Slim Yamaguchi

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 10 May 2004 8:05 am

We were in Brenham, TX (home of Blue Bell Ice Cream) this weekend, for the Mark Chesnutt show. After the show I had the pleasure of visiting with Mark's long-time steeler, Slim Yamaguchi. What a nice gentleman. He was playing his Excel through a Walker Stereo Steel preamp and and a Lexicon digital reverb/delay unit. That signal went out to the mains and he was wearing ear-bud monitors. The tone (and his picking) was great.

As a side note, the opening act was a band my daughter's boyfriend started and sings for. They are from the San Marcos/Seguin area. Their guitar player is from Tokyo. He caught Slim off guard when he started speaking Japanese to him. It's not too often that he finds another Japanese speaking picker out on the road.

I know that Slim played steel in Japan for many years. Does anyone have any more background information about him? I wonder how he got matched up with Mark Chesnutt.

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Lee, from South Texas
Down On The Rio Grande

Ben Lawson · Post by **Ben Lawson** » 10 May 2004 11:58 am

Slim and I lived and worked in the Orlando area in the early 90's. We went to Larry Selfs' steel shows with Doug Stock but he left there to work with Mark and I haven't seen him since.
It seems to me he had a midi set up back then.
The guy sure knows how to keep a job!

Paul King · Post by **Paul King** » 10 May 2004 3:54 pm

Lee, It sure sounds like you had a great time at the concert and visiting with the musicians from the band. I hope you topped it off with a big bowl of Blue Bell ice cream. There is none better anywhere IMHO.

Doug Jones · Post by **Doug Jones** » 10 May 2004 9:38 pm

We did a show as the "OA" with Chesnutt in '98 in Idaho. At the time, Slim was Mark's bandleader, too. I'll never forget after we set up and sound checked in front of their gear I played most the intro to "Too cold at Home". Slim looked at me and said: "what you try to steal my job?". Afterwards at the catering area I observed Slim eat two whole plates full of barbeque and all the trimmings followed by a cigarette. Slim's a great guy and a fine player. -DJ-

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 11 May 2004 1:10 pm

Paul - Would you believe we got out of town without having any Blue Bell? We left McAllen mid-morning on Saturday and drove 375 miles to Brenham. We got there just in time to check in to the Holiday Inn, eat a quick bite, and drive out to the venue. The next morning we got up, ate brunch, and drove the 375 miles back to McAllen. Oh well. We can get Blue Bell at the local grocery store.

Doug - Slim is still as skinny as ever. Justin (my daughter's boyfriend) said he packed away quite a bit of Mexican food that was provided by the caterer. I noticed that he now smokes a pipe - a little fold-up job he keeps in his pocket.

So far I haven't heard from anyone that knows much about Slim. He did tell me that he lives in Dallas. He also said that he will be going back to Japan to visit with Mitsuo Fujii about making him a new Excel guitar, possibly a Single-12 Universal this time. He's not sure if he's ready to take that step yet, though.

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Lee, from South Texas
Down On The Rio Grande

Edward Helbert · Post by **Edward Helbert** » 11 May 2004 1:27 pm

I knew Slim when he lived in Salina, Kansas (of all places). If I remember correctly he had just come over from Japan. He was playing in a local band with a local fellow who had met Slim while he (the local fellow) was stationed in Japan in the Air Force.

Slim rode to St. Louis with me for the '77 convention. Just a great guy to be around, and as I remember it, a multiple-hour-per-day practice demon.

Marty Broussard · Post by **Marty Broussard** » 17 May 2004 7:37 pm

Hey guys, I might be able to add a little info for you on Slim's background. As I remember it he was working on the Louisiana Hayride and got to know an AWESOME guitar player named Glen Gordon. Glen later became Mark's guitarist around 1986--when I was leaving the band due to my daughter's birth. When Mark got the first hit around late '89 to early '90 and was putting the road show together and Glen contacted Slim--the rest is history. BTW, Glen has been deceased for several years---a great guy who died young from a tumor at the base of his brain(I think). I'm pretty sure I have the info correct, because I was steelin for Mark and left when my first child was born. I sat in for Mark's local steeler occasionally when he was still in Beaumont and around '93 my brother went on the road with them as Mark's bass player and Cajun accordian player. His name is Tim and played the gig for about 8 years. Slim is one of the nicest guys you can meet. He even extended me the courtesy of playing durng soundcheck one time just so I could see what it felt like to play in that kind of setting. Hope this accurately fills in the blanks.

Marty Broussard

thurlon hopper · Post by **thurlon hopper** » 18 May 2004 9:52 am

I used to listen to Slim when he was playing
for Charlie Nagatani in a group called the
Western Cannonballs. They came to Okinawa
every year from Japan and stayed for a month or so. Slim is indeed a fine player and a nice person. Good to see something
posted about him.