Club Snafu Balto '78: Who was the Steel Player?
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- Eric West
- Posts: 5747
- Joined: 25 Apr 2002 12:01 am
- Location: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.
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Club Snafu Balto '78: Who was the Steel Player?
It came back to me that it was probably the first time I'd ever "sat in" with a band on stage.
It also dawned on me that somebody might remember who it was. It seems to be an incredibly small world here..
The band was fronted by a "Hank Thompson" "clone" ( I don't think that, or "impersonator" is an accurate word. He just liked and did a bunch of HT songs.) He worked civilian in the print shop on AAFB where I was stationed at the time. Can't say I remember his name either.
Anyhow, the steel player was a top shelf guy, and I was just getting started. I remember not being able to "hold up my end" and was treated really kindly.
This was a time where you could go to any number of a dozen clubs from Waldorf to Ocean City and see the most incredible music. Another was Sam's Crab House on the Eastern Shore. I'll never forget all that CH Bay Shrimp either. Prawns as big as your hand.
Maybe somebody's memory can help out here.
TIA
EJL
It also dawned on me that somebody might remember who it was. It seems to be an incredibly small world here..
The band was fronted by a "Hank Thompson" "clone" ( I don't think that, or "impersonator" is an accurate word. He just liked and did a bunch of HT songs.) He worked civilian in the print shop on AAFB where I was stationed at the time. Can't say I remember his name either.
Anyhow, the steel player was a top shelf guy, and I was just getting started. I remember not being able to "hold up my end" and was treated really kindly.
This was a time where you could go to any number of a dozen clubs from Waldorf to Ocean City and see the most incredible music. Another was Sam's Crab House on the Eastern Shore. I'll never forget all that CH Bay Shrimp either. Prawns as big as your hand.
Maybe somebody's memory can help out here.
TIA
EJL
-
- Posts: 21611
- Joined: 16 Feb 1999 1:01 am
- Location: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
That Hank Thompson fan/bandleader, and singer you saw was Freddie Rick. Freddie Rick knew every one of Hank's songs, and he sounded a lot like him, too. He was a fixture in country music in the Baltimore area for over 30 years. Freddie's band ("The Gamblers"...named long before that Kenny Rogers hit song) featured Lin Strauf (a fine player) on steel at the time you mentioned. Lin played a red Emmons D10 P/P, which Curry Coster owns now. Freddie's brother, Burnell, also played steel in his band for awhile, as did I...many years ago.
- Eric West
- Posts: 5747
- Joined: 25 Apr 2002 12:01 am
- Location: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.
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YES!!
I was thinking of you when I posted.
Yep. They were a class act alright. I was soon to get out of the AF, and didn't stay around. Rough neighborhood, that place. I remember a couple brainless after-dark trips into Charles Covnty. Proctorville too..
Years later I was in a band that backed up HT on one of his "tours". He'd have local agents pick one of their bands, give them a rehearsal tape, and he'd "go for it". It sounds stupid, but two things I really enjoyed about the gig. One was that I had the presence of mind as when I met ET, to call him "Mister" and addressed him as "sir". The other was that they needed a sound check with his big ole guitar. I volunteered, did the check, and to my surprise I handed it back to him without asking him if I could have it.
We got paid cash out of his T-Shirt money. He talked to us, much like ET, as long as we wanted.
"there's a salmon smellin' girl...."
Thanks. That stuff, Smoky Mac, Don West, The String Dusters and BC, gave me the best memory foundation a guy could ask for. The memories are still like it was yesterday.
Priceless.
EJL
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Eric West on 17 December 2002 at 01:29 PM.]</p></FONT>
I was thinking of you when I posted.
Yep. They were a class act alright. I was soon to get out of the AF, and didn't stay around. Rough neighborhood, that place. I remember a couple brainless after-dark trips into Charles Covnty. Proctorville too..
Years later I was in a band that backed up HT on one of his "tours". He'd have local agents pick one of their bands, give them a rehearsal tape, and he'd "go for it". It sounds stupid, but two things I really enjoyed about the gig. One was that I had the presence of mind as when I met ET, to call him "Mister" and addressed him as "sir". The other was that they needed a sound check with his big ole guitar. I volunteered, did the check, and to my surprise I handed it back to him without asking him if I could have it.

"there's a salmon smellin' girl...."
Thanks. That stuff, Smoky Mac, Don West, The String Dusters and BC, gave me the best memory foundation a guy could ask for. The memories are still like it was yesterday.
Priceless.
EJL
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Eric West on 17 December 2002 at 01:29 PM.]</p></FONT>
- Al Miller
- Posts: 1152
- Joined: 12 Mar 2002 1:01 am
- Location: Waxahachie Texas
- Contact:
Eric!!
WE were Just talking about sams crab house a few days ago ,, man I grew up in that place, My dad would take me there to sit in when I was just a kid 11 -12 yrs old .guys like johnny hopkins who don west worked for then and bands like branded with wendell cavin on drums and chuck mandess on steel . WOW when I look back I wonder if I should be a better player than I am with mentors like those guys


BOO
- Eric West
- Posts: 5747
- Joined: 25 Apr 2002 12:01 am
- Location: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.
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I know lots of times, and I suppose it's mostly cause they've had too much to drink or have never heard the "Okie Organ" before, people will come up and tell me that I played really good on a particular piece or set, I think of telling them "Yeah, well a friggin' lot you know."
I think back to Don West and Jimmy Grove playing 4 wheel drive for a break song at 180 clicks a minute, Don looking like he was riding on the hood of a '63 chev going 70 mph, and Jimmy Grove spitting eighth notes out of that Tele like sparks off'n a grinder. Or Bud C and Sid Hudson playing Twelve Midnite or Thunder Road at the same tempo without breaking a sweat....
I just tell them.. "Yeah, I'm Bad ain't I?
"..
I know the truth...
EJL<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Eric West on 17 December 2002 at 10:46 PM.]</p></FONT>
I think back to Don West and Jimmy Grove playing 4 wheel drive for a break song at 180 clicks a minute, Don looking like he was riding on the hood of a '63 chev going 70 mph, and Jimmy Grove spitting eighth notes out of that Tele like sparks off'n a grinder. Or Bud C and Sid Hudson playing Twelve Midnite or Thunder Road at the same tempo without breaking a sweat....
I just tell them.. "Yeah, I'm Bad ain't I?

I know the truth...

EJL<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Eric West on 17 December 2002 at 10:46 PM.]</p></FONT>