The Steel Guitar Forum

Amazing fat chords, I thought it was Curly Chalker but it's a different touch, it's not Emmons, could be Charleton but I think was busy with ET -- who the heck is this guy? I'm talking about his great electric western swing era of stuff like "So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed".

Speedy West?

Bo, Curley Chalker did cut a whole album full of tunes with Merle Travis. I think they were remakes as the orignal of "So Round, So Firm" didn't have much steel on it but had that muted trumpet sound that a lot of Travis' tunes had. That was originally cut in the forties but the things with Chalker on them were almost twenty years later. I have that stuff on cassette but there's no credits...JH in Va.

I believe Curly was still playing a Fender pedal steel guitar, when he recorded those tunes with Merle Travis. This may be why his sound or style of playing was a bit different.

Hello Roger! In 1961 Jimmy Colvard, Terry Bethel, & Myself saw Curley Chalker at the grand opening of the Southdale Mall in Edina Mn. Curley was with Hank Penny & Sue Thompson & was playing a Fender 1000 thru 2 Fender Bassman amps, Wow what increadable memories of the past! Hope all Is well with you! Your Old Friend! Al udeen

Hi Al,

I was a junior in high school in 1961. I did see a multi-artist Grand Ole Opry show at the Montivideo high school auitorium in November 1960. The artists were Marvin Rainwater, Johnny & Jack, Bill Philipps, & Kitty Wells. I have no idea who the steel player was on the show. Possibly Jimmy Crawford.??

I'm doing fine Al. I retired this past April.


Roger

It's definitely Curly Chalker. The album is "Travis" - Capitol Records ST-1664 which was released in the early 1960's. I was a C&W Radio DJ at the time and played the heck out of it on my show, as well as Curly's Big Hits On Big Steel Columbia Records album.

The earlier Travis albums featured lap steel only, not fat Chalker chords. Curly who was working in Las Vegas was hired for the Travis session in Los Angeles because he had known Merle since they were both associated with Hank Thompson when Curly was Hank's steel player.

Hello Bob,

Do you know what year Hank recorded "Stirring Up The Ashes"? I believe it was the first time I heard Curly play on a recording.

Bo,

The original recording of "So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed" with Travis was done in 1946 and had the great Pete Martinez on steel.

Hi Roger. Curly was first with Hank Thompson from 1950 to 1952 and again for 6 months in 1963. Unfortunately, I don't have any info on Stirring Up The Ashes as to when it was recorded.

Thanks to Mike Gross for the info on the original 1946 Travis recording. Mike has a fantastic collection of facts about steel players. We are delighted that Mike is our MC each year at our annual PSGA Show in Connecticut.

Roger:

Stirring Up The Ashes was recorded in May, 1963, but I don't think it was released until 1964.

Bob,

I don't want to bring this off topic but thanks so very much for your kind comments regarding myself. It is a true pleasure of mine to be able to MC for the wonderful PSGA event that you and Jeff DeMaio spend countless days of your precious time to put together.

To bring this back on topic I would like to mention that the early Merle Travis Capitol recordings (1946-1952)had some of the greatest players to ever touch the Steel Guitar. Besides Pete Martinez, some of these recordings featured Noel Boggs, Speedy West and Joaquin Murphey.