The Steel Guitar Forum

Do ya think the fans of these two famous steelers were squawkin about proper attire after shellin out big bucks for tickets? Probably not...

I'll have to admit that this MAY have been a little over the top.

If you're fat wear a Hawaiian shirt, if you're short wear stripes and boots, bald, wear a cap, in shape, tight jeans and a T-shirt. If you want people to leave you alone so you can pick your steel guitar in peace wear black.

But, when in Rome... If you're working for Ray Price you wear a suit, if you're working a nudist colony you play naked.

wow. steel guitar players on fashion. Don't they have that 'fabulous' guy on the today show to make all the fashion judgements. Folks get caught up in fashion whether it is cars, clothes, guitars, politics, movies you pick it. Our culture has gotten to the point that we are all 'self marketing'. So, some guys here see themselves as egalitarian, blue collar guys who wanna wear jeans and tshirts... or you wanna wear it because you look good or because it is comfortable or you are sending an 'alt country vibe'. Whatever. Some guys wanna wear uniforms because they aren't just in a music group, they are in an 'act'. Or they loved the Maddox Bros and so did the audience.

I play in one band that plays lots of ranch party and small winery type parties. They love it if we wear 'western' clothes especially uniform/embroidered shirts like the 50's etc. We think it is great fun! Little kids love to play dress up, too bad that gets pushed aside once we get so dang serious.

Another group of guys is more the country rock thing.... jeans, football jerseys or button down shirts or tshirts (or leisure suits! ha ha stephen! I'd wear a leisure suit if I got to play in a band with jerry hayes!)

But it is all either marketing the band to an audience that has expectations or what you feel comfortable with... but beyond that, I wouldn't care what somebody wore (ever look at David Lindley's wardrobe? but again, he is marketing himself as Mr. Dave, weird, crazy, cool string genius and he needs the right crazy wacky clothes --and cheapo mutant guitars to pull off that marketing schema) the clothes don't make the musician... what happens between the ears down to the fingers is what matters and even more so what is in the heart.

Judging folks harshly is, as my grandma used to say, vanity. From what I know of vanity I always advise my friends to steer clear.

btw, I honestly believe that Gram got the nudie suits not as a goof, but because in his heart he loved that stuff... I remember the scene in 'honeysuckle rose' where willie buys the ugly suits to humiliate the obnoxious 'cotton roberts' and i know the outlaw thing was partially in protest of the cheesy nudie look... but the outlaw thing ended up being a marketing fashion show too.

I always figured Powder-blue, double-knit leisure suits, with the pants about 3" to short, with orange shirts, poison-green ties, red socks, and, of course, white moccasins, would be a nice uniform for a combo!

Done it both ways, as Tom T. Hall said in a song somewhere, "They all wore shirts the same", mostly solid colors and also with a band where everyone worre western clothes, hats and boots, but we had the freedom to choose whatever shirts etc. we wanted. I liked it better when we could all choose our own wardrobe--a little variety and still classy

I like cheesy matching outfits.

Keith, I remember the "shirts all the same" comment by Tom T. Hall from an interview I once read where he was talking about the person who was the real-life inspiration for "Clayton Delaney". I don't think Clayton Delaney was the real name, but it may have been. In any event, this guy had boasted to a young Tom T. about his band in Ohio, and the fact that they had "shirts all the same" was offerred as a significant selling feature! For years after reading that article "shirts all the same" became kind of a standing joke with my brother and I, since we both did our time on the matching cowboy shirts circuit.

Great thread. I don't know when I have laughed so much. Jody.

Wow, you guys were just asking for it... weren't you?

Nice jacket on that "unidentified" Strat player Mark!

...& that's The one and only time the GD played in their custom-tailored Nudie suits...
As for what I myself prefer?
Let us say, as in the old aphorism:
"beware all enterprises which require new clothes."

In Lucky Tubb s Modern Day Troubadours we all wear complete matching outfits except for the singer: White western shirt w/ black string tie or Black western shirt with red string tie, black western pants with white arrow trim pockets. Lucky, the singer, wears a suit or a vintage western outfit of some kind.
It was good enough fifty years ago, and it's good enough today. That's the kind of music we play anyway, and I'm having the time of my life doing it, luckily we are all into it, previous band leaders have tried to get (mostly younger) musicians to dress up for stage but met with a lot of resistance, personally I think it is unprofessional and disrespectful to play a honky tonk or any nighttime gig in shorts and sandals .

We get the occassional titter from the crowd but most people love it, both the older folk who remember going to see Lucky's great uncle Ernest, and the young punk rockers we play to in Austin

. . . I HATE political correctness, . . .

So do I: Far too many groups these days look like they just got through cuttin' grass! They need to get with the program of being on a stage!

. . . if ... you look like you just craweled out of a dumpster, you are disrespecting your audence . . . it's called a show for a reason

PS:

Do ya think the fans of these two famous steelers were squawkin about proper attire after shellin out big bucks for tickets? Probably not...

Nothing personal, and with due respect for their prowess, I wouldn't have given either one a second chance to pull it off.

They need to get with the program of being on a stage!

Errr - *Whose* "program"?

and with due respect for their prowess, I wouldn't have given either one a second chance to pull it off.

So the implication is that style is more important the substance? IMO "In all due respect" might as well have been replaced with "I have no respect for them if they dress like that". You'd fire Buddy Emmons or Buddy Cage because they don't dress pretty? Yikes. What if Emmons dressed nicer but wore the derby hat when everyone else wore cowboy hats? Call your shot -

There's apparently some rather wide gaps between groups of musicians here. It appears as if it's primarily the traditional country folks who are dialed into the mathing outfits or "stage grooming", with the jam-band, alt-country and rock players more on the casual side.

I don't think either is wrong - it's a matter of personal choice and playing to YOUR crowd. And sometimes going against the grain works...other times it's offensive.

Personally, I'm more interested in the music and like a little stage banter; clothes are not important and don't impress me at all (I wore ties in business for decades and thought they were the most useless piece of rag ever invented - an $85.00 button-cover is just silly IMO). Clothes don't make you a professional - dedication to your craft does. If you're a GQ model, that would mean clothes. For a musician, it does not.

Not 'whose' program, Jim, but a program easily recognizable by many: one of temporarily being in a different dimension when either performing or presenting and, as such, separate from the audience who often pay to see (and learn from?) it.

Whether of music, theater, giving a speech, giving or accepting an award, attending or being part of a wedding, funeral, retirement dinner, etc., it all speaks to the same thing: a neat status to live up to, and small return for the attention, respect, goodwill, and, often, envy of fellow people.

We musicians, particularly, might (should?) soon learn that many in the audience indeed envy us and would give much to trade places. In any club, watch those at the tables watching the dancers and/or us on the stand--you'll see the look.

So, what shall we lucky ones do, return the favor by enhancing the package, or say visually that we don't give a damn about those paying the freight and, for that, are also part of the program?

Never mind...I guess I didn't really want anyone to see us.

just for the record ...would i fire Buddy Emmons for dressing like he just craweled out of a dumpster ???
the answer is " yes and so fast it would make his head spin"

calvin, you can sleep well tonight and rest assured that you won't ever have that opportunity.

SS

How many people here think that any significant portion of the audience really wants to trade places with them? I've become persuaded over the years that far fewer people hold musicians in any kind of esteem than most musicians might believe. A lot of people just think the musicians are a bunch of underpaid nerds, if they think about them at all (mostly they are thinking about how to have carnal knowledge of someone else in the audience, or about where their next beer is coming from). Which is not an argument for or against wearing matching shirts (when it was the dress code in the band that's the way I dressed) , or playing music for that matter. If you got into this business for the adulation, however, I think that you should reconsider your choice. Maybe there were people watching us in the old days thinking "gee, I wish I had an ill-fitting hand-me-down purple satin cowboy shirt with discolored underarms like that guy has" and I just never met them. Maybe they were shy.

I'm more inclined to remember a very attractive young woman (a singer with another band) batting her eyes flirtatiously and asking me "why do you guys all wear those stupid hats?". At which point I figured I'd been told....

Calvin, I doubt that you'll ever get your chance to fire Mr. Emmons, much less make his head spin, however he chooses to dress.

Hell, I figure it's gonna be a good night anytime the drummer shows up with pants on....
But seriously, as many have said here, I try to dress for the gig, which means anything from jeans and a tee shirt to a suit, depending who's gig it is and where it is. 90% it's jeans, boots and a western or dress shirt.

Ding Ding Ding, we have a winner (actually several). Jack, dressing for the occasion is the answer.

Another story....I was a suit for many years, selling big buck computer stuff to big buck CEO's. But let me tell you, engineers and designers don't trust suits, so if I was making a call with an engineering group, I dressed like they did. It worked time and time again. Another short one...I had a lot of business in Hawaii. The first time I went to do a seminar I wore a suit. After I was done, my distributor in Honolulu took me out to buy several Aloha shirts. Even the IBM guys (this was in the 80's) wore Aloha shirts to work. The only people wearing suits to work in Hawaii are lawyers, and god knows I didn't want to be thought of as one of them.

Dress for the occasion....simple enough to understand. Don't wear a tank top to a tux wedding gig, don't wear a tux at the local bar gig. Why is this so difficult to understand?

SS

(I still wish I hadn't parted with my Nudie jackets from the 70's....)
edited for spelling....

Stephen Silver wrote: Another story....I was a suit for many years, selling big buck computer stuff to big buck CEO's. But let me tell you, engineers and designers don't trust suits, so if I was making a call with an engineering group, I dressed like they did. It worked time and time again. Another short one...I had a lot of business in Hawaii. The first time I went to do a seminar I wore a suit. After I was done, my distributor in Honolulu took me out to buy several Aloha shirts.

Good one, Steven. I was in the same business with the same experiences. I showed up to teach a seminar in Honolulu in a 3-piece (early 80's), and after they all got done chuckling at the idiot (me) gently showed me aloha shirts... I should have noticed something odd when I saw there wasn't a tie in a house of 100 people hearing a talk on networked databases.

The last time I went to Wall Street to talk to several big investment banks I didn't see a single tie anywhere. Golf shirts, mostly.

And if the music is good enough I don't care if the band is literally wearing rags. I used to go see Commander Cody every weekend, and they usually were in jeans and t-shirts, and most of us would think we'd died and gone to heaven to play that well (Bobby Black on steel, though Bobby usually wore a "real" shirt).

-eric

just for the record ...would i fire Buddy Emmons for dressing like he just craweled out of a dumpster ???
the answer is " yes and so fast it would make his head spin"

Calvin, you're unrepentent, aren't you. This is so bloody funny I can't stand it. That was one of the best laughs I've had since I joined this forum - nothing personal, you understand.

James - I agree on the "theatre" aspect. But sometimes the "package" is torn jeans, a funky t-shirt, and/or a backwards baseball cap. I think this is the third time I've said "When in Rome". I promise to stop repeating myself now.