The Steel Guitar Forum

Fasinated with Kayton Roberts... I've worn out the only two vids on youtube I've found of him playing. Also found lots of general info on him in the old forum links.
I just did a google search (no affiliation with Rosie) and found some links to the old forum. Curious.. everyone says he's from North FL.. anyone know where exactly? I live right on the border of AL & FL (Covington Co at least). I'd love to know that Kayton came from this area. Being that I'm basically down the road from Hank Sr's roots(Georgiana, Butler Co), and in the same vicinity of Don Helms' roots (New Brockton, Coffee Co) I'm starting to realize where this STEEL playing facination is coming from! Peculiar story here.. I used to live in the Ft. Walton/Mary Esther area and a fella I worked with knew of an old lady wanting to get rid of some steel guitar equipment, whether it was her husband's or relatives, I can't remember,, but I do recall the man saying this guy was a renowned steel player in that area.. played with all of the greats. I can't vouch to say if this had anything to do with Kayton Roberts, but what if??? Anyhow, I'm trying to find as much as I can about Kayton... what's some good material of his to study by? I'd like to find some of his solo recordings if possible. His playing with Hank III blows my mind! BOOOO WAHHHHHH!!!!!

Kayton is amazing. Not only has he never played pedal steel, but he's only owned one steel guitar in his life, his Fender Dual Pro which he bought new in 1951. He uses a 1960's DeArmond volume pedal and a silverface Fender Deluxe Reverb witha JBL which Hank Snow gave him in the 70s. Basically, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Kayton made some records on the Stoneway label in the 70s as well as a record with Roy Wiggins and a record with Herb Remington. I know that he made a record of Hank Snow songs a couple of years ago but I don't know it it was ever released.

Kayton joined Snow's band in 1967 as the archtop rhythm guitarist. Jimmy Crawford was the steel player at the time. After a brief time as the rhythm player, Crawford left and Kayton became the steel player. His guitar was originally blond but he painted it red to match the rest of the bands red vox guitars. If you can make it to Nashville June 10th, Kayton will be giving a steel guitar demonstration at the Country Music Hall of Fame where he will talk about the steel guitar and it's history and answer questions from the audience.

Kayton's tunings are :

Inside, C6/A7:
E
C
A
G or F#
E
C#
A
A (bass note)

Outside, F13/9:
F
D or C
A
F
G
Ed
C
F

Kayton plays F13 instead of E13 because he does a lot of chime playing on C6 and F works better with for open harmonics.

Scott, I removed your link to the search for previous posts on Kayton Roberts as it was too long and causing the discussion to extend beyond the width of the screen.
Here are some previous discussions as Scott mentioned from the old No Peddlers board:
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/002128.html
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/001281.html
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/002270.html
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/003896.html
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/003048.html

Thanks guys, here's a link to the session Chris mentioned
http://www.countrymusichalloffame.com/s ... x?cid=2041

Kayton does it all! He'a a great showman, plays the old ones, new ones, some Hawaiian numbers, and special effects that only he can do.
Bobby Seymour attended Kayton's last Steel Guitar Demo at the Hall of Fame - and gave it a big "Thumbs Up" in his weekly newsletter.
Looking forward to June 10th!

Dave Clark

I can listen to Kayton Roberts all day long. I would like to meet him sometime too.

Terry Wood

Andy Volk's Lap Steel guitar book has a good interview with Kayton Roberts and a couple of pictures

Kayton has one of the purest sounds I've ever heard. The work he did with Herb Remington on an album called "From Houston to Nashville" is mind blowing. But to really understand how gifted he is you need to listen to his version of "The Bells of St. Mary's". It's virtually all done with harmonics and every note is unbelievably pure and clear.

Kayton is aprime example of someone who can play anything and doesn't need all the pedals and levers and mechanical junk.

Kayton has always been one of my favorites. He gave a lot to Hank Snow's tunes in the old days.

I had the pleasure of meeting Kayton in Atlanta, when Carl Dixon had his steel guitar extravaganza. The most memorial moment of that weekend was when Leonard Zinn, Herb Remington, and Kayton did a non-pedal set of great music. I was sitting on the floor about 10 feet from the stage, and was completely amazed by the playing of all 3 of them. Of course, only Kayton and Herb were playing steel, and Leonard was on rhythm guitar.

The one thing I mentioned to Carl after the set, was the fact that this was never placed on video tape, and that this moment in history was gone, and never to be reproduced. I really wish people would get over the notion that it is not necessary to video performances. The history of this instrument is being ignored, as well as players. We are losing many of the original innovators of the steel, and if we don't have a visual and written history, we will never get the general public to appreciate the music and the instrument, as well as the players.

Dennis