The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi Gil,

Yes, the 70's was a great era for the Goodmans and the Hinsons.

Roger Rettig wrote:
The early RS tracks had my pal Ray Flacke on them. Oddly, I was speaking with Ray only two weeks ago. He claims that he 'doesn't own a guitar anymore'.

Roger, if thats truly the case, then what an absolute tragedy.

Bob Carlucci wrote:

Roger Rettig wrote:
The early RS tracks had my pal Ray Flacke on them. Oddly, I was speaking with Ray only two weeks ago. He claims that he 'doesn't own a guitar anymore'.

Roger, if thats truly the case, then what an absolute tragedy.

I concur with that sentiment 1000%.

For all the great steel playing on the Highways & Heartaches album we have deservedly mentioned here, Ray Flacke’s equally brilliant guitar playing is all over it. Seeing him live with the RS band was an unforgettable treat for me.

Roger did you ask why he quit, or would this question have been to personal?
I've seen the band Meal Ticket as support for Bob Seeger in the late seventies. Great band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YvKMlF_2UQ

Everything by Ralph Mooney on Buck Owens' first Capitol album. At that time Ralph was living in Bell Gradens, CA and I managed to get his address from Capitol. I sent him a letter and asked about his tuning and the kind of strings he was using. He answered right away. He was always my idol and I learned all of his stuff note-for-note using a tape recorder slowed down to half speed.

Sorry for the late reply, guys: for some reason I'm not getting notifications from the SGF. I missed your responses.

He didn't go into detail but he did say he'd written a book! I got the impression that it was fiction rather than any sort of biographical work. He sent me an Amazon link which, for the moment, I can't locate.

Sorry to divert the thread. I too was taken aback when he told me. Having said that, he could easily have a change of heart and buy another one!

He was always a bit quirky. Each time I was passing through Nashville we'd arrange to meet - usually at Brown's Diner - and he'd show up on his bicycle. He hasn't had a car for years. He was doing some couch-to-console work from home but that too is now history.

He's perhaps my favourite player in that genre. Ray always strung his Tele with really heavy strings - how he got those bends I'll never know: I couldn't shift them at all - but that was the key to his great tone. A bit different from my .009s to .042s!!

wayyyy too many to remember but one of the first that comes to mind is Jim Murphy’s playing on one of Paycheck’s live recordings of “I’m Ragged But I’m Right.”

I didn't have a single solo or event that lead me to steel guitar. My first exposure to steel guitar was discovering an acoustic May Bell Hawaiian guitar at my Grandmothers house in Boston around June 1965. We were on leave from Pakistan and I was 12 years old at the time. My grandmother told me it was my Dad's who had taken lessons on when he was in 6th grade which was 1936. I was just getting interested in guitar as I was listening to the Beatles and Rolling Stones ect. I had never heard of slide guitar. I wanted to take the guitar back to Pakistan with me but my dad said no. He gave me the guitar but It would have to stay in Boston.

In 1969 I got the May Bell when we returned to the USA. I played it a little but was focused on 6 string rock guitar. In 1970 a number of friends & I would do acoustic jams in high school and I played it in Open E trying to sound like the Stones on Let it Bleed (Ry Crooder). Fast forward to 1974 and I was in the Army at Ft Hood Tx. I bought a Sho-Bud Maverick out of a pawn shop for $125. I tried playing it but was lost so I bought a book and learned a couple of licks. I mostly played it in Open E. By 1975 I was out of the Army, married, with a daughter, and in college. I was giging on the side with my Les Paul Deluxe and I still had the May Bell. The chipboard case completely fell apart so one of my best decisions was to buy a new hard shell Martin case for it ($65). We had no money so I sold the Maverick. End of my steel "carreer".

Jump to 2003. We were living in Orlando FL and I decided to have the May Bell repaired. It had needed a neck reset since the 60's an there were a couple of cracks in the top. I took it to Lyrical Lumber and had it fixed and a K&K pickup installed. I still was playing it in Open E. The strings on it were the same strings it had when I first saw it in 1965. The luthier convinced me to put new strings on it. It did sound a lot better!

In 2017 I decided to find another Maverick but ended up with a Sho-Bud 6139 thanks to the advice I got here.

The song that kept me interested in steel guitar all these years was CSN&Y Teach your Children with Jerry Garcia on PSG. Next was Buddy Emmons playing Witchcraft. Finally Jim Cohen playing Fly Me To the Moon sealed the deal. For lap steel it was Santo playing Sleepwalking which was one of the first songs I learned on electric guitar in 1965 but for years thought the Ventures wrote it.

The May Bell is still with me but now tuned to C6.

Oddly enough, the first thing that entered my mind when I saw the question was "Candy Man" by The Grateful Dead. All of Garcia's work on "American Beauty" influenced me, but that Mutron(?) effect solo had a special impact. It made me realize that the pedal steel didn't have to be restricted to country sounds.

Aside from people like Marion Hall and Buddy Merrill on TV out of Los Angeles when I was a kid, my earliest remembrance and likely first major influence was John Sebastian's work on Nashville Cats circa 1966 on a Fender pedal steel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZqgFyj5uTo

Disguised as a rock'n'roll band, the Spoonful could play Country as good (if not better) than most hat, boot, and strategically-ripped-blue-jeans bands coming out of Nashville (& Bakersfield) these days.

b0b wrote:Oddly enough, the first thing that entered my mind when I saw the question was "Candy Man" by The Grateful Dead. All of Garcia's work on "American Beauty" influenced me, but that Mutron(?) effect solo had a special impact. It made me realize that the pedal steel didn't have to be restricted to country sounds.

That's a great one Bob I think it might be a Leslie or maybe a univibe. I don't know how many manufacturerers had phasers for sale in '70 Mutron didnt get going till '72. Could be some circuit wizardry that Bear cooked up custom for Jerry.

As a kid my dad had the Reckoning acoustic live CD and I've always loved "Dire Wolf." There is no steel on that version. The first time I heard it on Workingman's Dead years later I was mesmerized but the steel licks despite not knowing what instrument was making the magic.

Sleepwalk. I loved this song & played it on slide guitar for decades before I got my PSG. Still love that song & now play it on my PSG.

I was already hooked when I heard this. (1994) Nonetheless, it's one of my favorite rides:
Paul Franklin playing in unison with Matt Rollins on the piano on the Keith Whitley tribute album, and Joe Diffy singing "I'm No Stranger to the Rain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LtYzQRXW-c
about 2:40 in you'll hear the break.
BTW, I love everything about this tune. The Lyrics with the rain, a metaphor for alcoholism, Paul's fills as well, and that half time beat.

Ian Rae wrote:+1 for Someday Soon - same Collins album as Immigrant

I love that the melody is always clear and pretty much a line - a scale...simple enough and pretty.
But then under that is this crazy swerving scale harmony that defies the laws of gravity.

After being at my first 3 or 4 ISGC in the early 2000ls I was hooked!
Got to meet some of the world's greatest; Hughy, Emmons, Don Helms, Lloyd Green Doug Jernigan, Jeff Newman, Bud Carter, Sarah Jorey and a few more I cannot recollect, JUST PLAIN WOW! I had to have a steel or, or. My steel playing friend of many years (Ron Sturm) told me to just buy one!
I watched John Hughy play a bunch of songs and talked to him a while and his playing and just God given talent with the steel guitar convinced me.
I Just Destroyed The World, Lost In The Feeling and many others hooked me forever! All the ones mentioned impressed me so much that their recordings made a life-steeler out of me. I thank God for taking me to them to listen up close what real music is. I'm in the 4th quarter now but still thank God and all the steeler pioneers for leading me to one of heaven's greatest instruments of music. Peace. Bernie