The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm sure most everyone is familiar with this tune by Rosanne Cash:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hrUs_FWqj9s

Just listened to it again today and had to bring it up - what fantastic steel playing! His parts are perfect. I love the mix of steel and synth as well. This song was a huge inspiration for Robert Ellis and I in arranging his tune only lies, doubling the steel into with synth.

Mr.Devito is a great player and I am particularly fond of his part-writing skills. His playing is an inspiration for me.

One of my all time favourite players.
His work with Emmylou Harris was so good, he has the knack of playing just the right phrase or lick to suit the song. His solo's on "Seven Year Ache" and "Wheels" stand out for me.

Not a bad songwriter either - "Queen of Hearts" and "Small town Saturday Night" to mention just two.

Rarely mentioned on this forum, he is one the greats IMHO.

Thanks for posting Will.

Hank was great on Emmy Lou's and Rosanne's stuff. Seven Year Ache was pure genius. Love it still to this day.

Brilliant!

ok...while we're lovin' on hank.....
you've got to have something on the ball to keep up with james burton on all the cool twin lines they did together. i always wondered where the input of ideas came from for those. like cash on the barrelhead... course it was james and al perkins on the gram version, but i saw the first hot band play it. very exciting stuff. i always remember james playing through those two shorty 2x10 music man amps! kicked ass!

Yes!

Gerry Hogan and I had a nice fifteen minutes on the stage of the Odeon, Hammersmith back in the '70s.

It was Gerry's idea - "Lets see if we can sneak into their sound-check!!!" I was game, so we sat in the darkened empty stalls (there's always an unlocked door somewhere in a theatre!) and watched the whole band run a couple of tunes.

Then we walked on stage and said 'hello' to James and Hank. Gerry mostly talked with DeVito and I bottonholed Mr. Burton who's been my principal guitar-hero for over fifty years. Then I asked him if he'd show me the lick from Emmy's 'Amarillo' ('Elite Hotel') which was still pretty new at this point.

What tickled me was the enthusiasm he still had for a duet that they must at this point have played maybe dozens of times! He said: "Hank - 'Amarillo'!!!", and they launched into that wonderful twin-intro complete with all those wonderful staccato notes.

Then he happily agreed to let me hold and play that iconic paisley Telecaster! What a nice interlude that was and I'll never forget it.

Eventually some security guy showed up and the spell was broken. But we'd taken a chance and it had paid off - the concert that night was all the more enjoyable for us both.

That particular incarnation of Emmy & the Hot Band represents the best country music I've ever heard.

i tabbed this tune out after realizing frank freniere or another Forum member did it priir to me. i did a search but could only find mine. here is the link SEVEN YEAR ACHE http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... +year+ache  

Chris - my thoughts exactly! We always seem to agree in the steel players section, don't we? You've gotta have some chops, and taste, to keep up with the likes of James Burton and ALBERT LEE! Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn77ZraSZ8A

Albert lee destroys this tune! No steel solo, unfortunately, but Hank does some really cool back up. It seems that he is, unlike a lot of us, unafraid to comp on up tempo tunes, and actually adds something to the tune with his comping. A mark of a great steel player, imo, and a difficult thing to do.

Roger - what an experience!!

Mr. Devito contacted me Monday and delivered this awesome info in his message:

" FYI, The intro to Seven year Ache was played using an E-Bow then double tracked. People always think it's a synch rather than steel guitar."

Very cool. I always thought it was a very clean steel signal mixed with a synth.

Yes it was, Will - very exciting.

Oh, it's so good to hear Albert playing a Telecaster!!! I infinitely prefer his sound here to anything he does on those Strat-like Music Man guitars he now endorses.

They haven't hurt his playing, of course, but he sounds better on Teles for my money.

I used to spend half the night waiting to do this song and "Blue Moon With a Heartache." Two of my all-time favorites..

Will Van Horn wrote:Mr. Devito contacted me Monday and delivered this awesome info in his message:

" FYI, The intro to Seven year Ache was played using an E-Bow then double tracked. People always think it's a synch rather than steel guitar."

Very cool. I always thought it was a very clean steel signal mixed with a synth.

Amazing stuff! I love this forum

He co- wrote "Old Yellow Moon", the title song of the Emmylou Harris/Rodney Crowell album.

Roger Rettig wrote:Oh, it's so good to hear Albert playing a Telecaster!!! I infinitely prefer his sound here to anything he does on those Strat-like Music Man guitars he now endorses.

They haven't hurt his playing, of course, but he sounds better on Teles for my money.

Amen to that! I think there are subtle differences for the better in his playing on the Tele, too.

I had the temerity to ask him, when I met him at his merchandise table when he was on the "Masters of the Steel String Guitar" tour, if he ever played the Tele any more, and he said no, he was happy with the Music Man (at the time it was the Silhouette model, it was before his cartoony-looking signature model). I didn't dare express my preference for the Tele directly, but I imagine it was implied. Oh, well.

Well, I suppose he feels proud to have a signature guitar dedicated to him and why wouldn't he? I doubt he'd ever say anything to undermine sales of the AL model.

But I wonder what he really thinks. Perhaps he does like that new 'wiry' sound. But I know he loves Teles and it was Albert himself who once stated that '....there's a style and feel that (the Tele) channels you to that is impossible to duplicate on any other.' And that style/feel is what defines Albert in my opinion.

Sorry to hijack Hank's thread but they're all closely-related brothers-in-arms, aren't they?

Here he is showing off his '53 with great pride, and this was taken in 2007.

Hank is one of the most underrated steel players there is!

Hank DeVito also appeared in Rodney Crowell's video, "I Couldn't Leave You If I Tried"-great steel player!