The Steel Guitar Forum

It's Saturday night April 18, 2009 and I have the night off from working the road. I made the mistake of turning on this RFD TV "Midwest Country" Show. There was a gal named Maggie May that is a pretty ok singer and she had a guy loitering behind what appeared to be a D-10 Williams. This guy was sooooo out of tune it made me want to vomit, this is the kind of garbage that gives the steel guitar a bad name. At times it almost looked like he was out of sync with the track as far as his hand and bar movement looked if indeed they were working with a "background" track. If he was playing this "live" we all need to pitch in and buy this guy a tuner. Everybodys friend Bobbe Seymour told me once he was playing the Opry I believe with Stonewall Jackson and when the song was over another band member asked Bobbe if he'd tuned, to which he replied "I tuned to the singer" Sounds like Bobbe

WC Edgar
www.wcedgar.com
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If the "STAR" can't tell if the steel player is in tune or not, refuse to buy his/her records.

If you can't tune, step one in learning to play steel guitar, then you shouldn't be hired or allowed to be on the bandstand.

Just my humble opinion.

I had to open this thread just to see who was the subject of this topic. After catching Maggie's little performance tonight, this is exactly what I was expecting to find.

Before you crucify some one you should know the facts.That Steel player is my brother and student, who
walked away from Music to be a Police Officer.He was and still is one of the top Vocalist in Wisconsin,and never sat out to be a backup Musician. He has three years of once in a while playing under his belt.My Brother called me five minutes after the show was taped and said I pray no one ever see's this show.If you want to now the whole story e-mail me and I'll give you the low down in private.
We have all played the job from Hell,but were luck
enough to not be on national TV

I emailed you for the low down. Everyone has to start somewhere but if he didn't think he was ready he shouldn't have done the show. I have recordings of myself when I first started playing and I wasn't much of a player "style wise" but I was always in tune and had very good intonation. Another way to look at it is that all the elderly people that heard it live at the theater probably never even noticed it. That Midwest Country Show is notorious for some bad singers and some players probably because most of them don't even get paid for the Shows they do. Damn man, listen to the intro on Marshall Tuckers "Fire On The Mountain" it's not in tune either and it sold quite a few copies. What really bugged me about the show was that The Steel Guitar is a rarity on todays TV (even cable) so when I hear one I want it to be something we all can be proud of. WC

well said dan to much ego here you think!!!!

Let me chime in here if i might. I have played this show several times with David Church and as a fill-in for Joe Savage. I have always gotten paid to do the show either by Kathy or David. As far as Dale's playing goes, I am guessing he was as nervous as a hooker in church. I think that this was his first time taping the show and there is some pressure there. Also i would like to add that Dale is a friend of mine and has so much desire to play it is unreal. So I guess I take offense at the slam whether it was good or bad and would like to remind you WC that your first few times playing things like that probably weren't the best either. I commend Maggie for being proud enough and thoughtful enough to use her own band. I also know that on that show the whole band was having one of those days when things don't go right. I will leave my soapbox now.

Paul Wade wrote:well said dan to much ego here you think!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBHhPkVZ ... re=related

"but I was always in tune and had very good intonation."

Confession: I was frequently out of tune and did not have good intonation.

Chris

I haven't seen the show nor the performance mentioned. But anything done on TV deserves a touch of leeway where tuning is concerned. I played an old Gibson lap steel on David Letterman once. The studio temperature is about 48 degrees. Once the lights and camera came on, this temperature shot up to about 78 degrees in about 7 seconds flat. Zero time for re-tuning.

Unfortunately, I had the solo. Fortunately, it was all single string work. Had there been chords involved, I would have been a dead duck. Once my solo was over, I employed the wonderful services of my volume pedal. No one knew except the studio engineer who asked me what happened to my volume after the solo. The band sounded great and my solo went by without a hitch, so everyone was happy.

Long story short, if it was TV, give the player the benefit of the doubt.

Joe Rogers

I think the line was crossed when WC called it "garbage"....I did not see the show, but I commend him for getting on there and playing...We all have stuggled thru some gigs...and will struggle thru many more. I just don't think this is the place to cut someone down like this....this is just my 2 cents.

Brandon

Joe, anytime you have a temp problem, "use a really wide vibrato". To the rest of you who bashed me for having enough of an ear to be able to hear this guy was way out of tune and that I have the ego you are so very wrong. In an email reponse I got, they blamed:


Agreed show was a disaster
Mid-West country is not an easy place to play
Sound engineer-Volenteers,
Mix man knows nothing about music
No Monitors working on left side of stage
Piano Player- Rag Time Player
Freddie Fender -couldn't keep time with a drum machine in each ear
Guitar player- freezes when the curtain goes up
Maggie- plays to her singing.-I know I did the session work on two of her CD
she's got some weird polka beat syndrom from being shelf taught
Bass player- lost most of the time.
If you happen to notice my Brother looking over at the guitar player who
was suposed to covering some of things.along with the piano player who
never quits playing


Now, to all of you who took the time to go out of your way to spend the time to BASH me, what do any of these excuses have to do with NOT BEING IN TUNE?

I've played jobs before where all these above mentioned excuses came into play at one time or another but I still played in tune and on time. Thats not ego, thats a fact.

Bob, close er up as I've had enough of these self proclaimed pros and their egos to last me for about the next 30 years. WC

PS, and to all you guys that stood up for this fellow, please chip in and buy him a tuner so he doesn't go through this again.

Did anybody else get a love letter from W C besides me and Danny? I was told never to hit him up for a job. Like I would. I moved past the ego-maniac boss stage years ago. I worked with some bigger names years ago and opened for others. None of them ever came off like W C. Dale is a friend of mine and right or wrong I would support him or his brother Dan. One other thing W C, look who was working and who was home with a night off.

Well,I have been out of tune a time or two...happens to the best of us.

If it's giving the steel guitar a bad name you're worried about...



I would argue that, as a fellow player, offering up vitriol in an effort to humiliate a struggling player instead of advice and encouragement as needed causes more harm. No?

W.C., you're just comin' across as being nasty. Constructive criticism, and encouragement would have been a better approach. He's tryin' to learn!

W. C. Edgar wrote:Joe, anytime you have a temp problem, "use a really wide vibrato".

You have the rest of your life to be tactless. Try pacing yourself.

Joe Rogers

I thought I read that the e-mail response was supposed to be private!

This is one of those instances where a guy would like to just pretend it wasn't me. But, it was! I'm not proud of my performance, but I'm not going to make excuses either; it wasn't the fault of my beautiful Williams guitar, or the amp, or the auditorium, or the engineer, or the singer, or the other players. It was the job from hell, but I was the only one playing steel, so the fault is mine.

WC; with a little effort, you could have determined who I was, and sent me a personal comment. I would have appreciated constructive critcism, and respected your opinion. I have never met a fellow steel player that I couldn't learn something from.

Although I regret not meeting your standards, my job was to back up Maggie Mae. Aparently, I failed, and for that I will accept the responsibility.

If, in fact, I was not in tune, then I have to agree with you...there is no excuse. For information, I do have a great Peterson tuner, but thanks for your concern.

Thanks expecially for all you guys that covered my back. I'm fairly new at this steel guitar thing, but I'll keep learning. I am blessed to have had this oportunity to make music and to work with Maggie Mae and other great musicians. I do love the pedal steel guitar, and it is certainly bothersome to think that my playing did not present the instrument in it's best light.