The Steel Guitar Forum

Is John Hughey back with Vince? As I read the original post, I interpret it to mean a band that is intact as of today. If we are to include bands of yesterday, I would have to include The Po' Boys with Garrish, The Statesiders with Bethel, Charlie Prides band with Gene O'Neil, The Twitty Birds with Hughey, The Coalminers with Bobby Hempker and Hank Thompson's Brazos Valley Boys with Burt Rivera. All KILLER bands.

Players get vote #1....a CLOSE second is AJ's Strayhorns...they can make anything sound country!

Max

There are some really good bands out there. Some play more together, like a team,I personally like that. Its hard to beat the experienced road bands. Roy Clark has a great band with or without Roy. The same goes with Tillis. Not many bands in this class.

"Cheerokee Cowboys"Les't we forget?
Ray

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Steeling is still legal in Arizona

What I was looking for was bands of todays artists. I know The Players are a great group but they're really not any one particular artists road band. It really doesn't matter but aren't the road bands of today so much different than those of the 60's and 70's?

Joe Elastic and his all rubber band always plays a snappy tune.

Bob Carlson

If you should count out the Players,'cause they don't tour much (yet), I would vote for South Mountain (Canada} as a second best. Watch them in St Louis, a crack band!!

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STEELDAYS 2002 March 29 & 30
my web-site
my bands CODand TSC

OK, The Players aren't anyone's touring band, but they are nearly everyone's studio band. These are the very guys you hear when you turn on the radio...

Oh well...

Ditto Haggard's band and Asleep At The Wheel.
What about Emmylou Harris' Hot Band? Are they still together? I would think not, but I don't know.

Rob

No disrespect to The Players intended. My reason for the post was a comparison of the road bands of groups like Ernest Tubb that would warm up the audience and play instrumentals and basically show off the bands talent before the star would get up to do his portion of the show. Bob Wills band was always noted for having very talented musicians and singers for that matter. Being a sideman all my life you have to notice when the band is given an identity like The Strangers or any given name to distinguish them from the "Star". It seems a little more respect and freedom was given to the bands of those days whereas today most of the time you only hear the name of the artist (STAR) and little is mentioned about the band behind them. I just wonder how many groups get to show off and play some before the artist is brought on stage?

Frank:
The days when a leader would be justifiably proud of his "All-Star" band and would do what he could to showcase their talents - after all, if they were hot, it was a good reflection on him (or her)! I think the record labels may have put the kibosh on that tradition - after all, in their eyes even the so-called "stars" are expendable: people who would have gotten nowhere without their (record label) intervention - "We MADE you . . . ". So if that's the way they see their headlining "creations", just think of how they would see the musicians who play with or behind those people . . . as "lucky stiffs", or as parasites - "hangers-on", or worse. I realize that this is a decidedly dim view of things, but may lie at the heart of all of the threads about the demise of country music, but I'll go one further to suggest that it affects ALL music - the stupid record companies are killing the goose that layed the golden egg! That's why there's such a brisk business today in re-issued music. Many of the labels that specialize in re-issuing classic American music are from over-seas, which re-iterates what the British Invasion musicians were telling us upon their arrival: we didn't know who our own people were, or what they were worth.

Rob

If we are talking about touring bands, a lot of the good ones have already been mentioned, but just about all the stars keep a crack band together and some of them even let them show off a little, Like Vince, or Brad Paisley, Alan Jackson, Dixie Chicks, some bands we have opened for that have great players are Perfect Stranger and Yankee Grey, the only thing that would make them better is if they had a steel player, when Clinton Gregory was touring he always kept a killer band with Redd Volkaerdt on guitar and either Gene O'Neil or "Big" Jim Murphey on Steel, also when Larry Boone was touring he had a killer band with brother Boomer Castleman on guitar and brother Timmy Sergent on steel, and dont forget Steve Wariner always keeps a killer band on hand and lets them shine, this is another one of them posts that can go on forever because there are a lot of great players out there and you cant forget the Bar bands who are out there humpin it every night giving it their all for the love of the people and the music, anytime I get a chance I like to listen to the "not so famous bands" because Ive heard a lot of great pickers in the clubs. Just my 2 cents .
BB

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www.southernmix.com

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by telecat on 07 August 2001 at 03:46 PM.]</p></FONT>

After Saturday night, I would have to put Dale Watson's band right at the top of the list!!
Jerry

Frank & All - When was the last time a major label put out a CD of some artist's band - and promoted it? I don't follow top 40 "country" music, but I think it's been a real long time. If it hadn't been for "Western Strings" (Columbia) and the Troubadours albums (Decca) I probably would have never bought a steel guitar.

C#

I heard that! I've been listening to ET live in 1965 all week while I drive and you can tell how he felt about that band by the way he praised them. I heard Ricky Davis last Saturday too and noticed some of the same stuff coming through. Maybe it's a Texas thing.

Around this neck of the woods, it's "The Time Jumpers", hands down. And you can catch them, on Monday nights {only}, at The Station Inn, right cheer in beautiful downtown Nashburg. OOPS!! {They start at eight P.M.}---and hold onto your seat, cause it will be jumping!!

"Little" Buddy.

An interesting comment about tMerle Haggard's Strangers, "nice and loose"; that's the wonderful thing about that band-you never know when someone is going to just take off and play something fantastic- an element that we haven't heard much of since the Texas Playboys.

The last time I saw Mel Tillis and the Statesiders,I was totally amazed..it was like having a Bob Wills Experience which I missed being so young.LOL Really Terry Bethel is a superpicker and if you have not heard a big band in Real Country ..check them out the next chance you get...Mel sings as good as ever and didnt stutter a bit LOL Bill in Vegas