The Steel Guitar Forum

We have a very diverse group of people who are members of this forum. We vary in age, profession, where we live and musical tastes. The one thing we all have in common is the pedal steel (or non pedal steel) . My question is, what was the first concert you ever went to and what was the first concert that had a pedal steel player? For me it was Aug 16, 1969. It was two weeks before Woodstock and it was The Jefferson Airplane at the Fillmore East in New York. The opening act was some unknown band from England, Joe Cocker and the Grease Band.
A few months later also at the Fillmore, I saw my first band with a pedal steel player, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, opening for the Dead with Jerry Garcia on steel. A great start to my days of concert going.

Jamestown Civic Center, (North Dakota) Around 1970.

Tommy Overstreet, and Susan Raye
I think Smiley Roberts was with T.Overstreet then.
Smiley says that he sorta remembers doing a show up there around that time.
I was a scrawny little fourth (fifth?) grader, and had a huge crush on Susan Raye. (L.A. International Airport, Pitty pitty patter)

Mid 70s I saw Julian Tharpe play at a club in Birmingham. I never heard or saw anything or anyone else that changed my perception of the pedal steel guitar like that did. I did not even own one at the time and would not for the next 10 or 15 years. I was working as a musician and I understood what a player like Tharpe represented, something totally unique and individual and virtuosic. That is what I remember about his playing.

It might has well been a concert for one. I was awestruck.

The very first show I can remember,I went with my grandma and grandpa to a little[and I mean little] country school house I went to,to see Hank Sr.this was before he had hit the big time,I have seen and played at many shows over the years,but the one I still remember most,when I was about 12,I saw my alltime hero,at the Rylander theater in Americus Ga.and the first time I saw a steel player,it was MR.HANK SNOW.That's the one I never forgot.I'm sure Hank had a steel player,but I was so young I barely remember his show.I do remember Hank and his band where dressed in their cowboy suits,I was waiting for the shooting to start like in the Roy Rogers movies,The mind of a child.DYKBC.

I think it was way back in 1969, I wish I could be more certain about the year, at the Stockholm Concert House. On stage, one of or should I state the country music most wanted band and my favorites since 5 years ago, at that time. Buck Owens and the Buckaroos. That was the first time I ever saw a pedal steel guitar, from a distance of course but never the less. I knew about it prior to that from his albums and I sure was excited.
Some 37 years later I bought my own pedal steel, a GFI and the excitement are still there and I try to learn as much as I can. Why and how I decided to buy me a pedal steel guitar, well, thats just another story and it would be told in due time.
//Kjell

As an active teen playing music thru the 60's, I lived in Westport Ct and the MUSIC scene was intense between Ct and NYC. Certainly the Stones, Cream, Who etc when they all came thru NY on there first tours we attended. A typical local show we attended was Barry Tashian and the Remains during that era as well. This is Barry's home town. In 76 I played a few gigs on Steel with Barry and his wifes band Holly and the Outskirts.Short lived but really fun. As many may know, Barry left the Outskirts to tour with Emmylou for the next decade, , I can't believe he left us for her

Also in town there were several "multi band" concerts that followed right away. Show promoters were flocking to the BURBS of NY.

I think the first Pedal Steel I saw in a REAL concert was the Youngbloods with Banana. Maybe 67/68 ish ?

The decade that followed had some sort of a theater or showcase club from NYC to Boston. Every band, every player, anyone who had even mild success worked the circuit. And this doesn't even touch on what was going on in NYC down in Village. That was just a totally different scene going on, including MUSIC !

The very first stage concert I attended was Micky and Sylvia at the Apollo , probably late 50's ? And for some real trivia , Freddie Lyman was there and his younger brother Louie Lyman too ! Freddie was like 15 and Louie was like 12, so much for Michael Jackson ! Those kids knocked me out at my young tender age of maybe 10 or 11..

I'm thinking me and my two sisters stuck out in the crowd ! This I think was an Alan Freed or Clay Cole kinda show, my oldest sister was music business connected.

It wouldn't have been the first live music I'd seen (I'd been hanging with budding musicians in my home town and hearing stuff that came through town, but Lethbridge, Alberta did not get many major acts), but in terms of a serious concert with a major artist, but I think it was in the fall of 1969 that I saw Gordon Lightfoot in Victoria, British Columbia. By that time I'd been listening to a lot of "folk" stuff and learning to play it - Lightfoot stuff, Ian and Sylvia, Dylan, Donovan and folks like that. I was blown away - on the ride back up to my boarding school north of Victoria that night I could hear "Early Morning Rain" in my head, and I still can't drive over that stretch of road (which I do several times a year) without hearing it. Then the next summer (by which time, probably in no small part due to its rules against long hair, I had parted company with the school on Vancouver Island and was trying to grow my hair and working at being a baby hippie, roadie, and folksinger) it was Festival Express - everyone was playing there, as those who've seen the recent DVD know - Janis Joplin, The Band, Ian and Sylvia & GSB, The Dead with NRPS opening, the Burritos, Sha Na Na, Buddy Guy.....

There were at least three pedal steel players at Festival Express - Jerry Garcia with NRPS, Buddy Cage with Ian and Sylvia, and of course Sneaky with the FBB's. That made a huge impression on me, though it took me a few years to appreciate just how much steel was the sound I wanted to make. I also remember (memory is hazy, as is the way with Rock Festival memories) having a great time while Janis was playing (she was not long for this World at that point), and that Buddy Guy simply blew away all my notions of what a guitar could be. And I loved seeing The Band.

Also, around that time there were some good regional bands coming through the ol' hometown - some guys from Washington State called "Sleepy John" who were really astonishingly good and played a lot of original stuff (anyone remember them?), and a couple of good bands from Edmonton (anyone from Alberta remember "Everyman's Tonto" or its alter ego "Willie and the Walkers"?). And Vancouver's "The Collectors", who became "Chilliwack". Watching and listening to those guys at local dances made a big impression on me.

Thanks Michael, for reviving the memories.

I saw my first OPRY show in Nov, 1960 at the high school in Montevideo, Mn. I was 17 years old then. Kitty Wells was the main artist on the show. The other performers were Johnny & Jack, Bill Phillips & Marvin Rainwater. I am sure Kitty had a steel player, but I don't know who it was.
Someone told me a few years ago that it may have been Jimmy Crawford. ??


Roger

1. Grand Funk Railroad
2. Mahavishnu Orchestra

Needless to say, my tastes were still evolving....

Gosh... my first concert? I was 9, and Dad took me to Baltimore (from Norfolk, VA) to see the Beatles...

The first steel player I ever saw was probably Bobbe... I would have been too young to remember, though. Bobbe would know better... Dad brought all the shows in to Norfolk, and Bobbe was very much a part of things in those days...

Mine was in NYC when I was about 10 years old my Folks took me to see a guy who sang,and played an acoustic guitar named "Josh White" he was great.

First-ever concert?

Lonnie Donegan at the Finsbury Park Empire in 1957 (Jim Cohen - e-mail me privately and I'll see if I can come up with some salacious details!)....

First 'live' steel? Rusty Young with Poco - sadly, after Jim Messina had left. Paul Cotten wasn't half as good as JM!

Josh White! He was a legend- the first I heard of him is that I recall learning in school that his career was really hurt by the McCarthy thing. Cool Stu.

The very first live steel I saw in concert was at the Carolina Opry in Myrtle Beach, SC, but my first real country concert was BlackHawk and Wynonna-Both didn't have steel, but Blackhawk is one of my favorite bands. I saw other concerts afterwards, like George Strait(Mike Daily on steel), Tim McGraw & Faith Hill(Denny Hemingson on steel for Tim, Gary Carter on steel for Faith, John Michael Montgomery(Monte Good on steel), Montgomery Gentry(Randy Sorrells on steel, and Trace Adkins(Randy Hess on steel). In 1999, I saw Ricochet with Teddy Carr on steel and I also saw Vince Gill with the great John Hughey on steel.

Brett

While stationed with the Navy in 1967, I saw Peter, Paul, and Mary at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C..I also saw Simon and Garfunkle there. Never went to a concert with a steel player except for a Michigan band that plays at our opera house. They are called "Steppin' In It". Great lap steel and dobro! We used to enjoy a band that would come up to a local bar in the 70's. They were from Fondulac Wisconsin and were called Radio Flyer, great name for a band. Their steel player always wore a ten gallon hat.

Bill Haley and the Comets in or around '58.

The Beatles
Houston, 1965

I was only 5 years-old. My dad took my brothers and me (he didn't want to do it, but my mom wanted the kids to see the show because she thought the band was something special).

It was the moment I decided to become a musician.

As for bands with pedal steel, I don't recall the first one, but it would have been the late 70's in Austin.

My first real was in I believe 1974, or so. It was a triple bill with Deep Purple, Savoy Brown and Tuckey Buzzard. From what I remembered, a good time was had by all.
Duncan

Jody Nix and the Texas Cowboys. 1987. Big Spring, Texas.

My first concert would have been around 1952 or '53. We used to drive to Kansas from Calif. every summer to see my grandparents. While there one year my uncle scored some tickets to a concert at the National Guard Armory in Independence called the "Battle of the Bands". It consisted of Lefty Frizzell and his group and Hank Thompson & the Brazos Valley Boys.

I was only 12 years old or so at the time but I remember that Lefty & his group came on first and he pretty much owned the hit parade in those days. They did a great show but didn't sound exactly like his records as I recall. He had a guitar, standup steel, fiddle, and acoustic bass. Most of his honky tonk records at the time had a piano player on them but he didn't use one on this show.

When Hank and the boys came on it was a whole different ballgame! Lefty's guys were dressed in cowboy shirts and a couple of 'em had hats on but the Brazos Valley Boys were all dressed in tailored western suits with white cowboy hats, ties and the whole ten yards. They did a couple of tunes before Hank came on and it might have been Billy Gray fronting but it's been a lot of years. When Hank came on they hit into their pace and did hit after hit with everyone sounding as good or better than the record. They were a very well polished and probably along with Bob Wills & Spade Cooley one of the first "Super Groups" to ever come along! I remember that they used to win the band of the year award every year for quite a while. My uncle Leon and I talked about this show a lot over the years because it impressed us so much...........JH in Va.

My first concert was in August 1969 "Merle Haggard & Bonnie Owens" I wasn't quite a year old nor do I recollect any of it but I do have the pictures to prove it!

JW

My first concert that I attended that included PSG was Charley Pride. Quite a few years ago.

First major concert - 1968 - Cream at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.


First Concert with a Steeler - 1970 - Neil Young at the same venue. He didn't have a Steel, but his opening act, Linda Ronstadt did.

First "real" concert was in 1991 at the new Pyramid Arena in Memphis, TN. Hank Williams Jr, Patty Loveless, and Doug Stone. A packed house with around 22,000 in attendance. All three artist had steel guitars, of course Hank had the great Cowboy Eddie Long on steel.

First concert that I remember a steel player would be a local gospel music group that came to our church when I was a young teenager. Floyd Arbuckle was the players name. He and his LDG Sho-Bud sort of lit the fire in me so to say.

Moody Blues, 1981 Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.

First steel -- Brothers of the Beladi, 1993 (???) with Paul Brainard (???) sitting in on steel at Berbadi's Pan in Portland. Or.