The Steel Guitar Forum

Did anyone mention Hop Wilson?

This guy just does it for me- the
sound of these recordings is so great, it put's you right there in the gin joint....
I love his phrasing, note selection, etc....

One of my absolute favorites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwufnpPilMU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU4NRYV92Qk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMVJSMDrzI0

I like Hop. Much more lyrical than Freddy Roulette.

I like Freddie....although sometimes I feel like I'm on a ship on the high seas with him...

Hop Wilson threads I know about:

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=121185

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=166087

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/002260.html

I like both Hop and Freddy Roulette - to me, they're just different, I couldn't argue I prefer one to the other.

BTW, that UNC link to (what I believe is) the old University of Mississippi archive material on Goldband records isn't working - here's where I found the stuff just now:

On Goldband in general: http://www2.lib.unc.edu/wilson/sfc/goldband/

On Hop Wilson in particular: http://www2.lib.unc.edu/wilson/sfc/gold ... op_wilson/

However, the stream files seem to be 404 (gone).

Also note that Michael Lee Allen put up a ton of cool and relevant pics on at least one of those threads. Unfortunately, a few years ago some posters started complaining about how long it was taking to load threads where he put pics up, and thus he started taking stuff down, including these.

Personally, I hear a lot of blues licks from Ralph Mooney on the early Buck Owens stuff, and especially on the Haggard stuff with Roy Nichols. Lotsa sevenths and ninths were masquerading under all that twang.

I agree with the statement Joachim made about the back neck sounding better for playing blues. If you translate the same line from E9 to C6, it's going to sound fatter on C6. I guess it's more so what you're used to though. I started playing rock on A6, so as soon as I got a double neck, I went to C6 for blues and rock. I also enjoy playing a squareneck tele in open D for this kind of stuff.
To answer the OP's question about what blues tunes to play on steel... Stormy Monday lends itself to E9 pretty well with all of those diatonic minor chords.

PLEASE play anything but Stormy Monday. It is a standing joke around here when white guys play it. (Generally rather soullessly overplayed when non-blues players go after it.) For some reason everyone thinks they can play the blues and that it will benefit from speed and trickiness. Both wrong in my opinion.

Jack Hanson wrote:Personally, I hear a lot of blues licks from Ralph Mooney on the early Buck Owens stuff, and especially on the Haggard stuff with Roy Nichols. Lotsa sevenths and ninths were masquerading under all that twang.

Country played with 7th chords is not blues.

b0b wrote:

Jack Hanson wrote:Personally, I hear a lot of blues licks from Ralph Mooney on the early Buck Owens stuff, and especially on the Haggard stuff with Roy Nichols. Lotsa sevenths and ninths were masquerading under all that twang.

Country played with 7th chords is not blues.

Totally agree. Sorry that my post may have been construed as misleading.

Play Bobby Bland's "Stormy Monday". The best! (I have been listening to it lately, just love that "Yeah" before Wayne Bennett's guitar solo, which is a tribute to T Bone Walker)

Give Summer Time a try in Fmi on E9th neck. I'm not a blues person but at a rehearsal for a show one of the singers wanted to do it, it didn't sound too bad.

Geo

Blues in the Night, by the great Harold Arlen. Although we think of Johnny Mercer for this one, Harold penned the melody. Play it slow and sultry.

Also, Summertime is a natural in Am on the C6th neck. Play it slow, then switch to E9 to kick it up-tempo.

J Fletcher wrote:The thing is, there is no tradition of steel playing, pedal or non-pedal, in classic electric blues. ie blues from say 1939 to 1969.
Lots of slide guitar playing, but steel has never developed its own voice in this music....

Jack Hanson wrote:Freddie Roulette plays incredible blues on his old 8-string Nationals. Most of his work is from after 1969, but he started working with Earl Hooker and Charlie Musselwhite long before then.

I agree. One example is Freddie Roulette. The 'tubes I've posted below are from the late 60's and early 70's (except the first one) and they most certainly represent classic, post-war, urban blues (the style most familiar to fans of the blues-rock sound).

Freddie Roulette:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX06XkUhkbs

With Charlie Musselwhite, from the album Memphis, Tennessee (Freddie's all over this album)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVqrL8X6LDg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppOKsvWEVaw

again from the Charlie Musselwhite album Goin' Back Down South
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPBPUkVeu8E


Keep on pickin'!
Glenn