Slim Whitman's Steel player

[Fred Glave]

I was at a re-sale store the other day and found a few old vinyl records, and one of them was a mint condition Slim Whitman album, "All My Best". Wow, what an interesting find. He has a steel player that isn't too bad, I was wondering if anybody out there has some info. Alot of echo and reverb on everything!

[Bob Tuttle]

It's most likely Hoot Rains. He played with Slim Whitman during the 1950s.



Here's an early picture of Hoot Rains.

[Val Gethers]

Fred, my Slim Whitman album "Home on the Range" [United Artists][1978] lists Sonny Darrish which is probably a misprint for Sonny Garrish.

[Eddie Cunningham]

Also Jerry Byrd recorded on many of Slims early ( late 40s = "Birmingham Jail" & "Casting My Lasso to the sky" ) records but Hoot was the main man on Slims hits of the 50s , = "North Wind" , "China Doll" "Indian Love Call", and many others !! Hoot had that single string slide sound that was weird but wild !! Slim recut many of his older hits later with pedal steel, but not with the same unusual sound as the originals !! Eddie "C" ( the old geezer )

[Doug Childress]

When I was growing up Slim Whitman was appearing on "The Louisiana Hayride". This was in the late 40's early 50's. His steel player on the early recordings was Hoot Rains. Hoot was living in Shreveport and worked for the J. B. Beard Co. My Uncle worked with him and used to tell me stories about him. He played on "Love Song of the Waterfall" as well as a lot of Slim's early recordings. He did beautiful bar slides both live and on recordings.

[Garry Vanderlinde]