The Steel Guitar Forum

Just think, she made millions in her career choices, when she could have concentrated on steel guitar and made ... uh ... hundreds!

You've got that right, Don!

`I believe she's also pretty hot on the banjo.`

She could have put it to good use and wrapped it round the collective heads of the bored-looking old farts at the front!

Arch.

Archie,I noticed that too.. what was that all about anyway??.. Bunch of old sourpusses.. looked like they needed an enema.. bob

Don Walters wrote:Just think, she made millions in her career choices, when she could have concentrated on steel guitar and made ... uh ... hundreds!

Amen ! No-one has ever yet made a fortune playing steel guitar, including Buddy.

i would imagine paul has made as much as is possible, compared to anyone else...and worked hard for every penny of it...well deserved!

Not that I'm a professional spotter, but Barbara's got some great banjo rolls in there on her version (I'm sure she's an incredible banjo picker). The great angle shown of her playing makes me want to curl in my picks like her...it's like the Red Ball Jet tennis shoe commercials from the 60's --- always thought if I got a pair, I could run faster than a bike like the kid in the commercial.

Alan F. Brookes wrote: No-one has ever yet made a fortune playing steel guitar

Well, I heard that Paul Franklin got a million for touring with the Dire Straits. Of course this is an exceptional example and I'm not even sure if it's true, but that's what I heard, and it's certainly possible.

In a post somewhere, Norm admitted knowing and teaching Barbara some steel licks. Maybe b0b can find that post.

Joe

I believe that Barbara also helped Lloyd Green get a start early on in his career when he was a shoe salesman.

I met Irby Mandrell, Barbara`s dad when he came into the club I was working outside of Lancaster,Ca. With Capitol records group the Farmer Boys. He said he had a daughter that was playing Saxaphone in school but she wanted to play steel guitar and he could`nt find any one in that area and wanted to know if he could make arrangements with me to teach her. I agreed to teach her as much as I could and I started teaching her every weekend while I worked the club. I showed her instrumentals for the steel guitar and taught her pick blocking which I had learned from my friend Vance Terry who worked with Billy Jack Wills. Barbara was a natural and could play everything I showed her in no time at all. In a couple of years her dad was taking her to the Town Hall Party in L.A. which was a T.V. show and she was just knocking everybody out. She was meeting a lot of people that helped her out like Joe and Rosalie Maphis and about that time Irby went to work for Standel Amplifier Co. and also was helping Semie Mosely by checking on music stores that carried his Mosrite Guitars. Barbara started working in Vegas with Red Foley and she was around 13 at that time and later went on the road with the Johnny Cash show. With her dad selling music eqipment he got a chance to buy into a Music store in Oceanside and that is where Barbara and the girls went to high school. At that time Barbara was already a seasoned performer. They formed a family band and that is where Barbara met her future husband Ken. He was hired as a drummer. I guess I better end this story I have probably told you more than you want to know. I just thought you might want to know a little about how she started.
Mike Jone is one of the steel players that she learned from as well as all of the other steel players that worked for her. She is a fast learner and can play any instrument she set her mind to. Norm

Wonderful stuff.
I might have played at that club where the audience all turn their backs to you
Have you noticed she ends with a hand operated knee lever ?.
Roger , I remember Pete Sayers tuned his banjo once.....We never spoke to him again !!!!
Barry

Norm...great stuff!!! You didn't even get close to telling us more than we wanted to know. It's always a pleasure to hear stories like this from the Hoss!

Archie Nicol wrote: She could have put it to good use and wrapped it round the collective heads of the bored-looking old farts at the front!

Arch.

At least two of the "old farts" were Ray and Carrie Cash, John R.'s mom and dad! (It was a Cash Christmas Special, after all.)

norm hamlet wrote:...I guess I better end this story I have probably told you more than you want to know...

Not at all, Norm. Your anecdotes are always worth reading.

Herb Steiner wrote:Why Barbara Mandrell can pick more than most of us here

Women are more dedicated. That's why.

... J-D.

edited

Do we REALLY need the Saddam/Hitler banjo references here? If you guys don't like banjos, it's one thing, but to use Saddam Hussein and Adolph Hitler in an attempt at humor, is an INSULT to the families of the millions whose deaths they caused.

I thoroughly agree Steve. There's nothing funny in those references. There are people on this Forum who had relatives killed by those two monsters. Very poor taste.

Where else than the SGF can we go from Barbara Mandrell to Saddam and Hitler
While I don't take offense to the "Dictators Playing Banjos" yes they probably don't belong in a thread that is a tribute to the talent of Barbara M

I myself do not own a banjo
I have owned a few in the past
and have made feeble attempts to play them
without learning much more than a crude version
of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown"

But I wonder if somewhere there is a banjo players forum where steel guitar players take as much heat as banjo players do here

And one more thing-Isn't the guy wearing the plaid jacket sitting next to her looking on JOHN MC EUEN-THE BANJO PLAYER from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Hi Doug
Wonderful picture of Hitler and banjo.
I say, mock these monsters. It doesn't mean we've forgotten their victims. The one thing these totalitarian states can't stand is people laughing.
Laugh at them I say.JMHO.
Doug, how can I save the moving image.
Barry

My sincere apologies for posting the Saddam photo,I never meant to hurt anybody's feelings.
For this reason,I try to take the photo out of here.
Sorry!
I don't hate the banjo at all,
Olaf

Barbara Mandrell was a good picker without a dobut. She also is a pretty good looking lady which made watching her even better. All the Mandrell sisters were just pretty good musicians.

My old boss at the Foothill Club in Long Beach (Signal Hill), California (Billy Mize) used to be the steel guitarist for the Town Hall Party TV show. Billy told me about Barbara coming there when she was a little girl and she'd set on his lap to play steel. Billy said he saw her later on when she'd grown up and he asked her if she'd like to do that again. She laughed and said a big "NO". What a talented lady she is. I really miss her talent and big voice. "She was country when country wasn't cool"....JH in Va.