The Steel Guitar Forum

Ray I will be there at 11:00 for load in. If you bring your Emmons I will load it in for you.

Larry
971-219-8533

Many thanks to you Larry........

Your kind offer is much appreciated, to be sure.

I figured I'd drag along my 7-string Rick and my great new FENDER Junior tube amp.

I hope my playing won't be too olde fashioned for the rest of the nice folks.

Hope you have another great turn-out!

The older the fashion the better by me, Ray but save something in the tank 'cause I won't get there until late in the game...I'm bringing my picks and my bar but no guitar, I'll be squatting on such fine instruments as may be made available to me in due time

I'll be lookin' forward to seeing you once again.

WHY no guitar tho'?

Well, the day that I love is finally upon us....the PDX jam.

I get to see great friends (some of whom I've known for 30 years), talk incessantly about steel guitar and then play music with 39 other steelers.

I'm bummed to have missed you guys. Unfortunately, some other life events have caused me to miss out, but i thought about you guys pretty much all day.

I'm sure it was a blast, as usual. I wish you all the very best and look forward to another jam in the future! Can't wait to see the pictures,
Chris

I would just like to say thank You to Larry Behm, Lynn Stafford and everyone else that had a hand in putting all of this together, Lord knows They spend enough of their time to make this all happen so that all of Us rookies have a chance to share the spotlight with some of our best veteren players not to mention the chance to make new friends that most Us will likely know years from now ,
Thank You for all the work You do on this event!.

Joshua S Gibson,

I couldn't agree more, Josh. Thanks to Larry and Lynn for organizing the event, the band for playing, and everyone for welcoming us newbies and encouraging us to get up and play. I had a great time and really enjoyed meeting so many people. Can't wait for the next one!

A great time, as always! Love to see and hear my steel playing friends.

That was great fun. Thanks, guys.

KP

Here's some pix. The quality sucks because I forgot to engage the Hi-Def function.

Rough body count:
Push Pull - 10
Legrande - 2
Mullen - 2
Excel - 1
Rittenberry/Nashville LTD - 2
MSA - 1
Sho-Bud - 4
Carter - 1
Infinity - 2
Sierra - 1
ZB - 1
Zum - 1
Blakesby - 1.5 (3 necks)]
Rickenbacker Lap - 1
Jerry Byrd Lap - 1

Approximate Number of Strings played: 490

Larry FYI: push pull players = 32.25% of all jammers

Tony thanks for the pics and stats, we had 29 players, 3 songs per hour, 1 bald guy and 25 with gray hair and the rest were heading our direction.

I saw nothing but smiles for miles, the band was outstanding, thanks guys and gal.

I do not even want to imagine how much monetary investment we collectively had sitting in that room, then if you add what might be sitting at home, WOW.

We have been invited back, so come Nov let's do it
again.

We had one player who had been playing 6 months and a couple in the 60 year range. We had one at 22 and one at about 82. We do this for the brotherhood and the promotion of the steel guitar, it is working.

Larry Behm

On my last pass through the room I picked up a fleese jacket left behind, kinda over by Bob Mullers table.
It said Bar Harbor ME on the front.
Let me know if this is yours.

That was fun!
Thanks for the fun afternoon!
Pete B.

Thanks so much for having me. That was fun. Im inspired to start playing again after a year long break. The best part was seeing all you cats again.
Till the next time..cheers!
-ben

Hey Larry and Lynn,
Thanks for letting us out of towners come to this event. Seriously, you have plenty of players in the area to hold this without us and we all appreciate that you welcome us. I know I say this every time but I was real glad you brought your guitar this time - it's inspiring to hear you play - thanks for that! Super fun time - it's been too long since I came out. I'm going to start planning for the next one, hope I can make it! So many cool guys and great players - totally worth the drive from Seattle.

A great turn out and the perfect venue for the jam. A fantastic back up band made it a wonderful experience for all. Cool gear, tasty licks and the great comraderie lives on.

Big kudos to Lynn and Larry and special thanks to those who travelled so far from places like Bend, Seattle, Spokane and Springfield, etc!

Look forward to the next one . . . . . . . . . . .

Jon we want to thank YOU for coming all that way to spend time with us, I miss you and Ben when you do not come, you both have some great ideas and I am listening.

Since I took over the show and all aspects of it I feel I should play to help set the tempo etc with the band, so you are in luck, I will play every time if it will get you to come down.

(This is a mutual respect Jon and I have for each other and in no way takes away from any of the players who pour their hearts and souls into playing at the jams.)

Larry Behm

Larry,Lynn Thanks for the work to get this done.

Great Jam!! Lots of fun playing and watching others do their thing. Enjoyed seeing friends again and meeting new ones. Had a good time!!

Wes Bakken

Larry & Lynn.......

Looks like you can be throroughly satisfied with the great turn-out for this most recent "JAM". I recognized a number of old faces but immediately discovered there were many newer folks whom I'd never before met. A truly nice group of musicians.

The back-up band did a fine job........not too fast; not too slow;......not too LOUD! Really nice to have them spend a Sunday afternoon with all of us.

The spacious room was just perfect as were the accoustics. The Elks personnel were most polite and accomodating.

I heard not a discouraging word among the attendees so one would have to grade YOUR program as a 100% SUCCESS. THANKS for continuing with a project you started decades ago.

Thanks guys for the support here and most of all at the jam. Without you all it would just be me and I get tired of hearing me play all of the time.

For those who follow the forum Ray Montee is the lap player in the Red shirt just picking his little heart out. You notice the bar slants. Ray has a very old PP and is a pedal steel player also, but the lap is much lighter these days.

Larry Behm

First of all a big thanks to Larry Behm and Lynn Stafford for putting together this great Portland steel jam. It sure looked like a good time was had by all, lots of good music, a great band, and lots of beautiful guitars. I have some photos here that Kathy shot for us, I hope we haven't forgotten anyone so here they are:




Larry Behm "The man in Charge"




Tom with his MSA






Duane "Some mighty fine music from this player"







Jeannie " Providing some backup rhythm"





Gene " With a mighty fine Jerry Byrd frypan "






Jere " Sitting behind Eric West's old guitar "








Russ " Sitting behind a guitar he designed and built himself the triple neck one-of-a-kind Blakesby. A truly fine guitar "





Steve " playing a Rittenberry"






Lynn " Here with a beautifully restored Emmons "







Skip and Tom








Here is Skip Montee with longtime fan Adoline, she is 91 years old and made the trip out just to see Skip play again!!

I'm going to switch to double photos now to try to conserve on space.






Tony and Harley






Loren and Paul






Kurt and Mark







Dale and Ralph






LARRY and Ken









Wes and Doug







Pete and Bryan





Bob playing an S-10 Sho-Bud and sitting next to the restored Eric West guitar.







Jon and Ben







Lynn, Josh, Bob





Here is Jon again with a beautiful all original ZB that he just purchased. What a find!!



I hope I have not left anyone out, I have some more photos of the support group I will post later.

Here are a few photos of some of the other folks at the jam which also make it the great event that it is.


First of all "The Band" without their help it just would not be the same.







Deb on Bass guitar










Kenny on the drums










Tim on rhythm guitar



I have to say this group was definitely from the A team.




These last photos are of folks who came to support everyone and cheer us on, that's what makes the whole thing even more fun.





















And lastly here are a few photos of some of the players who sat down to play Eric's guitar one last time.






HARLEY







TONY









DAVE










DOUG









BOB LITTLETON Who refinished the cabinet.










RUSTY









BOB MULLER This was my restoration project






Well that's all I have now folks, hope everyone enjoyed themselves at the jam.