So some think steel guitar is dying?

Nick Reed · Post by **Nick Reed** » 10 Mar 2009 11:10 am

Ray,
It may not be a dieing art but one problem I see is there are now too many of us playing Steel Guitar. Sure, the interest has grown in this great instrument, but now there are more players than there is actual work. When I started back in '86 the Steel Guitar was so unique because they were so few and far between. People would beg me to come and Jam with them. Local bands would say "hey theres a Steel Player. . . let's get him to pick with us". Not so much the case now. More people are getting into it. Every discount music store like Guitar Center & Sam Ash is selling Carter Starters & Lapsteels so it's become an ANYBODY CAN DO IT INSTRUMENT. It ain't like it was years ago when you had to wait for that special vacation trip to Nashville so you could visit the Sho-Bud store on Broadway. With there now being so many steel players in the mix, some people in the music industry are getting tired of us and have had their fill. I see lots of modern country bands that prefer Keyboards instead of the old Fiddle & Steel sound that made country music what it was in the 60's & 70's. Times Are A Changin! And as always. . . .Just my opinion.

Nick

Jim Seay · Post by **Jim Seay** » 10 Mar 2009 6:13 pm

Back Street Affair- Don't do it Darlin', Slowly! Hey Im 54. I loved them all.

Bob Simons · Post by **Bob Simons** » 11 Mar 2009 6:33 am

James Mayer said "The instrument needs a Hendrix, a Wes Montgomery and a Curt Cobain. In other words, it needs experimentation, taste, image and above all.......variety."

Gosh fellers- you had Robert Randolph playing Grammy Award TV shows and performing with Eric Clapton and all you guys could do was complain that he didn't seem to use his C pedal very much!

If you seek relevance, maybe the next time there is an "International" Steel Guitar Convention somebody should play something written since 1950, or (good heavens!) let a black guy play something.

It is not the steel guitar that is irrelevant, it is classical country music.

Having said that, I think modern "country" sounds like a bunch of semi-skilled bar band R&R trash. ( I have NO BUTTON ON ANY RADIO programmed to modern country music.)

Look around you...invite some new music into your life...

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 11 Mar 2009 7:21 am

Instruments never die out per se. History books will tell you that the lute died out in the 1700s, but there are more lute players in the world now that there were at the height of its popularity.

The problem isn't that the steel guitar will disappear, it's that it's falling out of fashion with the main public. But in reality that happened in the late 40s. Until that time the Hawaiian guitar was popular with the general public for playing almost anything on.

If I was given the job of promoting the steel guitar I would get it into the hands of teenage pop groups.
You might even consider changing the appearance of the instrument. (This has been discussed in other threads.)

I get the impression that there are a lot more steel guitarists around today than there were in the 50s, so there's more competition. With music being easily available over the internet there's less work for live bands.

This, again, is a centuries-long trend. Before the advent of the radio there was a lot more work for musicians, because the only way to hear music was live....

James Cann · Post by **James Cann** » 11 Mar 2009 12:14 pm

I would. . . insist on a steel player in EVERY BAND, and WOULD NOT HIRE ANY BANDS THAT DONT HAVE A STEEL PLAYER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wouldn't it be something to see a club do this, likely to either-feast-or-famine results!

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 11 Mar 2009 2:02 pm

Got news for you. Bowie Martin's Ice House Theater
in Selma, N. C. has just that policy. ALL COUNTRY MUSIC, ALL THE TIME, NO STEEL, NO GIG! Check it
out www.countrytonightmusicshow.com.

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 11 Mar 2009 2:06 pm

Can't understand why that link won't work from here. Type it in the address bar.
www.countrytonightmusicshow.com

Bo Legg · Post by **Bo Legg** » 11 Mar 2009 4:42 pm

I thought we all knew that PSG playing was a poor career choice.

I suppose I could take two or three years and get good on that gospel tuning and go rock.

Then I would be a rock-n-roll PSG player as well that couldn’t find a worth while job.

Playing for dances in clubs and bars has slowly died off like the drive in movie.

The thing here is supply and demand and there is a lot more supply and a lot less demand.

Get the government to bails us out with money for a buy out.
Take the money and buy out about 90% of us PSG players and then there would be plenty of jobs left for the top 10 players.

No amount of money is going to buy demand.
You could let everyone in free and furnish food and drinks and they would show up with their Ipods, laptops, phones and leave as soon as the food and drink ran out.

Then they'll tell you you’re playing too loud and ask you if you know any ring tones.

Scott Hiestand · Post by **Scott Hiestand** » 12 Mar 2009 11:06 am

Nick Reed wrote:Ray,
It may not be a dieing art but one problem I see is there are now too many of us playing Steel Guitar. Sure, the interest has grown in this great instrument, but now there are more players than there is actual work. When I started back in '86 the Steel Guitar was so unique because they were so few and far between. People would beg me to come and Jam with them. Local bands would say "hey theres a Steel Player. . . let's get him to pick with us". Not so much the case now. More people are getting into it. Every discount music store like Guitar Center & Sam Ash is selling Carter Starters & Lapsteels so it's become an ANYBODY CAN DO IT INSTRUMENT. It ain't like it was years ago when you had to wait for that special vacation trip to Nashville so you could visit the Sho-Bud store on Broadway. With there now being so many steel players in the mix, some people in the music industry are getting tired of us and have had their fill. I see lots of modern country bands that prefer Keyboards instead of the old Fiddle & Steel sound that made country music what it was in the 60's & 70's. Times Are A Changin! And as always. . . .Just my opinion.

Nick

Nick I agree 100%! This is why when I see a thread that rhetorically asks "How do we get more people interested in Steel"?....I ask "WHY WOULD WE WANT TO"??

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 12 Mar 2009 4:19 pm

Bo Legg wrote:...Then I would be a rock-n-roll PSG player as well that couldn’t find a worth while job...

Have you noticed that most of the Forum members are middle-aged or just plain old ?

I think most of us have left it too late to become the latest teen idol.
We're not going to be able to steer the public towards the steel guitar; we need to guide the youngsters to do that.

$:\$