The Steel Guitar Forum

I was trying to find which songs BJ Cole played on with Spiritualized yesterday, but I can't belive I've never seen he video with Bjork before. Thanks for that, I'm a big Bjork fan.

I always liked the steel on this

Elvis Costello: Good year for the roses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcBh9IgMz5U

This has got to be one of the best players to date.No one has posted him so I will http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA1qOgfn ... relatedill Robert Randolf.

Hey, Elton, I think you got the same Poco link instead of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQHEF54Sq4c
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0MqNxmc ... re=related
Robert Randolph is just fantastic.

And while there are numerous videos of Chas Smith, this one features him with the guys from Cold Blue, the label for which he recorded several superb CDs (this is long, but Chas is upfront at the beginning):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ9pV3eM ... re=channel

listening to chas is pure bliss
cant get any more interesting to me
major envy
clarinet player is flat but you cant shorten the barrel
bass clarinet sounds awesome

Thanks Dan I thought I fixed it ,but you gotta understand.I live in a town so small they had to widen main street, just to paint a stripe down it.It's been 109 temp. here for quite a while.The telephone Co. may have busted into flames.Yall keep um coming.Thanks to all. Elbo

Just discovered these guys, really cool band. Like space rock meets americana. I'm going to have to check them out alot more.

The Futurebirds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_azroNr2Hvg&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovlaMF0L ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLe8URSzDgg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajEiQNfA ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0eYhEsU ... re=related

Nice band, Justin!
OK, for those of us who like our noise flavored with steel guitar, Heather Leigh Murray is one of the noisiest (in a good way) - with Chris Corsano, as JAILBREAK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpADW2iZ6Zs
With CHARALAMBIDES:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ4KKdSwcPE

I saw Heather perform live; her pedal steel may not even have pedals anymore, as she's a beater. But she IS original in how she uses the instrument, and in addition to the projects above, can be heard in several other contexts: solo, with Christina Carter (Charalambides) as SCORCES, and TAURPIS TULA. Hard to find, mostly limited releases, although her recordings with Charalambides are easier to obtain, and they are fairly spacey/psychedelic rather than noisy.
Certainly not everyone's taste - or idea of music - but the steel guitar itself has rather unlimited possibilities.

Daniel, that clip from jailbreak was great. and it reminded me that when I saw Swans play here in febuary they had a regular steel player (no pedals) playig with them the whole time. SUch a great show, they played for three hours and played a total of 8 songs, and it was really powerful stuff.

The thing that killed me was that he was playing what looked like the same model guitar as the guy from asleep at the wheel when I saw them last year. Further proof that this instrument of ours is a versatile beast whose limits may never be known.

Swans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbXSb3eZ1Ak&NR=1

Also I finally found the song BJ cole played with Spiritualized. Off of one of the greatest albums of the 90's, Ladies and Gentlemen we are floating in space.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg94Z1zRkic

Dang, this is one cool thread! Pretty soon, country music will look like the unusual style here!

Justin, I'm glad you posted those links. I didn't know SWANS used steel! I did, however, know that Elliott Sharp plays one (at the beginning of this):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az7UdTv6rdw

b0b used to offer this fine CD:
http://www.amazon.com/Secular-Steel-Var ... 793&sr=1-1

And you may have trouble hearing the pedal steel with this steampunk band, but it's in there:
http://www.myspace.com/drowningcalm

Here is some spontaneous improvising that I did with a Swiss percussionist and inventor of instruments, Simon Berz, who came through town making a documentary. I posted it before and some people seemed to like it. Someone asked if I could post the rest and I asked Simon and he never got back to me so this is the same as before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4By0Pn6670

Dave,
Wow ! Totally cool playing and music.

Dave, that was wonderful.

We need to get you booked on the Playboy Jazz festival.

We played a gig one time with just our original stuff and every one just looked at us like a tree full of owls.

I actually played guitar for a brief period in a reggae band in Miami, where reggae is universally knows as "music to rip off tourists by."
bump-chik... bump-chik... bump-chik....

The keyboardist and drummer were stone-cold Return to Forever freaks - they could play the Lenny White/Chick Corea parts note for note. (And I, wisely, sat out rather than crash 'n' burn in DiMeola hell).
And I never in my life saw anything clear a dance floor, even empty a bar, faster than "Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant" or "Vulcan Worlds."

Yes indeed, nice stuff, Dave!
Here are some pieces from a fine album by Barry Cleveland, featuring Robert Powell on pedal steel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxDYCvlwDfg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZOGmF71ddM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reM5H-Wo3ec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tquL70kYK9c

The CD's worth picking up:
http://barrycleveland.bandcamp.com/album/hologramatron

'Tain't yer granddaddy's pedal steel music.....

David,

That was just great. I wish you could post the rest of that session.

Love the stuff you guys have been posting,

A pretty country sounding song, but a from a very non country band:

Metallica: Mama Said
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T31qXmeupA

Robert Pollard, of Guided by Voices Fame with yet another side project. Boston Spaceships:
http://vinylomatic.com/guided-by-voices-inc-gbvi-5

And The Decemberists have plenty of Steel peppered amongst their albums. Chris Funk plays some good stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeHhV79B ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqDlTKqx ... re=related

The indie supergroup Monsters of folk, had some nice steel on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB7Hrixnxgw

And even though I've never been a big fan. I did fall in love with the Bright Eyes album, I'm wide awake It's Morning. Which featured some interesting steel guitar and backing vocals from one of my favorite country music singers, Emmylou Harris.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_hrRoD2 ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHjwIGVO ... re=related

And even though it has no steel, I love hearing emmylou on this track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me85Pztk ... re=related

Cool, Justin!
Metallica??!! Wow, I can only imagine their hardcore fans' reaction!
I knew the Decemberists used some steel, and maybe I heard Bright Eyes, too.
Very nice version of GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY.

Here's a Quicktime streaming sound file with Chas Smith:
http://www.soundnet.org/concerts/mov_re ... #chassmith
(At 1:22, there's a very short shot of Chas playing the piece:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhTZWePLcW0)

Based on AFAR, from Harold Budd's THE SERPENT (IN QUICKSILVER), which originally had Chas playing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0gIPxWN ... 5913761625

Just fantastic, atmospheric music, and exactly what other instrument besides pedal steel can make such sounds? Synths come close, but make mine steel!

Never thought I'd see Harold Budd mentioned on this forum. Nice one Daniel.

I was listening to this album today, and I forgot there was steel on it. One of the great power pop albums of the 90's.

Matthew Sweet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJrsRcdO ... re=related

I remember the name Matthew Sweet, but more so now than then, I just wasn't listening to much commercial radio. I do recall hearing this one though, which caught my ear at the time, as steel wasn't popping up in so many non-country contexts as it is now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH44jT02kYs

And Robert Plant validates pedal steel with his latest, Band of Joy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhV5c75V03c

So, who remembers the band Henry Cow? Tim Hodgkinson was a founding member, and afterwards formed The Work.
In that band he played "flat" guitar - also known as Hawaiian guitar - and here's one example where it's clearly audible:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZvew2wi_Nk

Just wanted to let you know that I created a Playlist for all the YouTube videos in this thread.

I might have missed someone, please let me know

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAAD3BA72339A3D49

// Anders

Thanks, Anders! Sure makes it easier to find things.
Hopefully the list will continue to grow.

Thanks a bunch Anders.

Caught this one today:

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks: Tigers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ixKkDWYeM

Plus new Ryan Adams album coming out soon. sure there will be some cool steel on that one.

Still the best thread I've seen on this forum. I wish we could hear some from some other forumites, I'm sure they have some cool examples.

and even though it is a steel guitar classic now. You can't listen to it and not tell me it's of a style all it's own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogxTQXAgY3Q

This style of playing is what I have been trying to lean.Playing on the bottom instead of crying steel.For those that my have missed this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIHD4bkUojM

Justin Jacobson wrote:I was trying to find which songs BJ Cole played on with Spiritualized yesterday, but I can't belive I've never seen he video with Bjork before. Thanks for that, I'm a big Bjork fan.

I always liked the steel on this

Elvis Costello: Good year for the roses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcBh9IgMz5U

I love Bjork and had no idea she'd done anything with steel guitar. Thanks!

Hey Justin...You mentioned the Metallica song "Mama Said"...If you would look up a CMT show from a few years ago called "Outlaws of Country" or something to that effect, there should be a clip of James Hetfield without the band doing that song with me playing steel. James was a pleasure to work with and even came over to my riser just to check out how the steel was played. I had written the charts for the show and Bob Rock (who was there with him) was very interested in our approach with the number system. A good time was had by all, and believe it or not, as the whiskey flowed, by the end of the show James was the saniest artist left...(Him being clean and sober by that time in his life.) Once again, for me, it confirmed that the only boundaries music has are the ones that we the musicians place on it.