Regional Pedal Steel Styles

[Don Chance]

Hey everyone! I'm new to the Forum, and it looks like an interesting place to spend a little time.

Even though I mainly specialize in guitars and piano, I've played pedal steel on stage and in the studio for more than 30 years, and I've owned everything from a ratty little MSA Red Baron to a solid ShoBud S-12 Universal. My favorite guitar was the simple BMI S-10 (3x4) that I foolishly let go when someone offered me three times the rare bargain price I paid for it. Oh well.

Right now, I have a BMI D-10 (8x4), and my sons, very talented guitar players, are learning to play it. But I'm not sure how much I can teach them that would get them work.

To me, as a working musician for all my adult life, there are three primary pedal steel styles: Nashville, Western Swing and West Coast. From what I hear, the Nashville sound uses big, lush chords with lots of color variations made possible by complex custom lever setups - while the Western Swing sound has some pedal pulls but mainly lives in jazzy lever licks on the C6 neck. The West Coast sound seems based on lots of pedal pulls; mimicking electric guitar string bends. (From what I've studied, even though Tom Brumley was tearing it up in the studios, players like Sneaky Pete and Jerry Garcia pioneered the breezy West Coast country/rock PSG style, and both commented on how their sound came from learning pretty much on their own without anyone formally teaching them.)

That one, the West Coast style, is the way I've always played; and the sound my sons want to learn. I've explained the other styles, with plenty of YouTube examples, and they're pretty set on the Sneaky Pete approach. It was popular in its day, but I'm just not sure how salable it would be for someone who specializes in PSG nowadays.

Yes, every musician - including steel players - has a unique approach to the techniques they develop and the ways they play the notes they choose. But their individual styles can almost always be, generally, categorized on one of these three primary regional styles.

I suspect there are other distinctive regional sounds I'm not aware of.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

[Earnest Bovine]

I think styles are more personal than regional. Each player does his best and rises to his own level of incompetence. In any region there are players who imitate the player who makes the most money, so maybe that's where regional styles come from.

[Don Chance]

Makes sense.

[chris ivey]

that's funny eb. i think at one time in my small neighborhood i was making the most money, if you want to call it that. and that was only out of my desperate scrambling for gigs. so i was imitating myself....and i would say it was a very cheap imitation.

i agree about each player just trying to utilize everything he has learned to the best of his ability. each of those 3 styles mentioned has it's own set of lush chords.

[Donny Hinson]

Even back 50 years ago, players didn't learn much in a vacuum. Everyone had radios and records, and there were far less restrictions put on what could be recorded or played on radio stations. I think the "west coast" style was popularized first by players like Fuzzy Owen, Dick Stubbs, Red Rhodes, Jay McDonald, and of course, Ralph Mooney (king of the west-coasters). Other players who came along, like Tom Brumley, Sneaky Pete, and Jerry Garcia certainly copied a lot of their stuff, and were seriously influenced by these players. If you listen to "Christine's Tune", you can clearly hear a lot of Ralph Mooney influence in what Sneaky Pete was doing.

So IMHO, there definitely was a "west coast" sound.

[Barry Blackwood]

Each player does his best and rises to his own level of incompetence.

The Peter Principle?

[Jack Stoner]

You can add "regional" to mean the local style. If you go into a town, many of the local steelers will tend to sound like the local hero. Go to a different town and again like the local hero. People tend to copy the biggies, but they also tend to copy the most successful local guy.

Some areas will also predominately have one brand of guitar. e.g. go to Kansas City and you will see an abundance of Zum's since it is made in the area. I see pictures of the Denver steel shows and predominately Mullen's since they are made in Colorado.

[Norman Boling]

While I'm impressed by the many "accomplished" steel players around the country I never really think too much about style as such.

The Pedal steel guitar seems to have no limits as to the music it can produce so I pretty much look at it as unrestricted in what it can do to compliment a song.

Robert Randolph, Jerry Garcia, and many others have demonstrated that a pedal steel can fit well in just about any kind of music.

I highly respect every professional player that's survived the road and all that went with it good and bad. They all left parts and pieces (some literally) that we listen to today and are still amazed by.

But when I sit down and try to play this thing I'm thinking of the song, the melody, the mood and those things that affect an audience and you when they hear what you're trying to get across in notes, rhythm, and time.

I would probably pick a player before I would pick a style. Lloyd Green gets my attention every time I hear him play, always has, and I guess always will.

He seems to become part of the song.

I hear it in my head, and I can feel it. If I could just make it leave my fingers and come through the amplifier I would be real happy.

Yes, I know....Practice!!!

[frank rogers]

I think styles are more personal than regional. Each player does his best and rises to his own level of incompetence. In any region there are players who imitate the player who makes the most money, so maybe that's where regional styles come from.

Exactly..