The Steel Guitar Forum

How many can say you observed how the unique sounds of the steel guitar delighted the listener by making them either shiver or scream?
Around 1980 I played a song I recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. I watched my friend shiver when he heard my intro to "The Prisoner`s Song".
And the year was 1982. In a club I was playing in a band, and I caught him do a little shiver during my solo. Also, in the late 90`s, in St. Louis I observed a woman,(a few rows in front of me), scream every time Herby Wallace would climb to a crescendo full of dynamic tone as he was so accustomed to doing.
People talk about getting goose bumps, but how can you tell if they are actually getting them?

One night I was playing a club and they announced it was my birthday. A girl ran up to me saying she wanted to give me a kiss. As our lips met, I happened to touch the strings on my steel. The arc was enough to have welded my pedals together. Even though I can't say I was playing, she shivered and screamed at the same time.

Joe

The goose bumps are pretty obvious and anyone should be able to see them, But seeing the listeners delight in your playing isn't so obvious. Every once in a while I look up and see someone really interested in what I'm doing but are they really! Unless they tell you there could be many reasons they act and shiver like they do. Is it a shiver or a cringe! Oh my! I hope I'm not starting something here. I've been at several of your gigs and shivered myself. ( It's all good Manny). Don't get the wrong idea, I admire you and have picked up several licks from your playing (listen close and you'll hear them now and then). Lets see what everyone else thinks! God Bless

listen to lloyd on the solo for six days on the road from the live at panther hall album. the crowd goes nuts at a certain point. unless something is happening onstage that can't be seen, i would call it one of those moments. makes me want to screem too.

listen to lloyd on the solo for six days on the road from the live at panther hall album. the crowd goes nuts at a certain point. unless something is happening onstage that can't be seen, i would call it one of those moments. makes me want to screem too.

I have a tape that I recorded in St Louis in 1981 of Buddy and a great singer Bob Browning, Doing funny how time slips away, On buddy's turnaround it was the most unique lick I have ever heard, And at the end of the run the audience of about 2000 gasped in unison, And can be heard on the tape, I don't know if that would be a shiver or not but it's the most reaction I've ever heard to any one's playing, By the way Phil Baugh was on lead and was as well awsome on that song,Wish we could see the video of that one!

Robert, I was at that show in 1981, and it was awesome. I don't remember the specific lick you mentioned, but I've seen Buddy spin his bar around 360 degrees, and that always draws a loud response from the crowd!

Manny, your playing always sends shivers up my spine. Especially when I'm standing next to you on stage playing guitar!

The steel guitar lends itself to being very expressive
because it has no fretts and uses an expression pedal.
Every so often the combination of a meaningful song and the success of a player to invoke the emotion out
of a listener will result with a goosebump response.
The two songs this has happen to me on is "Sleep Walk" and "Together Again". The last time it happen a lady approached me and put her had on my arm and expressed her undying love for me. Well shucks, at that point
I wanted to think everybody that made that happen,
Mr. Jack Daniels, Mr. Maurice Anderson, Mr. Hartley Peavey and Mr. Tom Brumley and the makers of Goodrich volume pedals.
To me music is all about goosebumbs on both sides of the stage and mostly involving the steel guitar.

Manny,
I played a very small pub in Cambridge, MA recently with a old friend of mine, Mark Brine.
www.markbrine.com
He does Americana and roots music: translate Jimmy Rodgers, Hank Williams, country blues.
The band was just himself with acoustic guitar, standup bass and myself. I played direct into my Steel King with no effects.
Little did I know that this was almost a coffee house type crowd. As soon as we started playing, everyone stopped talking and you could hear nothing but the music.
The crowd was listening to every note we played...and I hadn't gigged with my friend in over 30 years!
Well, to answer your question, I had the unexpected and great pleasure of receiving applause after some of my solos...something I'm certainly not accustomed to!
So, that for me, is how I can tell when the crowd likes what you do.
It was a very unpretentious gig, but I'll always remember it.

Hi Doug, We will be playing together in Leister, Mass. in Aug., I think. Thank you for the exaggeration about my playing. Also, thank you Roger for compliments as well. I want to play like both of you when I grow up.
We are talking about people who like the steel. Unfortunately, on the other side of the pendulum are those who don`t like it. Around 1990, I was told by a friend that her daughter did not want to come to a gig because she would have to listen to "all that twang".

A year or so ago, as we were taking a break, our guitar man told me he thought that a gal was gonna take her panties off and throw them to me. I got angry cause I didn't see her and he didn't alert me.

manny escobar wrote:Hi Doug, We will be playing together in Leister, Mass. in Aug., I think. Thank you for the exaggeration about my playing. Also, thank you Roger for compliments as well. I want to play like both of you when I grow up.
We are talking about people who like the steel. Unfortunately, on the other side of the pendulum are those who don`t like it. Around 1990, I was told by a friend that her daughter did not want to come to a gig because she would have to listen to "all that twang".

Hey Manny,
It don't mean a thang, If it ain't got that TWANG!!!!
Tommy

Hi Tony, Your gig was different from the noisy ruckus "New Riders of the Purple Sage" show at Point Breeze Restaurant in Webster, Mass., Friday 2/27, where we enjoyed dinner with Anne and Elaine. Buddy Cage was playing his usual high energy and volume style. The "Greatful Dead" type audience displayed no shivers or goose bumps. It was mostly whistles and "hootin and hollerin". Thank you for reserving the table for the four of us.

I remember some years back in St Louis John Hughey was doing an Evans Amp demo in the Fulawka room. He asked if there were any bass players in the room. Haha Somebody volunteered me! All of a sudden there was a drummer,singer,myself, and John Hughey playing "Look At Us". Now that sent shivers up my spine throughout the whole song, the rest of my trip, and now everytime I think about it. It was beautiful and I'm lucky to have had that chance.

Everytime I play, I can tell when they get the shivers-
They all put their coats on and head out the door.
Manny, Roger, Tony, Chris, you guys are the greatest!