The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm very pleased to announce a special concert featuring the steel players who recorded for Hans Zimmer's score for the new Superman movie, "Man of Steel."

----------------

UPDATE 7-29-13: the show is SOLD OUT!

The good news is WE'VE ADDED A SECOND SHOW, same date of August 11, at 6:00 p.m.

----------------

Just a bit of the show is devoted to demonstrating how and what we recorded at Warner Bros. Eastwood Scoring Stage. The rest is a mini steel guitar show, with each player performing a short set. Genres include country, pop, jazz, Latin, classical, ambient and who knows what else.

Not to be missed!

The San Pedro venue, Alva's Showroom, has wonderful sound, but is very petite, seating just 80, so if you plan to attend, hit the link early. Admission is $25, available online only. Click here for tickets and more concert information:

http://tinyurl.com/jvtjcf3

(Note: sales are final, no refunds or exchanges, per the ticket site's policies. If it turns out you can't make it after all, try posting your ticket(s) for sale here on the forum, I'd recommend here in Event Announcements, as well as in For Sale: Music, Lessons, etc. No scalping, please!)

The players are actually a blend of SoCal steelers who played the 2013 SWSGA Steel Show in Phoenix, and all the film score sessions players. You may not know every player by name, yet, but each is a fantastic picker, and we'll be playing a big variety of genres.

Steel players are: JayDee Maness, Chas Smith, Skip Edwards, Marty Rifkin, Bob "Boo" Bernstein, Rick Schmidt, Peter Freiberger, Doug Livingston, and yours truly, John McClung.

We hope to see you there!

New video: "Man of Steel" film score composer Hans Zimmer talking exclusively about his goals for the "steel guitar orchestra." Short, really interesting, click!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvQOa8CN-gI

Boo Bernstein passed on this interview with Hans Zimmer where he talks a little about the concept of using pedal steels in the movie score, and how what you think is synthesizers is actually our "steel guitar orchestra," as he named us.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/06/ ... teel-soar/

Hi John,
Any idea when the tickets for this might go on sale? I'm really excited about this concert!

-Owen

Owen, thanks for your interest! The tickets are sold online only.

http://tinyurl.com/jvtjcf3

Seating is very limited, if any of you plan to attend, get right on it, don't wait!

Another glimpse of Hans Zimmer's creative process composing the film score for "Man of Steel"; very tiny bit of Marty Rifkin working with Hans on a pedal steel sound, 1:09 - 1:20.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-l5fM7O ... e=youtu.be

Great, thanks John, I'll keep watch and get my tickets quick.

-Owen

Got my tickets today, thanks John for posting this event!

You're the first sale, Owen, congrats! Where in CA do you live?

Hi John,
I'm in Redondo Beach, so I'm practically around the corner.

The venue, Owen, is just a few miles from you. Do you play out, or perhaps desire E9 lessons at any level? A big part of what I do is train steel students.

Denise and I will be there - sounds like a great show.

Joe Naylor "Asleep at the Steel"
www.steelseat.com (SWSGA Director)

Hi John

This is going to be one heck of a show, are there a few songs that everyone played on and did any of the steel players write or co-write the music?

Thanks,
Billy aka
Bronco Billy

Hi John,
I don't play yet. I'm currently saving up to buy a student model. Once I've got a guitar, I'll likely be in the market for some lessons to keep from picking up any bad habits right out of the gate. Where in LA do you give lessons?

Owen: my home studio in Lakewood. I'm close to you via the 405 or the 91. Give me a holler. I have leads on steels for sale, send me an email and we'll chat offline about all this.

Just saw the superman movie with my 10 year old. He liked it.

I have to admit I did not hear the guitars.
Where should I have paid more attention?

We sound a lot like strings and/or a synthesizer; it's subtle! Most obvious place is halfway through end credits, you can hear us do a slide up a 4th.

I just saw it today as well, in IMAX, pretty good movie, the last fight scene was way too long imho. The sound volume was LOUD. And the popcorn was too salty. But all in all, enjoyable and exciting. Amazing effects.

This is a great weekend to get your tickets to this special showcase of some of the West Coast's best pedal steel players! JayDee Maness alone is worth the price of admission.

http://tinyurl.com/jvtjcf3

This show includes all of us from Southern California who played the SWSGA show in Phoenix this year. For 2013 we've gone with the movie angle since most of us were also involved in that project.

Next year and hopefully every year, I'll produce a show featuring the Phoenix players from SoCal. It's our way of bringing that great music home to friends and family, and getting a bit more mileage from the material we work so hard to create.

Thanks John for your post. Got my tickets, and looking forward to hearing all the great steel players.

Jim, glad you can make it, thanks for your support.

Billy Woo: here's the agenda:

• 1 or 2 jam songs, similar to how a steel jam goes, to warm us up and give the audience a sense of how our styles vary

• demo of what we played at the Man of Steel recording sessions; playback of the soundtrack where you can hear the final result

• brief explanation of how the pedal steel works, how truly complicated it really is (most people have no idea, as you know!)

• individual sets by each of the players, about 15 minutes each

There will be some steel originals. I know Skip Edwards has written some catchy songs. I'm doing a duet with my guitarists, George Keller, on a song that he wrote. Mostly it'll be covers.

No matter what we play, it should be good!

10-4 that John, glad you broke it down for us, I'm sure it would be great even if Y'all played chopsticks (jes kidding) when I watched the film, I was trying to zone in on the steel guitar sound but just could not suss it out, too much strings and orchestral throughout but either way it's another notch in the belt and being on a sound stage in any major feature film is nothing to sneeze at, I will be all ears come Aug 8th..Thanks John

Billy Woo aka
Bronco Billy

10-4 that John, glad you broke it down for us, I'm sure it would be great even if Y'all played chopsticks (jes kidding) when I watched the film, I was trying to zone in on the steel guitar sound but just could not suss it out, too much strings and orchestral throughout but either way it's another notch in the belt and being on a sound stage in any major feature film is nothing to sneeze at, I will be all ears come Aug 11th..Thanks John

Billy Woo aka
Bronco Billy

Weekend bump to the top; this is a great, and rare, Los Angeles show, folks, attend if you can. When the glowing reviews come in, you'll be kicking yourself for missing it. Tickets are selling briskly, but still available.

John McClung
Mr. Twang

Bump with tickets update.

mid-week PR bump...