The Steel Guitar Forum

Tommy Spurlock on Steel. Very good job.

Link????

P.w

One of my favorite bands... great honky tonk sound

I just found this Highway 101 Austin City Limits video on youtube. This may be what Bill was referring to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdMudWegay4

Yep that's it. I love this band. Every thing jells. Just wasn't the same when Paulette left.

Paulette didn't have a lot of solo #1's either.....

The group had four #1 records, but her later solo career just didn't click, and she never regained the spark she had with the group in 1987-1990. It was a great group, good harmony and her most unique voice. One of my favorites of that period, and Tommy did a fine job, as well.

Too bad, they certainly had "the magic" for awhile.

Saw Paulette shortly after she returned to live performing, she was backed by a great bunch of musicians and singers. The show consisted mostly of 'Highway 101' hits so it was very much like hearing the original group.

They were one of my favorites back then...

I was able to see them LIVE one time with Paulette. But evidently someone convinced her that SHE was the only star in the band and she can be a BIGGER Star on her own.

I saw Jack Daniels ( guitar) in Nashville a few years later, told him how much I liked the band, he was pretty upset about the whole thing. I don't blame him, they ALL went belly up. They all went from playing the BIG stages , Internationally,good income , to playing the local lounges for peanuts in comparison.

After all this time I hope she learned that she was just the singer in a very good group , and it is the SUM of all the parts that made it successful, not just her alone.

I hope she regrets it. Touring on her own singing 101 songs is proof positive that she became a dud. Where's the guy that told her she would be a HUGE STAR now ?

Common story, repeated very often.

Jack Daniels, Curtis Stone, Cactus Moser besides Tommy Spurlock and Paulette [country Stevie Nicks] Carlson.

John Noreen also played pedal steel with the band.

Somewhere around 90, I think, Nikki Nelson stepped in the girl singer slot with Bing, Bang Boom. She sang The Blame too which was a pretty good hit for them and got a lot of air play.

Jack Daniels was one hot chicken pickin' guitar player.

I got to see them live with Paulette at a county fair. Great show and talented musicians. Sad that Paulette made the decision to leave. Her replacement was very good but the mojo was gone in the group.

I had never seen that episode and am glad that I did.

Highway 101 was one of my favorite groups. We had a good gal singer at the time they were popular so got to do a lot of those numbers.

I liked the band with Nikki every bit as much as with Paulette but most of the fans must have thought differently. It's a darn shame. They really did have it all.

Me as well, I thought Niki was great , but she didn't sound anything like Paulette. She sounded like Niki !

Had 101 not been such a commercial success with Paulette , it may very well have worked and recovered with Niki, but there were too many songs with Paulette's vocal identity.


Many years back, at a downtown show in Charlotte, Kool and the Gang were playing, they were great, I told the guy next to me that I thought JT was singing really well. He laughed and said, THATS NOT JT, its a JT lookalike and SOUND alike ! THAT worked...kinda like when Journey replaced Steve Perry, the next guy just kinda sounded like Steve Perry, kinda looked like him too. Same with Jason Scheff, Chicago, he replaced Cetara , sounded just like him which allowed the band to evolve around HIS voice.

Niki didn't sound anything like Paulette as good as she was. They couldn't evolve, they had to start over.

Its near impossible to achieve commercial success ONE time, but two times ? I'm not sure even Vegas would give odds on that ! What a shame is all I can say.

And since it is a pedal steel forum -

Was there a processor involved in getting the steel sound that was on so much of the 101 stuff and also popular by other artists of the time? The video above has it going on.

I always called it kind of a spewing sound. Or wirey. Or raw, I don't know what you would call it but I sure did like it. I see Tommy is playing a Super Pro through a Session 400 and some sort of unit setting on top of the amp. Great sound. Lots of bite but not really treble-y.

The closest I ever got to it was using a Barcus Berry BBE processor.

Great job by Tommy Spurlock!

I've talked with Nikki in recent years and the band is still playing music. I love their songs with both Paulette and Nikki. At one time, Denny Hemingson had played steel with Highway 101, and he's now playing steel with Tim McGraw. I love all of Highway 101's songs-one of my all-time favorites is "Somewhere Tonight", which features great vocals and steel work. "Bing Bang Boom" was released when Nikki joined the band after Paulette left-the song was released in 1990. Another great song Nikki had as a solo artist is one called "Too Little, Too Much"-great steel on it too! Both Paulette and Nikki are wonderful singers, and on the Bing Bang Boom record, one of the steel players is Buddy Emmons. A steel player named John Noreen has been playing steel with Highway 101 lately

Brett, thanks for the update. I always enjoy your contributions on who is who (whom?), who plays with which band, and other such info. Your knowledge is appreciated!

I saw Highway 101 in 85 I think at the Miami Zoo of all places. It was a Saturday afternoon concert. A medium crowd. I went to see the steel player but he was not playing that day. They were lost without him. It was a pretty sad show. And I like Paulette then and do now but it was just not 101. J.R.

Tommy nailed (what sounded to me) like JayDee licks. Kudos to him.

Is Tommy Spurlock still performing?

On a show I did with them, just loved the music, Tommy is one of the best...BUT..when I went to play, I saw my finger picks were completely flattened out!! Someone had stomped them and I was panicking...my tech came out(laughing) and said, 'this was a present from some guy named Tommy'! He handed me MY picks and laughed all the way off the stage.
Word to the wise, if you're on a show with Tommy, look out!