The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm looking for your suggestions re. favorite CDs featuring Ralph Mooney on steel.

'RALPH MOONEY' 'THE TOPPA SESSIONS' 'MOON AT MIDNIGHT' Featuring GENE DAVIS

1. Okie
2. Mooney
3. Feelings (no, not THAT one)
4. Crazy Arms
5. Lil Red Wagon
6. I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You
7. I'll Fly Away
8. What A Friend We Have In Jesus

Though the tele gets an occassional ride, this CD is classsic Mr. Moon!

Definitely a "must have".

Waylon's tune "I'll Go Back to Her". It just don't get any purtyer....

Also, the early Buck Owens LP's.

I'm partial to the old stuff he did with his Fender 1000, especially Wynn Stewart's "One More Memory" or Buck Owen's "Under Your Spell Again"....It ain't never got any better than that!......JH in Va.

I also really like the Moon's playing on that Bear Family Joe Carson disc "Hillbilly Band from Mars"

i gotta agree with ray - "i'll go back to her", beautiful double tracked steel - also "the bottle let me down" and "swinging doors" and i cant argue with jerry about "under your speel again" and of course every thing else he did - i guess it's true - mooney is still the king!

Some of Moon's great stuff wasn't on the hits, but on album cuts (as if that's news to anybody ).

Some of my favorite Moon-isms are present on "I Think It's Time She Learned", "Frisco Depot", "The Hunger"...I could name them till this time tomorrow.

Just about anything he did with Wynn Stewart. One that I have listened to over and over is the first recording he did with Wynn of "Sing a Sad Song" where going into the middle break Wynn says, 'And now here's Ralph Mooney'.........simple and just wonderfully beautiful. It was during Wynn's second tour of duty with Capitol.

I'm partial to "Buck Owens Sings Harlan Howard". Mooney is the only lead player throughout! (There's a little fiddle in one or two places, but not much.) The songs pretty much all sound the same, but hearing Mooney all the way through twelve songs is a real clinic on the West Coast style by its founder and master. My favorite tune for the steel work is "Heartaches For a Dime", especially the backup in the verse after the solo.

Check out the bluesy syncopated signature licks on "Slightly Used" by Wynn Stewart.

The record Mooney did with James Burton in about '68 is pretty cool. All instrumentals. Title was Corn Pickin' Slick Slidin'. It's been re-issued on CD.

Buck Owens - "You're For Me", and off the
"Corn Pickin' Slick Slidin'" - "The Texas Waltz",
and "Moonshine".

GB

I "third" the album "Corn Pickin' and Slick Slidn'" with Ralph and James Burton (guitar and dobro). Wonderful stuff. Required listening for all Moon fans!

A lot of folks aren't aware of James' dobro playing, and he and Ralph sound great together.

Agree with Brandin about Ralph's playing on Buck's Capitol LP "You're For Me". Totally unique cool West Coast country and still unsurpassed.

Sing a Sad Song is a beautiful tune.It came on the "Songs Of Wynn Stewart" album which was his first album with Capitol.

I was a big fan of Ralph Mooney long before I knew who was playing steel on those old pre-Buckaroo Buck Owens albums. There are so many great tunes with Moon, that it's hard to name a favorite - It's fun trying though.

The slow ballads with Waylon Jennings had some hauntingly beautiful playing on them by Moon. I have an old 45 with Waltz Me To Heaven on it. Nice.

The songs on The Best of Buck Owens (Above and Beyond, Foolin' Around, Under Your Spell Again) are still among my favorites with Moon. Some of the songs on Bucks album "You're for Me" are great, such as House Down the Block, or Think It Over.

The first time I ever heard Moon named with a record was when Texas Waltz was actually getting air play on AM radio a long time ago.

Years back, George Hamilton IV did a record with Moon, I think it was called "Coast Country" or something like that. George does Together Again and Ralph plays a very long turnaround, perhaps an entire verse (much longer than Tom Brumley's original), that is excellent.

I certainly agree with the other posters about his work wity Wynn Stewart. Great stuff. One of my favorites with Wynn Stewart is "If Tomorrow Could Be Yesterday." The intro and turnaround on that one is beautiful.

Great thread.

Ken

Ken, amen to Waltz Me to Heaven. It's a gem!

Definately the early Buck Owens recordings are where I was first exposed to Ralph Mooney and where my love of pedal steel was born. He and Tom Brumley were (and are!) mentors of mine. They got me searching for other PSGists to listen to and admire. Heck, I hadn't even heard of the "Big E" in those days!

Dennis

I suppose Jay McDonald could fit in there too in those "formative years" but I wasn't nearly as inspired by his playing....

Let's not forget Jerry Hendrix in those early years,either.Jerry has a good style.I have a good recording of him at the MSGA steel jam of 2005.

My favorite Moon pickin is on the waylon album ramblin man from 1974.great stuff.really any of the stuff he played on with waylon is well worth buying.if you want to see him play then you need to get a copy of waylon the lost outlaw performance on dvd,or vhs.it dont take long to figure out why he is a legend.byron

No one could make the hair on my arms stand up like Moon. All of the above tunes plus Rainy Day Woman,
Big Big Love (essentialy the same break), Mental Cruelty, Waltz of the Angels, Lonesome Ornry & Mean,
Foolin' Around, yeah till tomorrow we could name them and day after we'd think of some we'd missed.

Speaking of Ralph Mooney, does anyone here know how to contact him?

Terry Wood

I'm in agreement with those who chose Waylon's songs featuring Ralph on "Rainy Day Woman" and "Waltz Me To Heaven" I like these alot. Of course Moon has a great style and sound that are just his own.

Terry Wood

Find this CD;



It was released about 10 years ago and is out of print, but sometimes one will pop up on Amazon or eBay, it's a MUST have.

Mooney is on just about every track and plays about 90% of the intros, solos, turnarounds, and fills on these songs.
1. Wishful Thinking
2. Big City
3. Big, Big Love
4. Come On
5. Heartaches for a Dime
6. Playboy
7. Donna on My Mind
8. Three Cheers for the Losers
9. She Just Tears Me Up
10. Rain, Rain
11. Slightly Used
12. How the Other Half Lives
13. If You See My Baby
14. Wall to Wall Heartaches
15. Open up My Heart
16. Loversville
17. Wrong Company
18. Never Out of My Heart
19. Another Day, Another Dollar
20. Falling for You
21. Couples Only
22. Judy
23. We'll Never Love Again
24. I'm Not the Man I Used to Be
25. One More Memory
26. I Don't Feel at Home
27. Above and Beyond
28. Uncle Tom Got Caught
29. Long Black Limousine

There were four available on Amazon.I bought one,there are three left.Thanks,Lonnie