The Steel Guitar Forum

Some very cool early Poco and Rusty on steel and dobro! JP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH1rRMoc ... ed&search=

No Poco fans? JP

plenty of POCO fans.

This clip has been up there for a bit, a very good young Richie clip.

tp

I remember one of the first steel guitar songs I ever heard was Rusty on Grand Junction. His playing is superb, and I am surprised how seldom he is ever mentioned on our forum.

Watching later Poco videos (and hearing albums that
come along every so often), as I'm sure many are aware, that Rusty's downsized his steel playing greatly over the last couple+ decades.
I know he's had a lot of responsibility as far keeping Poco going. I would guess he's probably been
the main man as far as that's concerned.
Still, I miss his playing very much. Maybe some of it
was getting burned out on being "just" a steel player. Or with his musical multi-talent and business
responsibilities he just can't devote the amount of time he wants/needs to.
I don't think I've ever seen or heard any interviews
where he's talked about it.


Joe.

Rusty playing with Poco at Blissfest in July 2006.

Joe Shelby, you're right. I bought the last Poco CD, and I was very disappointed in the lack of pedal steel. To me, that was always a huge selling point of the band.

Maybe 'cause he's singing more he's pedaling less? JP

Great stuff. I'm pretty new to Poco, but I'm liking what I hear!

Great stuff. I'm pretty new to Poco, but I'm liking what I hear!

'Saw Richie Furray Band here in Portland a few weeks ago. No steel, but a great show, with several of my fave Poco and Buffalo Springfield tunes.
His daughter is a great singer and did all the backup vox.
Chris Hillman trio opened, and came out for a segment with Richie, including You Ain't Goin' Nowhere.

Richie at the Beachland in Cleveland in July 2007

I saw Rusty in Poco about 5/6 years ago & asked why he played such little steel after I finihsed gushing all over how he was one of the main reasons I had started playing & he said that frankly he was bored with the steel & wasn't interested in coming to the steel shows-very nice and accomidating though. He chimed a wonderful version of "Heart of the Night" that evening & that was about it.

please...someone must know how rusty tuned his dobro on early poco albums...?

while i'm here...there's a you tube version of kind woman with rusty playing very little steel...none of the fun jumpy stuff....i really prefer the original buffalo springfield version with the cool steel/vocal interplay!

Rusty has definitely moved away from doing steel work in Poco and I wished that weren't so, but it is. I remember him saying that he wasn't that crazy about doing steel guitar records like the one he was on called "Suite Steel" I think.

If you were lucky enough to get one of the rare demos from his collaboration with Bill Lloyd, Pat Simmons, and John Cowan as 4 Wheel Drive on RCA you would have heard some fantastic steel, especially on a song called, "Till the Money's All Gone." This band of course morphed into the Sky Kings where they were gobbled up by the Nashville music machine. Tremendous talent, great players, but way too little promotion. You can still get a large compilation of their work from Rhino.

Rusty is also doing some stuff under Session Cats with Jack Sundrud where for a price you can get Rusty to stick on steel or dobro to your tape. God, where was that when I was struggling to get a demo done. Oh yeah, Rusty was making bucks being one of the most innovative players in the business.

Check out Rusty's opening bar technique on this beautiful arrangement of "Magnolia"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIPEhwNf ... ed&search=

As I recall Rusty used standard dobro tuning: GBDGBD, low to high. It also makes sense since copping licks he played is easy with that tuning; his dobro playing has great attack, tone and timing, but is technically fairly simple stuff.

I don't know why he doesn't come up much either - he was kind of THE hot ticket among country-rockers from the Springfield camp. Really, the only reason I can think of is that his steel playing on their early releases, with the exception of his Leslie use, is pretty straightforward country pedal steel. Among the early "country rockers", his playing was probably technically superior to most, but very conventional; Buddy Cage was playing weird fuzz ad odd chromatic "square peg in round hole" stuff, Al Perkins was playing at blistering volume levels and a semi-distorted guitarlike tone, Sneaky way playing completely in his own creative world, Jerry Garcia was playing steel, but his timing/attack sounded exactly like his guitar playing, making it very unusual.

Rusty was playing what the country guys were playing, but over a rock (sometimes) setting. It was good stuff, but it just didn't stand out from the crowd IMO, even if he DID play laying on his back at some live shows as part of the stage antics. But in the 70's he was VERY well respected by the rock crowd, and had a running column in Guitar Player Magazine for years.

Well said, Jim. Considering how popular Rusty was in the 1970s (and deservedly so), I am surprised he is not yet in the SGHOF. Really, of all the West Coast "heavyweights" (J.D., Bobby Black, Red Rhodes, Sneaky) he is the only one not yet in.

It probably goes without saying for the die-hard Rusty fans, but his playing on "Kind Woman" was one of my first introductions to the instrument and a big influence. Still one of my all time favorites. It has a kind of languid, wandering quality that is very unique.