Steel Player on Letterman

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 18 Oct 2008 9:33 am

did anyone see tim montana (real name?) on letterman with the show pro player? pretty steel, but couldn't hear the sound much over the rest of the band. couldn't understand the words either, which i thought was too bad since that might have been the whole idea of the song. sounded just like a david allen coe/hank jr. song. at least the singer pulled his hat down so far you couldn't see his face.
nice looking steel though...who's was it?

Larry Bressington · Post by **Larry Bressington** » 18 Oct 2008 9:38 am

Just my thoughts exactly chris, all i ever hear on that show is the keyboard, or is it just me?

Could't hear the steel!

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 18 Oct 2008 9:53 am

I thought it was a drum solo with some other guys in front of him. I just could hear a word now and then, pretty steel though. More annoying than Paul Shaffer's inane chattering.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 18 Oct 2008 10:07 am

More annoying than Paul Shaffer's inane chattering.

Howard, there's nothing more annoying than that!

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 18 Oct 2008 11:19 am

was that smith currie? i like hippie bands...especially when tim montana (related to joe and patsy?) shaked his beautiful hair around in a frenzy toward the end. still couldn't see his face cuzza his hat bein' pulled down so cool!

i noticed you could hear the rock guitar solo really clearly...
you'd think they'da wanted to present the lyrics...wasn't it about the U S of A or something?

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 18 Oct 2008 12:04 pm

I don't know who works the board or does the live music mix on Letterman, but he has to be deaf. No one who could hear Niagra Falls at 100 yards could possibly be that bad as audio producer.

Terrible, really.

It's a disgrace to the airwaves, and musicians and singers in general.

Brick Spieth · Post by **Brick Spieth** » 18 Oct 2008 12:16 pm

I had a chat with Neil Young's sound guy once about New York union TV guys. His approach was to just suck up to them as best he could and hope they would adjust the mix per his "suggestions" as he was not allowed to touch anything.

They basically could care less.

Larry Bressington · Post by **Larry Bressington** » 18 Oct 2008 12:22 pm

I worked a BBC T.V show 20 years ago and it was live.
You had a 3 minute sound check and then all the knobs were taped up with duct tape, volume pedals were really hated by them. I see their point of veiw, as long as it sounds killer on T.V., but when it dosent, i dont.
Alot of soundmen dont even know what a steel guitar is, they think its this instrument that should be
'warbling' in the background, i'm afraid!!

How would they sound if they had to talk with a sock in their mouth??
Well, thats what the steel sounds like on T.V sometimes!

The Letterman sound seems to be consistantly poor,
Put somebody in the chair that knows which way the wind blows, please!

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 18 Oct 2008 3:04 pm

"volume pedals were really hated by them."
I've run into that in the studio. The engineer will say something like, "You don't need it. I'll adjust your volume level." I tell them that,"It's not a volume pedal. It's an expression pedal, just like on that Hammond over in the corner. It's part of the guitar."

Larry Bressington · Post by **Larry Bressington** » 18 Oct 2008 3:43 pm

John Billings wrote:I've run into that in the studio. The engineer will say something like, "You don't need it. I'll adjust your volume level." I tell them that,"It's not a volume pedal. It's an expression pedal, just like on that Hammond over in the corner. It's part of the guitar."

Thats a good point there mr billings!

I like your exspression.

I'll bet if we started calling it that, we would have an easier life, its the word VOLUME pedal that creates trouble and dought for us.
It's those 3 words between picker and tech,
[ LACK OF TRUST ] and its global.

Smith Curry · Post by **Smith Curry** » 19 Oct 2008 7:29 am

Yeah, that was me on the show... The mix was a bit disappointing: it was better the last time I played (with Randy Houser http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E8b_WodoeY )
I have a feeling they were emulating the mix on Tim Montana's record which wasn't very steel-friendly. What can you do? I reckon the check will cash just the same (sigh).

Michael Strauss · Post by **Michael Strauss** » 19 Oct 2008 9:05 am

Smith, what little we heard was, as always, great playing.

To Letterman and Leno's credit they both have bands with PSG on their shows quite often. For people like me that's the only chance I get to see anyone playing PSG.

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 19 Oct 2008 1:15 pm

Letterman seems to like steel quite well. I remember Emmylou being on the show and he got pretty excited about the antique steel in her band. I don't remember what it was.

Smith Curry · Post by **Smith Curry** » 19 Oct 2008 4:35 pm

Thanks Michael!!! I saw somebody put it on Youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ga5Yf5C6Y