The Steel Guitar Forum

I have an act playing acoustic guitar and singing original Indie music. Recently, I have picked up steel playing to help out in a country band, and now I really have the bug for this instrument. Things are sort of converging now and I have started to play the steel to accompany my voice and am pretty excited about it.


Can the forum recommend any good influences I might pick up on? Especially, artists who have used this format either to play solo or to front a band. I am not a Ben Harper fan, but like old country. I also like Hawaiian and am thinking there must be a whole tonne of material there, but I don't know where to start!

the man for this kinda stuff is David Lindley.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLTS0fkQJhg

go buy this record - Big Twang.
http://www.davidlindley.com/cgi-bin/dlshop.cgi#

he's switching through guitars depending on the key of the tune. lots of open strings.

don't get me started on Mr. Dave...

you might also check out Harry Manx and Kelly Joe Phelps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGH3FpeV_xI

Fred Kinbom fits your description well. Check out some of his stuff.

I love to sing and play and I'm trying to figure out how to put it all together.

Fantastic pointers, thank you both, each one of those artists gets it to work and provides an interesting take on it - just what I wanted. David Lindley's use of open strings is especially steal-worthy.

Definitely, it is something very hard to co-ordinate. I am good with a dreadnaught and pretty awful at slide but it makes things interesting!

I bet you'll find the story of Alvino Rey pretty interesting. Not only was he an accomplished steel guitar player and a big-band leader, he was also quite an inventor and contributed greatly to the technology of guitar pickups, amplifiers, and sound effects.

He also happened to be a grandparent of two members of a great little rock band called Arcade fire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvino_Rey

Hi Joshua, I do a fair amount of "troubadour" style gigs where I'm using weissenborn to accompany my vocals. I find it really goes over well. In addition to my regular scale (25") weissenborns I have a baritone currently tuned to B and a short scale that I alternate between F and G. It works great if you are the only instrument, but sometimes I have some help - here's an example from the Rick Alexander non-pedal room at the TSGA last year (I'm using a Benoit Cajunborne tuned to D (bottom to top - DADF#AD):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS938FuL4O0

Cliff Carlisle. My personal favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfwqRyuGVB8

Bob, you are fantastic, that is dynamite!! Makes me want to get a weissenborn, very tasteful playing. I'm listening especially to what you are doing on some of the chord changes.

Greg, Alvino is an amazing and quite eccentric virtuoso. I had never heard of him but the YouTube stuff where he is using harmonics and the volume tremolo had my jaw dropping... then I met Stringy the Talking Guitar.


I thought Alvino Rey was accomplished but I gotta say Cliff Carlisle combines my favourite things: steel guitar, singing like Jimmie Rodgers, yodelling like Jimmie Rodgers (gets a bit more air through cos no TB), and being a bit more saucy than Jimmie Rodgers. That Nasty Thing is one of the best things I ever heard.

Thank you brothers, this has really got me excited!!

I tried the troubadour thing a couple of years ago with my S8 tuned to A6/F#7 at a local coffee house with results that could be described as a building evacuation drill! Needless to say I never let it cross my mind again. However, since I've bought a resonator, the thought has crept back into my head. Electric probably wasn't the way to start, but acoustic seems a little more forgiving. The reso is tuned to hi bass G and I'm wondering what one does with 2 note minors that can sound thin when you are playing by yourself.
Here is another example of a troubadour.
http://richardhenderson.ca/#sthash.eheAE0j4.dpbs

Yep, minor chords are tough in this format, still looking at that!

Thanks Joshua - happy to pass on any tricks I have learned re minor chords and such. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions.

I find that being able to go back and forth between a regular 6 string guitar and my weissenborns really adds variety and keeps a crowd interested. Can be a pain hauling that many guitars around though!

There are loads who play like Ben harper style influence.

Xavier Rudd
John butler trio
Kelly joe phelps
David Lindley

The usual blues progression is used by most except Kelly joe phelps.
But it is a bit repetitive after a while.

Great artists but maybe not as diverse musically as what you are after.

Joshua Reynolds said:

Yep, minor chords are tough in this format, still looking at that!

I use an open minor tuning which sounds very cool, and that is D,A,D,F,A,D low to high. This is an open Dm tuning. Unfortunately, I have trouble finding major chords in this tuning, but one can get some pretty awesome, haunting sounds from this tuning. Keep in mind that I'm a beginner. The more experienced forumites might be more knowledgable on the limitations of this tuning.
JH

Joshua, if you don't already have one, I think that you need a copy of b0b's Stella album:

http://www.steelguitarshopper.com/stella-bobby-lee-cd/

His tuning is (L2H): G B D F# A D

A moment's thought and you will see that this gives you the One, Four and Six-Minor chords at any fret. Bobby plays it (most) all on this album from blues and rock to folk to Hawaiian and back to Western again. Anyway, if you can't already tell, I really like this one and I believe that it is very much what you are describing. Check it out. I bought my copy from the Forum store (link above), but I think that there is a website where it is available for download as well.

Good Luck with this. Have Fun!

+1 on B0b's album Stella! That was what got me thinking that playing and singing was possible. I haven't tried his tuning yet, hi bass G is giving me enough hassle, but it is on the list of things to try.

Cool, I got Bob's stuff through Band Camp:

https://b0blee.bandcamp.com/album/stella

Certainly will try out that tuning.

I actually have a D8 so I should stop whining and start progressing from open tuning