The Steel Guitar Forum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH1u5j-1QZw

You will appreciate this ...

Marty Stuart is one of the worlds unsung great tele players.

Here he channels Clarence, and is using Clarence's own original prototype Parsons/White b bender tele, a guitar he owns.... the spirit of Clarence's music is still in the guitar, and Marty is blessed with the talent to bring it forth..

Just look at the title of the song, and you can see its a tribute to Clarence...
Hummingbyrd, referring to the band Clarence White was in [Byrds]
Marty is also channeling the late great Ralph Mooney..Some of the licks on this song were invented by Moon way back when.Enjoy... bob

ripping hot

yikes.. I missed that thread Frank!!!.. No comments on it either, kind of sad... You beat me to it by 2 years,...

A Grammy winner to boot!.. I never heard the song until today... it is smokin' hot... Hey brother, great minds think alike..
You didn't miss the Moon connection either... We must have good ears.. or sumpthin!... bob

Hey Bob,
Great post! I really love the way that Marty is continuing the legend of Clarence White. Unfortunately, only us diehards remember what it's all about.
Short story..... My friend and I saw Clarence, many years ago, and spoke to him at length about his Tele. He was real appreciative about our wanting knowledge. He opened up the back and explained how it all worked. He let me draw a sketch of it, also. We also asked if he'd mind if we tried our hand at building one. The only stipulation was that we don't try to sell the concept. All this on a gentleman's handshake. We'll, we built the bender with some plate aluminum, a door hinge, various springs, rod stock welded to shape and nuts and bolts. We covered the back with a piece of Masonite. And, believe it or not, it worked. Of course there was fine tuning to do, but, we got it. My buddy still has and plays that Tele, to this day. He's altered it a bit to make it better, though. I, on the other hand, sent my 68' Tele out to Gene Parsons to have the Parsons-White bender put on. I still have mine and play it, occasionally. I'll never sell it. It's a part of my music background, that, I won't ever forget.

i would see Clarence n Roland at a little place called the cats pajamas in arcadia ca..around 1960..... he gave lessons at russ millers place in el monte ca..i would hang out lookin at all the inst.... but really i was just listening to him play wow never got over it

marty really brings out the clarence tone with his guitar.

marty's a nice guy. let me mess with clarence's guitar one day.

is this it?

Bob Carlucci wrote:yikes.. I missed that thread Frank!!!.. No comments on it either, kind of sad... You beat me to it by 2 years,...

A Grammy winner to boot!.. I never heard the song until today... it is smokin' hot... Hey brother, great minds think alike..
You didn't miss the Moon connection either... We must have good ears.. or sumpthin!... bob

I think there have been other threads about the song and the album pictured below, I don't have the time to do a search right now, need to hit the road in a few minutes.

As I recall it was the final Grammy awarded for "Best Country Instrumental" in 2011 then they nixed the category.

I'm actually somewhat amazed that just about everyone here doesn't have the Marty Stuart CD on which this was released in 2010, Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions. I don't think I'm going out on much of a limb to say that It's right up the alley of the majority of the members of the forum.

There are four steel players appearing on the album: Ralph Mooney, Kayton Roberts, Gary Carter and Tommy White. It had to be the last, or one of the very last recordings for Moon. He contributed an instrumental version of Crazy Arms.

I always thought that "Nashville Skyline Rag" by Dylan and "Nashville West" by the Byrds are very similar, did he ( Bob Dylan) emulate them?

Gary Spaeth wrote:is this it?

no. that's not the clarence guitar!

Great Tele playing. Thanks.

An article from 10 years ago on the guitar:

http://www.martystuart.com/zArt-VintageGuitar4-04.htm






Marty points out in the article that one can really hear the effect in the way Gene Parsons set up the bender in The Byrds version of It's All Over Now Baby Blue from "The Ballad of Easy Rider." In the early years of its release, I did a lot of time with this album in my bedroom in my high school years with the headphones on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhMhJ9BjAP4

That's about the best Tele Tone I can ever recall hearing!

Yup, that is the schiznitz. I've been lucky enough to see that Telecaster in action live several times, starting in 1969 when The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers were at the Boston Tea Party, a couple more times with Clarence with the Byrds, and then much later a few times with Marty at the helm. Those (what appear to be) silverface Princeton Reverbs don't hurt nothing either. Marty is the complete package, and Kenny is playing perfectly tasteful accompaniment.

I remember Clarence from the "old days" when I was still in SoCal. I used to go to the "Squeakin' Deacon" show in the sixties each Sunday at the Southgate Eagles Hall in Southgate, Ca. It was a live variety show on KFOX in Long Beach, Ca. at the time. I'd go to play lead guitar with a couple of different guys from time to time and that's where I met Clarence. He was with the Kentucky Colonels (bluegrass group) at the time. I knew him from that and later when he took up electric I'd see him from time to time at the Nashville West club in El Monte. He left there and went on to bigger and better things but I remember he had about the best command of a flatpick I'd ever seen along with maybe Jimmy Bryant. Clarence was a pretty good guy to boot.

About 14 or 15 years ago my band opened for Marty Stuart at a Truck Rodeo in Virginia Beach. I'd met Marty's steel guitarist (Gary Hogue) before and I asked him if he could fix it up for me to see Clarence's guitar and he did. Marty let me pick it up and do a couple of licks on it (unplugged). As I remember, it was a pretty nice playing guitar. I'm glad he's kept it in action and uses it all the time. A guitar like that's meant to be played and not just looked at.

I have a Tele that means a bunch to me and sounds great. Here's a shot or two of my "Clarence Jr"......JH in Va.

happy to come acoss this post.Clarence was very important to me.