The Steel Guitar Forum

howdy,

I've been playing steel off and on for a few years but I'm trying to finally get serious about it.

My music collection doesn't have much steel in it and what I do have seems pretty inaccessible for a beginner. I was hoping people could recommend some of "Pedal Steel's Greatest Hits" to me.

What are the foundational recordings and essential repertoire for this instrument? I'm especially interested in hearing steel in a singer / songwriter context as opposed to hot pickin' instrumentals.

Thanks for any help or advice you can offer. Cheers...

Adam,Check out Bryan Daste from Portland he's playing with singer songwriter Emma Hill,They played in Anchorage last night,All original stuff Bryan really has a great approach to backing Emma while singing harmonies,He's got a great touch and his minimalist approach to the steel guitar is beautiful.If you are close to Portland you will find some of the best players in the World,Larry Behm,Doug Jones,Harley James,Dave Graffe Etc.

essential repitoire?...i dunno. "A way to survive" and Steel gutar rag" are the two most commonly played songs on the instrument it seems. "Together Again" comes up alot (thankfully...love that one)




albums I like

album/artist/steeler:
Country:
Bakersfield Bound/Chris and Herb/Jaydee Maness
Shotgun Willie/Willie Nelson/Jimmy Day
Roll out the Red Carpet/Buck Owens/Tom Brumley
Live in Person( aka Panther hall)/Charlie Pride/Lloyd Green
Trip in the Country/Jerry Reed/Buddy Emmons
Gilded Palace of Sin/Flying Burrito Bros./Sneaky Pete
Dwight Sings BUck/ Dwight Yoakum/Josh Grange
I am forgettin a ton here....

Instrumental:
Steel and Strings/Jimmy Day
Emmons Guitar Co(aka the black album) Buddy Emmons
Steel guitar Jazz/Buddy Emmons
Suite Steel/various steelers

Other:
Blackened Toast (blues) /Dan Tyack
Anything Al Perkins played on...Stones, Manassas, etc
Home on the Road/New Riders of the Purple Sage/Buddy cage

local to Oregon:
Minus 5/tucker jackson
Winnemucca/Richmond Fontain/Paul Brainard
The guys Stu mentioned in your state are absolutely people you should get in touch with. All of em... extremely cool, great players, and extremely encouraging to new players.

and about a billion other great records...ronnie milsap, conway twitty, loretta lynn all have great steelers tho they varied personel. i suggest getting a turntable and scoring them all for 50 cents on vinyl from the bargain bin
good luck

Tune in Sirius Satellite XM Outlaw Country, Willie's Place, of The Roadhouse.

More of what you are asking for than you can imagine.



EJL

Try something different -

http://www.steelguitarjazz.com/

A GREAT site, full of killer players.

Welcome! You're going to love steel guitar...

Well, here's a newbie's 2 cents FWIW.

As far as the "singer/songwriter" vein, I like most anything that Greg Liesz plays on. He's one of my fav's. (Plays some nice guitar, too, as well as Dobro, lap, etc.)

Some newer stuff he's on includes:
Robert Plant/Allison Krauss - Raising Sand.
Robert Plant - Band of Joy.
Ray LaMontagne's records.
Ray has 2 steel players on some tracks... way cool.
Greg's played with Eagles, Joni Mitchell, etc... Lots of stuff.
He's a real smooth, laid back, kinda player.
I hear a lot of influences from Lloyd Green, & many of the other great steel players in Greg's style.
Real nice fella, too.

OK; if you're a newbie check out the instructional book; "Pedal Steel Guitar" by Winnie Winston (now deceased, RIP).

If you want to get a good idea of one of the best integrations of pedal steel within the singer-songwriter style check out anything by Peter Cooper and or Peter Cooper/Eric Brace, these recordings feature one of the legends of steel guitar: Mr. Lloyd Green...

If you want to see something amazing check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B3oZjClvG0

Keep in mind some of the details from the video: 70+ year old steel player, 37 year old pedal steel, 43 year old amp..? And check out the body language of Lloyd and the audience reaction to the inherent soulfulness of Lloyds playing, how about the solo and especially the fills after the solo? This is strictly from the heart! And how about the ending?

Realistically if you are a beginner you are not going to be playing the "foundation recordings" of this instrument...

I would say go for getting a good tone first, and then worry about complexity. As has been already said, a "minimalist approach is best!

There's been a recent thread on Lloyd Green backing Peter Cooper - you can download Peter's "The Lloyd Green Album" from iTunes and it's a MASTERCLASS in playing with a singer songwriter. It's wall to wall steel guitar, I'd normally say too much steel, but when your Lloyd and it's all brilliant you get away with it

Classic singer songwriter albums with intermittent pedal steel:
Neil Young - Harvest w/ Ben Keith (also Tonight's The Night)
Sandy Denny - Sandy w/ Sneaky Pete
Judy Collins - Who Knows Where the Time Goes w/ Buddy Emmons
Gram Parsons - GP and Grevious Angel w/ Buddy and Al Perkins
Terry Reid - Seed Of Memory w/ Al Perkins and Ben Keith

I'd also recommend more recent (and excellent) CD's by Sera Cahoone and Doug Paisley - the pedal steel playing is much more basic on these albums but well placed and easy to learn from.

Ha! Great minds Chuck, Lloyd continues to inspire.

Lloyd Green with Peter Cooper is just plain a lesson in "how to" play the steel. Mr. Green is quite the artist.
Whatta guy to be influenced by.

'Course, listening to Buddy Emmons is always inspiring, as well. That guy blows my mind.

There's just so many great players out there... Being a noob, I'm like a kid in a candy store. A never ending supply of awesome players to enjoy. Gotta love it!

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I'll start checking all that stuff out.

jimmy day, buddy emmons, ralph mooney, tom brumley? that would be a start? all the best to you with your pikkin'.

I used to jam along with records with NO steel. Being a big fan of Southern Rock one of my favorites was AB'S biggest hits. Can pick up some good licks from Duane Allman and Dickie. YOU BETCHA,DYK?BC.

Current Artists
Dierks Bentley and several others use Steel as their primary lead voice (good call Dierks)

If ya change rub the coins together Buy a couple of CD's any of Lloyd Green's solo albums (he's all over popular recordings) and Steel Guitar Jazz - Buddy Emmons is one of my favorites to get inspiration from. Pink Floyd (David Gilmore) does some great lap steel work - yeah it's spacey trippy English Rock but it's steel and ya can't go wrong with Jerry Douglas, Randy Kohrs or the original masters Mike Auldridge, Tut Taylor & Uncle Josh Graves on Dobro. I suggest a trip to the library and check out the country CD's (become a regular until you've ripped all of the CD's to MP3's or just committed them to memory. Steve Howe of Yes also played steel as did Joe Walsh in his earlier albums with James Gang. Steel is everywhere and the inspiration should come from everywhere. It's what you can play and do with the instrument that counts, not trying to recreate what someone else did in the past - in a studio - with maybe one take but more likely than not...lots of time to develop the part and years and years of playing. Steel guitar is the most rewarding instrument - last saturday night - I pulled out some metal riffs on my ponytailed guitarist and heard his jaw hit the stage during sound check...he rushed over and in astonishment was speechless - now he wants to form a metal band with a pedal steel guitar as the hook....who can blame him STEEL RULES!!!! Ha !

It depends on what your long-term goal is. Playing steel can be much like a computer: GIGO

You don't always need to listen to other steel players.

That's right. Listen to your wife when she tells you that she's going to leave you if you buy another steel guitar.

...then miss her