The Steel Guitar Forum

Do you know of any surf tunes using steel guitar? Originals or covers, I don't care.

Post and link them in this thread. Doug's version of "Penetration" has got me all fired up.

Hi Paul,
I played bass with the Cocktail Preachers for a couple of years. Look 'em up on Youtube, Bruce "Vitamin B" played console steel (usually an 8 string in A6). We covered "Gutterball" mentioned in another thread, "Kilameawea" (which I think was from Haole Cats?), a few others featuring steel guitar.

Craig

Craig, I always enjoyed the Cocktail Preachers and Steve's guitar playing - Albatross Joe is a favorite of mine.

Paul - check out Deke Dickerson playing Gutterball.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtQrxQSHgDg

Jim Thomas and The Mermen are often classified as instrumental surf but he composes immensely cinematic songs. Here's two that include pedal steel guitar played by Joe Goldmark. I highly recommend Unto The Resplendent (starts around the 7 minute mark).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YowjzdBknE

The Blue Hawaiians are a surf group that has predominant steel guitar on their recordings.

Paul, here are some other surf-like videos I've posted here in the past, you may have seen...

The Endless Summer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W82dYp-odi4

The Lonely Bull: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSG4w4D54PQ

Ghost Riders in the Sky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK5aT07gOis

Doug B. has a nice recording of "Apache" as well.

Thanks for mentioning that, Larry. My "Apache" recording is on Soundcloud ---> https://soundcloud.com/doug-beaumier/ap ... eel-guitar It's from my instructional material, so the steel guitar is mixed a bit more out front than usual.

This is the only actual First Wave Surf band from the early 60's that exclusively used non pedal steel guitar. These guys were super young and their sound is amazing! This is the only release I'm aware of and it's a 7" with 2 bowling related songs. I wish they had more recordings and if anytone knows of any please let me know!

Strike - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXyL0S44QhI

Gutterball - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx_U3Jf5COE

Also here is more info:

https://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/783/

I didn’t realize there’s already another post with these guys on it further down. I should’ve kept reading!

Thanks, everybody! I'm trying to start a surf, island and beach band where I play lap steel and underarm guitar. Looking for tunes.

Looking for tunes.

As far as surf guitar instrumentals, I think the most recognizable ones would be Walk Don't Run, Pipeline, Wipeout, Miserlou, Apache, Hawaii Five-0. There are a lot of others... Perfidia, Penetration, etc.

Add Bombora to that list Doug!

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

That's a new one on me, Allen. Sounds good. I can hear the waves crashing! Pipeline!

And lets not forget The Fathoms!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8omp5GgUHrk

Yes, The Fathoms with Frankie Blandino on guitar is the cream of the crop of modern traditional sounding surf bands.

Frankie also played a great non-pedal steel western swing in his other band The Spurs.

Come to think of it, I've never heard him bring his steel playing into his surf work.

There's so much surf/instrumental guitar stuff out there! If you seed Pandora with a Ventures tune, like Walk Don't Run, you'll hear some great stuff you've probably never heard before.

I just came upon North Sea Surf Radio, a streaming station. Put the following link into your favorite streamer, like Windows Media Player or, for Linux, VLC Media Player:

http://server-23.stream-server.nl:8426/

Mostly newer stuff, but some older stuff, too.