The Steel Guitar Forum

is it buddy who plays on the instrumental version of wichita lineman? superb playing. i was wondering on which album it might be because i cannot find any info on the song anywhere... cheers, segu

I could be wrong but I seem to remeber that being on the "Suite Steel" album.

I have two versions:
Buddy Emmons on the Suite Steel album and Tommy White on the recent By Request CD.
I don`t think Suite Steel has been released on CD. Segu,the next time you come over , I´ll play them for you....

olli! howdydoody! i've been practising very hard all autumn and spring i should come over but i heard you are going to the steel guitar convention? i got meself an MSA and a fender vibrosonic now but i still don't sound like curly chalker... i can play the opening licks from mercy mercy mercy tho i know the basic stuff from wichita but you could show me more? i love that song.

segu

He also plays on Ray Charles' recording of it, on the "Volcanic Action Of My Soul" LP.

I'm sure it's been recorded by several artists as mentioned and I'm sure they're all great.

The one I have is by Tommy White. Just a fabulous rendering of a brilliantly written tune.

Tommy's version is beautiful!

BE's version is on the Suite Steel album. Some were inspired to take up pedal steel just because of that one track.

Tommy's version is very, very nice; each listening will bring out more of the complexity and the interpretation.

They were done many years apart.

I'm one of them, Bob!



RR

I didn't hear BE's Suite Steel version until after I had already taken up steel, inspired primarily by Lloyd Green's playing on his two tracks on Ricky Skaggs's Highways and Heartaches album. But if I had heard Wichita Lineman first, I think that would have done it! It remains one of the pinnacles of steel guitar music for me.

(I haven't heard the Suite Steel album in a quite a while--I've GOT to get my turntable back into service--but the rest of the album didn't do all that much for me back then. Wichita Lineman stood out like a diamond in a haystack! Luckily, I have it on a (personal) compilation cassette of BE material, which this reminds me to burn to CD.)

I'd be fascinated to hear Tommy's take on the tune. Must get a copy!

Oh Man...B.E's take on "Wichita Lineman" is just too much. I love the song as it is but, to hear it done like that, the melancoly just tears yer heart out...in a good way More than once it's made me shed a tear after a couple of pops

Is there any tabs for it out there?

Incidentally, 6-stringer Johnny A does a fairly cool version of 'Lineman' too. Worth a listen if you like the song.

If you've never heard the Emmons version, find it! You need to hear it!

Cheers All !..........Chris

An original reviewer of Ray Charles "Volcanic Action Of My Soul" recording singled out Buddy's steel solo on Wichita Lineman by saying it "gleamed like railroad tracks in the moonlight".

-John

A SPECIALL song for me on this RAY CHARLES album is "Feel So Bad"
The first time i heard this song i thought this steelplayer must be a "BLACK MAN" too play (soul) like this,,,,,YES it was (again)the BIG E !


Review by Andrew Hamilton
Only Ray Charles and a select few could make a dirty blues like "Feel So Bad" soulful against the backdrop of an orchestra and a lavish arrangement. But he does just that throughout this 1971 release that comes with a poem by Julian Bond, credited here as the Bishop of Atlanta.


Jelle

...it "gleamed like railroad tracks in the moonlight".

That's a nice phrase.

Mark Van Allen’s rendition on BlueGround Under Grass’ Barnyard Gone Wrong is wonderful. Worth the price of the CD.

Many thanks, Tom!

I'm another one Buddy kick started with "Wichita", I went and bought a Maverick the day I got that record, and joined a band the same day! There's a whole lot of magic in Buddy's version.

The guys in BGUG were nice enough to let me put that one on the first CD, basically as a tribute and thank you to Buddy for the inspiration. We usually got some of our best crowd response to that one played live. Seems like everybody digs it!

Not to detract at all from this thread, but how about the guitar solo in the Glen Campbell recording? I thought that it fit the mood of the song perfectly.
I'm assuming it was he that did the guitar work.

glen campbell's original is perfect. to me it is one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded. just beautiful. excellent production and musicianship. that's why BE's version is so amazing. he took a song that was already perfect but being BE still managed to create an amazing version of it. i get never tired of GC's or BE's version of it. get tony joe white's version of it. it's different but just fabulous. tony joe white is one of the most soulful american musicians ever. a true genious.

Bob White also cut a nice version on his 'Steel Trek' album. Haven't heard Tommy's version yet...

I've got Buddy's take on my myspace page...!

Question:
Anyone know where to find 'Volcanic Action of My Soul' on CD? Another great track on that album is Jimmy Webb's "See You There"... also check out the Ray Charles C&W boxset.

And there`s Jimmy Webb`s own version with just piano, acoustic guitar and vox. On the "Ten Easy Pieces"(1996) album.
Great , sparse versions of all the "hits". Steve Smith plays steel on "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", BTW.
Get it !!

Hear railroad tracks gleaming and streaming in the moonlight @ 01:57: http://www.4shared.com/audio/q8XKntxY/R ... ineman.htm.

It's why some of the songwriters (like Jimmy Webb) make the big bucks.

"Lineman" I have long considered one of my all-time top 20 favorite songs.

The older I get, the more I realize that the song itself is everything. What I mean by that is that when I was younger I might have thought that as long as you had a very good singer and very good players, most pieces of music might be considered to be well - very good. And some were better than others.

But the greatness of "Wichita Lineman" as a song gives it the potential to be covered by any number of artists and be able to turn in a sterling performance. And of course Buddy's version is one of those.

Speaking of Suite Steel, I heard at one point that Rhino re-issued that album on CD, but I couldn't find anything on their website about it. Does anyone have any knowledge about this?

Jeff, thanks for putting up the version by Brother Ray, and I don't know about the rest of you, but that particular music file sounded off - when it came time for Buddy's solo, I could hear the rest of the orchestra loud and clear in my headphones, but it sounded like Buddy was playing his steel in the bathroom down the hall from the studio.

For that matter Ray's vocals were kind of subdued in volume compared to the orchestra, and that of course is a cardinal sin in recording, when the lead vocalist sounds like they are sort of in the background.

I like the version Bobbe Seymour did from his 'Soulful Steel' CD, as well as Tommy White's version.

Unfortumately, I have never heard the Big E's version.

Craig, you've been deprived! Be deprived no more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T23Z1e8UnPM