The Steel Guitar Forum

i can't seem to find any footage of tom morrell . is there any?

i guess i'll take that as a no,he was pretty illusive .

I saw him play several times at the TSGA show. He was awesome!

I haven't seen any footage of him, either on YouTube or elsewhere. I was lucky enough to see him play at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, CA supporting Don Edwards (the night before they played for Gene Autrey's birthday celebration). The audience was one half cowboy music afficiandos and one half steel guitarists from around the SF Bay Area. He was amazing.

yea its pretty hard to believe that there's nothing out there on him..did he ever play the convention. this topic deserves some more investigation .L.J.

I saw him play the ISGC in '99.....not part of a group,.....but his own set......jaw dropping....

Morrell is on a dvd called "Legends of Western Swing
Guitar". He plays six-string with Eldon Shamblin on it.

http://guitarvideos.com/dvd/13062dvd.htm

Other than 'homestyle' personal videos, that's the
only 'formally done' video on him that I'm aware of.
~Russ

Scotty has video of most everyone who has appeared on the convention stage. Unfortunately, these are all on VHS and really need archiving to digital. I'll bet Tom is in there. What a musician! (and the toughest interview of all those I did for my book).

What a musician! (and the toughest interview of all those I did for my book).

Do you mind sharing why he was the toughest, Andy?

Aloha,
Don

Andy Volk wrote:Scotty has video of most everyone who has appeared on the convention stage. Unfortunately, these are all on VHS and really need archiving to digital. I'll bet Tom is in there. What a musician! (and the toughest interview of all those I did for my book).

What was so "tough" about Morrell?

If you read the interview in Andy's book , you would know why it was a tough interview..... at least thats what I gathered from reading Andy's book. But Tom's character and wit come straight threw. Very enjoyable.
Great work Andy.
I certainly would like to see some DVD footage of Tom as well.
The Time warp Top hands are among my favorites.
Todd

Tom was a brilliant musician who had mastered the instrument at a level that few achieve and he knew just what he was about and why and how to bring the music to life. At the same time, he was not an intellectual about it in the sense that he was profoundly disinterested in any detailed analysis of his playing or his philosophies.

Wes Montgomery used to get agitated when people asked him how he played such brilliant guitar. He would generally respond with something like, "I don't know, I just do it." As if figuring it all out intellectually might somehow rob it of its mojo. My mom plays a kind of unhip, show tune piano style yet she can instantly play any song she knows, off the top of her head, in any key with complex chords, moving bass lines, and cool right hand figures and flourishes. For my whole life, she's stubbornly resisted my efforts to get her to explain exactly how she does it. Morrell was like that.

Tom was terse, practical and almost dared you to ask the next question. His interview was well-edited as there were a lot of long-pauses and one-word responses to complex questions. But Tom had a good sense of humor under that tough exterior. I loved his line about burning his guitar and cooking me a steak on it if I didn't like his playing.

One of my favorite John Hughey memories came after our steel show in Saluda, SC. John, Miss Jean, and I were staying at the same place. John got there before me, and in a pouring rain, asked me if he needed to move his vehicle, since I'd be leaving first. I rolled the window down a little more, and John hollered, "Tommy Morrell!" I had a Time-Warp Top Hands CD in. John came running out in that pouring rain, wouldn't get in my car, just stood there listening---One genius appreciating another.

Those Time-Warp Tophands CD's have some of the funniest liner notes ever written. Tom's bizzaro artwork is awesome, too. My favorite:

Perhaps my all time favorite player. I think I've told this story before:
I thought I would see about getting a lesson from Tom at one of the Dallas shows. I approached and asked--he just kind of grumbled--then later that day sitting in the bar he asked "So what do you want to learn?" I said, well maybe help clarifying your E13 tuning. He said--"What do you want to know about it?" I said well, for starters, how do you use the first string? He said, "If you don't know how to use it, just take it off!" I knew then that he wasn't much for teaching!

When I was first learning lapsteel and had just discovered his Timewarp Tophands albums, I wrote to Tom, asking about his tuning. He replied with a friendly hand-written letter (which I probably still have somewhere) explaining his tuning - which turns out to have largely the same intervals as the C6th I was using, so I felt I was on the right lines. But he said whatever tuning you're using, just really get to know your way around it! Wise words...