The Steel Guitar Forum

Fred Treece wrote:
Never heard this before, and I am just laughing because the Frankenstein band of 1972 sounds like country radio wants to be today. Mr. Derringer’s steel is pretty good on it.

This song is from the same album that Frankenstein is on.

A while ago, I sent Mr. Derringer an e-mail to ask what type of pedal steel he used on this track.

To my surprise and delight, he actually wrote me back and told me that it was a Shobud that he bought from Pete Drake.

Here’s another song that a new country band might want to cover:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OQNo4eLLMYs

moonlight drive Doors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCX8VJIYgM8

Dylan's "Nashville Skyline".

I loved the ride on Peggy Day.

Must have been "Golden records" by Jim Reeves. "Blue side of lonesome" had some steel on it.

Or maybe Lynn Anderson's version of "Take me home, country roads", around the same time, as a kid around 1970.

When my cool older brother moved to Hawaii in '69, I inherited a stack of about 20 LPs which included "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" with Red Rhodes on steel. It remains one of my favorite albums of that era.

The first album with steel that I shelled out my own $3 for was probably "Tumbleweed Connection" by Elton John with Gordon Huntley on Steel. Best album EJ ever did.

Not sure what album I first bought had steel - good possibility it was Led Zeppelin III, Tangerine. I do recall hearing those radio station callouts that were done with an Alvino Rey type 'talking' device and a steel guitar....like on the little tracks between songs on the Who's album "Sell Out".

Probably Linda Ronstadt the one with the Woodgrain cover ,I fall to pieces etc.

not the first but the one that really caught my attention was Poco's Deliverin live album.

Not certain of which was first as I do not have the receipts.
Any one of the Steely Dan records with Skunk Baxter on steel or Elvis Costello's Taking Liberties (a collection of B sides) with John McFee on the pedals.

Powerglide by the New Riders - I knew my big brother liked the New Riders, so I assumed it was some kind of rock album, and Powerglide sounded rockin.. imagine my surprise when I heard the intro to Dim Lights...

I wore that album out (bought in approximately 1976), never played a steel guitar, other than bottleneck, till about 2010

Bill Sinclair wrote:The first album with steel that I shelled out my own $3 for was probably "Tumbleweed Connection" by Elton John with Gordon Huntley on Steel. Best album EJ ever did.

Oh. I forgot about that one!

Hank Williams with Don Helms on steel. Also Sleepwalk by Santo and Johnny. Harbor Lights, Jerry Byrd?

Pick me up on your way down at a barn dance with a live band called North Contry Ramblers from Watertown, NY. Bob M

del

Dan Robinson wrote:

That's THE ONE!

Hello old broken heart - back of cat came back - Sonny James

It would have to be ZZTop's first album.

Or perhaps CSNYT&R's 'Deja Vu'.

I guess I was "doomed" at a very early age. It was Uncle Don Helms with Hank Sr. I am told that as a baby they would play the radio with Hank Sr. tunes and it would calm me down. Later, it was the "Big E" on Judy Collins' Someday Soon and the Dillard's Wheatstraw suite album.

I have no clue what album first had pedal steel on it, but the one that made me say, "I want to do that" was Sneaky Pete's segue from Take It Easy to Our Lady of the Well on Jackson Browne's For Everyman.

In my case it was "It's Everly Time", their 1960 debut Warner Bros LP.

Of course, I was completely unaware of what a pedal steel even was, let alone the fact that I was listening to one of the very best - Jimmy Day.

Their next album ("A Date with....") featured their version of "Lucille". I tried to get to grips with the guitar solo only to give up, frustrated at my failed attempts on my Gibson Les Paul Jr.

It was to be a few years before I learned the truth - that, too, was Jimmy Day.

The first record I knowingly bought for its steel guitar content has to have been Steely Dan's "Countdown To Ecstasy".

New Riders of the Purple Sage
Panama Red

Was hooked immediately.

Around 73/74.

Roger Rettig wrote: ... Everly
... "Lucille".
... It was to be a few years before I learned the truth - that, too, was Jimmy Day.

Same here but I think I got "I Wonder If I Care As Much" before then.

As a kid....in a stack of old 78's....Always Late

"Slowly" Webb Pierce with Bud Issacs

Thanx,
Jim