The Steel Guitar Forum

Mark van Allen wrote:For me it would have to be way BE moves from the G to G minor in the verse to his version of Wichita Lineman, sliding back two frets on strings 5 & 6 and adding A & B pedals. So snaky, cool, and ... backward.

A song our band does (Carry Me Off) has a G-to-Gm move, I've been going up 3 frets with the A-ped; so now I'm gonna sprinkle this one in.

Great stuff in these two-string fragments, the possibilities are literally infinite, I think...

Jon, for your question on backing a vocalist, I'd suggest Newman's "Bandstand Backup" course, some good stuff in there.

E's intro on Ray Price's An Eye for an Eye is one that gets me every time.

Seals and Crofts - Boy Down the Road - Red Rhodes

Hello Trouble - Desert Rose Band - Jay Dee Maness

Hard Luck Woman - Mason Proffit - John Talbot

Probably the best solo I ever heard was at the Station Inn - If You've Got Leavin On Your Mind - Paul Franklin

1977 video of Buddy Emmons. The first break of "Truck Drivin' Man."

My all time favorite is Buddy's break on "Drivin' Nails in My Coffin" with ET on a 1961 TV show. It's on You Tube. The confident smile on Buddy's face is priceless, his Sho-Bud is way cool and his playing is immaculate.

George Jones' "Uh Uh No." Early Possum, there are two steel breaks in the song. I don't know who... Pete Drake? Anyway the pedal work is timeless and exciting.

Carl Smith's "Good Deal Lucille." The C6th break is really cool. I can't remember who did it but it makes my adrenaline move.

I love Buddy Emmons' intro and turnaround on Ray Price's No Fool Like a Young Fool.

http://youtu.be/5nrJoN6EPVY

Buddy on Someday Soon by Judy Collins, Ben Keith on Heart Of Gold by Neil Young, Pete Drake on Apartment Number Nine and a thousand others, Lloyd Green on Remember When by Alan Jackson and a thousand others... John on Standing Room Only by Barbara Mandrell and all the Conway records....

Almost left out Tom on Garden Party, and all the great things he did on the Buck Owens tv show that weren't on the records.

I have to echo what Carlucci and Chris Templeton said about Sneaky Pete, his fills in the quick spaces in vocals--
to me, the man to turn to for that kind of work.

My favorite work continues to be his playing on Sandy Denny's version of Dylan's Tomorrow Is A Long Time
There's some spiritual swoopiness in there... and hard to forget his work on Jackson Browne's Take It Easy/Our Lady of the Well

There is a contemporary player who I think doesn't get the recognition, altho his work with Marty Stuart is well known.
Gary Carter has outstanding solo pieces which, while not fills in a vocal realm, merit study. The Lighthouse Tale
He's not the riffs or fills, he is the vocal (altho Stuart's mandolin provides that function as a foil for Gary).

I love the steel break in Steve Earle's "Little Rock n' Roller". This made me want to learn the steel guitar. I think it's just killer!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=75rsHpRBoU4

The Steel breaks... especially the second one in Alan Jackson's I don't Even Know Her Name is amazing. What I don't understand is how someone could actually think up a solo like that. ...

Thanks Bob for mentioning Mason Proffit's Hard Luck Woman"...I'm gonna have to dig out my old records again! I loved those guys, just different- I think Talbot played an Emmons also. I'd like to have a $ for every time I sang "Hard Luck Woman"!

One of my favourite steel parts is by Jeff Baxter on Steely Dan's 'Razor Boy'.

It's on the Pretzel Logic' album, I believe.

Greg Leisz on Dave Alvins Border Radio the whole song but especially at 1:25:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLktiWYfNK0

not my favorite in terms of the unique and bizarre things steel can do, but this Bucky Baxter break jumps out in Steve Earle's 'Fort Worth Blues'-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INHmNszqi7w

Very nice, Asa, with just a bit of edge on it.

Bill Dobkins wrote:Intro to a real ladies man by Vince Gill John Hughey on steel. Also Intro to livin on backstreets by Daryl Singletary, Mike Johnson on steel. There are to many to mention.

"A Real Lady's Man" is one I practice with a lot! It's on my favorite steel intros and riffs and probably one of my all-time favorite intros to practice. You'll notice in "Real Lady's Man" that after the first verse and chorus, the steel part repeats after the fiddle solo.

Your nominees in each category...according to me....are:

Instrumental - Lloyd Green - "Cold, Cold Heart" (SO much feeling...unbelievable playing)

Instrumental - Lloyd Green - "Mr. Nashville Sound"

Instrumental - Lloyd Green - "San Antonio Rose"

Instrumental - Curly Chalker - "Gentle On My Mind"

Instrumental - Buddy Emmons - "Four Wheel Drive"

Instrumental - Tom Brumley - "Arrowhead"

Instrumental - Al Perkins - "Salty Psaltery"

Instrumental - Tommy Hannum - "Favannum" & "Bluesbacher"

Solo/Fill - Red Rhodes - "Wax Minute" (Michael Nesmith)

Solo/Fill - Red Rhodes - "Thanks For The Ride" (Michael Nesmith)

Solo/Fill - Red Rhodes - "Tomorrow & Me" (Michael Nesmith)

Solo/Fill - Skunk Baxter - "Fire In The Hole" (Steely Dan)

Solo/Fill - Neil Flanz - "Drug Store Truck Driving Man (Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris)

Backing - Tom Brumley - entire "Dust On Mother's Bible" album (Buck Owens)

Backing - Lloyd Green -"Lovesick Blues" (Charley Pride)

JayDee Maness with Desert Rose playing break on "Hello Trouble"

My all time favorite steel guitar phrase is on the "Night Life" cut on Emmons Guitar, Inc.

Emmons plays a passing chord going from the 1 to the 4. If you were singing it - the phrase occurs in the second verse after the word "me" in the lyrics: "many people just like me"... It’s at 0.50 on the CD. I diagrammed it the best I could.

Standard C-6th pedals [6] = 6th pedal [5] = 5th pedal [7] = 7th pedal
KL raises the 3rd string C 1/2 tone
2- means a note is picked and slid up to the next note
-(3) in italics means the note is still sustaining from the note picked before it. In these charts some notes are sustained over 3 beats.
You'll want to hammer on and off when it goes to the IV using the 7th pedal on C6 and the 1st pedal on E9. I didn't indicate that - I wanted to keep my chicken-scratch as simple as possible.



Here’s the phrase diagrammed for E9: standard Emmons floor pedals with the FKL raising the E’s and the EbKL lowering the E’s.

Maestro Tom Brumley, Don Rich singing "I'll Go Out Of my Mind (Completely)"

The counterpoint opening riff of the intro at 0:11 seconds in, and the mirror of it at the end of the intro just before Don starts singing 0:22 (notice also the little bar slant as he works his way down the neck at 0:18 )

and in the bridge at 1:16 Tom plays a riff I believe he borrowed from Maestro Emmons, but made his own by virtue of placement and finnesse.

Buck Owens' Ranch Show, Live to Videotape 1966 the only thing canned is the applause
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7mJXtBundM

on the studio recording of this same song he uses the same Emmons-esque riff but in the middle of the first verse at 0:29 and his lead in to the bridge at 0:50 is mind bending as well a string bending

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xD371kelTQ

Allan Jirik wrote:Carl Smith's "Good Deal Lucille." The C6th break is really cool. I can't remember who did it but it makes my adrenaline move.

That is some very nice C6 work on “Good Deal”—it sounds like Buddy Emmons to me. Anybody know for sure? (Calling Robert Kramer…)

Speaking of Buddy, here’s the Big E playing some great fills behind Don Rich & The Buckaroos’ “Guitar Picking Man”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_i1awPKXlU
I’m pretty certain that Don and the boys are lip-synching the song on that “Hee-Haw” clip; it sounds exactly like the cut on the Buckaroos’ Capitol LP “Boot Hill” that featured Mr. Emmons on about half of the cuts, including “Cajun Steel”.

-Dave

On this cut, Buddy Emmons plays just about the most heart-wrenching solo and fills I’ve ever heard: Steve Young - I Can't Be Myself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxtcPxKSrLk


.. followed closely by this song: Steve Young - It's Not Supposed To Be That Way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfOwwcJqmqc
(As someone comments, "Buddy Freaking Emmons!!")

-Dave

Nowadays, any one that I can play from beginning to end without screwing up.

Everything that Buddy does on Gene Watson's 'I don't think I can get thru getting over you again' (step One Records) His wind-like sound gets me everytime.