Who started you on playing steel!

Kenny Martin · Post by **Kenny Martin** » 25 Sep 2009 2:57 pm

Let's see a picture of who started you playing steel!
This my Daddy that sit me behind his steel when i was 9 years old! I love him so much and miss him so bad!

thanks!
kenny

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 25 Sep 2009 3:28 pm

Kenny, a wonderful tribute to a great man and a father!

As for me, nobody in particular got me started on the steel. However I have people like my sister Tina, to thank for getting me interested in playing the rhythm guitar when she was 16 and I was 14.

Then I have Pete Drake, Tom Brumley and Lloyd Green to thank for making me sit up and pay attention to the pedal steel.

Then I have the world's best teacher, my hero, Jeff Newman to thank for opening doors in my mind and showing me how simple steel playing really can be. He taught me what little I was able to retain.

Bobby Burns · Post by **Bobby Burns** » 25 Sep 2009 3:31 pm

A friend of my dad's left an old bakelite rick at our house and I messed with that some, but it was Herby Wallace who really did me in. I was very lucky that Herby had a store called the Music Mart just around the block from us. I road my bicycle there a lot when I was a kid. I was very impressed by the calibur of some of the musicians who visited Herby there. He had a lot of old early steels like Gibsons, Fenders, Multikords and other funky stuff to look at. I tried to soak up as much of his atmosphere as I could, and Herby was very patient. I know I asked a lot of questions and must have really been a pain. I started lessons with Herby when I was a senior in school, I was most likely still a pain, but at least now I was paying Herby for his time. I must say, I paid Herby for one hour lessons, and I never got away from Herby in one hour. He really did seem to enjoy spending time with folks who had an interest in the steel.
Herby's music mart was the kind of community music store that is about a thing of the past now. I know now how lucky I was to have him as a neighbor.

Paul Sutherland · Post by **Paul Sutherland** » 25 Sep 2009 3:44 pm

Lloyd Green and JayDee Maness with their find playing on the Byrds "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" album. Before hearing that record I never listened to country music and had no clue what a pedal steel was.

Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 25 Sep 2009 3:53 pm

Always loved steel,was a guitar picker for over thirty years,A band I played in years ago,The band leader was a friend of Lynn Owsley,Some times Lynn would come down and work the weekend with us,I stood next to him would look over his shoulder while he played. Knew then I had to play that thing. Got one in a couple of months got a job playing it. This was over twenty years,Have'nt played sixstring since. Don't even own one. So I guess Lynn did it to me. YOU BETCHA, DYK?BC.

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 25 Sep 2009 4:18 pm

It was a faceless stranger selling violin and steel guitar instruction with the Oregon Conservatory of Music door-to-door, Instructor Leo Skipton. He'd heard my mother had a remarkable 'child' and they didn't want 'that child' to miss out on a musical education.
How 'bout that?

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 25 Sep 2009 4:32 pm

I didn't know anybody personally who played steel guitar, so I got my inspiration from TV.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 25 Sep 2009 4:39 pm

In my case, the fire was lit by Rusty Young ("Kind Woman"), then more fuel was dumped on the fire by guys like Scotty, Emmons, Newman, Anderson, Franklin and Jernigan.

Allan Munro · Post by **Allan Munro** » 25 Sep 2009 5:15 pm

I don't really play steel - 'play with it' possibly. Bass and guitar was my thing back then. However, the influence to leave home and have a go in the music world in my case came from a few generously long conversations with Gerry Hogan. He gave me the courage to get out and try it. He also gave me a lot of information regarding where to go to meet musicians and bands in and around London.
It was a move well made - thanks Gerry.

Bernie Gonyea · Post by **Bernie Gonyea** » 25 Sep 2009 5:26 pm

My long departed friend whom lived down the street worked at a small country hotel every Sat. Nite; doing Round & Square Dancing. He played much like Johnny Siebert [ Carl Smith Fame ] I adored that double finger picking style so much. I was about 16 at the time. This man could play the old " Song Of The Island " and Hawaiian War Chant".My sister started me out on a small 6 string carvin guitar [ LAP ]. Took it to the Navy with me and four years later, came home with my 1953 Harlin Bros. Multi-kord Pedal Steel, which I still own today. Guess I have to give credit to Don Helms for leading me to good C/W Music..He and Hank, Sr. were my Idols..Bernie

Chet Wilcox · Post by **Chet Wilcox** » 25 Sep 2009 5:54 pm

what got me started was going to see Marty Robbins, when i was 15 years old. and watching James Farmer as he would modulate ,Marty into another song with out stopping. after that it was Ralph Mooney on Wynn Stewarts records.

Geoff Cline · Post by **Geoff Cline** » 25 Sep 2009 6:04 pm

Buddy Emmons' Flying Fish albums "Buddies" (with Buddy Spicher & Lenny Breau) and "Minors Aloud" with Lenny Breau. Beyond inspirational to me.

Joseph Barcus · Post by **Joseph Barcus** » 25 Sep 2009 6:16 pm

Ernest Cawby · Post by **Ernest Cawby** » 25 Sep 2009 6:17 pm

Well Little Roy and don Helms. I lived 2 blocks from Hank and his band members hung out at the american Guitar studio, where Nan and I took lessons.
Also Fred Cronier that played with the country band for the campain of Big Jim Folsom while runnig for
Governor of Alabama

ernie

Stephen Fissel · Post by **Stephen Fissel** » 25 Sep 2009 6:53 pm

I had always been interested in the pedal steel, but Bob Hoffnar definitely sealed the deal for me. Great player, great teacher, great guy! If you have the chance to have a lesson with him, take it!
Steve

john widgren · Post by **john widgren** » 25 Sep 2009 7:43 pm

Buddy Emmons. Someday soon solo, and it was all over for me. The first time I heard it, I was not even sure what a pedal steel was, but I knew at that moment that's what I wanted to do. To this day it's understated beauty in perfect marriage to and lyric and melody makes me weep. Pure perfection.

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 25 Sep 2009 7:51 pm

As a kid, I always wondered what instrument I could play, and while I was figurin' it out, I heard great steel sounds by guys like Bruce Bouton, Paul Franklin, John Hughey, Sonny Garrish, and Dan Dugmore, but at the time, I was tryin' to figure out what instrument to play and I'd started lovin' the steel when I was nine. While I'd been playin' keyboards by ear with one hand in 1996, a band called Ricochet had released their first single called "What Do I Know" and I loved how the steel solo sounded and I realized later on that the steel was played by Ricochet's steel player Teddy Carr and I then decided in 1998 that I really wanted to play steel. So, that same year, I went to Dollywood and met steel guitarist Stoney Stonecipher and he got me interested in playin' steel. The guys I heard on those records all made me want to do it and are now my heroes, and it makes me glad that I'm a steel player now and always, even with cerebral palsy in my left hand. Stoney's the man who got me started playin' steel after hearin' those records.

Brett

Jody Sanders · Post by **Jody Sanders** » 25 Sep 2009 8:08 pm

Little Roy Wiggins on the Eddy Arnold recordings. Jody.

W. C. Edgar · Post by **W. C. Edgar** » 25 Sep 2009 8:16 pm

A great guy from Douglasville Georgia named James Morris nicknamed (Whitey). He built some steels with the great late Mac Atcheson from Stone Mountain Georgia in the 1960's from what I hear and I also have one of those custom built D-10 guitars. Nice guy and mighty fine player. When he died he willed me his Sho Bud Pro 2 and thats what I play today.
WC Edgar

www.wcedgar.com

www.myspace.com/wcedgar

Billy Tonnesen · Post by **Billy Tonnesen** » 25 Sep 2009 8:26 pm

Agnes K. Roberts, my NIOMA teacher. She was a real "Pistol" and a great organizer. My Mother signed me up and made sure I practiced. Later on when I was playing in Dance Halls at 14 years old I think Mom had second thoughts !

Ulric Utsi-Åhlin · Post by **Ulric Utsi-Åhlin** » 25 Sep 2009 11:46 pm

In the 60´s,when we were visiting my grand parents
on my fathers side,I spied a tenor guitar kicking
around the house,Mastertone type headstock,4 strings
...telescoping a memory lane-ish essay...my father
taught me 3 chords on that tenor,and I was stuck...
the stringed instrument continuum would,eventually,
lead me on to the PSG...my first Steel Guitar influ-
ence MAY have been the guy playing Hawaiian Steel on
"Putti,Putti" by J Apae...BTW,that old tenor´s still
around,it´s in my workshop even as we speak...McUtsi

Johan Jansen · Post by **Johan Jansen** » 26 Sep 2009 12:51 am

Frans Doolaart on TV with a lot of Hawaii-Girls dancing around him

He was playing his self-built Dooley-special.I was 10 years old.
When I told him that for a few years he was very amused

I believe Frans is not among us anymore.....

Dean Richard Varga · Post by **Dean Richard Varga** » 26 Sep 2009 12:56 am

I was in a Sunday Night Church function for teenagers in 1970 (BYF-Baptist Youth Fellowship)at the First Baptist Church of Van Nuys.

The music that night was provided was by a group called "The Rice Krispies"- The groups nucleus was made up of three family members,Wayne, Jimmy,and Joe Rice. This Country/Bluegrass bands 3,4,5 part vocals sent chills through the audience

One of the Rice brothers, Jimmy,took a seat at the pedal steel and " brought the house down" when he launch into one of the most popular intros on American Airwaves from 1970-"Teach Your Children".

The sound went thru me like only a pedal steel can do. I have been obsessed with the sound ever since.

The group later changed there name to "Brush Arbor", winner of the ACM "vocal group of the year" in 1974.

Check 'em out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XIfvGs3crk

Thank You Jimmy Rice.

dean

Robert Thomas · Post by **Robert Thomas** » 26 Sep 2009 3:18 am

Hi Ray Montee,
I think I may have had the same salesman call on my parents back in 1944.

Jack Francis · Post by **Jack Francis** » 26 Sep 2009 4:46 am

b0b...
In that picture of me I'm playing the Sho-Bud that he sold me.

The Steel Guitar Forum

Who started you on playing steel!

Who started you on playing steel!

That faceless stranger...................

A Neighbor Played a D-8 National Steel

here tiz

Emmons

what got me started on PSG