The Steel Guitar Forum

Sweetheart of the Rodeo and Tracy Nelson Country

Probably this one. Definitely this one because of steel but, a Greatful Dead, or CSN probably came before that.

My first significant album with beaucoups of steel on it was Poco's "Pickin' Up the Pieces". Rusty Young changed my life with that album, no doubt.

Growing up here in Eastern Oklahoma I was surrounded with Bob Wills, Hank Sr., Ernest Tubb, Red Foley, Carl Smith and Wynn Steward and the list goes on of those great fifty's artist and then 1964 came with Buck Owens and the great Tom Brumley on Together Again. My world changed overnight. I don't think a week goes by that I do not play that at least once. It still gives me chills. And then about 1974 I happened upon New Riders of the Purple Sage with Buddy Cage, what a wake up to how the Pedal Steel could fit in all kinds of music. Buddy Cage has never been giving the credit he deserves. Not that I could ever play anything like he does but after playing in a couple of Country Rock Bands it was nice to be giving that chance. Their are a lot of great steel pickers out their but I still put Tom Brumley at the Top of the List with Lloyd Green next. Thanks, J.R. Rose

Pure Prairie League "Bustin' Out". John David Call was so good on those albums. Really made me want to play PSG.

First song that turned my on as to that magnificent sound and got me thinking,?.. Probably Pickin' up the Pieces or Teach Your Children, ..

First album, that FORCED me to go out and buy a pedal steel?.. probably Home Home on the Road, NRPS... bob

Matter of fact, someone posted the album complete, and if you want to hear some prototypical E9 country rock, give a listen.. Great blocking, impeccable time and meter, and very cool licks by Buddy Cage...Cool sound from his PP Emmons as well.. Every beginner or developing E9 pedal steel guitarist should study this album as part of his learning curve... bob

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... n+the+road

Joe Cook wrote:Pure Prairie League "Bustin' Out". John David Call was so good on those albums. Really made me want to play PSG.

This is a great album!

Forum member, Al Brisco’s steel guitar solo in Jazzman is one of my favorites.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fwok0dx-l0A

Yeah, that's great stuff Bob. that was one of the albums that circulated between my group of friends - we all passed albums around so we all didn't have to buy them all. In fact, we saw Buddy with them on a number of occasions. He was different than a lot of the hippie band steel players in that you could here his playing on any old Bakersfield country album.

Mom worked for Capitol Records when I was little. The house was full of all the Capitol releases from Buck Owens and Merle Haggard in the 60s and 70s.

Hard to remember - I didn't have much of a record collection back then. It was probably either Workingman's Dead (w/Jerry Garcia), John Wesley Harding (Bob Dylan w/Pete Drake), or Pottery Pie (Jeff and Maria Muldaur w/Bill Keith). Of those three, Pottery Pie is the one that really piqued my interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urN7Pdzw5Cs

I don't think I actually owned a copy of Sweetheart of the Rodeo. I did hear it a lot, though.

Lloyd Green--Reflections

Jim Reeves - "Good 'N Country"

My first two steel records are still a couple of my favorites.
These were the first two I bought because I'd just become interested and bought my first Sho Bud S-10.
Found them at a big record shop in San Francisco as the only two steel Records they had in stock.



Was not too long after that I'd have over two hundred Steel Records in my vinyl 33rpm collection....
Gave them to my brother when I moved overseas with about 600 C&W classics.

I also had many of the other records with steel on them that others have noted, but didn't buy them for the steel guitar at that time before I got interested in playing steel.

a two record set by buck owens, early hits , with mooney on steel.

Buddy Cage's solo on Meet Me in the Morning from Blood on the Tracks made an impression on me back in '75.

The first time I ever heard the words "steel guitar" was when Paul Anka sang about it in 1962 "A Steel Guitar And A Glass Of Wine". Ironically, that song doesn't appear to have any steel guitar in it, but at age 11, it left me wondering what the heck a steel guitar was. I guess I envisioned a guitar made out of steel. You have to remember, I was living in the Boston suburbs and only rarely exposed to real country music.

Flash forward a few years and I was hearing some pretty cool guitar sounds but still didn't make the connection. I just knew I liked it. Probably the first album I bought with steel was an 8-track of Deja Vu with Teach Your Children on it. Not much info on an 8-track jacket, so I don't know if I made the connection even then. Soon after, I bought Poco "Pickin Up The Pieces" and I guess I figured it out around then. Around that time I also bought "Pure Prairie League". It wasn't more than one or two years later that a friend loaned me a Maverick to "fool around with".

I see many of us were influenced by Sweethearts. I didn't list it as my first, because my roommate already had it...along with Grievous Angel. He was a fan of this music and the steel guitar although he didn't play steel. We wore the grooves out on those 2 just about.

Shortly after I purchased the Last of the Red Hot Burritos, I came home with 3 LP's one day. Asleep at the Wheel self titled, Pure Prairie League Two Lane Highway and Amazing Rhythm Aces Stacked Deck....I lived on those for years.

So, I guess it was Sneaky Pete, Lloyd Green, Buddy Emmons [on the Carpenters tune], JD Maness, Rusty Young, JD Call, Lucky Oceans, "Byrd" Burton, Al Perkins from that era that gave me the bug to start a few short years later.

I tell you, the first time I heard LuckyO on Dead Man, I thought I'd blow a gasket it was so awesome.

But, back to the topic

Half a Mind - Ernest Tubb 1958.

This was the first steel guitar album that I got in 1959 and in Stereo!

Andy DePaule wrote:

Wow, Andy! I never imagined seeing "The Wylie Butler" on this thread. I learned most everything on that record back in the day, straight from the source. Cal is the guy who taught me how to play!

I love that version of Brazil Bob - I think it was the one the used in that strange movie of the same name.

I'm not quite sure but I think the movie's name is "Time Bandits", a George Harrison production.

It was 'Brazil,' one of my favorites. Did not know it was Goeff Muldaur.

The flying burrito brothers
With sneaky Pete. Elton John first
Record still have them 😊