The Steel Guitar Forum

Wish someone had enough money to produce a movie about the pedal steel guitar history since it was the most predominant instrument in country music from the 60's to the 90's
I would have to say tje movie would revolve a lot around Buddy since i think he contributed the most.Name the movie "Emmons".Who would be the best candidate to play the role also who and what other historical figures would be in the movie just curious

With the history of Ernest Tubb, Ray Price and Mr. Emmons, The 3 would be a great base to use for a story about country music and the development of the steel guitar. And add Mr. Shot Jackson into the story, About his part in the development of the steel guitar mechanically.

Paul Franklin and Mike Johnson.

Buddy did it all - inventor, builder, innovator, player par excellence, writer, and teacher. But...let's not forget Lloyd Green and Pete Drake, either of whom probably played on a lot more classic hits than Buddy.

If there WAS a movie made, the best actor would be someone who resembled Buddy...Alex Trebek, maybe?

Rich Upright wrote:If there WAS a movie made, the best actor would be someone who resembled Buddy...Alex Trebek, maybe?

Alex Trebek died today of cancer, at 80.

I think, to make a project like this feasible, a producer would have to find some way to connect more to mainstream culture. To do that, I think it would have to consider a much wider view of steel guitar. Steel guitar has a long and interesting history with a lot of very diverse styles, cultures, and characters.

A movie is pretty unrealistic, on many levels. However, a documentary with archival footage would be fertile ground for a documentary filmmaker. If someone has the scratch to bankroll it, it could happen. Money is always the biggest obstacle for these kinds of endeavors. The other roadblock is getting (paying for) clearances for all the music that would be in the movie. Even a documentary like "The Wrecking Crew" took years to come to fruition because of the cost of getting the musical rights. However, those were all hit pop records, which cost more to clear.

Joe

Steve Fishell was going to write a book after Buddy passed away, but I don't know if he is or got held up. That would be nice and not the deadfalls of making a movie.

Around ten years ago , footage from a steel guitar documentary was floating around. Someone put up a 15 minute clip. I remember them interviewing Herb Steiner quite a bit.It was really excellent, but I don't think it ever got completed. Anyone else remember this ?

That might have been from Marty Muse. He had a project in the works and might still have.

https://steelguitarmovie.com/

"The Wrecking Crew" took years to come to fruition because of the cost of getting the musical rights. However, those were all hit pop records, which cost more to clear.

Why? I thought you just paid the license fee (which is sometimes not readily available) and recorded the song? Why do the performance rights organizations and publishers have to make this process so damn hard?

"The Wrecking Crew" took years to come to fruition because of the cost of getting the musical rights. However, those were all hit pop records, which cost more to clear.

Why? I thought you just paid the license fee (which is sometimes not readily available) and recorded the song? Why do the performance rights organizations and publishers have to make this process so damn hard?

Getting a license to record or use a song is one thing; it does go through the publisher and performing rights organization.

But to use a specific master recording in a film is a whole different thing; whoever owns the rights (typically one of the major corporate record companies; sometimes the artist) can charge as much as they want, or just refuse permission. Since "The Wrecking Crew" movie was all about the specific performances by the musicians they needed to use the original classic records.

Paul Norman wrote:Steve Fishell was going to write a book after Buddy passed away, but I don't know if he is or got held up.

The book is completed and an excellent publisher has accepted it. It will likely be available sometime in mid-2021. I can't say more about it today. We will make a proper announcement when the time is right.

Thanks to all of you who helped me through this 10-year long endeavor.

Fish wrote: The book is completed and an excellent publisher has accepted it. It will likely be available sometime in mid-2021.

Fantastic news! Congrats Steve, can't wait to read it.

Fantastic news Steve Fishell

After all the 2020 issues, we have something to Really look forward to!

Kind regards
Ron

Way to go Steve. Thanks in advance for all the hard work.

I cold see a talented young player like Tyler hall or Eddy Dunlap playing Buddy

A documentary would be great.

That "Men of Steel" movie was brought to our attention a few years ago, Does anyone know if it was ever completed?
A hollywood movie about steel guitar? I don't think so unless it had aliens or gangsters, or both, and a love interest.
OK I got it.
There's a steel guitar player, gets no respect. The steeler finds he/she is communicating by steel guitar with some alien life form to save earth from the evil ones who play evil music on the banjo.
Or something like that.
He saves earth from out of control banjos, plays steel, and gets the girl.
Let's do lunch!

Since there was a recent movie about Hank Garland then maybe a movie of this sort isn't as unfeasible as many might think. I don't know what the impetus was for the Hank Garland movie, but was he that more famous than the steel and some of the people associated with it?