The Steel Guitar Forum

I was backing up Mark Nelson at the Eugene Uketober Fest. He wanted to play Buck's "B11". I forgot that I was playing my D8 Stringmaster, and I took off on my usual pedal steel intro, and there I was, at the end of the run, in need of pushing the A & B pedals, which weren't there! OOPS!

Back when Buddy and Scotty were doing small steel concerts across the country, I was asked to open for the show. Now, I had done several other shows, opened for Reece and one for Jimmie Crawford, but, holy cow . . . Buddy Emmons, fer cryin' out loud. Needless to say, I was nervous. I had half an hour of good, solid instrumental stuff to do so I wrote out charts and lists and THOUGHT I was all set. The local promoter who arranged the venue had also arranged for one of the local country bands to be the house / backup band for the show and I sent them a cassette and 4 copies of all my charts. A couple of the tunes were, shall we say, non-standard -- e.g., I'd just learned Paul Franklin's tune 'Just Pickin' and decided to kick off with that one.

On the other steel shows I'd played, I was one of several players so we could share the anxiety. I got there about the same time the Derby Power van pulled in, introduced myself to Buddy and Scotty, and loaded in. I assumed none of the other steel players had shown up yet and sat and had a drink with the Big E and Scotty while the band set up. As time went by, it was evident THERE WERE NO OTHER STEEL PLAYERS COMING. That upped the ante on the adrenaline factor substantially and I went and introduced myself to the band -- just 'hey, good to meet 'cha'.

It came time to start and, after the shock of being the only other player than Buddy on the show had worn off, I gathered what was left of my composure and told the guys -- 'I'm opening with the first song on the cassette -- Paul Franklin tune in C' --

band leader said, "WHAT CASSETTE?"

.......................

I had brought no other charts and it was 5 min PAST START TIME. We did the best we could, but stuck to San Antonio Rose and other standards (NOT my plan)

The band was not the best in the world, but they hobbled through my set and I joined them on some vocal tunes and it was time for Buddy.

Buddy kicked off with 'Gonna Build a Mountain' with half-step modulations after each chorus. By the fourth chorus, half the band was in one key and God knows where the others were, after a couple more mods, Buddy finally got them on the same path and the rest of the concert was just Buddy being Buddy. How could that be bad?

Not bad, but INTERESTING.

So that's my little tale of woe . . .

This isn't much, but the band I was in opened for a renowned classic rock act and I had to kick off one of the songs...the drummer got the last second idea (eg. 10 seconds before the song needed to start) to count it in so he could help kick off the lick with a drum shot. Without thinking it thru, I agreed. I came in on four, and he came in on one. Blah.

Most embarrassing? Lawd, it was bad.

Decades ago, I was playing six-string in a country band and we had gigs everywhere and every night. After one particulate night we were approached by a promoter who needed a band to back up a FAMOUS country singer and TV star with a roadshow that included several other nationally known stars, too One gig. One show.

The afternoon rehearsal was worrisome. The star was gracious, patient, and an excellent musician, too. Our limitations, however, in quickly picking up tunes after one rehearsal run-through became a concern. There were no charts.

The show came and, to put it simply, well, it wasn't quite a train wreck but it was not good at all. At least from the perspective of the back-up bands contribution The saving grace was the star's huge ability, showmanship, charisma and connection to the crowd. That's what saved it. The other acts and stars did solo or duet numbers.

Yes, I now can handle such calls now at this late time in my musical career. . But, wow, that was the worst.

Mine would have to be kicking off a song and then immediately ending it. LOL Years ago we were going to play "Heart Over Mind" and I played the intro ... but as soon as I reached the end of the intro, I somehow thought we were through with the song and played the ending ... kudos to the band for being quick on the draw and going with me on it. The vocalist looked at me with a weird expression and yelled out, "Hey, man, I didn't even get to sing the song!" ... trying to save face a little, I shrugged my shoulders and yelled back, "Oh, well, they weren't dancing anyway!"

After giving this a lot of thought, I am proud to say that my biggest screw-up has yet to come. It will make the rest of my major screw-ups sound like works of art.

My worst screw up on stage was deciding to play Witches Brew when our band opened for Buddy at one of Clem Schmitz's Minneapolis steel shows back in the 80's.

We were playing along and I saw Buddy standing at the back bar. (Oh, no! He was watching!) My playing got worse as time when by. I think I let the guitar player take a ride to gather myself. As the song came to the end and we were doing a live fade out you could hear Buddy's witch laugh from the back of the room. It seemed to make it all okay...

Some place I have a tape of the show, but the laugh was too faint for the tape. (RATS!)

Mine was not a playing one, but a going on to stage one.We were supposed to come on to a darkened stage to get in place for lights going up, I was first on as I was at far side of stage, as I got about half way over I "encountered" a mic cable that had not been there earlier, I went headlong into the drum kit, parts of the kit went always and me lying in middle of it.
The problem got worse as they decided to take the lights up, the audience were in stitches, everyone rushed onto stage trying to sort things out, NOT one asked how I was , their only concern was the drums, and blamed me.I, in no uncertain terms, told the sound guy exactly what I thought of him, and why was cable draped about a foot off the floor onto drum kit, meanwhile the audience were absolutely loving it.I stood up faced the audience, took a bow, gathered up my damaged pride and strolled over to my steel to a round of applause.

We played a halloween dance back in college. I didn't usually drink before hand, but it was a little warm for that time of year, so after setting up I was a little parched. All they had to drink was kegs and some punch. I was told the punch was lightly "flavored." The light flavoring turned out to be pure grain that had been well disquised. I had sucked down several large cupsful which hit me hard at about the third song. I was playing bass in a 3 piece, so there was no real way to lay back or drop out. So I tried to battle through, unsuccessfully. The singer/guitarist was and still is an absolute tea-totaller and I can still can see that look of utter disgust on his face as the wheels fell off my cart. Our sound guy, on the other hand, thought it was hilarious as I was still conscious enough to see him cracking up behind the sound board. To top it off, my street clothes disappeared from the kitchen during the show, so I had to pack and load up in my ridiculous Halloween outfit. Trick or Treat, indeed.

Jim Lindsey wrote:Mine would have to be kicking off a song and then immediately ending it. LOL Years ago we were going to play "Heart Over Mind" and I played the intro ... but as soon as I reached the end of the intro, I somehow thought we were through with the song and played the ending ... kudos to the band for being quick on the draw and going with me on it. The vocalist looked at me with a weird expression and yelled out, "Hey, man, I didn't even get to sing the song!" ... trying to save face a little, I shrugged my shoulders and yelled back, "Oh, well, they weren't dancing anyway!"

Come on Jim, we also want to hear about your "bar drop and roll" at the Opry !

I was playing guitar in a small bar many years ago. The stage was actually on a loft, about 8 feet above the dance floor. We were sitting on high bar stools while we played. I leaned forward, trying to get a better look at a page on a music stand, probably the lyrics. To my horror, I felt the bar stool starting to tip. I tried to put my foot down, but my boot heels were hooked on the footring around the legs. I led with my forehead, smashing into the PA speaker (which happened to have our drinks on top) and spilling the drinks and smashing the glasses to the floor below. Oh yeah, this was all in the middle of a song. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but was I ever embarrased.

Steve, I bet they cut you off from the beer at that point regardless of whether it had anything to do with it or not!

I'll always remember a screw-up that wasn't my fault, but made me sound really bad. Back in the early '80's when I had my old Sho-Bud, I sat in with 2 guys at a little bar in the mountains of So. Cal. One of the guys was a guitar player, and the other a bass player and they used drum tracks, and they sounded pretty good. I learned the steel solo for the Eagles, Peaceful Easy Feeling and was feeling pretty good about it. We played the song and it was time for my solo. I started playing and it sounded completely off! I soon came to realize, they were playing the chords for the verse and NOT the chorus, which is what was supposed to be played for the solo on the recording! I just gave up and finished singing the song...then ordered another beer.

John Peay wrote:Come on Jim, we also want to hear about your "bar drop and roll" at the Opry !

John, you're not going to make me tell that story here, are you? I plead the 5th on that one ... the bar leaving my hand like it did that day wasn't what I'd technically call a screw up ... just an unfortunate result of Karma that involved Gary Hogue!