The Steel Guitar Forum

Yeah, I know.. ..it's a frequently asked question, but there are so many new members now, it would be interesting to hear why they/we started.
It may seem unusual, but a song by this band got me hooked.

click here

Arch.

p.s. The steel player was Eric Weisberg, better known for the `Deliverance` soundtrack.

It all started with a woman (yeah, old story). In this case, Loretta Lynn on the Wilburn Brothers Show. I fell in love with her, but my attention gradually began to focus on Hal Rugg. Later, in college, I was at a party where we were all gettin' high, and while everybody else was doin' what they were doin' I was sitting cross-legged on the floor listening to "Don't Bogart That Joint" (w/Red Rhodes) from the "Easy Rider" soundtrack over and over, really gettin' into it, if ya get my drift. (And if you've ever Bogarted a joint you will get it.) Then I saw my first live steel player, Joe Tippie, at Nashville North in Indianapolis. Driving down 16th St, in Indy one day I heard Dickie Overbey on Johnny Bush's "I'll Be There", and after I'd got my Camaro back onto the street from the sidewalk whence I'd drifted, my fate was sealed, my future assured. I got my degree, ignored it and went to Nashville and bought a Sho~Bud.

Have you got the right YouTube link there? I get a video of Sha Na Na, and definately no steel guitar at all.

Great band. Are you talking of a different song they did? What was the name of it?

About twenty years ago worked with a band in Columbus Ga.playing guitar,The band leader was a friend of Lynn O,Lynn worked with us a couple of week ends,I was next to Lynn looking over his shoulder has he did his watching and listening to him,that's all it took,went and bought a steel,after about six months was playing on the bandstand,have'nt played guitar on stage since.DYKBC.

When I got to California I was a pretty fair guitar player but there were too many guitar players so I got a steel,figured out what the pedals did and started playing gigs. So in my case it was simply an interesting tool to re-invent myself out of survival instinct. I came to love and appreciate the instrument over the years though.

Listening to WSM clear channel on Saturday nights. in the early sixties.

My buddy and I would drive a few miles to get on top of a hill in Dallas. Reception was great we thought. '56 Chevy.

Don Helms had a huge influence on me. I promised myself then, that when I had the time and money I would learn how to make that sound.

Forty years later, as fate would have it, I listened to Don Helms live at one of the steel guitar shows. Later I saw him at his booth with that double neck steel!
Got his autograph, he let me sit behind that steel.

I have been playing non-stop since then.

R2

Richard; The link was intentional. You don't get much further from steel than that. The song that inspired me was from a 1971 album where one side was a live recording and the other a set of self-penned songs. One of those was `Top Forty`, a cheesy catchy number with plenty of pedal steel on it. I didn't even know what one looked like back then!

Arch.

Richard; The link was intentional. You don't get much further from steel than that.

You got that right. Still a fun band to watch and one I would never have thought to look up on YouTube. Thanks.

What Made You Decide To Take It Up?

Seemed like a good idea at the time ....

While scanning some video's on YouTube a several months ago, I stumbled upon a steel guitar performance by David Hartley. Even though I have been a musician for almost 40 years as a keyboardist and guitarist. The beautiful haunting sound that David was producing, and the precision that he used to deliver the sound, was something I wanted to do myself. So I started my new love and obsession for the pedal steel guitar....

Well, let's see...I remember when I first started listening to a lot of Lyle Lovett..PF was playing the steel...and then of course I have always liked Mark Knopfler's music (PF again)...being a slide guitarist by trade, I saw it as a natural progression for me.

Now I'm hooked.

I think the thing that got me into the steel was Pearl of the Quarter by Steely Dan. I didn't know anything about country music at the time, I was just totally captured by the sound of the steel even though I didn't know what it was at the time.

Gabriel

I was raised in a family that always listened to country music. My dad and mom would listen to WWVA when the reception was good enough. My father played guitar and then lap steel and then went to a sho bud pro 1 (3 pedals and one knee). Well, he passed away in 2001 and I got his steel,amp and all his stuff. It sat in the closet until 2004. Then one day I met this guy who said that his brother in law played steel and I told him that I had my fathers steel at home and could they come over and check it out.
Well He couldn't play it at my house because it needed strings and stuff fixed so he took it home and shined it up and put new strings on it and he called me on the phone.
His wife held the phone as he was playing dads guitar and I will never forget the most beautiful sound that I have ever heard. Of course I never told anyone this but it brought tears to my eyes to hear dads ole guitar being played again.
It was then that I decided to play that guitar come hell or high water. And I have really enjoyed it.
Thanks for listening to me ramble on.
Bob

Byrds/Sweetheart > Gram Parsons/Burritos > Teach > The Commander/BB > Buck/Tom > anything with JayDee > Old George J. > Ernest T/Buddy C > Ray P/anything with BE.....

Guess I started out at one place and went backwards in time....

I knew about the psg when I was a kid because my dad always expressed the desire to take it up (he never did). It wasn't until I listened to the New Riders Of The Purple Sage live album that my ears really perked up. It wasn't until almost two years ago that I finally bought a pedal steel.

Hearing Santo & Johnny recordings on the radio as a youngster way back in the early sixties. Also my dad always had a country music station on in the car.
I just didn't get my hands on a steel 'til I was in my 30's. Wishin' I would have done it sooner.

1972 I was playing guitar in the stage band at the UofW and I went out one night and saw (heard!) Ed Littlefield playing a Sho-Bud D-10 with a band called "Lance Romance" at the Rainbow Tavern in the U district, that was it.

A promise to a dying man to continue his group and music.

I was a Country-Rock Guitar and Bass player in the early 70's....When I heard "Teach Your Children" by CSN&Y on the Radio....Figured out Jerry Garcia's steel licks on My Guitar..but it just wasn't good enough. I went to the music store and bought a "Little Buddy" PSG for $150....and taught myself to play all the licks in that song in a few days....then I was Hooked!!!

I wanted to engage in a profession that didn't require the use of gloves. WC

I was hooked as soon as I heard the steel guitar on Tammy Wynettes music when I was a kid. I played guitar in the band when I got older ,and became board. After 18 yrs in bars and vfws ,we could never find a steeler so I said ill try it . And here I am.

Basil; After all these years, you must have at least ONE book in you.

Arch.

Well I don't know Arch, BUT, you say ""The Fender telecaster was a much better invention than the AK-47": Alex Harvey."
I find my Beretta CX-4 Storm Tactical is at least more legal than an AK..

My mom and dad both played non pedal when I was born so I guess it goes back that far for me although my brother and sister didn't pick up steel. When I figured out that songs like "We Could" and the orginal "Sweet Dreams" by Faron and "Crazy Arms" were done on a pedal steel I knew that was the direction I wanted to go.

Mom taught steel in 43 and gave lessons to a student that she later married and he became my dad. When I was about 10 mom gave me my first lesson using some of her old Oahu books,her box guitar with a square neck and small plastic picks. Dad later taught me some Jerry Bird and Don Helms on his D6 Fender. I've stayed with it for 52 years now. I never got serious on guitar but I love to play bass.

My earliest exposure was from a record my mom gave me that had Carl Smith, Lefty Frizzell, and Ray Price on it. Tons of steel, but I didn't know what it was. The next time I heard the instrument was when I snuck into a Poco rehearsal in L.A. somewhere around 1968. I sat there catatonic watching Rusty Young play some of the quickest and tastiest licks you will ever hear. I got the pleasure of telling him about this experience years later. I'm sure he turned a lot of players onto the steel in those days. Thanks Rusty!