
Jim, I thought this song was done by Rusty on the Poco "Deliverin" album?

Anyways it was that album and Lloyd Green's "Shades Of Steel" album that really did it for me. And of course "Sleepwalk" which i had been playing on my Strat for years.
Don

jim milewski · Post by **jim milewski** » 9 Sep 2002 4:37 am

I find whats interesting is that some of us got into steel through rock stations playing Cody, Riders, Burritos, Poco, etc. we called em underground stations then and we were lovers of country and didn't know it, after buying a maverick I bought my first country album, "The Best of the Best" Merle Haggard, never looked back after that

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 9 Sep 2002 4:38 am

i did'nt buy my first Steel.
My uncle, who runs a Musik Store, had this Maverick that just would'nt sell.
so he gave it to me, knowing i'd probably make something out of it.
that was 15 years back.
30 years back when in Nashville, i picked up the Buddy Emmons Black album and played it to death way before i got into Steelin...
also that Poco LP w: "you better think twice and that long Jam tune w: a Spanish title.
(last but not least,"that"s all folks!"WBs)
it's only been in the last 5 years that i'm tryin' to pick up on all that i missed.
regular doses of the Fo'rum helps...
[This message was edited by CrowBear Schmitt on 11 September 2002 at 05:28 AM.]

gene brown · Post by **gene brown** » 9 Sep 2002 6:39 am

Jimmy Day with Ray Price,Buddy Charlton with Ernest Tubb,Buddy Emmons,Lloyd Green,Ralph Mooney.I have a lot of records they recorded on, and never get tired of listening to them.Gene.

Rob Hamilton · Post by **Rob Hamilton** » 9 Sep 2002 6:47 am

For me there were about a half dozen recordings that really got me interested in the pedal steel guitar:

Sweetheart of the Rodeo (The Byrds, Lloyd Green and Jay Dee Maness)
Workingman's Dead (Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia)
Someday Soon (Judy Collins, Buddy?)
Joanne (Michael Nesmith, Red Rhodes)
Nashville Skyline (Bob Dylan, Pete Drake)
Rainbows All Over Your Blues (John Sebastian, Buddy Emmons)

Steve Stallings · Post by **Steve Stallings** » 9 Sep 2002 6:52 am

It was a steel player named Larry Derosier, from Tacoma,Washington. He played steel in my Stepdads (Bob Adams) band in the Sea-Tac area in the late 60's. They used to practice in our Renton living room. The Buck Owens stuff got me hooked. I was a rock guitar player and a teenager though and was a closet steel guitar fan until 1979, when I bought my first steel, a S12 E9 MSA.

Several years ago on the original forum, I was able to contact this gentleman through forumites. He really didn't remember me, probably because I was just a kid, but that made no difference. He was a huge influence on me and the reason I play steel today

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 9 Sep 2002 6:54 am

Kinda like Smiley..not a particular song. I was working a day gig in a music store that took one in trade. It was sorta like "what the heck is this thing anyway?".. It found it's way to my house shortly thereafter

Frank Estes · Post by **Frank Estes** » 9 Sep 2002 6:54 am

"Afternoon Delight!"

Just kidding, of course! It was not just one song that got me hooked on steel, but the session work of Sonny Garrish and Weldon Myrick on Hinson and Hemphill gospel recordings of the mid and late 1970s. My wallet has never been the same since!

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Frank Estes - 1978 Emmons D-10 8+7 #2441D

Jay Ganz · Post by **Jay Ganz** » 9 Sep 2002 7:01 am

Any one of the tunes on John Prine's
first album with Leo LeBlanc on steel.
That was around 30 years ago or so.

Gerald Menke · Post by **Gerald Menke** » 9 Sep 2002 7:17 am

Bruce Kaphan played on a Red House Painters record from 1996, "Songs for a Blue Guitar", which I heard while touring playing guitar in '98. He only plays on two cuts, but his super thoughtful, spare playing just knocked me out. Had never really been into country music, but BK led me to the Big E, Lloyd, Charlton and all the others. Steel has really enriched my life!

Whip Lashaway · Post by **Whip Lashaway** » 9 Sep 2002 8:10 am

Pretty much anything that came out on a Buck Owens album. My Dad had a band that did all of Buck's stuff. They used to practice at our house late at night. I would look down through the register in the floor from upstairs and watch the steel player. He used to do "Pete's Sake" really good too. I just loved steel from the first time I ever heard it. I literally had dreams about being a steel player. That dream finally came true (20 years ago).

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Whip Lashaway
Sierra E9/B6 12 string
Sierra E9/B6 14 string

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 9 Sep 2002 9:30 am

Well I clearly was not playing any "Country' music, but the bands I played in were playing the Byrds, Springfield etc.. Although I knew of and was familiar with the sound of the Pedal Steel I never really took the time to actually "listen" to it. I would say my earliest influence which got my attention was the "Sweathearts of the Rodeo" album like many above stated. From there I wandered into Poco etc..and became emotionally fixed on gettin' one of them dang things, which I did. Shortly after that I heard the BIG E and Lloyd Green play.. What a ride it's been since that time and now we've got the software ( Internet Forum) to go with the hardware !
tp

Leroy Riggs · Post by **Leroy Riggs** » 9 Sep 2002 9:41 am

Only one song did it for me: TOGETHER AGAIN w/Brumley!

Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 9 Sep 2002 11:01 am

I don't remember which tune made me want to BUY one, but I do remember that Four Wheel Drive made me want to SELL THE ONE I HAD.

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro

Paul Graupp · Post by **Paul Graupp** » 9 Sep 2002 11:46 am

Like Smiley, the sound of the steel always caught my attention and especially some of the songs that were on WJJD Chicago in the mid to late 40s.

But what pushed me off the precipice was hearing Jerry on Hank Williams Sr's; My Buckets Got A Hole In It ( I can't buy me no beer...). I was walking down a street in San Antonio, TX on my first and only pass from USAF Basic Training. The song was on a sidewalk speaker and I had to go in hoping I'd see a band and get to see one of those things up close but it was on the jukebox. I think I have always wondered why that particular song played over and over again. Maybe someone liked it and loaded the BOX !!

Regards, Paul

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 9 Sep 2002 12:21 pm

What got me hooked was getting the Buddy Emmons' black album and hearing Buddy Charleton with Ernest Tubb all in the same week. (Most certainly a brain overload, as I haven't been the same since.)

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My best,
Ernie

The Official Buddy Emmons Website
www.buddyemmons.com

Russ Rickmann · Post by **Russ Rickmann** » 9 Sep 2002 1:09 pm

For me, and understand at the time I did not know what instrument was making the sound, it was Faron's "Sweet Dreams" with Buddy. And then what put the nail in the coffin was Moon on Buck's "You're for Me". The rest is history.....and I still go back and listen to both to this day!

Russ Rickmann · Post by **Russ Rickmann** » 9 Sep 2002 1:12 pm

and of course all the great players after that........[This message was edited by RUSS RICKMANN on 09 September 2002 at 02:14 PM.][This message was edited by RUSS RICKMANN on 09 September 2002 at 02:23 PM.]

Tony Palmer · Post by **Tony Palmer** » 9 Sep 2002 1:36 pm

Like a few others, the Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Gram Parsons & Burrito Bros, and Mr. E on Someday Soon.
(All non-country songs...interesting!)

Jim Heffernan · Post by **Jim Heffernan** » 9 Sep 2002 1:38 pm

Someday Soon, Judy Collins, intro by the Big E

Jim Heffernan · Post by **Jim Heffernan** » 9 Sep 2002 1:39 pm

Someday Soon, Judy Collins, intro by the Big E

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 9 Sep 2002 1:40 pm

This is neat, we're all telling our ages here

I was hired to take pictures of a funeral(I was about 13 or 14), made 10 bucks, bought a nickel, and Poco's "DeLIVErin" album. Course, I only got the steel back in January! (Musta been the nickel)

Bob Watson · Post by **Bob Watson** » 9 Sep 2002 1:43 pm

"My Funny Valentine" off of the Doug Jernigan album "Uptown to Country", or maybe the tune "Four" off of the same album. I remember thinking that jazz chords sounded even better on a steel than on an archtop guitar.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 9 Sep 2002 2:08 pm

San Antonio Rose