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Topic: Neil youngs steel player? |
Alex Piazza
From:
Arkansas, USA
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 6:22 am |
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I woke up last night and caught the last 5 seconds of neil Young on Conan. There was some heavey steel that sounded awesome. I was so mad that I missed it. This guys tone was great. It was so thick and creamy. That sounds kind of gross, but i dont know my tone lingo very well. Who is that guy, and what was he playing through? Anybody know?
Thanks |
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Larry Bell
From:
Englewood, Florida
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 6:34 am
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Ben Keith
(I didn't see the show unfortunately, but Ben has played with Neil Young since the early 70's and has produced some of his albums)
GREAT PLAYER
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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 6:43 am
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Ben Keith-great UNDERSTATED player.
You need to keep it simple when supporting a, shall we say, unusual voice like Neil's.
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Mark
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John Macy
From:
Rockport TX/Denver CO
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 7:17 am
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What a great career--to go from playing on Patsy Cline records to Neil, then produce a multi-paltinum debut record for Jewel and back to Neil (can I spell jealous?  ).
And thick and creamy are well used tone words |
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Larry Bell
From:
Englewood, Florida
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 8:22 am
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I could be wrong, but I think he went straight from Faron Young to NEIL YOUNG -- now that's range, if you ask me.
He and Kenny Buttrey and some other Nashville cats from the 70s formed the Stray Gators who did several tours and sessions with Neil Young, who had met those guys when doing the Johnny Cash Show in Nashville. They show up on Neil Young recordings to this day. In fact, Big Ben produced the Harvest Moon project in the late 90s.
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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps
[This message was edited by Larry Bell on 04 November 2005 at 08:23 AM.] |
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Dave Zirbel
From:
Sebastopol, CA USA
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 8:26 am
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I think he plays a push pull S-10 through an old low wattage Fender amp.
Do a search and you'll find a lot of stuff about Ben.
DZ[This message was edited by Dave Zirbel on 04 November 2005 at 08:31 AM.] |
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Chris LeDrew
From:
Canada
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 10:20 am
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| Emmons push-pull on Harvest. |
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Larry Bell
From:
Englewood, Florida
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 10:26 am
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Chris,
Was that on 'Harvest' or 'Harvest Moon'?
I thought he was playing Sho-Bud in the early 70s when 'Harvest' came out.
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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps
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Dave Zirbel
From:
Sebastopol, CA USA
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 10:29 am
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| If I remember correctly, the picture of the band on the back of the Harvest album shows an Emmons. |
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John Maggard
From:
Cincinnati Ohio, USA
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 10:51 am
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I went to the Neil Young website the other night after seeing the band on Conan; there's a nice DVD clip of the band rehearsing/recording including some footage of Ben Keith playing on "The Painter" cut.
http://www.neilyoung.com/premiere.html |
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Mark Eaton
From:
Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 10:57 am
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Dave-that's how I remember it as well.
I went to my vinyl copy of Harvest-Emmons, three pedals.
Didn't have to e-mail anybody to find the answer, either.
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Mark
[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 04 November 2005 at 10:32 PM.] |
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Chris LeDrew
From:
Canada
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 4:52 pm
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Larry,
I was going by pics of the sessions as well, like the one on the sleeve of "Harvest" where they're in a barn rehearsing. Like the boys said, he's sitting behind an Emmons.
The tone on the album is very "Sho-Bud" though, isn't it? |
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Larry Bell
From:
Englewood, Florida
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Posted 4 Nov 2005 5:11 pm
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Yep
Coulda fooled me. Guess I used the wrong guitar.
I recently played a show with some guys from Toronto who faithfully revive classic rock albums. I played my Sho-Bud. Should have played the push-pull. 
I'll know better if we do 'Harvest' again.
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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps
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Gary Spaeth
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 6 Nov 2005 6:34 am
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| are ben and bill the same person. i heard that bill monroe changed bill to ben so there was only one bill in the band? [This message was edited by Gary Spaeth on 07 November 2005 at 09:04 AM.] |
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Steve Hinson
From:
Hendersonville Tn USA
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Posted 6 Nov 2005 6:59 am
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Ben Keith the steel player and Bill Keith the banjo/steel player are two different people...Bill Monroe referred to Bill Keith as"Brad"...an abbreviation of his middle name-Bradford...
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http://home.comcast.net/~steves_garage
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Joe Smith
From:
Charlotte, NC, USA
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Posted 6 Nov 2005 8:49 am
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Back in the sixtys, I played in a band in Charlotte. Sometimes we got to open for the Nashville shows when they came to town.
We got to open for Faron Young once. Ben Keith was playing steel and Odell Martin was playing lead guitar. They were sharing a amp together. It was the biggest Standell amp I ever saw.
After the show Ben and Odell came over to the house and we jammed all night. That morning around 7:00 Julia fixed us breakfast and I took them back to the bus.
Ben was playing a Sho-Bud at that time. He knew his way around the "C" neck too.
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Chris LeDrew
From:
Canada
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Posted 6 Nov 2005 9:14 am
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Joe,
What a story....that must have been a night to remember. |
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Joe Smith
From:
Charlotte, NC, USA
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Posted 6 Nov 2005 9:18 am
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| Chris, I got my batteries charged up pretty good that night. |
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Bobby Caldwell
From:
St. Louis, Missouri, USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 12 Nov 2005 12:25 pm
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| "Big" Ben Keith.which is what they called him in the fifties and sixties in Nashville, is a great steel guitar player. I remember when he worked wih Faron Young with Darrell McCall and Odell Martin in the band and they were something else. Ben recorded some with Faron also. Thats Ben on "Face to The Wall","Your Old Used To Be" and "Country Girl" just to mention a few. Darrell is singing harmony on all those cuts as well. Great country music. I wish we could get Ben to come to a steel show sometime. I think he would be surprised at how many people like his playing. Maybe we can work on that. Bobby |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 12 Nov 2005 7:43 pm
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| The tone on the album is very "Sho-Bud" though, isn't it? |
Well, isn't that an old Epiphone Electar tube amp in that picture? Not exactly a modern pristine clean sound. The amp is also very important to tone generation, of course not to mention the hands.
I wonder if that was Ben playing on Faron's version of Apartment #9 - I always figured it was Pete Drake, but it really does sound like Ben also. Very warm and emotional. You're right, that all is some great country music. |
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Bill Cunningham
From:
Atlanta, Ga. USA
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Posted 13 Nov 2005 5:01 am
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I've posted this before...but, get the Darrell McCall box set. Ben Keith is on several if not most of the 1960's cuts in this collection and it is FINE!
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"Gimme a steel guitar, 2 or 3 fiddles and a Texas rhythm section that can swing"..R. Pennington
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