What got YOU into the steel?

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 8 Aug 2006 2:44 pm

[This message was edited by Mike Shefrin on 08 August 2006 at 03:49 PM.]

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 8 Aug 2006 3:06 pm

I reckon it was this group right here...

Originally, they were "Bob Sandy and the Rhythm Rangers", and ol' Bob covered just about every major hit and male artist back in the '50s. Though they were a "local - west coast" group, their records (most of 'em) made it over here to Maryland. The song they did that really sparked me was "North Wind", an old Slim Whitman number.[This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 08 August 2006 at 04:08 PM.]

Don Barnhardt · Post by **Don Barnhardt** » 8 Aug 2006 4:01 pm

The first steel guitar I ever heard belonged to my cousin Bill recently discharged from the Army after WW2. A few years later it became my first steel. It cost me a weeks wages working on a combine. I don't remember what make it was but it started a love affair that lasted all my life. Of course I've been influenced by other steelers over the years but I owe it all to Bill.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 9 Aug 2006 7:27 am

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Santo & Johnny. As far as I know, their Sleepwalk is the only steel guitar solo that has ever earned a gold record, and it's one of the most requested tunes. I've even heard regular guitarists play it with a slide.

I remember being so entranced by the sound that I saved up my four shillings and twopence and ran down to the record store.

Edward Meisse · Post by **Edward Meisse** » 9 Aug 2006 9:47 am

You can add me to the Don Helms list. Although Jerry Byrd made the early recordings. It was, in fact, the sound of the steel guitar that made Hank Sr's sound. Any of those recordings would have done the trick. But the best of them all was,"Nobody's Lonesome for Me."

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 12 Aug 2006 3:02 pm

...to give Hank his dues, though, I have the complete set of everything he ever recorded and there's a very high proportion of his numbers where he's just singing and strumming the guitar, but he's such a great performer that you don't notice the lack of the band.

Tim Jones of Kansas · Post by **Tim Jones of Kansas** » 12 Aug 2006 9:09 pm

Finding myself dissatisfied (no offense) with the 'modern' pedal steel sound, I decided I wanted to play old-style. Meaning stuff before 1970. Mostly 50's and 60's. An elderly gentleman named Tony Rico, who used to play in my uncle's band was a great influence to me. It wasn't too long until I was able to mimic many of his playing styles on my Fender 1000. His steel guitar was two Fender 400's bolted together to make a 1000. The front neck was non-pedal and the back was pedal. So, of course, that's how mine is set up. I removed all the cables and pedals except for 2, which operate the rear E6 neck. Front is non-pedal C6. When I started playing, I knew nothing about the instrument, so I bought 2 Cindy Cashdollar western swing tapes and that taught me most of what I know. I find it easiest to play by ear. I can't read a bit of music and I only use tab if I can't find it out on my own. Also, the only tab for 8-string is non-pedal stuff. I still couldn't tell you what a major or minor or diminished chord is or frankly what my pedal raises are set at, but I can play something that sounds nice.

Tim Jones
~Fender 1000 and nothin' else~

Willis Vanderberg · Post by **Willis Vanderberg** » 13 Aug 2006 4:30 am

My dad was a trumpet player. So starting in the 2nd grade I played trumpet.When I was thirteen I found this old black Gibson LOO guitar and that, ended my horn blowing. I teamed up with a couple of friends who played flat tops. But that was boring after while. In 1948 My dad loaned me ten bucks and I put it as down payment on a BR-9 Gibson lap steel and amp from Feree's music shop in Battle Creek Michigan.Both my friends sang George Morgan and Eddy Arnold songs soI learned by listening to Roy Wiggins.I still play a little ting-a ling from time to time.I believe a lot of us old pickers owe Roy and Jerry Byrd for all those wonderful sounds that stirred our imaginations and made us try a little harder.
I just traded that little BR-9 to Forumite Donny LaCourse in Spring Hill, Florida.

Old Bud

Jack Francis · Post by **Jack Francis** » 13 Aug 2006 5:07 am

My wife wanted to see Charlie Rich in San Jose back in the early 70's..Waylon was opening for him,,,well Charlie was a "No show" Waylon alluded to him being drunk, if I'm not mistaken.

I was playing mostly blues back then but we were sitting a few rows back and right in front of Mooney...Damnest sounds I ever heard!

Move ahead to the late 70's, early 80's I was playing in a band with b0b on steel playing around Santa Rosa, CA..When he left I missed the steel, so with his help I got one and have been a frustrated player since.

Been woodsheding a lot lately and one of these days I even hope to consider myself a "STEEL PLAYER"!

Joe Goldmark · Post by **Joe Goldmark** » 13 Aug 2006 7:09 am

I saw the New Riders Of The Purple Sage, when they were basically Marmaduke singing, backed up by some of the Grateful Dead (1969?). Of course Jerry Garcia was on steel. He played it simply, but beautifully and very expressively. Within months it seemed like the whole country-rock movement sprang up and I began to hear steel guitar a lot. I found a Fender 400 in the paper and a year later had graduated to a ZB.

Steve Gorman · Post by **Steve Gorman** » 13 Aug 2006 1:29 pm

In the 70's I was leaning toward the steel but had never really tried it. At that time I always dug the sound of the steel, like on Nashville Skyline, Hank Wilson's Back, early Poco, and of course I liked all the old country like Buck, Merle, etc. A few years later I found a lap steel in a pawn shop for $50 and the guys in my band (I was lead guitarist) were immediately encouraging. Right about the same time I saw Big Jim Murphy on some TV show with Johnny Paycheck and he just did it all. Shortly after that I saw Murph and Paycheck live at Sam's in San Jose CA and that pretty much charted my course. Went out and bought my first pedal steel.

Twayn Williams · Post by **Twayn Williams** » 13 Aug 2006 6:24 pm

Hearing Sol Hoopii and buying a little student model 6-string lap. I bought a Mavrick just about a year later, but the limitation of the instrument and my own lack of ability led me to pack it up and leave it in the basement in favor of the lap steel.

Finally, hearing Greg Leisz with Bill Frisell made me want to try it again with a better guitar, so I bought a GFI student model. Now I'm finding the band experience I gained with an additional 5 years on the C6 lap have made all the difference in the world. I've had the E9 for about a month now, and in about 2 more weeks I'll be able to start looking for a band. Course it doesn't hurt anything that I have 2 classical music degrees and have been playing standard guitar for over 25 years

Dick Mullowney · Post by **Dick Mullowney** » 15 Aug 2006 4:20 am

Seeing Buddy Cage with Ian and Sylvia and the Great Speckled Bird in 69 or 70. Amos Garrett played guitar in that group for awhile and the interaction between he and Buddy were amazing to me. Ian has had steel in many of his later albums - always tastefully done. I think he and Gordon Lightfoot are two of the best songwriters of our era. Gordon incorporated steel into many of his albums too - Pee Wee Charles I believe.

ed packard · Post by **ed packard** » 15 Aug 2006 6:18 am

Halifax NS CAN. 1945...a chap knocked on the door selling Haw' Guitar lessons. $1 per week per group lesson. Went to three...group thing got in the way...bought a Martin at an estate sale, put a nut on it. Hank Snow's records (who ever played Steel on them)got copied.

Boston Mass. 1949..under age, playing in the joints in what became the "war Zone"..Izzy Ort's places, Village Barn, Heard L T Zinn with the 101 Ranch Boys..turning point.

Opry type Sat nite radio show in Brookline...got VEGA corps only pedal steel (prototype) as a swap for designing the first transistorized tremolo for their amps.

Got married, hung it all up. San Marcos CA...1980s...got a used Sierra 12 string. Problem re changer...met with Don Christensen at the NAMM show to get a fix. Bill Stafford was playing demo for them...blew my mind the sounds he made.

Been hangin' 'round with those hairy legged PSG pickers ever since.

Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 15 Aug 2006 7:30 am

It's funny (Joe) -when I first saw the NRPS in 1971, it was just the four -with NO steel player! As for what got me into the steel-
Well, of course, there WAS hearing Garcia on record with SCN & Graham Nash, but also, Rusty Young & Poco, and I had heard Buddy Cage w/ Ian & Sylvia a few years before that- though,I wasn't to really identify with him til he was in the NRPS. I loved Sweetheart of the Rodeo but, I would say I was more a fan of Clarence White than any one pedal steel player, at that time. More a fan of Clarence than Gram, actually. Commander Cody came around about the time of the NRPS, and I heard Mama Hated Diesels & the rest of it, I liked that, but still it was never enough to make me run out & buy one. When the Parsons-White Benders became "standard" for a percentage of Telecasters, I was super-dissapointed that they had made them with ONLY a b-bender, whereas, on all Clarence's records, the guitar he used bent all four of the inner strings. Ripoff! I said. I resoved one day I WOULD get a bender-guitar, but, someday off in the future.
Lfe went on, & life went on, & I worked for a long time as a solo performer (mainly acoustic guitar, thoug hI did some electric bluegrass work wit a couple of Berkeley bands in the late 70's, most of my focus always was (and remains) as a songwriter-with-guitar or instrumentalist-basically-lead-guitarist.
What happened was, I ran into problems with a job I was at, and ended up with a large severance check, and decided to look up GEne Parsons. I founfd that it was possible to buy an entire Carter starter for a fraction of what Gene wanted to do a refit of a Tele for, so I bought the Carter (three years ago) with that "large" severance check and this was, after going to several shows of the Dave NElson Band with Barry Sless, & thinking, well, Barry splits his time between six string and steel, it looks like a good compromise, and I think I can handle that thing myself...
Prior to buying it, I had only had one session with a steel, while visiting a friend back in the "dear old hippie years" who had a big yellow schoolbus, a barn, and a pedal steel (Fender 1000) set up there. Goofing around with it (to the extent they allowed me to) was all that amounted to, but it was interesting, and one piece of the picture that led me to here, this forum, where I have found I can both pick people's brains for clues and give what small, tenderfoot advice I can offer on my own.
Right now I am completing a project of cover songs- songs I have loved over the years, or just, been influenced by in the manner I write my own songs, and some of it has steel, some of it doesn't. I am going for a texture rather than a precise rendering. I hope at some future point to be able to put it onto disk, & also offer a couple of cuts up to the web (lisencing pending, etc.) I am LOOKING for people to play with locally and finding them few and far between, though some of that, I am sure, is due to my not throwing 100% INTO that search, as I am working on the cover project.
Anyway, that's where I am with the machine. It's great.

Gabriel Edell · Post by **Gabriel Edell** » 15 Aug 2006 9:34 am

It was two things.

First, the cover of Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" covered by soul singer Maxwell on his "Now" record featured an amazing steel part by Bruce Bouton. I fell in love with that sound.

Second, when I lived in New Orleans I used to go play guitar at various open blues jams. Dave Easley used to host one at an Irish Pub in the French Quarter and I showed up one night. Easley was jaw-dropping. It sounded like there was a Hammond B3 on stage. Then he reverted to a normal steel sound and played the most incredible jazz/blues/country stuff.

I saw him a few times after that with 3Now4 and his playing was always inspiring.

------------------

Bill Hamner · Post by **Bill Hamner** » 15 Aug 2006 11:21 am

Growing up in Florence,Alabama in the mid to late 40's I fell in love with the sounds of Jerry Byrd,Roy Wiggins,Don Davis and Don Helms.But this was before the day of Television and even as close as I was to Nashville we seldom saw these guys perform. Locally I could see Ted Crabtree live and in the flesh so Ted was it for me. Still is... he lives near me now and I see him regularly.Ted still plays a mean steel.
When I was about 17 or 18 I met Buddy Emmons
and saw him play...He was only 17 or 18 himself but that was the most amazing exibition of steel playing I had ever seen and it drove home to me that I needed to get on with my Engineering career because if that was the direction Steel playing was headed I was in trouble!!

Bill [This message was edited by Bill Hamner on 15 August 2006 at 12:23 PM.]

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 15 Aug 2006 12:05 pm

In 1963 my dad built me a six string from an oak plank and Gibson guitar parts. We soon learned that the oak plank would not stand up to the string tension so the whole thing was reinforced with a piece of 1/4" plate steel torchcut from a slab. That guitar never moves from where you place it.
Tuned it to the "A" tuning from the Leeds book. I was commanded to learn to play TB's "Bud's Bounce" from the LP "I Don't Care" by Buck Owens.
That half "A" pedal note always eluded me, but I learned how to learn the neck.
During those years ('60's) I'd read the Fender catalog, stare at those sunburst Fenders, and dream & drool. Between the radio and the Stromberg Carlson I played along with the best of them... Buck, Merle, ET, Porter, Ray Price, Carl & Pearl, Hank, Faron, Willie, Loretta, Kitty, Tammy, George, Stonewall, and, believe it or not, Billy Vaughn, among others.
Years later, after college, I got my first S-10. That first session sittin' down to that thing was total frustration.
It's only a little less now...

[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 15 August 2006 at 01:17 PM.]

Mike Shefrin · Post by **Mike Shefrin** » 15 Aug 2006 12:30 pm

Some great yarns comin' in here fellas.

[This message was edited by Mike Shefrin on 15 August 2006 at 03:33 PM.]

James Cann · Post by **James Cann** » 15 Aug 2006 3:00 pm

Hard to say what got me in, although Richie Havens's "Here comes the Sun" stands out.

What locked me in for life are Tom Brumley's "Garden Party" signature, and Buddy Charleton's "Waltz across Texas" intro.

Ed Packard: Ort's Golden Nugget, perhaps, or the Palace (where I played one night in the early 60's?--underage and scared to death every minute!
Boy, do you bring back memories of being younger and dumber![This message was edited by James Cann on 15 August 2006 at 04:05 PM.][This message was edited by James Cann on 19 August 2006 at 10:29 AM.]

Eddie Sterling · Post by **Eddie Sterling** » 15 Aug 2006 3:35 pm

In Texas City, Tx, a man was going door to door demonstrating a laptop steel. He was trying to sell guitars and get students to take lessons at a music store in Texas City.
Whenever he played steel guitar rag, I was hooked. I started taking lessons at the music store and did some janitor type work to help pay for the lessons. This was around 1956 and I was 13 years old. There was another student that took steel lessons at the same music store and also did some sweeping, etc. to help pay for his lessons. You might recognize his name. His name was Jeff Newman.