The Steel Guitar Forum

I saw NRPS play a few weeks ago and I believe it was Buddy Cage on steel. Here's the recording of the show (streaming audio & downloadable MP3s).


http://www.archive.org/details/nrps2010-07-29
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Just saw NRPS about a month ago. Buddy Cage was playing steel. He was playing an Emmons through a Twin in a head cabinet and what appeared to be the custom cabinets, they had back in the day, with 2 - 12" JBLs. Sounded great. David Nelson on guitar. I was most impressed with Ronnie Penques' bass playing. He was good! Good bass players can do a lot for a band. IMHO. Band seemed to have a little more blues & rock feel to it.

I enjoyed the show. They played quite a few of the old favorites. Sure miss John Dawsons' voice and presence.

Here's up through about '74:

Have to zoom to read.

http://www.nrpsmusic.com/band/familytree.html

Pretty much the transition from Garcia to Buddy.

JB, you were right about BEN Keith and Ian & Sylvia. (Thank you, Bob Blair for the correction.)

According to http://www.thecoolgroove.com/gsb.html
BILL Keith was the original steel player in Great Speckled Bird. He left in 1969 and was replaced by Buddy Cage. Buddy Cage left in 1970 and was replaced by BEN Keith.
"This group performed on The Ian Tyson Show for the next two years. In 1972 they recorded an LP for Columbia titled You Were On My Mind (Columbia KC31337). The same players in this band also recorded for Bearsville Records as Hungry Chuck."

- Dave

Bob Blair wrote:It was in fact Ben Keith who replaced Cage in GSB. See: http://www.thecoolgroove.com/ben.html

Ok well there you go. I've got to get my act together on these two, given it's my favorite era for steel. I mean I really should know this, Cage DID tell me the story for the PSGA interview.

JB

Joe Yednasty wrote:I saw NRPS play a few weeks ago and I believe it was Buddy Cage on steel. Here's the recording of the show (streaming audio & downloadable MP3s).


http://www.archive.org/details/nrps2010-07-29
[/url]

Oh Yeah, that's Cage with them now. Dude still has it....

Here's another GREAT steel performance from NRPS past...the website says it's Jerry on pedal steel but I'm not sure if it's completely accurate. Might just be a non-steeler making an uneducated assumption...


New Riders of the Purple Sage
Live at Capitol Theater
Port Chester, NY
June 24, 1970

http://www.archive.org/details/nrps1970 ... sbeok.shnf

June 24, 1970 would have been Jerry for sure - it predated the notorious train ride by a couple of weeks. I first saw NRPS (and heard of them for that matter) very shortly after that in July of that year at Festival Express (the Calgary show), when they opened for the Dead with Jerry on pedal steel - that was, according to the framed poster on my office wall, July 4 and 5. Cage was still with the Tysons and GSB at that point, and of course was in the same show. I had only the faintest notion, if any, of what a pedal steel was at that point. Sneaky was on that bill as well, with the Burritos. Wish I could remember it all better, but you know what they say about that.........

Speaking of the train ride: The documentary of that trip is available on DVD as The Festival Express and has some great performance footage on it, particularly of Janis in the last weeks of her life. You can get it on amazon, it's absolutely great. All the legends jamming on the train between shows-priceless stuff.

I had an interesting conversation with Norbert Putnam
about his production of the Panama Red record. Oh those days.....

Joe thanks for posting that link. I really enjoyed "Last Lonely Eagle".

The first time I saw NRPS, was in the Village, @ the Fillmore East. They were the opening band for the Dead. Jerry played PSG. circa 70(?)
He was NO Emmons, but he was very effective, for what "it was"
Rick

One thing about the Archive.com NRPS links from the Jerry years, is that Jerry Garcia, the King of Improvisational Guitar solo'ing, can be heard trying to play the same Steel Licks over and over night after night just trying to build his ability to play.
Pedal Steel Guitar???... or, The Musician Humbler???... you tell me.

I would say that jammin' was probably the most important thing in Jerry's life.

A close friend told me that he was studying music at a college and Jerry would drop by just to make music. He said he was always ready to jam at the drop of a hat with anybody.

Supposedly he recorded "Teach" after playing pedal steel just a few weeks. I'd like to know if that really fits in with this NRPS timeline. It might be BS.