The Steel Guitar Forum

I sing "By the Window", and get helped out.....a lot!

Well I used to try to sing as I played a sort of Carter Family style acoustic....occassionally used to go out front of the band with an acoustic and sing a sort of rude song for fun....I usually got Booed off.....by my own band......or would grab one of those round things with five strings and join in the chorus of stuff like "Harolds Super Service...or Columbus Stockade ".....but apart from that .....Nah.....that is why I am a steel player!

But a couple of people on this Forum do sing and do sing Fantastic!.....I have a C.D. of Smiley singing.....I have said it before....if he had the right opening an somebody shoving him,he would have given Ray Price a run for his money !!!!!
The other one is not a steel player but belongs here on this forum and plays a good acoustic......has just been taken under the wing of a top manager in Ireland.....has to record a couple in the next week or so...and he is going to look after her......I know she can sing ços I have a couple of C.D.s and have had a couple of weeks jamming with her and polishing up her guitar work.......er.....heck ....I have forgotten her name.....!!!!!!!!!!...........OH.....yeh...........I think It is Anne Marie something or other!!!....believe me she can belt it out !!!!!!

I was in front of a crowd singing at age 5 and have been there ever since. In most of the groups I have played with, I try to keep myself as a harmony singer, but like many of y'all, when I started writing alot, I wound up doing all the studio cuts for demos. Singing paid my way to college, until the golf scholarship was offered.
Jake Lowe

When I first got out of the Army in the early 60's I was playing lead guitar but no one asked me to sing. As time progressed, guitar players started singing so like Mike, I took up steel so I wouldn't have to sing. I used to think I was the worst singer in the entire world until one day I heard KENNY DAIL. Kenny's worse that me if that's possible. Just envision in your mind an old mule walking down the road braying and farting and you've got Kenny's voice down pat.

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

I sing backup and play the steel....
yes, at the same time. But, neither, too well.
However, if a dang drummer can do it, so can I. So, there!

Tony

For some reason I just don't enjoy it when the steel player does anything else but play the steel guitar. Probably selfish of me but when they are doing something else they aren't playing. I don't like it when the steel play trades of between other instruments either. Its just me but that is the way I feel.

Mike

Just outta curiosity "Who are the (4) Singer/Steel players that you were referring to at the start of your thread?

Bronco Billy

<SMALL>I sing,"Whether You Like It Or Not".</SMALL>

Believe me folks anyone who gets a chance to hear Smiley sing WILL like it!!!!
Tony, stop telling tales about me! grrrr.

Whenever I try to sing, I always get requested to sing "Someplace Else." It's uncanny. I've never even heard of that song but it's always what everybody wants me to sing. Oh, yes, I also get requests to sing "Far Far Away." Does anybody know the lyrics to that one?

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<font size=-1>Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?</font>

I sing a little. Got to sing a song on the Opry In 75.

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JIM
"Carter SD10" "74" LTD & NASHVILLE 400, Profex II "55" Esquire, "63 Epiphone, "63" Precision,
"71" Jazz

Ok, I get it...some of us can sing, some of us think we can, some of us know we can't. But who out there can DANCE? I'm not being funny here...I've just noticed over say the last 30 years that a whole bunch of pickers can't dance a lick! Uh-oh...did I start something???

This is sad but I always get compliments on the songs I sing lead on and my steel compliments are slim to none. Do you think people are trying to tell me something? I never practice singing as opposed to putting out a 100% effort in my steel playing.

Yes. I sing. Been a "folkie" since 16 years
old. Right now, I'm really starting to grasp what 'phrasing' is all about.
The possibilities are endless. This has caused me to make 'enemies' within my present
band. I'm always trying new or different ways to do a song 'phrasically' - you know -
to try and make the same old same old a wee
bit more interesting.
But the resistance and laziness from other members is fairly thick and deep.

I have some tapes with Jim Smith singing harmony with me.If Jim doesn't come up with some big bucks I may release them. Most of the Artist Smiley worked with wouldn't let him sing because Smiley wouldn't let them play steel.The old story It's easy to be better than the boss,It's just not a good Idea.

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CJC

I have seen a pedal player for an old time western group called Mended Heart leave his steel and come up for his signature "vocal contribution"...the band does the song and when the echo to "cool cool water" is needed he sings "WATER",,can't remember his name, Wayne?? he may even be on the forum.

<SMALL>I have some tapes with Jim Smith singing harmony with me.If Jim doesn't come up with some big bucks I may release them.</SMALL>

Nowadays, bands pay me NOT to sing!

I'm a singer too. I've been singing all my life, and I sing along with every country song on the radio. I love to sing and play steel. Brett Day, Emmons S-10, Morrell lapsteel

btw: Buddy E sang them Bob Wills tunes purty good too

Jerry Roller does an AWESOME job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also sing in our band. Last nite I was fortunate enough to sing Making Believe, while Mr Chuck Carroll played that 48 Gibson of his. Mr Carroll used to play with Casey Clark and the Lazy Ranch Boys. Jimmy Work, also played with Casey Clark, was the person who wrote MAKING BELIEVE and Mr Carroll was the 1st guitarist to record it. Buddy Emmons also played with Casey Clark at about this time and My friend, Eddie Malray done justice to the song with his fine steel playin. Mr Carroll, in his 70's just beamed as he played his part. And it gave me cold chills to listen to a great player. And don't let anyone fool you Mr Carroll is still fantastic on the guitar. Twas a pleasure.

I end up singing harmony because the unwanted 5th (high or low) usually fits into my vocal range.

Back when I still played guitar, I would spell the lead singer once in a while. This was in the early 90's when many singers wanted to be Garth Jr and sing non-danceable (in beer joints, anyway) songs, so when the crowd started leaving I would do a Buck/Ernest/Merle/Johnny Horton/Carl Smith song to bring them back to the dance floor. This would usually get me more applause than the singer had been getting, and I lost a couple of jobs that way LOL!

For a short time I had my own band, but I also had to handle all the business/headaches/babysitting pickers things too...I was SO happy to get out of that mess, into another band, and back to steel and let somebody else handle the other stuff.

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GFI S-12 extended E9