The Steel Guitar Forum

Who made up the Carl Smith trio and which one played the steel? Anyone know what the tuning may have been?

Not absolutely sure but , it might have been Big Jim Murphy. Forumites????

if you mean carl smith and the tunesmiths the steel was Johnny Sibert and for Carl he used A6. When Carl and his band had guests to sing Johnny would use his other neck to complemint that singers style he used E7 and sometimes C6. CC

Yes,that is who I'm referring to.I'm take it from the tuning that he was using an eight string non pedal.Do you happen to have any pictures of the band that you could post.Non of my albums show the entire band,just a picture of Carl.

His trio consisted of Darrel McCall on bass, Johnny Virgin on drums, and the great Jim Murphy on steel.
Richard

i will try to post pics. If I goof it up I'll send it snail.

well that didn't work.Send me your snail and I'll mail the pics to you. CC

CC.My address is on it's way to you.So who is the steel player,for sure.Jim Murphy or Johnny Sibert? Or did Carl change players?

Lonnie,

It depends on the era. Both Johnnie Siebert and Jim Murphy worked for Carl Smith. Also, Curley Chalker recorded and did some road dates with Carl.

I have a DVD of those old country shows where everybody is sitting on straw bales in the barn. There are several songs by Carl Smith and they have some pretty good shots of his band and steel player.

Is that DVD still available?If so,from where?The era of his music I'm referring to is the recordings such as Hey Joe,There She Goes,Are You Teasing Me.There was a Columbia album released in 1962 with his greatest hits on it.There is also an old recording of a song called Am I The One.It was on the flip side of Hey Joe on a 78 that I have.

Lonnie, from the era you are talking about and the old videos it was Johnny Siebert. The trio I mentioned was from the 70's. In fact Murph got to record "Big Murph " on one Carls albums.
Richard

Thanks for the information.Very helpful.The old steelers had such great tone and very pretty styles.Not like the electronic abominations coming out of Nashville these days.

Richard,
I have/had a tape of Carl with a knocked out pedal steel on "Hey Joe",would that have been Murph. Always wondered.

Bill

Stomper Time put out a DVD with some of that stuff. Im not sure where to get them though!!!

I ordered my DVD from www.bim-bam.com
They are a record distributor out of England.
The DVD I have is entitled: "Hillbilly Rockabillies on TV" and feature a lot of the artists from the 50's. Including Carl Smith, Faron Young, Jim Reeves, Ray Price, Ernest Tubb, Webb Pierce and etc. There are several good shots of the bands.

Thanks for the info Erv.I'll give them a try.