The Steel Guitar Forum

While digging through some stuff I stumbled across my old stereo chorus pedal. I took the thing to church and played through it last night. Blast from the past. Took me back to all those sweet licks Sonny played on the Hinson's, Hemphills, and other southern gospel recordings in the 80's and 90's. I miss those great recordings and the great licks. Thanks to Sonny for hours of inspiration working to steal his licks.

I don't think Sonny ever got the credit he deserved.
Erv

A lot of the parts Sonny did were double-tracked, giving them that spacey, chorus sound. But no doubt he probably used a chorus effect, too, if the song called for it.

Back when Bobbie Seymour was putting together his “Priceless” CD, I took a lot of opportunities to nudge him on. Being a Ray Price fan and knowing how Bobbie could put it off, I really wanted the project to succeed. Much to my surprise, I received an email asking me to continue to keep Bobbie focused, as he had heard some of the material and knew it was going to be great. Surprise....it was from Sonny!

If I remember correctly?? Sonny played on Red Stegall’s Lone Star Beer and Bob Wills Music album? Super playing all over it!! Need to drag it out again! Amazing player! RP

When the Nashville 400's came out, I had a pair of them. I used a digital delay pedal and a stereo chorus pedal. The stereo chorus pedal had two outputs to drive both of the NV 400's. It had a real sweet sound. That wasn't yesterday!!

?? Was this post about the great Sonny Garrish?? RP

Has there been any updates on how Sonny is doing healthwise?

He did some beautiful work on some Gene Watson recordings.
Erv

From the late 70's forward Sonny used the Boss Chorus Ensemble for his first track and then he doubled his complete pass....His Chorus pedal was modified by I believe Bert Rivera to get a wider sweep which gave it an almost doubled sound..I bought one and it was pretty cool.....

My favorite Sonny sessions were the Bill Anderson songs like "Wild Weekend" "Get While The Gettin's Good" "Fever" etc crisp tone and clean as it gets.....Marvelous musician! Merry Christmas Sonny!

Anybody remember the LP from the 70s, I think, titled Country Soul Stew?

I never got a copy, but an acquaintance played it for me back in the day. Several tunes written by Sonny. Definitely a stylist.

I think he recorded some things with Kenny Chesney too, among many others.

Sonny was a big influence on me. During the 70's and 80's, he played on a good number of hits that required to play in bar bands.

In 1983, my band was in Nashville for the Seagrams 7 International Battle of the Bands. Part of our prize for getting to the finals (we won) was to record a 45 single. We cut our 2 tunes, and the producer asked if I could play one of the songs EXACTLY the same again. I had no idea why. I thought I screwed something up. Since I played the exact same parts every time we performed the song, it was no problem. Only after we were done did they explain that they had worked several times with Sonny, and wanted to try the double tracking effect on the song. Worked out pretty good. I ended up getting a Digitech rack effect that had a doubling preset to use in live performances. I used the double tracking method in a few sessions since then.

They explained to me, that no matter who, or how good you are, it's virtually impossible to play something 100% perfectly like before. Things like the tuning of the string, bar position (intonation), vibrato, can vary from one take to the next, creating that chorusing effect. Of course, a chorus pedal can do almost the same thing. But, I found that by altering the intonation, or width of vibrato, you can vary the intensity of the effect as you play. I found that doing those things while using a chorus pedal yielded some not-so-nice sounds at times.

Jerry Overstreet wrote:Anybody remember the LP from the 70s, I think, titled Country Soul Stew?

I never got a copy, but an acquaintance played it for me back in the day. Several tunes written by Sonny. Definitely a stylist.

I think he recorded some things with Kenny Chesney too, among many others.

I have that LP here somewhere. It is great. Another favorite that he played on was the Nashville Bar Association album he did with Buddy Emmons, John Hughey, Jimmy Crawford, and Russ Hicks. I need to set my stereo up again so I can listen to my records again. I think I even have one or two of the Po' Boys (when he was in Bill Anderson's road band) instrumental albums.

Some of my favorite Sonny recordings are with Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, Red Steagall, Eddie Rabbitt, and Judds. It would surprise many just how much Sonny has done.

I’m a huge Sonny fan, too. I’ve used Sonny on some sessions before, and one thing was always interesting. When I picked up all the charts at the end of the session I kept noticing someone had written key lyrics on their chart from listening to the demos to play something to support the lyric. It was Sonny!!!

I also own his ‘74 wood neck, mica body Emmons that he used on his sessions from ‘74 to ‘82 and it is the best recording guitar I have ever used-it has a clarity that sits in a mix like no other. Interestingly enough, it’s my least favorite live guitar....

this thread is a great christmas gift from the forum. i've been checking out sonny garrish on red steagall's "lone star beer and bob wills music" and "texas red".

based on sonny garrish's credits, this is going to be a pretty deep rabbit hole (that's a pun right there) filled with great steel playing.

i really like his tone on these two records on both E9 and C6 necks. i read he played a wood neck push pull, and am curious about his amp choice.

i'm 100% sure he'd sound great on whatever he played.

From classics to "She's Got It All.

Check out Sonny's credits.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/sonny-g ... 22/credits

Last time I used Sonny he was using either a Nashville 1000 I believe ( could have been a Nash 400) with no effects. Also he doesn’t carry a tuner-just gets an E from the piano player and tunes by ear....

Love that, John - I'm no Sonny Garrish but that's what I prefer to do.

Sonny also played steel on The Forester Sisters' first record in 1985. featuring two of my favorite songs they recorded "I Fell In Love Again Last Night" and "Mama's Never Seen Those Eyes". In 1990, he played on country artist Robin Lee's version of "Black Velvet", and in 1993, he played on Shania's very first record, which is probably my favorite record she recorded, and in 1999, Sonny played steel on country artist Chalee Tennison's self titled record, featuring "Someone Else's Turn To Cry", "Just Because She Lives There" and "Handful of Water".

I was fortunate enough to watch Sonny in the studio many times in the 70s and early 80s. His ability to stack parts accurately is so cool.

His amp of choice back then was a Session 400, first with the PV labeled, JBL, later with the BW Spiderweb speaker. He had just gotten the BW at one session and told me he thought he liked it better. It was a little "milky-er sounding" in Sonny's words. He most definitely used the Boss Chorus Ensemble that Paul mentioned. He told me one time that it was a money maker for him.

Sonny is without question, one of the nicest people you could ever meet. His playing and musicianship is absolutely outstanding and speaks for itself..!! One of my favorites that he cut was Ronnie McDowell's, "Wandering Eyes" in which he played a great, innovative ride with stacked, harmony parts and an Envelope Filter. Really great and creative..!!... That's Sonny..!!

Tiny Olson wrote:I was fortunate enough to watch Sonny in the studio many times in the 70s and early 80s. His ability to stack parts accurately is so cool.

His amp of choice back then was a Session 400, first with the PV labeled, JBL, later with the BW Spiderweb speaker. He had just gotten the BW at one session and told me he thought he liked it better. It was a little "milky-er sounding" in Sonny's words. He most definitely used the Boss Chorus Ensemble that Paul mentioned. He told me one time that it was a money maker for him.

Sonny is without question, one of the nicest people you could ever meet. His playing and musicianship is absolutely outstanding and speaks for itself..!! One of my favorites that he cut was Ronnie McDowell's, "Wandering Eyes" in which he played a great, innovative ride with stacked, harmony parts and an Envelope Filter. Really great and creative..!!... That's Sonny..!!

That was one of my favorite Garrish solos too. Made my head spin.

Was that "Wandering Eyes" solo on C6? It certainly could have been if not so.

Jerry Overstreet wrote:Anybody remember the LP from the 70s, I think, titled Country Soul Stew?

I never got a copy, but an acquaintance played it for me back in the day. Several tunes written by Sonny. Definitely a stylist.

I think he recorded some things with Kenny Chesney too, among many others.

Sonny was on quite a few of Kenny's records, I think the first of those records was "I Will Stand ", featuring "She's Got It All" and "That's Why I'm Here, then Sonny was on "Everywhere We Go", featuring "How Forever Feels ", You Had Me From Hello, and "What I Need To Do", then in 2002, Sonny played on Kenny's "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems record, and in 2004, he played on Kenny's "When The Sun Goes Down" record, featuring "There Goes My Life". The only song you didn't hear Sonny on was Kenny's live version of "Back Where I Come From, which featured Kenny's former road steel player, Jim Bob Gairrett. On Kenny's very first album, the steel player was Cowboy Eddie Long, but Sonny did session steel work with Kenny in 1996.

Richard... it really was a very cool solo for sure..!! Sonny has done many great cuts but that one is right near the top for me. How are you liking Montana..???

Herb... I'm pretty sure Sonny did that ride on the E9th tuning. I had to work it up myself after hearing it and did so on the E9th. Still bass-fishing..???

Hope you both are well.