The Steel Guitar Forum

Dave Grafe wrote:Lots of Sonny's playing - and some of Paul Franklin's as well - on several of Joni Harms' albums.

Joni says Sonny is one of her favorite steel players

John Macy and Brett Day,

I owned that guitar from 1994 until I traded it out two years ago(to Jim P.) for a single neck P/P from the same 1974 vintage.
I really miss it (especially the Crawford cluster on the left knee) but couldn't carry it any more!
Darn!
Enjoy playing that guitar - it has zero limits!

Thanks for posting, Tim! Do you remember where you got it? I am doing some minor tweeks to the setup and then hope to be using it some soon. It's really great owning pieces with history to them (though I guess everything has its own history, too). My other Crawford Emmons has two more knees and another pedal, so this comes in second on the weight list...

Back in the 70's we made our home in Nashville, TN. We recorded on the Skylite-Sing label. Our producer saw to it that we had the best pickers possible for our albums. One picker on the steel was Sonny Garrish, not only is he a great steel man, he's a great guy! He and I teamed up together on the song, "He Looked Beyond My Faults", a tune that is the same as, "Danny Boy". We play it on our Gospel Broadcast on steelradio.com every now and then. He and my eldest son are real good friends and played in the church band at Cornerstone church in Nashville.

I absolutely love this solo. No one could play anything more perfect for this song.

https://youtu.be/EPKyW_-hP80

Thanks, Brian - what a great solo!

This is my favorite Sonny Garrish solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HtiYUzEZFk

Wonder if he cut that solo with that effect on, or if it was added later...

Skip Edwards wrote:Wonder if he cut that solo with that effect on, or if it was added later...

That is a"Doctor Q",an Electro Harmonix pedal,IIRC...

Larry Sasser had one too,I think,and it seems like he told me that was what
Sonny used on that record...as usual,a cool sound used just right by the iconic
Mr.G...I never heard him overuse an effect or overplay...always perfect...

I think Sonny told me once he used an MXR Envelope Follower some too, but then I am having trouble remembering breakfast this morning... That single charted in '81, so it was cut on my guitar....

Steve Hinson wrote:

Skip Edwards wrote:Wonder if he cut that solo with that effect on, or if it was added later...

That is a"Doctor Q",an Electro Harmonix pedal,IIRC...

Larry Sasser had one too,I think,and it seems like he told me that was what
Sonny used on that record...as usual,a cool sound used just right by the iconic
Mr.G...I never heard him overuse an effect or overplay...always perfect...

I agree Steve, his parts lay in the track so perfectly,
Listen to " I Do I don't" on Tim Mcgraw's CD Everywhere, PERFECT,

John Macy wrote:I think Sonny told me once he used an MXR Envelope Follower some too, but then I am having trouble remembering breakfast this morning... That single charted in '81, so it was cut on my guitar....

John,I too am a casualty of"CRS"...maybe it was the MXR Larry told me about.

At any rate,congratulations,that is a storied axe...

Hope you are well my friend.

SH

Only thing that matters is he killed the solo!

Only God knows how many sessions Sonny Garrish has played on. Back in the early 90's I traveled with a Christian Country Band. They cut their projects in Nashville and Sonny Garrish played on all of them. At a singing one night Kevin McManis was there and he was the engineer on the projects. I asked him what kind of effects Sonny Garrish used on recording. His answer really surprised me, he said "I promise you it is just him". I have heard he has a unique memory and plays it twice. At any rate he has to be one of the greatest session men ever.

Sonny was in high demand for session work in the eighties and into the 90's. To my surprise he appeared in alot more recordings than I originally thought. Great steel player. He has many feathers under his hat.

Dale Rivard wrote:This is my favorite Sonny Garrish solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HtiYUzEZFk

Dale the only trouble with listening to this solo is having to hear this song....haha

I'm a huge fan of Sonny's work on the song "Just To See You Smile" that was featured on Tim McGraw's "Everywhere" record-I'm not sure how he played the opening steel part, but he did a great job with it. I never will forget, right after I started playing steel, there was another record by a great country artist named Chalee Tennison that featured Sonny-it was her self-titled album, and Sonny played some great steel on a song called "Just Because She Lives There", which featured great crying steel by Sonny, and another song on that same record, another single "Handful Of Water" featured an awesome solo that Sonny played. Sonny played on so many great records!

Many years ago mid 70's he was with Bill Anderson and the "Po" boys, and did a "floor-show" here in U.K at R.A.F. Mildenhall whis is a USAF air base. I was in the house band ...trembling ...at breakfast "1am" he was so nice to talk to. I noticed in that clip his right hand shape was similar to J.D. Maness. Both of them great players


Micky "scars" Byrne U.K.