The Steel Guitar Forum

I downloaded the PBS App on my Apple TV, and was pleased to see a bunch of episodes of Austin City Limits. I watched the Charley Crockett episode last night, and really enjoyed it. Highly recommended if you have never heard his music!

He has a killer band, and the keys player is just outstanding….watching him play the keys with his left hand while playing trumpet with his right was just so cool.

He has a great steel player too, playing a push pull Emmons on this gig. Lots of C6 work, clean and inspired playing. Great tone too.

Here’s a clip I found on YouTube. If you have access to the full episode on the PBS App, I highly recommend viewing it!

https://youtu.be/883JDQSdKaI

I enjoyed that Charley, thank you for sharing.

Looks like maybe Nathan Fleming on steel.

An internet search turned up this. It is Nathan.

https://thecosmicclash.com/2021/08/03/l ... v-episode/

In case anybody is interested, I found the whole episode online…..the Charley Crockett set starts at 27:00. The piano player is also a killer accordion player. Definitely worth a watch….



https://www.pbs.org/video/brandy-clark- ... tt-oruxmv/

Great blues tune. I like the way Charley just hops from blues to swing to country to folk to pop to R&B to whatever he wants to do. Just all-American music.

Charlie is the best, he's a distant relative of Davey, his CD of James Hand songs is really good 'Lesson in Depression'

Shades of Shake, Rattle, and Roll! With a drive like that, everything you play "works".

Craig Stock wrote:Charlie is the best, he's a distant relative of Davey, his CD of James Hand songs is really good 'Lesson in Depression'

Agreed. That James Hand covers record is great. His new album is solid, as well.

I wonder how many people outside of Texas know about Nathan Fleming.
I'm guessing there are plenty of Texas pickers who don't about him.

He's an extremely talented musician.

Lee Baucum wrote:I wonder how many people outside of Texas know about Nathan Fleming.
I'm guessing there are plenty of Texas pickers who don't about him.

He's an extremely talented musician.

Lee,
He sure is extremely talented! I got lucky and saw Nathan with Bobby Flores in Seattle, prior to that, I had never heard of him but he was absolutely on fire that night. The entire band was phenomenal.

I just learned about Nathan because of this thread. He’s great! I’ve been listening to Charley Crockett for about 3-4 years, and have always enjoyed the steel player on his records….I’m guessing it’s probably also Nathan Fleming? Glad to final,y put a name and face to those great sounds!

Awesome player.

Here's a live video shot with the camera right next to the steel player. You can hear all the backup riffs clear as a bell. In the first few minutes he does a nice version of the Hal Rugg bar bouncing lick on the C6 neck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VdYIt1BXyU

Loved that green Emmons D-10 with the 2 tone rope binding. It really had that Emmons GROWL! Hard to tell but it looked like a Bolt-On. Nice to hear a player with a little Big-E influence.

I'm working with a Texas guy named Gus Clark, and we opened several shows for Charley a few months ago, back before the ACL show. It was a pleasure to get to hang out with my old pal Nathan. Glad to see him getting the recognition he deserves, but most of the steel guys I know from Austin already know Nathan very well, he's not much of a secret around here. LOL.

FWIW, the keyboard/horn player for Charley is Kullen Fox, a very talented guy to say the least. Gus also uses Kullen from time to time when he's not out with Charley, and I always look forward to it. I believe Kullen told me Trumpet was his main instrument, he's a North Texas guy, classically trained, but he's one of those musicians who plays everything like it's his first instrument. A real nice guy as well.

I took this photo at one of the Charley shows, very tight stage so we pushed Nathan's wrap up to the front, and I set up behind him with my '67 bolt-on. We decided there probably weren't two nicer P/Ps on the same stage anywhere in town that night. That very night my V-Pedal decided to crap out, and fortunately for me, Nathan was there to save my bacon. Great guy all the way around.. BTW, that wrap is #6, formerly owned by Neil Flanz, and later Mike Bourque before Nathan got it. Killer guitar, but it's Nathan mashing pedals that makes it.

That was Dave Biller playing my old guitar.

Never mind, that is Nathen playing the guitar I sold to Dave.

Nathan is a monster! I DVR'd this ACL episode and he stole the show!

Kullen & Nathan we’re both highly musical and inspiring on this performance, Texas has a unique freedom for its sidemen to draw from so many genres and combine them. You Texas guys are tearin it up!…

I saw Nathan Fleming backing up Johnny Bush at Scotty's 2015 ISGC in St. Louis.

Great picture Jim, Thanks for sharing. J.R. Rose

Just went looking for who that steel player was. I've been listening to a lot of Crockett's music lately and just love the steel playing. I had never heard of Nathan before. I sure know who he is now!!

Nathan just lives down the road in Austin. We are pretty good friends. That green guitar is certainly Dave Biller‘s old one. That’s what turned me onto the wood neck push pulls.
That wrap is number six. It’s the one Niel Flanz had. He had to do some pretty extensive cabinet work to it because it originally had (stereo) tone wheels in the necks. It also had a cast changer. We were able to replace that so it would function correctly. I’m assuming he’s playing and loving it. He’s so busy now I don’t get to see him that much. I’ll make him aware of this thread.

He’s not much of an Internet guy. He just likes to play.

That looks mighty invitin'.

Jeff wrote:That looks mighty invitin'.

LOL.. a little crowded, but we opened several dates in a row for Charlie, and it WAS invitin', every time. Always cool when the headliner has a steel player too, it's a lot of fun. A couple days later it was like this, MUCH better: