The Steel Guitar Forum

I love this guy's playing!
Sid Hudson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOSiNrgH ... e=youtu.be

This and 'The Lighthouse tale'? My new favourite player!!!

It's just so musical and is devoid of clichés; Gary's is the inspiration I seem to have been lacking for too long now.

A great player indeed.

Thanks for posting this Sid. Gary Carter is amazing.

This song is Beautiful! Great tone, tuning & inventive licks!! Sweet!

He was soliciting song suggestions for a CD not too long ago, I think people made an effort to steer him away from Sleepwalk & Steel Guitar Rag - sure hope so. If he does mine - El Paso - I'd have to buy it, huh. Hurry....


I had the weird experience of buying the old Steel Guitar magazines, five of them, in 2001 - about 12 or so years old? And the players who were most excited about the steel guitar, and making big plans then to take it everywhere, were - Paul Franklin & Gary Carter. They were listening to Miles Davis & Mahavishnu and dreaming big....

So very, very TASTEFUL & REFRESHING, J.R.

now that was good..GC sure has a fine touch....

t

I'm just bumping this to the top - everyone should hear it!

Sid- I love Gary's playing too.

I tune in every Saturday to Marty Stuart's show just to hear Gary play. Oh yeah, those other guys are good too.

Gary Carter is, without question, one of the finest steel guitarists out there. His taste and tone are to die for, and he executes it all with flawless perfection..And yes, he most certainly inspire people, including myself, to reach out a little extra and be the best one can be..Hats off to you, Gary.. Looking forward to more from you..

Roger, here's the link to "The Lighthouse". I agree, probably one of the best out there right now. I could listen to this one over and over again. I saw Nickle Creek do the original version of this live and fell in love with the song. Never would have imagined it could be improved upon, but Gary did it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI56hQOsmos

Thanks, David, but I do have it 'bookmarked' already. It's good you've added it, though, in case it's still new to someone out there.

I'm unable to put my finger on exactly why his playing affects me so. All of Larry's points are valid yet there's something more in the music itself. It's magical and, without fail, I have to go straight to my guitar and play something after every hearing of either of these pieces.

That's inspiration, I suppose. Thanks, Gary Carter.

I agree whole heartedly with you Roger...I don't know why Gary's playing affects me either, but magical it is.. Very few players have that affect on me...He has that rare ability to project his soul, if you will, into the songs he plays and , unless you are void of feelings,you can certainly feel it...As Jeff Newman once told me,,"probably 20% of learning the pedal steel is musical theory, technical ability and the like...The other 80% comes from your heart and soul"..It took me a while to understand that, but, it eventually dawned on me...Gary definitely has all those abilities , IMHO..

Larry, I think you and Roger have hit the nail on the head. It's the Heart and Soul in every note. I"m sure Gary can play at 1000 m.p.h. like most, but he doesn't. He uses dynamics, feeling and most of all... Extreme Cleanliness. When you can feel every single note instead of having a million of them thrown at you all at once, then you have a connection with the song / instrument. And there's no denying his tone is second to none!!! WOW!! what tone!

Well put, David - maybe that's it.

I'm always playing music here in my own room at home; not always steel-related but it often is. So the strains of Franklin, Emmons, Jernigan and others are frequently to be heard at our house. This morning I was playing Gary's two tracks and it brought my wife, Susie, all the way from the other bedroom to ask:

"Who's that???"

Steel's not her cup-of-tea particularly but Gary's music connected with Mrs. Rettig as well!

What I particularly like about this is that -

first - it's so obviously a pedal steel guitar, with all the attendant capabilities and beauty that (IMHO) only a pedal steel in the hands of a great player can put forth ... but

second - as you say Roger, it's devoid of "steel guitar cliches". Further, it doesn't sound like someone came to him and said, "OK, no Nashville!" - he's clearly and heavily using the capabilities of the instrument as it has evolved for the last 50+ years. But the man is playing "music", not "pedal steel music" or even "steel guitar music".

This goes to Zane's earlier thread about, "There are NO fans of steel guitar music." OK, maybe not a lot of fans of "steel guitar music", that's probably right. But I think there are plenty of fans (and even more potential fans) of great music that just happen to be made using steel guitars, including pedal steel. [Aside - I think the idea sometimes floated around that, somehow, nonpedal steels have some huge advantage is just not right - they're both great in the right hands.] My opinion, and I think lots more music like this would go a ways towards helping the lot of this instrument.

Super playing Gary.when is this all going to be on a cd so we can buy a copy?

Roger Rettig wrote:I'm unable to put my finger on exactly why his playing affects me so. All of Larry's points are valid yet there's something more in the music itself.

Roger
I think it is all encapsulated by 2 little words. Taste and feel. I think we have all been knocked out as far as we can be by guys who can play blindingly fast, but to go back to basics and hear the pedal steel being played in such a tasteful and creative way is probably what turned us on to the instrument in the first place. Mr Carter, to his credit, is no copyist. Just someone with good technique who plays straight from the heart using intelligent interpretation. Very inspiring.

Gary's gorgeous sound on this piece is due in no small part to his choice of temperament and scrupulous avoidance of impure intervals. This is a great demo of the allure of just intonation, to steel players and little old ladies alike.

We little old ladies are so down on impurity.... in the Current "Premier Guitar" Victor Wooten insists that he thinks about playing music, not bass guitar. Paul Franklin has made the same point here, Gary Carter shows it, I get the same vibe from Dave Easley - like he doesn't know any "licks." Ask an experienced sax player to dip into 1963 Coltrane and surgically extract a "great lick", they'll tell you you're crazy.

If there's any useful lesson to learn from somebody who's so much better, it's that any primary instrument is playing in a figure/ground relationship, and if you're laying the ground too, pay close attention. It's not just avoiding band-in-a-box-sounding parts or Casiotone drums, it's clearing out the frequencies from the backing you want for your primary, drum machine fills always use a counter-beat for tension (that's NOT listening to you)... I learn a good deal more from listening to a few things carefully than a lot of "stuff" as background wash.

Wow Wow Wow what else is there to say.

Gary doesn't get a lot of press here, but he's a fantastic player (and has been for decades). His milking of each individual note in a ballad is where he shines, but he's also a fierce player on the hot stuff. How good is he? I'd rank him among the top-10 players in the world. That ain't "leg humping", it's just a compliment to a phenomenal player from someone who's been lucky enough to have seen the very best.

I would have to agree.