The Steel Guitar Forum

I would like to thank everyone here for all of the nice comments and compliments. The tribute show was a pleasure to play on. There were several questions posted here and I'll do my best to answer all of them.
As Kevin Hatton pointed out, I was playing a single-neck Desert Rose. I own two double-necks by Desert Rose as well. They are my absolute favorite guitars!
I no longer use the Line 6 gear live. I was playing through a Fender Steel King for pedal steel and I use a Marshall Bluesbreaker with my Lap King lap steel. For effects I was using a Keeley compressor, MXR Carbon Copy delay and an Ibanez DE-7 delay. Unlike my earlier years I prefer stomp boxes over rackmount gear these days.
For Long Goodbye (Faith Hill) I used an old sitar bar I've had since I first started playing.
Hope that answers some of your questions. Feel free to ask more and yes, that was all of us from the B & D touring band.

I forgot to mention that Jason Aldean is opening for us on most of our concerts and he now has Jay Jackson playing steel for him. Jay also plays a Desert Rose on the tour.

Gary - Thanx for getting on here........
Why two different delays?
or is one for the lap steel and the other for pedal steel?

Gary: Great job,man! Thanks for the reply about "The Long Goodbye". I wasn't far off on my guess! I've got a bandstand recording of you from the 70s w/ a guy named Teddy Sadler. Remember him? You were playing your tail off back then,too!

Ron.....I use both delays on pedal steel. Typically the DE-7 is set on a short delay for mid to up-tempo songs and the MXR carbon copy is set for long delay primarily for lush ballad tones. On occasion I use both at the same time for a multi-tap effect.
David......I'm amazed that you have a recording from the 70's when I was playing with Teddy Sadler in the honky tonks around the Detroit area! That's awesome! I actually get occasional emails from him. He lives in Arkansas now. Those joints were the perfect place to experiment with new ideas. That's one of the reasons I still play at the Honky tonks down on Broadway when I'm not touring. Not to mention how much fun it is!

Gary: Teddy was the one that gave me the recording.He's still singing around N. Arkansas.I play a gig w/ him now & then. He does a lot of the classics. He speaks very highly of you,with good reason.Take care

Great sound and job Gary. Just wondering if you were using the Keeley compressor on the steel and was it on the entire tune. Thanks again!

gary,,,when did you stop wearing a beret and using a violin bow on your steel?

Mitch...I nearly always have the compressor on. The Keeley is perfect for my set-up and when I take it out I always miss the effect it adds. All compressors are not created equal. If you have an opportunity to try the Keeley I would highly recommend it. A lot of lead players use them so maybe you can borrow one.

Chris.....I've been wearing cowboy hats since my early teens when I was riding and working with horses most of the time. In fact I still ride. When I showed up to play with Highway 101 in 1989 they freaked out and said it was "too country" and that's when they suggested a beret (sort of going for the Skunk Baxter look I guess). I surely didn't want to give up the gig so I switched. When I left 101 to join McBride & The Ride the beret just kind of went along with me out of habit. Eventually I went back to my roots and ever since Dwight Yoakam days I've been wearing my Stetson proudly again! As for the violin bow on the steel.....I'm hoping the opportunity will present itself for me to play some more alternative gigs again. The only non-mainstream performing I've done in the past few years was when I performed the "Concerto for Pedal Steel Guitar" at the Ryman Auditorium with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. Now that the Brooks & Dunn gig is almost over I've been thinking a lot more about locking myself in my home studio and doing a steel project. It will most likely incorporate a lot of the various influences I've had over the years including the "fusion" material I was recording years ago when I lived in Los Angeles.

Hi Gary,I was wondering when I used to watch you play in Newport Beach you were using the violin bow,Do you use rosin and if so what toll does that take on the strings?Stu

Hey Stu....great to hear from you! After experimenting for awhile I finally settled on using a larger bass bow and bass rosin. I primarily played on the first string (F#) and it didn't have any negative effect on the string other than having to wipe the rosin off with a soft cloth. Having a long delay also helped smooth it out a lot. I likened it to being in the spirit of the Jean-Luc Ponty approach. I couldn't imagine playing an evening of music that way but as an effect here and there it was actually quite exhilarating! Hope all is well with you....

Gary,Thanks I'm doing well,Hey I remember that you had an original song called "Showdown" which I thought was a great tune,Anything ever become of that one?

Man....I'd forgotten all about that song until you mentioned it. It was sort of in the POCO vein. I may have to look that one up and brush the dust off of it!

Killer job Gary,thx for the info and esp for the great playin! I'm sure we'all here on the forum will be eagerly waitin gor a "GM" project (no pun intended lol) ,Stormy

Gary,Yep that's the one I figure if it's still running around my brain after 25 years that you've got something there,Take Care,Stu

Hey Gary,Do you still play Sho-Buds or have you switched to Desert Rose full time? I'm now playing a Jackson steel guitar, have you heard of the Jackson steel?

Brett

Hey Gary,

Just thought I'd jump on here and ditto all the great comments above. Then again, never did hear you play any way other than great.

By the way, I went to Dallas to do the show with Mike Johnson, and got to work with your buddy Chuck Back. Wow, what a player, and he sure had great things to say about you.

I'll be up in a few weeks, maybe I'll catch you on one of your downtown nights.

See ya,
Jim

Brett.....I've sold all but two of my Sho Bud pro II guitars and I keep them as a backup. I've switched to playing the Desert Rose full time. Yes, I'm familiar with the Jackson and actually tried one out before deciding to go with the Desert Rose instead. Here was my reason. The best way I can describe the tone of the Desert Rose is to say it's a cross between a Sho-Bud and a ZB. Since those are my all-time two favorite guitars it was an easy choice.

Jim.....glad you got to meet and work with Chuck. Definitely look me up when you come to Nashville again. I'm in and out every week with Brooks & Dunn until August 10th but i try to get downtown on monday night to play Legends whenever possible with Matt Mason and Rodney Griffin. Hope all is well with you!

Funny...they would focus on ANYBODY but the steel player during his leads! <<

Hey Jack Francis, The cameramen always knew to focus in on the player that was taking a solo on the Lawrence Welk shows that ran from 1955 to 1982 and are now in reruns. My question is: Did cameramen all of a sudden get stupid..if they knew how to do it then why do they not know how to do it now? [/list]

Gary Morse, You are a great player, your sound was outstanding, the soundmen also did a great job by having the steel properly in the mix. I usually come away disappointed because of the way they place the steel in the mix but this time I came away very happy because everything was just perfect. Gary, I wish you the best of everything.
Brad

Brad...I think that the camera folk today were trained by the older ones!

Just watched a YouTube Video of Booker T doin "Green Onions" and the whole time that Cropper was playin' his lead, the camera was on a close up of the bass players face!(?????) What the hell's up with that!!

Let's be happy it was aired with Gary........

All these shows has a director and or a producer. The director or the producer tells the camera man what to do. Jody.

Gary-I am honored to have a player with your incredible talent playing my Desert Rose Guitars! You did an awesome job on the show as you do every time you play! Thank you for your support of my guitars, and I'm looking forward to building you #5 this summer!

Thanks!

David Griffin wrote:Gary: Great job,man! Thanks for the reply about "The Long Goodbye". I wasn't far off on my guess! I've got a bandstand recording of you from the 70s w/ a guy named Teddy Sadler. Remember him? You were playing your tail off back then,too!

David, I remember those days playing with Ted and Gary too! Back then, I was playing bass guitar with the group. It was called "Ted Sadler and The Rambling Kind." In fact, Gary and I worked together with Ted for quite a few years. Gary's brother, Dave, was the drummer in our band. Ted was a real blast to work with, and a great singer/entertainer! As I think way back to those times, Gary and I also worked with Ted when he was performing as Terry McKay. Man if the walls in those old honkey-tonks could talk, what a story they could tell.

Ted is a fabulous person to work with, and I'm very happy to see he's still out there performing.

I could probably write a book about Gary Morse! But let me just say this, Gary is indeed one of the greatest and dearest friends I've ever had in my life, and one of the most knowledgeable musicians in the industry. I am indeed very honored to know him.