The Steel Guitar Forum

There's a type of steel guitar accompaniment that I have been fascinated with that I don't think I have seen discussed on here before. It's tough to describe, but I'll do my best.

It's where the steel guitar is playing lead in an instrumental part of the song, usually slower and often with a hidden attack. When another instrument, usually guitar, is doing something percussive or interesting, such as hammering-on to create a suspended chord or playing a scale run, the steel guitar will momentarily step back into the background to feature it before coming back in.

To be honest, I'm not even sure if it is a style of accompaniment or just happy accidents and smart recording production. I've heard it in recordings Jimmy Day played on. I've been making an effort to do it on other people's songs and I think it really works. It's the kind of thing where you need to hear a song a couple times first to make a mental note of what the guitar is doing.

Is this a real thing or am I chasing a ghost?

Examples?

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Donny Hinson wrote:Examples?

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I'll post some YouTube links when I get home, but Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground and She's Not For You by Willie come to mind.

It’s no ghost. In the example of Angel Flying To Close, the guitar solo is playing the melody with minimal embellishment interspersing. When a soloist plays like this, another instrument (Steel) can play fills or bring a complimentary chord voicing in with VP to accentuate a chord change, just as if accompanying a vocalist. Not advisable in an unrehearsed live situation, but when the players have an understanding of each other’s phrasing and accompaniment styles, it can work very well.

Listening to big band instrumental sections can be educational. Oftentimes a soloist will only play a couple of measures before a horn section will do a fill or accent of some sort, like a call and response form. Also, if there is a string section, a horn soloist could play underneath a string accompaniment all the way through, almost like counterpoint.

Fred's right that on Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground it's Willie playing the solo with the steel guitar filling it in: https://youtu.be/C3PB1jWO3_E?t=105. For She's Not For You, I must have been thinking of a different song instead. Here's another example where an electric guitar and the steel guitar share a little instrumental part. This is Paul Franklin if I remember correctly: https://youtu.be/CxNxEn8gspE?t=159. My ears hear that as a type of call-and-response.

Hey Curt we will give Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground a go if you get up to Duluth this summer:) July for sure.

Don Miller wrote:Hey Curt we will give Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground a go if you get up to Duluth this summer:) July for sure.

Hi Don! It's good to see you on the forum. Coming up to jam with my music friends there is reason enough for the trip! One of my girlfriend's closest friends lives up there too, so I'm sure it wouldn't be hard for me to justify us setting aside a weekend or two for it.