The Steel Guitar Forum

Craig Stock wrote:Cool what you are doing Mike, a question to you is were you a fan of Larry Fast?, he lived very close to you at least many years ago, I liked what he was doing back then.

I absolutely remember Larry Fast. Will have to see if I can still find my Synergy LP!

Mike,

Good luck with your new musical adventures. You have been, and I am sure will continue to be, an inspiration to so many of us--and a great teacher. Thanks so much.

Please do check in from time to time.

Onward!

Wishing you all the best,

Bob

Hey Mike,
Friends for sure. If your new direction or evolution leads to anything half as good as "Steelonius" and "Keepin' It Real", then you're on the right track.
Rich

I really enjoyed Steelonius and Keeping it Real. You have a really interesting approach to the instrument.

I'll be interested to see where you take it. You're an innovator.

Hi Mike......it's been, I guess close to 3 years since we hung out because of this damn virus.....I've had the good fortune to see you play live throughout your journey.......from one of your first gigs with The Moonlighters at The Living Room, then all over NYC & Brooklyn, The Rodeo Bar (RIP), several Dallas conventions, The Shenandoah Steel Festival, and Barbes......

Over the years I've watched you evolve as you traveled through your journey, and the key words here are "evolve" and "journey"....from every phase and genre that you've been through, you've always taken something from that phase/genre brought it and applied it to the next one......and I get what you are doing now.......and I'll be candid....the music that you're making right now, doesn't sing to me like your other music & music projects (but that's not important nor is it the point).....this is something that you have to do for yourself and I appreciate that immensely.....you have to run with your ideas and creativeness.....you explained it well - you concentrated heavily on playing, and now you need to create/invent music that you're feeling inside of you......like a genesis, a chrysalis to a butterfly.....I appreciate that because I'm sort of going through the same thing in a different area (my copper/metal work).....this is part of your ongoing journey and I look forward to how you apply the music that you're making now, to your next musical foray.....and if it's one thing that I've learned from you over the years with regard to music, it's to keep an open mind and to not be judgmental because everything has its place and there's a place for everything, even if we don't quite understand it......

Hi Mike – Great to hear from you about this new direction. I totally applaud it. I get that you’re trying to extend the sonic boundaries of your instrument and that’s what all the prior pioneers have done. Don’t listen to blowback that your lap steel doesn’t sound like a lap steel. If players didn’t push the boundaries of what an instrument “should” sound like or “should” play, the Hammond B3 would be a dusty, pipe organ wannabe sitting in the corners of churches, Rhodes and Wurlitzers would be home practice instruments “until you had the room and money for a real piano,” the Clavinet would be relegated to Rennaissance harpsichord music, and Fender tweed amps would never be turned up past 3, lest that unwanted distortion kick in. Our forebears took these tools, embraced their assets and their limitations, and created unimaginable breakthroughs in blues, rock, country and jazz.

In fact, when you think about it, the lap steel may be the granddaddy of reimagined instruments. It was invented to be an electrified Hawaiian guitar. When country “went electric” in the late 30s through the 40s, the steel took on a new role, playing parts formerly reserved for a bluegrass fiddle section, with its smooth lines and double stops. Then add the forays into jazz and sacred steel and blues. You're just taking the instrument further down the track.

I wish you well on your journey to bring the steel to its next stop. I do hope that you are able to harness and retain some character of the steel, even as it triggers and emulates other sounds, so that it becomes a new, unique expression that only a steel, when put through your new paces, can deliver.

All my best,
Nelson

Yes indeed.
There is a grand irony at play, in that the entire history and evolution of steel guitar has been built on progressive, forward thinking and experimentation. And yet there is so much conformity within the steel community, that the whole paradox becomes kind of hilarious. I believe at every step, the new ideas were often met with fearful skepticism, and on it goes....

I find great satisfaction and inspiration in studying tradition, but I know that the instrument we play is a thing in flux - in a state of development and motion....

I try to remember that the things we take for granted as common practice were once radical ideas.

If players didn’t push the boundaries of what an instrument “should” sound like or “should” play, the Hammond B3 would be a dusty, pipe organ wannabe sitting in the corners of churches, Rhodes and Wurlitzers would be home practice instruments “until you had the room and money for a real piano,” the Clavinet would be relegated to Rennaissance harpsichord music, and Fender tweed amps would never be turned up past 3, lest that unwanted distortion kick in. Our forebears took these tools, embraced their assets and their limitations, and created unimaginable breakthroughs in blues, rock, country and jazz.

Very well said, Nelson! My sentiment exactly.

You guys get it, and I appreciate that. Thanks again.

I have learned so much technical stuff over the past few months that it has completely revolutionized the way I think about gear and the whole process. It’s going to be a while before I have complete control over it. Truthfully, I never really even saw it coming, but one thing I’ve realized is that subconsciously there is always something else at work. Don’t ignore it.

Mike, I am looking forward to what you come up with. I have also learned a lot from this forum in the past 20 years, when starting out I didn't know anything about the steel guitar. What a great resource and inspiration it has been. I have also ventured into live looping, mostly with lap steel, and now have come full circle and am focused on playing nice with others in a band situation. For me music is my release, a meditative journey, and live looping is an excellent way to get lost in the moment. Check out the Loopers Delight FB page (and it's predecessor loopers-delight.com), it is a great resource for all that is looping.

Mike – Such a great thread you started here, inspiring us all to get a bit philosophical. I’d like to offer one more take on this topic. Sometimes the breakthroughs happen when the instrument sound stays conventional–but what is played sounds fresh and new because it is pulled in from another context.

One example that comes to mind is Sneaky Pete’s lyrical playing on Stevie Wonder’s “Too Shy to Say.” It’s genre busting in one way: putting a steel and some conventional country steel licks into a pop/R&B ballad—and most of Pete’s playing, especially through the outro, are fairly standard steel ballad phrases. But there is another remarkable thing about that track. Pete responds to the augmented chord over the second line of the intro and every subsequent verse with a haunting, otherworldly line: two notes a third apart that ascend or descend, sort of invoking a 50’s pop string arrangement.

At first I thought—that’s just “Pete being brilliant Pete” on his Fender 8-String B6. Then, as I was working up some Stevie Wonder songs on my Rhodes for an upcoming duo gig, it hit me: Pete wasn’t inventing a new steel line: he was playing a classic Wonder theme back to Stevie. Pete played a run of major third harmonies through a whole tone scale (all whole steps)—which is one of Stevie Wonder’s signature go-to fills. Listen to the intro of “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” and you’ll hear the exact same harmonies that Pete plays on “Too Shy.” Stevie doesn’t employ the whole tone figure in “Too Shy” but Pete does, burning an homage to SW right into the track. What he did sounded idiosyncratic and unexpected—because he played something we’re used to hearing on a Rhodes, not a steel. Yet another way to break the mold.

One of my favorite shows was Jeff Beck...always a god, nothing but a cord between his fingers and his amp except a Stratocaster, unbelievably expressive...

....on the stage with Jennifer Batten, who had a whole tall rack of stuff and had, I believe, her guitar MIDI'd with each string being a different orchestral instrument...so he had a whole orchestra backing him up, and it sounded amazing....what a feat!

So great music comes in a wide range of packages....

10 years ago you would have been quietly supported by a few - and slammed by a bunch of the "old guard " for nnot playing the same old dusty stuff they were.

I was., because I didn't play country, wondered why someone couldn't write a "how to play pedal steel" tab book that was generic and taught "music" not "country music"and other "abnormal instrument application" subjects. I was an "inexperienced, rookie musician" because I didn't agree with certain revered players' opinions (regardless of 30+ years as a multi-instrumentalist, teacher , gigging player etc).

But It's just not like that any longer. there's still a lack of style-independent pedal and lap steel teaching materials - but players are far more helpful and open to unique applications of the instruments.

You have no worries-