The Steel Guitar Forum

[quote="Jerry Fessenden"]I looked over several rooms such as the PSGA ,,, about 60% of the players were from the country rock influenc.

Again..........Ben Keith on Neil Young's Harvest record. 1972.

I'd played a triple-8 Fender in an all adult country band for a number of years while in high school. This was about the same time that Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant started pumping out those great steel guitar instrumentals like "Steel Strike", "Stainless Steel", "Hub Cap Roll", etc. I readily discovered that I wasn't able to easily get some of the great chords that Speedy was getting.

Bud Issacs also started coming out with a large number of great instrumentals that I was finding it
impossible to duplicate. Lot's of research was being conducted by 'self' in an attempt to determine what had to be done.

It was only then that Issacs came out with Webb Pierces' "SLOWLY"........and the final nail was driven into my coffin. I started negotiating with Paul Bigsby in 1950 about "the ultimate GUITAR". My junior year at Benson Polytechnic I fired off my $50.00 deposit to some guy down in southern California, I didn't even know and my three year wait began. It was the BIGGEST & BEST gamble I ever made.

Plus Pee Wee Whitewing and countless others passing thro' the area with the name stars provided additional incentive to make that crucial move.

That's a simple question. Don Helms's non-pedal on Hank Williams's recordings, then Buddy Emmons.

Well for me, first, it's because I love the steel sound and how the steel looks in country music and because I can't handle frets on a standard guitar because of cerebral palsy in the left hand. As a kid, I heard players like Bruce Bouton, Paul Franklin, Sonny Garrish, John Hughey on Vince Gill's records, and Dan Dugmore-although at the time, I didn't know any steel players or know anything about the steel at the time. First saw one onstage in 1989 played by a steel player named Myron Smith and that's when I first started lovin' the steel. In 1998, one of my favorite country bands called Ricochet had a steel player named Teddy Carr, and when I heard him, my determination to play steel grew.

Brett

Well for me, first, it's because I love the steel sound and how the steel looks in country music and because I can't handle frets on a standard guitar because of cerebral palsy in the left hand. As a kid, I heard players like Bruce Bouton, Paul Franklin, Sonny Garrish, John Hughey on Vince Gill's records, and Dan Dugmore-although at the time, I didn't know any steel players or know anything about the steel at the time. First saw one onstage in 1989 played by a steel player named Myron Smith and that's when I first started lovin' the steel. In 1998, one of my favorite country bands called Ricochet had a steel player named Teddy Carr, and when I heard him, my determination to play steel grew.

Brett

When I found out it could be used for rock 'n' roll too. I can get sounds out of it that I can't get out of a regular six string electric guitar. I just use it for recording.

I first started noticing the sound of the steel guitar in the 1970's. I was a teenager and just got it in my blood. My biggest influence was Jr. Knight who played on television on Saturday afternoons. I got my first pedal steel when I was 19 years old in 1979. I have been playing for 33 years and still enjoy it today just as I did back then.

guitar-->bass-->more guitar-->Lapsteel C6th-->Pedal Steel

The first time I consciously listened to a steel guitar must have been around 1980 as a teenager when I was really into the hippie/Woodstock kind of thing and of course it was "Teach Your Children". But I was just happy playing regular guitar in those days, didn't think about picking up steel yet. About seven years later, I remember catching "Christine's Tune" by the Flying Burrito Brothers on the car radio and it blew my mind. For the first time I thought, "I wonder what it's like to play that thing". But I didn't know where to obtain one, that was still before the Internet and local music stores didn't even know what it was. Only about ten years after that, while I was living in Italy, a bandmate turned me on to the New Riders with Buddy Cage. That finally did it for me, I knew I had to become a steel player and finally managed to get one. I then gradually worked my way backwards and discovered the legends like Emmons, Charleton, Lloyd, Weldon, Mooney etc. Of course I'm nowhere near as good as them, but you get the idea... the important thing is to enjoy it.

Ricky Scaggs records with Bruce Bouton
playing steel great music still great today
and my first mentor Mike Morlock who inspired me
and helped me

Shaffer, I'm barely a year into my re-introduction to the PSG- so I have no room to talk about experience, But i know what did it for me.
I got bit at a Gene Watson show. He had the "Farewell Band" if I remember correctly. I didn't want to be there of course, but when I heard the PSG solos on all the songs, I knew there was something about it. Tiny (Chris) Olson was the steel player at the time. When I heard the solo for "Farewell Party" and "Memories to Burn" and just the general psg backing, it gave me shivers in my back. A robust yet smooth mellowing sound if that makes any sense. Sound quality then at shows wasn't as it is now- hell it was better if I think about it!, and the PSG was considerably louder than the rest of the instruments, maybe thats why it bit me so hard. I knew then I wanted to learn how to make that sound.
I find now I can sit down at the SD10 Mullen to practice and learn new sounds, and before I know it 3 hours have passed by.
I found both of those Gene Watson Songs on youtube recorded live at various locations. Also, the Moe Bandy hit "Bandy the Rodeo Clown" I found live on youtube makes me strive to achieve "that sound".

This instrument to me is beyond addicting, also a cross between near insanity and high emotions.

Wow, what a cool collection of stories. I am surprised that the majority of you, like me, just heard it and had to get one.  My favorite is Bill Garret's "my band manager wrote some songs for It so somebody had to learn to play one" and Douglas Schuch's broken left index finger that healed straight.

I've listened to many of the songs that everyone shared.  Lots of cool stuff.  My ear has just recently started identifying the PSG in music, so many of these songs I've heard for years but it's like hearing them again for the very first time. There's no turning back now!

Thanks for the stories and encouragement.

Jim Cohen wrote:

Joachim Kettner wrote:

Dan Beller-McKenna wrote:Rusty Young: "Kind Woman" and Poco's first album. Also, Lloyd Green and JD Mannes on Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

Dan

Exactly the same as me!

Exactly the same as me too!

Exactly the same as me three!

Mine's a bit off kilter: I was playing about everything I thought possible on slide guitar, running arpeggios with the tip of the slide and all, and I still just needed... MORE, somehow. It didn't take long to figure out where that might be.

About 1956, "Please Release" got stuck in my young brain. Fast forward to around the early 70s, a friend move back into the area from Vegas, came out and sat in with the band I was whacking 6 string in. ZB Custom, a Twin and Coca Nut Grove on C6... I was hooked. Thanks again Marshall Dozer, you have musically enriched my life... I hope your doing well. Fast forward to the late 70s... Married, 3 kids, scraping by on Sgts pay in the Marines... Had another friend build my first steel, a Cherokee. Thanks Clyde, you too have had a great influence in changing my life for the better. You too Billy, best seat on the planet.

100s of days and 1000s of hours later, I'm still just scratching the surface of this wonderful instrument. I can't imagine my life with out it and music.

Cecil Johnson and Norm Hamlett

First and foremost - Ben Keith. When Neil Young came out with the Harvest album way back when I was in high school - I heard Ben's playing and I thought it would be the coolest thing ever to be able to make 'that sound'. It took me almost 40 years to get around to actually buying a PSG and starting the journey. I've been thinking a lot about that first exposure and re-listening to those songs, over the last several days (because of reading this thread).

I just realized that today is the 2nd anniversary of Ben's passing. Over the years I've listened to and loved the playing of many great steel players but Ben is still my role model for how to play exactly what the song needs. Thanks Ben for bringing all that beauty into the world. We miss you - RIP.

In 1968, Linda Ronstadt hired me as a dobro/mandolin player. I had owned a Fender 400 for a couple years prior to that but got rid of it. Linda pushed me into getting another steel and becoming her steel player, and since she was paying serious money ($150/week!! ), I did so.

Jim Cohen wrote:
Joachim Kettner wrote:
Dan Beller-McKenna wrote:
Rusty Young: "Kind Woman" and Poco's first album. Also, Lloyd Green and JD Mannes on Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

Dan

Exactly the same as me! Smile


Exactly the same as me too! Smile Smile


Exactly the same as me three! Smile Smile Smile


Four's a charm, that and a pre mid-life crisis.

I met this guy in the Kansas City area in 1977. He told me he made pedal steels and he wanted to try a 12-string extended E9. He agreed to build me one for a good price...turned out to be Bruce Zumsteg in his second year of business!

Of course i never learned to play worth a darn and foolishly let it go. 3 decades later after playing big stage rock and roll guitar, I took an old MSA U-12 for a legal fee I was owed by some criminal (I'm a lawyer) and got hooked. I haven't picked up a guitar in 7 years! You can't pry me away from the steel...now an MSA M3 U-12 and two U-12 Zums.

I met this guy in the Kansas City area in 1977. He told me he made pedal steels and he wanted to try a 12-string extended E9. He agreed to build me one for a good price...turned out to be Bruce Zumsteg in his second year of business!

Of course i never learned to play worth a darn and foolishly let it go. 3 decades later after playing big stage rock and roll guitar, I took an old MSA U-12 for a legal fee I was owed by some criminal (I'm a lawyer) and got hooked. I haven't picked up a guitar in 7 years! You can't pry me away from the steel...now an MSA M3 U-12 and two U-12 Zums.

Not really sure, just woke up one day last October and decided I should play PSG, looked on Craigs list, found an old Emmons student model and bought it. Haven't touched a Sax since.

Eugene Cole wrote:
At the same time I was hearing Red Rhodes, Sneaky Pete, Rex Hunt (with "Bottle Hill"), Don Helms, Hal Rugg, and JImmy Day (among others) on my favorite recordings. I loved the sound of Steel Guitar. A little discussion with the various Steel players I met lead me to discovering the astounding music of Julian Tharpe. At this point I had the Steel Guitar bug.

Yeah, Eugene, Rex Hunt was an early inspiration of mine too. I met him in Bloomington, Indiana in 1991. He was living at a studio where I did some recording with a rock band. He just blew my mind on his dobro! Before I left B-town in '96 I did some scratch recordings with him. He is actually playing with a couple of bands these days. Dobro and banjo. I was with him the day he got a late '20's Gibson Mastertone. I was 23 and playing in a heavy metal band, so I had NO bluegrass chops at all. I strummed a G chord while he danced all over it on the banjo and then dobro. Cool guy. Don't hear too many people who know of him. I think he was a founding member of The Blue Sparks From Hell. I know he toured with them.

In 1969 I was teaching guitar at a local studio and my boss and guitar teacher was a steel player also...he was showing a student how to play "Steelin' the Blues" and that hit me like a tons of bricks...I said wow ! I gotta learn how to play that, so he started teaching me steel guitar...I bought his 4 neck stringmaster as my first instrument. Bill Pruitt was his name and Joe Naylor knows him quite well as well !

Douglas Schuch wrote:If I had to pick one song, it would be "Jazzman", by Pure Prairie League.

Doug

I too was influenced by PPL. Jazzman, I think, was done by Al Brisco, but I was also influenced, a lot by JD Call. Their work, pushed me over the edge to get one.(Now I have three, all Carters) I'm now influenced by virtually all steel players!I can't stay away from the dang things! -Jake-