The Steel Guitar Forum

I long for the golden days of the Grand Ole Opry where Connie Smith or Jeanie Seely would sing a verse and a chorus and then say "Steel Guitars of the Grand Ole Opry, Hal, Sonny, and Weldon!" Then, the finest sound, this side of heaven, plays the most wonderful 3-part interlude! Great memories!

I believe most of us do too. But I am afraid those days are long gone. The day Elvis strapped a git' tar on his shoulder was the day what you are seeing was born.

His rebellion against all of life's appropriateness is now manifest in what we all see in every walk of life sadly,

God help us for what we have allowed,

carl

Gone perhaps, but never forgotten !! Who could ever forget what we have been priviledged to hear !! Surely, it has been some of those most beautiful new instrumentation the world has ever heard and we were there at it's birth. It began there with Bud Issacs and it will always be there.

Cover it with what ever they will, there simply is no way on God's Green Earth that they could ever errase it from our memories.
The history of this music is in the best of hands. Almost 6,500 of them and all members of this STEEL GUITAR FORUM !! And most of those hands know well, the feel of Bar and Picks and Strings.

I have never seen this feeling of the end of steel guitar go any where. I have heard and read about it since the 50's and from what I can see and from my own hands, I know, it just gets better and better. Perhaps an asteroid or some such catastrophy may do what Gaylord etc etc et al can never do !!

Regards, Paul

Good one, Reggie. I learned a LOT listening to those guys back then as I'm sure many of us did. I was in awe when I purchased my 1st D-10, a Sho-Bud Professional there and got to go upstairs to see the old "skunkworks" while Duane Marrs set up my guitar. That was '72. Got to hear the 4 & 8 raise for the 1st time to my ears at a Sunday night Opry from whomever was playing his white Emmons with the Oak Ridge Boys. Yep, great memories indeed!

Exactly at 7:30 PM every Saturday night as I'd be turning into Portland's largest and most popular dance hall where I had the privilege of playing for more than a dozen years.....the fantabulous sounds of either Billy Robinson and/or Grady Martin would burst thro' the car speakers and we'd be off on another exciting half hour of the best country music life has ever given us.
Tho' only young men of 18, playing with the nation's top vocalist of the time Red Foley, host of the Opry, these two musicians are responsible for having indelibly etched into the far back reaches of the gray matter occupying the top back of my cranium, "that special sound" that will indeed, live forever; can be heard today only on those old Decca 78 rpm records.
Way back in the olden days BEFORE 1980 (and even 1970!), when country music was indisputably COUNTRY....the audience didn't need to have some cutesy blond to lead them by the hand down the isle with explanations about this and that artist, since only REAL STARS were presented on the OPRY.....not the R&R show case of "talent?" today.
Having for years believed "that sound" to be the result of some kind of "SECRET" studio device....I was fortunate to discover factually during the Texas Jamboree this year, that both Billy Robinson and Grady Martin were playing thro' a white face FENDER twin amp. Both musicians, both guitars and one single amp.
Of course, Jerry Byrd's tone before that, was also a miracle in sound; and as of today, remains unmatched.
No electronic gadgets, compressors, flanges, analog delays, chorus or fuzz; an old style microphone standing on the floor about three feet in front of the amp (also sitting on the floor)and still.......tone unmatched anywhere today!
The Opry today....broadcasts sounds of the steel guitar as tho' they are in an old galvenized washing tub....about 1/2 block away from the stage. It's truly a miracle what digital electronic systems and affects boxes, pyrotechnics, smoke bombs, flashing strobe lights, large screen TV's on stage, running and jumping across the stage and wearing dirty appearing, unironed clothing, when combined with the minds of those under-age producers and managers that were obviously raised on a strict diet of R&R..... have brought to this industry, once known as country-western/folk music.

No wonder some of the truly professional artists in this industry, have chosen to avoid the industy that they themselves helped over decades to create. Emotionally,
it must be like building a multi-million dollar home only to discover that an army of low-life termites have moved in and are destroying all you spent a lifetime to build.

The truly great merits of steel guitar, those exceptional artists that played them, and country music and the Opry, will ne'er be forgotten by those who truly know what GREAT is all about. We are a dying bunch, unfortunately.........

<SMALL> We are a dying bunch......</SMALL>

Ray !! You cut that out now !! You're a scarin' me !! It's too dang close as it is !!

Best Regards, Paul

Yeah, back to the good memories: Remember when those guys (Hal, Weldon, & Sonny) would get all their boss tones going at the same time? Talking about a FAT string sound! Just as good if not better than a synth, IMO. Now THERE'S your house band. Wow!

In 76, I was in town during the DJ convention working for Gretsch, The late Jim Colvard, dropped me off at Hal Ruggs house, so I could ride to the Opry with Hal as his guest, I spent most of the night standing a few feet behind him, He took a C6th ride " on Jambalia" while backing, Jimmy C Newman, I looked dowm, & my socks were gone, I also witnessed the 3 Boss Tone stuff! Now thats some memories! au

NOW YER TALKIN'!!

In the imortal words of Archie Bunker,Those Were the days,I have the album with those three players on the cover taken on the opry stage.Favorite cut>>>>>>all of them.
Hal is supposed to be at Saluda in Aug. I think,gonna take that album and get him to autograph it. BTW all the steels on the cover are left handed.
Bill Ford

Bill; I think the picture is left handed and not the guitars. Like that picture on one of Jimmy Day's first albums. That like to twisted my head all the way around trying to figure out what was wrong with that guitar !!

Regards, Paul

Let me get this staight....... Elvis was the start of the downfall of the PSG? I never knew!

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Mattman in "The Big Sleazy"-:
S-10 Dekley, Suitcase Fender Rhodes, B-bender Les Paul

Let me get this staight....... Elvis was the start of the downfall of the PSG? I never knew!

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Mattman in "The Big Sleazy"-:
S-10 Dekley, Suitcase Fender Rhodes, B-bender Les Paul

Matt! You were right the first time!

AL: I reread your post and it reminded me of something. In the 60s sometime, I was listening to the GOO and Hal was backing Don Gibson. He was milking something pretty for all it was worth and Don said; on the air: Ohh, Hal ! Have a heart !!

I mentioned it to Hal after Carl's Atlanta Extravaganza, three years ago. He said someone has just sent him a recording of that and a bass player Hal knew asked him what it was all about. Hal told him that DG really loved steel guitar and was loving what he was playing and couldn't help himself.

Thanks for the memories !!

Regards, Paul

What a great story! MORE!!!!!!!!

Quote me if I'm wrong but I do beleave that Conway Twitty started all that Rock a Billy junk before Elvis and that is where it all began.
Sam White

BUMP
Sam White<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Samuel E. White on 26 June 2002 at 06:18 PM.]</p></FONT>

Sorry, Reggie !! No more stories until you post the tab for that song you gave us to enjoy. Quite honestly, it is something of yours that I don't want to loose. I hope I'm not being a pest and I'm sure you'll understand. BTW: do you want a BE story, or a JD story or a BG story ??

Regards, Paul

OK, Paul....one of each!

OK, Reggie !! You earned my attention so let's hope I don't get redundant here and repeat myself....

BE...Late 60,s; I was hanging out at MSA and the Ray Price Band dropped by to check out things and chew the fat with whoever might happen to be there. Julian Tharpe had left about an hour earlier. Tom Morrell dropped by on the way to an afternoon gig and Bud Carter was doing you know what.

In a conversation I was having with Buddy, I asked about the chord pattern the string section was using for an intro to Danny Boy, the then current Ray Price hit song. He seemed evasive and Blondie began to chide him: Tell him the chords if you know them and he did. I put them in a Fretts/Fender article and I don't recall them off-hand right now but it was some lush arrangement I can tell you that for sure and Buddy had it exactly right because when I played them later, it was what I had heard on the record.

JD... This is a current topic in the Tab Forum right now: Jimmy was at my house in Spangdahlem, GR on tour with Ferlin Husky in Europe. I put on his album and selected Remmington Ride. What did you do right there I asked him and bumped it back to repeat it again. Oh hell, he replied. I dunno !! I was so tired and so full of beer there's no telling what that was. I do recall he was on a ten string C6th Sho-Bud, Rich Blue in color. He asked me to try it out at one of their shows while I was following him around France and Germany. I played it and said in dismay: No wonder, I can't play pedal steel guitar ! I ain't got one !!

BG... In another post about Bigsby Guitars and Standel Amplifiers I mentioned Bobby using my Standel amp. What I was too ashamed to mention was that on the way home, we were driving togeather; I asked him if he had heard what Curly was playing on the latest Hank Thompson Album. He looked at me with eyes I can never forget and said:
THAT WAS ME !!

Hope you like these, Reggie !! I know I liked that Tab you posted and I've already called two other steel players and told them that lick. My only question now is: Where has it been all this time. It's right there on my Carter but........

Regards, Paul

Great topic! I'm moving it to the "Steel Players" section where it rightfully belongs.

For those who wonder why I move things: When a topic is no longer active, people will still be able to find it by doing a "search" (see link at top of page). The search function only does one forum section at a time. That's why it's an important courtesy to post your messages in the correct section - future readers will be able to find it more easily.

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