The Steel Guitar Forum

Panama Red, New Riders

Glenn Suchan wrote:

Andy DePaule wrote:My first two steel records are still a couple of my favorites.
These were the first two I bought because I'd just become interested and bought my first Sho Bud S-10.
Found them at a big record shop in San Francisco as the only two steel Records they had in stock.



I also had many of the other records with steel on them that others have noted, but didn't buy them for the steel guitar at that time before I got interested in playing steel.

For those not familiar with the Cal Hand album, here's a cut from it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4TX-ji1_4k

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

The tunes I liked best on that album were Angles we have heard on high, Bud's Bounce and Redwing. The others were a strange mix with some I liked and some not so much. One or two I liked only parts of tunes, but his Red Wing was really nice to my ear.

The first record I bought with pedal steel on it was the Buffalo Springfield album with Kind Woman on it. Rusty's playing really caught my ear and started the journey.

Tammy Wynette Stand By Your Man and Conway Twitty Hello Darlin

"Two Guitars Country Style" by Speedy and Jimmy, and "Buck Owens," Buck's first release on Capitol, with Mooney all over it. Both in 1962 when I was a sophomore in high school.

My first album with pedal steel was the 1974 Yes album, "Relayer". Steve Howe played a pedal steel solo on the song "To Be Over", though I had no idea that it was a pedal steel until many years later

Not sure which came first.......all bought in the mid to late 50's.

Webb Pierce..In the Jailhouse Now, More and More, You're not Mine Anymore, Walking the Dog... Sonny Burnett and perhaps Bud Isaacs on some.

Porter Wagoner - Satisfied Mind album...Tricks of the Trade, I Like Girls, Company's Comin'....Don Warden and others.

Jim Reeves - Bimbo album, If You Were Mine, Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt, Mother went a'Walkin', I've Lived a Lot in my Time......At least some (if not all) predate Jimmy Day. I believe that some were recorded for Abbott Records but this album was released on RCA Victor.

Andy DePaule wrote:The tunes I liked best on that album were Angles we have heard on high, Bud's Bounce and Redwing. The others were a strange mix with some I liked and some not so much. One or two I liked only parts of tunes, but his Red Wing was really nice to my ear.

Cal's versions of both "Bud's Bounce" and "Red Wing" are both very special to me, as they are among the first tunes I learned how to play as a ripe beginner on my brand-new MSA Red Baron. (The very first was "Tennessee Waltz.")

Every time I sit down to play I owe a debt of gratitude to Cal Hand, who as an instructor started me off on track with the basic but very important stuff that, if learned incorrectly, can be a booger to undo. How to wear your picks, how to hold and control the bar, posture, right hand placement, picking and blocking techniques, etc. can be difficult for a beginner. In retrospect, getting off on the right track was a very important factor in the difference between actually learning how to play or throwing in the towel.

Thanks, Cal, wherever you are!

The great thing about this question is records are not even sold anymore, where as before they were the only option;

Anyhow for me it was John Stewart California Bloodlines, with Lloyd Green;

After that lots of Buddy Cage;

Both are still with us;

Richard Alderson wrote:The great thing about this question is records are not even sold anymore...

Simply not true. I often buy recent releases on vinyl. Last month I gave my daughter the new LP by David Byrne for her birthday. My most recent purchase was a 3 LP set of Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scott's, released in 2015. I've pre-ordered the new Lloyd Green/Jaydee Maness album on vinyl.

The format's death announcement was premature.

Well I knew someone would object; but you know what I mean; Records were THE THING; there was no other medium;

Our cash was limited, we would go and view 100s of records and see which one to buy, and only be able to buy one or two, that was the experience; and memorizing all the album covers.

So I guess I am talking about the cultural experience of going to record stores as the only way of getting music. Here's a copy of my first Album that I spent precious sheckels on. Lloyd Green is the one who got my attention.

Richard Alderson wrote:for me it was John Stewart California Bloodlines, with Lloyd Green

A nice version of "Never Goin' Back" on that album, featuring Mr. Green on reso:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV7qVHVRbP0

1965 Columbia album "Another Bridge To Burn" by Ray Price with Buddy Emmons of course.Never heard any prettier steel work since!

While NRPS, Poco, Dickey Betts (Highway Call), Gram Parsons (Grievous Angel), Linda Ronstadt got me really interested in pedal steel, it was only after I borrowed a copy from a college buddy of the FIRST self-titled Pure Prairie League album and Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstasy with Pearl of the Quarter that I became obsessed with buying a steel. The PPL album, like Sweethearts, is saturated with pedal steel. The two songs, in order of favor, were:

Country Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRad3UCgxrw

Tears
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k8eCm58Hfw

Pearl of the Quarter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMeTwFKbgsI

Then, I discovered Buddy Emmons and Someday Soon and I succumbed to the incurable, chronic addiction...

At 3 days older than dirt, I can not remember. I believe it was a JIM REEVES record, album. Boy could he deliver a song. CAA

The first record that I acquired with steel guitar wasn't bought. It was a trade.

I had heard this song, "Jesus Just Left Chicago" on the radio and liked it (I like blues and some blues rock). I discovered it was on the newest album, Tres Hombres by a band I hadn't heard of - ZZ Top. I liked the blues artist, Z. Z. Hill, so I figured ZZ Top had to be 'the blues'. I immediately went out and bought the album. Much to my disappointment (like my purchase of Led Zepplin's first album) it wasn't much in the way of a blues album - it was a heavy rock album. I know, I know, this isn't a thread about being disappointed in album purchases, it about buying your first album with steel guitar played on it.

A few months after buying that (first and only) ZZ Top album, a friend played his copy of Poco's Deliverin' album for me. I was blown away and asked if he'd like to trade for a 'really cool' ZZ Top album The trade was made. A few days later I bought the first NRPS album.

Literally, two weeks after that purchase a bought my first 'steel guitar'; a used Gibson Electraharp and my addiction began.

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

b0b wrote:

Richard Alderson wrote:The great thing about this question is records are not even sold anymore...

Simply not true. I often buy recent releases on vinyl. Last month I gave my daughter the new LP by David Byrne for her birthday. My most recent purchase was a 3 LP set of Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scott's, released in 2015. I've pre-ordered the new Lloyd Green/Jaydee Maness album on vinyl.

The format's death announcement was premature.

I read somewhere a couple of months ago that after coming close to death there has now been a big revival in production of vinyl records and there are now quite a few companies producing them. More expected to start in the near future.
Time to sharpen up the needle on the old wind up Victrola? Not quite yet....

The Marshall Tucker Band " Searching for a Rainbow

Drew Shoemaker wrote:The Marshall Tucker Band " Searching for a Rainbow

This must also be among my first ones. I can't remember which one came first, this one or "Deja Vu" by CSN & Y with Teach Your Children, discovered them around the same time, around 1980 when I was in my teens and already had a very unusual taste.
Not long after that, I found Waylon with Mooney, Emmylou Harris with Hank DeVito and Jimmy Bryant with Speedy West. But I was only into the guitar players at the time. It still would take years before deciding to take up steel myself.