<SMALL>The Campbell Brothers tour regularly. If they play near you, don't miss them. They will rock your socks off. Chuck is a great guy, who loves to talk steel guitar.</SMALL>
...but back on topic, file this article under "tempest in a teapot"
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<font size=1><I>“I always knew that there was something out there that I needed to get to.
And it wasn't where I was at that particular moment."</I>
-Bob Dylan
</font>
"cool" was never a word I associated with the pedal steel guitar..
...until I sat down and tried to play it and felt the bar glide over the strings. Then I looked underneath at the pedal and lever mechanisms and then I thought...
...COOL!
I can see how a casual observer of the instrument might not think it as cool.
"Scrap pile" ??? That had to come out of a brain stuck in some anatomically incorrect place.
I don't know about cool or uncool but there is no denying that outside of a relatively small stratum of musicians and music fans, the instrument is obscure. Even then, I am constantly suprised by how many music enthusiasts have little awareness of the steel guitar and how many actual musicians have, at best, the barest notion of how it works.
My two cents for what it's worth. I've never heard of Robert Randolph but I intend to ASAP. Seems like a lot of time to waste on an ignorant writer. Apparently Randolph is opening new doors for our instrument and that's newsworthy.
Sliff, if I had any hair, I'd take my hat off to you and Bill Hatcher, with a nod to Herb. This kid, writing about something of which he is almost TOTALLY ignorant, has started a lot of fires here. RR IS a good player, pedal steel guitar IS NOT a cool instrument, except to a few people, and HAPPY NEW YEAR, Y'ALL!!!
As I mentioned earlier, I wrote Sam (the writer of this article) a note in which I politely tried to even slightly illuminate him based on what it appeared he wrote. Apparently, he's received a lot of pretty nasty stuff. Then again, I think his choice of words were poor at best in this article.
Although I'm not defending his approach, here's his email back to me and you can draw your own conclusions;
Hi Mike. Thanks for writing. I can see that I've enraged the pedal steel community needlessly. I wasn't trying to denounce the instrument as uncool, I was making a cultural observation that Robert Randolph has made rock fans sit up and take notice of an instrument they probably had thought little about before.
This wasn't intended as an insult -- only as an observation. Personally, I love traditional country music (as well as alt country, and Western swing) so, to me, the instrument is the height of cool.
I'm writing a followup column on Friday, so I should be able to make my opinions a little more clear in that space.
Sliff, did I slam or even cringe at anything having to do with Robert Ranolph? NO.
Robert is very talented and what he is doing is impressive. What the reporter wrote about him and what he has done with steel seems very good.
What I was saying revs me and probably most people is the reporter's putting-down of the steel guitar as it applies to other-than-Robert-Randolph music, specifically. If he wants to do an article about the well deserved success of Robert Randolph, more power to him, but he does not need to insult everyone else by basically saying it's an uncool instrument with a bad image under their watch.
Let's just be sure that we don't crucify RR because of an article about him. Just recently there was a thread about an "interview" regarding Steinar Gregertsen and his promotion of a certain guitar...which we all found out was untrue. Steinar's outrage at what was said in the interview was well founded. He had no control over what was said about him, or remarks that were attributed to him. That's probably what happened to RR as well.
As for the writer of this "uncool" article........well, you've all said all that needs to be said about him.
<SMALL>I wasn't trying to denounce the instrument as uncool, </SMALL>
No, just all the players that came before RR.
Sam is now doing some serious back-pedaling.
Good. I hope someone will post a link to the new article he speaks of. You guys are ALL great. (The steel guitar is the ultimate in "cool"!)
Miguel has a productive approach. (That's because guys from Phoenix are cool. Miguel, do you play out?) So we find out that the journalist is sympathetic to steel and can spread the word.
Just in case you don't know, "Miguel" is actually Mike Smith, who IMNSHO is one of the finest players to grace our planet. He does play out, and if you have not seen him, you should be making plans to ...
I have a picture of Mike "playing out" with three dudes that sang pretty good. Gatlin Brothers, I think. About 1979 at the Capri Ballroom in Atlanta. Cool hairdo back then, Mike! Your Zum roots go back a long way, too. I hope you filled Sam in on your personnal background.
Roger <font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Roger Crawford on 29 December 2005 at 04:44 AM.]</p></FONT>
it would be really funny if a bunch of steel players set up in front of his house or wherever he lives and gave him a tutorial in cool, just so he is at least familiar with it from now on!
I never worried about what's cool or being cool anyway, and now that I'm older I've found that what's really un-cool can be super-cool later.
Example: Gretsch guitars. I always liked them, since my first idol was Chet Atkins. In the '70's the music stores couldn't give them away, they were on the "scrap heap of uncool".
Now all the kids gotta have them, they're the "coolest" axe around.
Why worry about what some bigmouth pinhead reporter thinks.
Duane - my comment wasn't pointed to you at all. I just quoted you - and you were correct. But I was using your good observation as reinforcement to note that some others might be showing two faces.
Sorry if iit appeared I was kicking at you. Not at all.
Steve, put the hat back on. The glare is KILLING me.
PS - with the writer's reply and apparent background, I'd chalk it up to just poor grades in journalism class. Wow, did he miss his intended mark by an astronimocal margin.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Jim Sliff on 28 December 2005 at 07:12 PM.]</p></FONT>
There are people who 'play steel guitar' Then...there are people who play 'a steel guitar'. RR is a guy who plays "a steel guitar"...I don't consider him a steel player just because he sits behind a steel guitar. Guys like Paul Franklin, Buddy Emmons etc... and a lot of us, play steel guitar.
That dosen't make us un-cool, we just want to preserve the traditional sound of the steel guitar and its place in real country music.
Let me put it another way...just because I pick up a fiddle and make some noise with the bow dosn't make me a fiddle player. It just makes me a guy who thinks I can play a fiddle.
...and if I add a fuzz box to my fiddle... because I don't really know how to play the fiddle... but I get what I think are some really cool sounds with some stomp boxes...I become really cool and can play with some Alt-rock/country/rap/pop/ artist with a country instrument.
Then, some idiot in an unknown newspaper who dosen't know the first thing about real fiddle music happens to see me with this band and thinks I saved the fiddle! Is this a great country or what?!
<SMALL>...and if I add a fuzz box to my fiddle... because I don't really know how to play the fiddle... but I get what I think are some really cool sounds with some stomp boxes...</SMALL>
Oh man, and I really didn't want to get involved in this...
Marlin, sounds to me like you're implying that RR doesn't know how to play the steel guitar and needs to hide behind his fuzz and other stomp boxes......
Nah, I'll just bite my tongue and go back to lurking, it's the Holidays and everything....
Marlin - try really listening to RR. He actually DOES know how to play the steel guitar. Most of his playing is apparently in a style you don't care for, but there are snippets of "clean" playing where you can tell the guy is actually rather advanced in his playing.
You'd have to be willing to listen to things you don't like to hear the proof, though - so I get the feeling it'll likely never happen.
This is where things get into trouble. Personally, I don't like country music as a whole but I would never put down Country players as unskilled because I don't like their style. Many of the "Sacred Steel" guys are monster players in *their* style, and deserve some respect simply as fellow musicians...more so because they advance pedal steel guitar beyond the stereotypical "country" image.
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