The Steel Guitar Forum

Forum member Gary Walker has put a couple classic Curly Chalker vids on YouTube. Let's hope he has more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUNjISx0aFM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_cP6s_5wnA

Watching Curly on the second You Tube clip, one thing I noticed was how his guitar was slanted. In other words how low his guitar was close to his body. How many of you lower the legs in front of you that much? just curious.....Bob

I believe that Mike Perlowin has some DVDs of Curly for sale. If I'm wrong please correct me.

Right or Wrong, the first track.. stunning playing, nothing throws him! I'm wondering who developed this fast C6 chord sequence playing first? Curly or John Hughey? And who inspired them?

Mark

Mark,

Noel Boggs and Joaquin Murphy were two of the first players to play punchy chords in the swing setting......Curly was certainly influenced by them........John certainly mastered the Chalker C6th style and found his own expressive voice within Curly's style.......Chalker influenced this chordal direction of swing steel guitar.......There are other chordal stylistic voices, none were quite as influential as Chalker was with this type of swing/jazz playing. You would probably really enjoy Jim Murphy's C6th playing......I believe he came the closest to capturing Curly's explosive fire........

PF

There's a video of Curly playing Tennessee Waltz which appears on You-Tube every so often. It, along with a couple of others, had me asking this;

pick here

Any more comments would be very welcome.
I wish someone would repost it on You-Tube.

Arch.

Arch,

In the first clip Curly performs this volume pedal move perfectly.....The Gutting sound is when compression is accomplished through the volume pedal......The way it is explained in that thread is a little over the top.......Compression is what B3 players do when they punch chords for a percussive effect, which is where steel players got the idea. Its actually pretty easy to do once your comfortable with the process..........Simply hit the chord and in time with the notes fastly back off of the volume ever so slightly...Backing off just a little volume is the tricky part....Some describe the backing off part as a large move...That's wrong.....Its actually a very short move at a fast speed that happens instantly with the picking and as soon as you back off of the volume you bring it back smoothly to the volume level you were originally at. This is how in the first clip Curly got so much punch or percussion in his fast chord run.......PF

Mark Dunn wrote:Right or Wrong, the first track..

Actually, they were playing the song, "Anytime", an old standard which preceded the writing of "Right or Wrong", but obviously has the same chord changes and virtually the same melody! In fact, I gotta wonder how the writers of "Right or Wrong" got away with that without copyright infringement. It really is just new lyrics for an old melody...

Thanks for your reply, Paul.
Now I feel guilty. That is one technique I'm quite proficient at. I was just commenting on the fact that `Gutting` had not been featured/highlighted on the SGF at the time. Your advice is of great use to me and to other pickers who may be unaware of the technique.

Arch.

Thank you Paul and Jim for your informative posts.

About 15 years ago I heard Jeff Newman talk about a guy called Big Jim Murphy, while looking at someone's steel he believed Jim once owned. I've since heard that name mentioned several times, but I've never come across anything recorded by him. I must pursue his recordings...

As I explore the C6 neck I find it incredible how a set of fast moving chords can form amazing melodies / harmonies and counter-melodies.. if you get it right! Explosive fire is a great description of Curly's playing, but I do wonder how much of it was "explosive" and how much was familiar territory. He just appeared to get it so "right". I've noticed Buddy Emmons really developed and composed a version of a song, and once he had a winning formula he stuck with it, with only variations on a theme... and boy did he so often hit the jackpot!

Curly's fast chord sequences were so fast and involved it's hard to believe they weren't explosive, but were they composed? Was his understanding and speed of mind that deep?

Mark

Mark:

Franklin & Jim C:

Yep, I can see what you're saying Paul. It's hard to express yourself in words when you only have a few minutes... for me, anyway!

What I'm saying is; Buddy's chord work is out of this world and you can really hear the thought that's gone into it, it's perfection. But, at times Curly's chord work is so fast and complex the way it sits with the melody, it's hard for me comprehend how he could think so fast, it sounds like he just went for it, and nailed it!

I never met Curly, but it's my suspicion his mind was that quick, and unlike myself, who more often than not will hit a nice run by accident, Curly knew every move he made, before he made it.... or he was the luckiest bloke in the world

Back to work now....

I really enjoy the contrast between Chalker and Emmons, the two most influential "modern" C6 players, in my estimation. (Edit) What I mean here is the guys who brought the instrument into the new era with more and more pedals, knee levers and strings being added. No slight intended to the great "modern" players like Tommy White and Paul Franklin, etc. who were to follow.

Chalker went for a heavily chordal style with a deep tone, ala jazz Hammond players (including the use of a Leslie cab, or simulator, and the "gutting" technique).

I believe Emmons is as knowledgeable (and capable of) of harmony and chordal work as Curly but he excels at a single note bebob style and went for a far sharper tone.

Both played several different brands of guitar but they could pull their personal tone out of whatever instrument they were playing.

What Paul Said:

You would probably really enjoy Jim Murphy's C6th playing......I believe he came the closest to capturing Curly's explosive fire........

How true that was, as well as, on E9, and his speed and execution, was something else as well.

For those not knowing Jim, he might have been the most under rated player (outside of the Nashville Circle) to come along. And, his playing was total effortless on either neck.................

What a guy he truly was.

RIP Jim

Just so you'll get to see exactly how Jim could perform on EITHER neck, Check him out in this, during the first portion on E9, and then after he switches to the C6 neck. I really don't think there is another as capable. Or to put it another way, I've never yet seen anyone who is. You won't want to miss this speed and perfection as well.

Click Here For Big Jim

I hope everyone gets to know, just how fantastic Jim Really Was. And did I say, I really like that Tee Shirt. Enjoy!

Mark,

I'll take a shot at answering.....The masters of musical instruments spend their lives studying the entire language so that they are never at a loss for something to say in the stylistic directions they prefer........When they speak, they do so from the heart, and with confidence, knowing that their thoughts will be seamless....... They hear a desired melody from their vast memory of acquired thoughts and can instantly communicate that idea to their heart, hands and feet, which to the listener may sound like its magically being pulled from thin air at any speed.......They rarely speak without a specific direction of what they want to communicate and its always drawn from an acquired knowledge of music and how the instrument is played......If and when the exact lines are repeated, its because they love the depth of a particular arrangement of harmonies.....Buddy, Curly, both have different stylistic approaches.......Their playing is poetry in motion..........PF

Well put, Sir Franklin !!

Now that is an articulate answer... Thank you Paul.
And thank you Don for sharing the video of Big Jim.

Mark