Dusty Stewart Ouestion from a newbie

Lawrence Blanscet · Post by **Lawrence Blanscet** » 7 Sep 2003 9:48 am

I heard a real good PSG picker last night at the Liberty Opry in Liberty Texas.
His name was Dusty Stewart (sp)
They annouced he would be going to Calif,
To be inducted in the Western Swing Hall of Fame. (I believe this Month). His age I am guessing around 70 to 75 yrs.

I heard mentioned he played for Hank Tomphson (sp) in his early years.

I was wondering if any of the Forum members have any other information on him or where I might find more info on the Western swing Hall of Fame.

Post by **Joey Ace** » 7 Sep 2003 3:03 pm

moved to "Steel Players"

Chuck Halcomb · Post by **Chuck Halcomb** » 8 Sep 2003 6:03 am

I saw Dusty this summer in Snyder, TX at the West Texas Western Swing festival and you are correct, he is a great player.

I believe that he was playing with the Hoyle Nix reunion band, but I'm not sure. I also seem to recall that he was playing a beautiful red pedal steel.

I also noticed recently that Herb Steiner was being recognized by this or one of the California Western Swing groups. Nice to see talent recognized.

Susan Alcorn · Post by **Susan Alcorn** » 11 Sep 2003 4:47 am

Dusty Stewart is one of the great Texas steel guitarists. He played for years with a Houston western swing group, "The River Road Boys". It's nice to see that he's getting some recognition

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 11 Sep 2003 6:57 am

I will echo Susan by saying that Dusty is one of the great and shamefully under-recognized Texas steel players, fer sure. He played on the Hank Thompson band for just one year (1951), after Lefty Nason and before Curly Chalker.

What guitar he played is somewhat murky, and I haven't talked with Dusty to find out. I believe he received Lefty's Bigsby when Nason decided to quit the road, but I think he may also have had another Bigsby that at one time was owned by Frankie Juricek (another under-recognized TX steeler IMHO), and eventually found its way to Lee Jeffries. Lee no longer owns the guitar. I'm lazy I guess, but I haven't talked to Dusty, Frankie, or Lee about this yet. It will be an interesting addition to the history of the Bigsby steel guitar.

Dusty did go on to play with Hoyle Nix, and for years played with the River Road Boys in Houston, as Susan stated.

About 7-8 years ago, I got a call to play a Hank Thompson gig from Gil Baca (pronounced "BAH-Cha"), Hank's old piano pounder when Dusty was on the band. I couldn't do the gig and recommended Dusty. Gil was surprised that he was still picking, but called him for the gig and I understand they had a great reunion. I later saw Dusty playing another job with Gil's band and it was great to hear them playing together.

As a sidebar, I am being inducted into the Western Swing Society Hall of Fame at the same time as Dusty. The event is being held in Sacramento CA, over October 2-5. I hope to run into some old buddies at this event, and meet some new ones.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

Jesse Pearson · Post by **Jesse Pearson** » 11 Sep 2003 7:42 am

Congradulations Herb, western swing is a fun gig for steel!

Chuck Halcomb · Post by **Chuck Halcomb** » 11 Sep 2003 11:28 am

Congratulations Herb. I thought I saw that in the Western Swing Monthly.