The Steel Guitar Forum

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Martina McBride is on the schedule tonight and Willie Nelson tomorrow night.

I will be doing double duty of steel and lead guitar in Mike Kalil's band on Sunday, 9/29, at 1:45 PM for about an hour. We are hoping to get the chance to fill a different slot if one of the other bands fail to show up.

Those who have heard the MP3 files on Live 365 and my site http://frankestesmba.us/music.html can see and hear Leslie Bailey on the same stage right before we play.

We have new young lady helping us this year and man, can she belt it out! Her name is Janessa Taylor and she is going to sing harmony with Mike and sing "Broken Wing." She gives Martina a run for her money on that song. Really!

Stop by and say hello!

We will do songs like:

Mercury Blues
Does Ft. Worth Ever Cross Your Mind
Your Cheatin Heart (swing style)
Thank God for the Radio
Wonderful Tonight
Chattahoochie
Broken Wing
Workin' Man Blues
Kawliga
Don't Light The Fire
Turning Point

I have the tab to Brent Mason's work on "Mercury Blues" and I am about 95% there. Under the pressure of that venue I hope it does not fall to 5%!!!

Brent's work on this song is one of my all-time favorite guitar solos. It is amazing how he comes up with this stuff and I am having to sweat it out even when having the tab to it!

I guess that's why he is making $5000 per week in the studio!

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Frank Estes - 1978 Emmons D-10 8+7 #2441D

Frank, your steel and Tele sounded good from the main board area. I was impressed with Janessa; she does have a strong voice that is great for the power ballads. I just saw some video tape from my Saturday evening performance and the steel sounded better than the last two years at that show. I am sure it was the sound guys and not me.

Thank you for the overly generous words, Russ!

I thought it went off rather badly. My steel did not sound as well as it normally does and part of that was me trying the straight up 440 tuning of it. Yuck! One song I had the wrong effect on and I could not tell what the problem was because I could not read my 505 lights in the sun. I was distorting when I wanted chorus and I thought I was simply overdriving my amp.

I blew the second guitar solo in Mercury Blues and there plenty of other mistakes. We were all uptight and our rhythm section was rushing it. It is tough to go back and forth on the fly between steel and Tele, especially when you would rather play the Tele without finger picks! I need to feel those strings and I often use three finger on guitar to hit full chords, but use only two finger picks on steel.

Janessa and the piano player were the only ones who perform well, IMO. Even Mike needs to do some woodshedding.

It's an excuse, but really not a good one: we had not played live together since February and we only had two practices.

I grateful not too many I knew showed up. I have immediately gone back to temper tuning.

Frank - I was surprised to hear you playing your steel with distortion. I also thought that it was the highlight of the whole show.

...but Tom, you discouraged me after the show by saying I sounded like I was in tunnel...

In my opinion your steel sounded a little bit over processed. I am one of those guys that still uses two amps when I play. I run straight into one with no effects, and use the other one for delay, flange, etc. If I am playing something that calls for a dry sound, I just shut off the effects amp. Your steel sounded good with the distortion and effects running at the same time. I think Mike needs to work on his intros and outros.

Tom, It was most likely the way the sound people EQ'ed it. I mainly use only the reverb from the Zoom 505 straight to the Nashville and turn the Nashville's reverb off. Some songs call for chorus, but not many. I turn all that other stuff off on the 505. So, the so-called "overprocessing" was not me. It is the same setup I used on my clips at: My Music Page

Anyway, I am glad it is over.

Some words to live by: No rehearsal, No play!

Please close this one as there is no need to keep re-living it! <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Frank Estes on 15 October 2002 at 02:19 PM.]</p></FONT>