Hi, guys, I'm Danny Dees (just joined the forum) and I'm the one who asked Jim to upload the song for me here because for some reason I can't open youtube links sent to my email but I can always open youtube links here in the forum.
Forgive me if my post turns out just a little long but I'd just like to courteously clear up any misunderstandings that anyone may have regarding Jim or his playing. I hate that my first post on here is going to seem like a book, but I feel like I got Jim into this thread because of having him post that song for me.
Like Mr. Archer said, Mr. Mayville, we know you're just trying to be of help here and I think I speak for many when I say we appreciate it. I just want to mention a few things you may be unaware of that might put Jim and that Mansion On The Hill tune in a different perspective.
Mr. Mayville, I noticed that you mentioned something about Jim teaching. Jim was my steel teacher many years ago and we have a sort of inside joke going on. I always refer to him as 'my old steel teacher' and in turn he always calls me 'my old steel student'. The word 'old' of course being the keyword there. LOL
He used to teach steel many years ago before he started touring with artists and he was a great teacher back then. He quit teaching after he started touring (guess he just didn't have time for it). I keep in pretty close contact with Jim and I happen to know that he does not currently teach and as far as I know he does not have any inclinations to begin teaching again since an accident he had where he injured his arm and hand with some really severe nerve damage.
I've known Jim since even before he started playing steel some 35 years ago and I watched with amazement as he not only blossomed into a superb steel player, but excelled in the learning curve at an amazing speed. His technique and approach to steel has always been flawless and his style is nothing less than beautiful. I like to describe much of his playing as angelic in many ways.
His playing flourished and way back when he was teaching he inspired me to learn and he was a wonderful and patient teacher. I've really enjoyed hearing Jim throughout his career. He's not just a good player, he's always been a great player. But then something happened that changed everything for him and he's mentioned it a few times in other posts.
A few years ago he had an accident where he fell off the roof of his house while working on it. He was right on the tip top when he fell and was injured very badly. His pelvis was all cracked up, his lower back was really messed up and somehow something happened in the way he landed where both his arms sustained very severe nerve damage that he's been trying to rehab and it nearly destroyed his ability to even sit and try to play steel. His left arm is pretty much recovered but his right arm and hand still deal him a great deal of misery to say the very least.
To some of us who're very close to Jim and know just how bad his injury was, we like to call him the 'miracle steel player' because his doctors and neurologists said he'd never play again, but Jim proved them wrong. He not only plays again today, but does so very well and even when his nerve damage is acting up on a bad day he still sounds better than I ever could on my best day.
As far as this "Mansion On The Hill" song that I asked him to post for me, I was at his house the day he recorded it last year. He was in excruciating pain with his arm and his fingers would barely work, but since he knew that I'd driven a long way to hear him play some steel, he sat down at his guitar anyway and played some songs for me despite all the pain and difficulty he was having right then. Video taping that little session was my idea. When I asked him recently if he'd post that song for me, he didn't have anything current (only that one recording) and he really didn't want to post it at all but I begged him a little and he went ahead and put it up.
I see that the video has gotten a lot of hits on it and I don't know what many people who've seen it might think of it but given the circumstances he was under when he played that tune, I think he did fantastic. Here's a guy sitting there whose hand was all but not working at all and in so much pain I could see him holding back tears while he forced his hand to work and yet he managed to pull off that song beautifully and smoothly with all those adversities going on. In my opinion, far from a failure, that song was a triumph of good steel playing under circumstances like that.
I've visited him often and watched with wonder as he plowed through terrible physical pain on his steel to regain what his injury has taken away. I don't mean to sound like I'm writing an editorial tribute to Jim but in all honesty I've witnessed first hand much of what he's had to go through to get back into steel and if there's anyone who deserves respect in his steel guitar musicianship, Jim Lindsey does. He's one of those who is battling and overcoming tremendous obstacles.
I also noticed in your post that you said this is the first time you've heard Jim play. Why not give a quick listen to a few songs of Jim playing and then evaluate what you think of him? Here's a few links below.
Here's one from some of his earlier days. Rockin Robin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFxEO6KuGR0
Here's a couple from his Ty Herndon days.
Shameless
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opitizvWfRM
Don't Tell Mama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7RSiAvo8e4
One here from since he's been recovering from his injury; a short version of Blue Jade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc3V5RcDKjc
Sounds pretty good, don't he?
I'm new as a member of the forum, but I've been cruising it as a guest for two or three years now and I have a lot of respect for everyone on here. Please let me add my attestation along with others here that Jim is a well seasoned veteran of steel guitar; he just had the misfortune of suffering an accident that all but took his steel playing completely away from him.
To everyone who may happen to watch that Mansion On The Hill thing, I wish you could have been there when Jim was playing it. I had a real urge to ask him to stop playing because he was in so much pain, but when he gets on his steel wild horses can't drag him from it. Then to pull that song off the way he did in the awful physical pain he was in was truly miraculous to watch. I know I certainly couldn't have done it. He's a true steel guitar hero in my book.
Well, I don't ever like to involve my self in things like this,
