The Steel Guitar Forum

I just spent three hours spinning the dial on the (FM) radio, something I only do about once every ten years. And I do it rarely for good reason -- what a wasteland! I listened to country stations, a blues show, R&B stations, NPR's "Mountain Stage," some rock, some dreadful jazz, and everything else I could find. (While driving across upstate NY.)

And it all sounded the same! Bad songs with weird singers trying desperately to be noticed because of their attempts at clever lyrics. Hardly any pedal steel, and what I heard was a weak as cheap warm canned beer in the hot sun. Guitar, guitar, guitar, guitar, and pathetic singer songwriters trying too hard. No steel, no sax, no fiddle, no harmonica, no keyboard, no banjo, just boring guitar solos by the hundreds. The "country" was just bad rock with audible lyrics, the "R&B" featured black women with acrobatic voices but no real soul, the "rock" was the usual screamers with meth-crazed drummers, the jazz was as boring as yesterday's ice cubes, and the "blues" show featured a pathetic local band of white boys who could neither sing nor play guitar in tune. Mountain Stage was absolutely indistinguishable from the guitar-soaked pop rock that was on every other station.

What's my point? I sure am glad I play pedal steel! (I play guitar too but this made me want to quit!) Sure am glad I'm doing everything different and studiously ignoring the dominant marketing trends. My country/bluegrass band plays nothing but old songs, heavy on the fiddle and steel and banjo. My instrumental band with ex-students plays reggae and Latin and Arabic and Indian ragas and every other weird worldbeat thing we dare try, and yes, I play psg on most of that. My experimental band does pure improv with influences from all over the world and from all periods of human history, and we have more fun than most humans ever have...

And yes, I'm making a living as a fulltime musician! Paying the mortgage and all the other bills, and supporting my wife, and even paying off my debt! Mostly teaching privately, but also some part time teaching at schools, and a lot of low-paying gigs, and selling a few cds and copies of my guitar manual...

What's the point? We psg players should be proud to be different! Keep the faith! We sound too good to be successful, apparently, and we have to get some satisfaction from that. In a world where music has become a mass-produced commodity, we should be proud that we make music the old-fashioned way, with a LOT of hard work, and if they don't want us in Nashville or LA anymore, their loss! For 45 years I have done what I wanted to do as a musician, and have ignored what sells, and now, as I'm getting old, I am neither rich nor famous but I have my self-respect, and I have more fun than a hungry wolf in a hen house! One of these days the music business might rediscover pedal steel, but, in the meantime, let's enjoy our beautiful pedal steels and be glad that we get to do what we want! I'm proud to play pedal steel in a world of guitar clones!

Barry, I agree. Todays country, most of it, really sucks. I have even started writing a song called "There Ain't No Good Songs No More. About a guy reminiscing about growing listening to the Opry, then thru George Jones and Buck and Vern, etc. And on and on and on and about todays country and how he misses the good old songs and how nobody writes good songs anymore. And this song needs to be LOADED with steel guitar!

2 words....Clear Channel

try Pandora.com ~~ amazing source of music that you want and design your own station- can't give a better recommendation to anything that's come along in years!

try Pandora.com ~~

Yo, another good one
is http://www.last.fm/

~Rw

Some of the better country music with steel and fiddle and the old sound is coming out of Texas. Also from Cananda and Australia.

We don't get satellite radio in Anchorage but there's a 3 hour local show on Sun.That plays only classic country and the D.J. tells you the history of every song.It's called the "Truck Stop" on KNBA they probably have an internet link.

Here's our local station,the show is on Sun. afternoon.
http://radiotime.com/program/p_36639/Truck_Stop.aspx

I think you're right about the music Barry, and I'm right there with ya when it comes to having a general giddyness about the pedal steel. I'm twenty-six, and I agree with my 60+ year old friends (almost exactly) about what's good and bad in country music.

I think if country music ever gets to be worth anything again, it'll have to start from somewhere other than the same people in Nashville, or LA, or wherever that crap in concieved. Think of the first country artists, Carter Family, Jimmy Rodgers, etc. They weren't much like Ernest Tubb, and Haggard wasn't a whole lot like ET. So you can't expect it to go backwards, but I think you can expect it to be good.

What gets me goin' more than this is those clearchannel people. I get more classic rock on my radio than current, which I am thankful for, but why not a classic country station? yeah there's a show every sunday, but that's just not enough for me. All those Edgar Winter fans get to hear Frankenstein every day...

I'm thankful for my weekly honky-tonk gigs. I can tell you that it has become increasingly popular with the hipster types. It's begun to cross into indie-rock, (not a fan of much, although lots of friends are) and that's the best chance I see for a country music revival.

Tonight we'll be playing George Jones, Buck Owens, Porter & Dolly, Commander Cody, Tammy Wynette, etc. and most of the crowd will be under 30. Hoorah!

Russ Wever wrote:

try Pandora.com ~~

Yo, another good one
is http://www.last.fm/

~Rw

Russ... excellent sound quality! Puts YouTube to shame.

Hey guys, I know its not AM/FM radio but...
Dont forget about SteelRadio.com!
Clete

i will live a full and happy life if i never, ever have to hear or play "achy breaky heart" again.

that was the beginning of the end for me(ala country music).

Semi-Retired Nashville songwriter Jimmy Peppers wrote a song about not being able to tell the singers and music apart or not being able to understand what the singers lyrics are. The song is "No More Hanks".

You can also go to Mike Gross' web site www.swinginwest.com and listen to some old Bob Wills and many others.
Mike loves and plays many songs that all have Pedal as well as Non pedal steel on them.
On his web site you will also find his TwangtownUSA hour #14 any time of the month.
Don

Do you feel better now barry?

Don,

Thanks for the nice comments on "Swingin' West." We do vintage and Contemporary Western Swing and steel music and you can listen on line any time 24/7 at your convenience.
www.swinginwest.com

There is more great music on now than EVER before. You just have to know where to look. Don't expect it on your local mainstream FM station.

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. I have no difficulty finding music I want to listen to, although thanks for all the suggestions. What I was commenting on was the garbage that is broadcast for other people to listen to.

I know there is plenty of great music still being made, and that there are plenty of great musicians in every part of the world. Nonetheless the lack of originality, and lack of general musical quality, that characterizes most of what is marketed to music consumers is quite striking.

And, even though it would be nice if good musicians got appreciated more in this country someday, in the meantime we can get some consolation from the fact that, considering the dreadful stuff that is broadcast by most stations most of the time, it is an honour to NOT be part of it. Maybe that doesn't make much sense -- just trying to find a small silver lining in a very dark cloud...

Barry,

The problem is the radio stations. They are mostly losing money and to gain the largest possible audience, they play music with the lowest common denominator.

There is no lack of good music, just a lack of good radio stations.

No, it's not just the radio stations. It's electronics in general. The live music scene in this country was infinitely better forty years ago, thirty years ago, even twenty years ago. I know -- I was there. Ten years ago you could sell your own cds -- now you are expected to give them away...

Nowadays people have the internet, and 700 wide-screen HD channels, and a thousand internet radio stations, and all music is free somehow, and hardly anyone has any respect for or understanding of local live music, and they stay home at night.

A hundred years ago if you played music, people would come to your house in a wagon and offer you a pig, two chickens, and a bottle of whiskey if you would play at their barn dance. Now they just plug the i-pod into some speakers, and even the damn DJs can't get work.

Yes, I'm bitter, but not too bitter, because I make a living doing nothing but music. But do I wish the world was different? You bet! I get plenty of affection and respect, and an acceptable lower-clas amount of money, as a performer, teacher, and recording artist. But am I tired of concerts of world-class musicians in coffeehouses where seven people show up? Yes indeed!

What's the solution? I don't know. If the power grid went down, within three days people would be knocking on our doors begging us to play them some music. But then the damn pedal steel wouldn't work! So ending technology is not the soluton. I do know that the internet has been equally destructive for artists, writers, and photographers. Intellectual property rights have become worthless. Starving artists are starving worse than they were before.

But it is also true that success in the arts never had much to do with talent. The Monkees were big in the sixties and they weren't even musicians. The music scene was screwed up long before the internet. And, yes, the internet does offer us ways to market ourselves worldwide in ways thsat never existed before -- one again, I know -- I've had my cds up on CDBaby since 1998.

So yes, I'm mixed up. The best of times, the worst of times. Next week I'll be playing in a bar to a standing-room only crowd, roaring with enthusiasm. Last weekend, with a different band, only seven people showed up. What can I tell you? Yes, I'm glad to be different. But I'd be even more glad if the world was different, and if people realized that live music is inherently superior to canned music. And yes, if somebody pulled the plug on Clear Channel, I'd buy drinks for everybody in the house...

Is this another thread about the 'old' music being better than the 'new' music?

Gee Barry, you might be glad to be different, but it doesn't seem to be making you very happy! Regarding the Monkees, Mike Nesmith is muscian/songwriter held in fairly high regard, and Paul Butterfield recorded a Monkees song on his second LP. I don't have much interest in new music, but I'm not taking it personally. I just don't listen to it. I listen to an oldies station often, and am surprised at how great some of those songs from the 60's and 70's are. Songs I used to dismiss, back then, as somehow being not worthy.