Buddy plays with no picks and IVL MIDI on "Jamaica Cake"

Chris Templeton · Post by **Chris Templeton** » 1 Oct 2018 2:19 pm

Buddy named this song "Jamaica Cake" and was a jam I recorded on Kauai, HI in 1989, at the Kilauea theatre.
Buddy plays MIDI pedal steel and regular steel (he plays the organ part on steel). I play dobro and fretless bass (two basses).
Thereâ€™s two drummers the players are a visiting reggae group from St. Kitts, Virgin Islands and several local folks. It was recorded on a 4 track cassette machine, then bounced to Buddy's 8 track 1/2 inch tape Teac recorder in Nashville and then tracked Buddy and myself there .
Buddy is not wearing finger picks, just a thumb pick. He used the fleshy part of the fingers, no nails. I like the tone very much and found thereâ€™s a nice variety of tones when callouses build up, but the speed is a little lacking compared to pick
Th laugh box was something Buddy had on hand and I decided to throw it in: https://picosong.com/w2fLe/.

David Duncan · Post by **David Duncan** » 2 Oct 2018 1:31 pm

Thank you so much for this Chris! I remember those "laugh gadgets" but never heard one used so well! Very special and I'm glad you made that call! Superb work you and Buddy did, enriching all of us. Thanks for sharing.
dKd

Chris Templeton · Post by **Chris Templeton** » 2 Oct 2018 2:46 pm

Thank you David. It was fun working in the "laboratory". I saw he had a laugh box and I decided to record it. Hard to stop laughing.
Besides some IVL MIDI stuff on his Christmas record, I'm not familiar with anything else he recorded it on. Maybe something on the Step One records
Buddy had a 4 space rack road case that contained IVL unit as well as a Yamaha unit that made the sounds. If I remember right, it had 1/4 inch jacks on the side of the case. Maybe there was an XLR too.
He also had a volume pedal that Goodrich made for him that swung left and right, like the old Fender pedals, to adjust the blend of steel to synth.
He lent me the rig to play with the band I was in in Nashville, but with the IVL, it's pretty easy to sound like a bad keyboard player. That's why I am so impressed of his mastery of synth for steel.
This picture of me & Buddy was taken while working on this song.

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 2 Oct 2018 3:23 pm

Great pic, Chris. I bet there are a lot of stories in that room.

Chris Templeton · Post by **Chris Templeton** » 2 Oct 2018 3:37 pm

If the walls could talk.
Shortly after, he moved is audio stuff into the adjacent room in the basement.
BTW, the poster on the wall says "Landlord".
Another fond memory of that time was when he played me Don Adams and The Jones Boys doing "Sing A Sad Song" from the George Jones Dancetown USA record (Buddy on steel):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWswDBC ... HkJai4hGne

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 2 Oct 2018 4:21 pm

Chris, You cease to amaze me!

Chris Templeton · Post by **Chris Templeton** » 2 Oct 2018 4:29 pm

So does this guy, Craig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55W8kMDm6_w

David Duncan · Post by **David Duncan** » 3 Oct 2018 7:17 am

Chris, thanks so much for the pic and backstory. Makes it even more special. Is that a Jackalope is see in the Lab? Awesome place to hang!

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 3 Oct 2018 7:32 am

Great recording Chris!

Chris Templeton · Post by **Chris Templeton** » 3 Oct 2018 7:46 am

Thanks Joachim and your welcome, Dave. Yes that's a jackalope. The poster behind Buddy is of Geronimo and it says, "landlord".

Dean Owen · Post by **Dean Owen** » 3 Oct 2018 8:29 am

Thanks for sharing this. I didnâ€™t know that Buddy used an IVL, but not surprised. I stumbled across mine recently in the basement. Havenâ€™t used it in more than 15 years. This almost makes me want to hook it up to see if it still works...almost but not quite.

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 3 Oct 2018 8:47 am

Chris Templeton wrote:BTW, the poster on the wall says "Landlord".

Now I like him even more.