The Steel Guitar Forum

Hey friends! I’m at the point in my steel career where I want to start playing out in a more traditional steel context. I’m not a country music person. Never have been. But I love gigging and playing out with people. My question for you is what are the songs you play at pretty much every gig. Dance hall/2-step kind of stuff. If I was gonna audition for the house band, what are we gonna play. Maybe give me your top 5? Thanks!

My regular band does mostly classic country. Typical songs are...

Workin' Man Blues
Statue Of a Fool
Don't Rock The Jukebox
He Stopped Loving Her Today
Pass Me By
Heartaches By The Number
Drinking Champagne
Neon Moon
Don't You Ever Get Tired (Of Hurting Me)

Donny is correct. But you need to get out to the places you intend to play and take notes, what is being played by the bands there and what's on the jukebox during break. Experience some live local music before taking your position in a band.

I'm sure you would get a better answer by asking the band you would be playing with or auditioning for.

I played guitar in a country band in the Austin area, and we did a lot of old stuff, we had a steel player so I didn't play any steel

I moved back to upstate NY. I got a chance to play steel in a band that does mostly new stuff. VERY different thing.

As mentioned, you got to go out, where you are. What the bands are playing in one place can be VERY different than in another. I'd WAY rather play the old stuff, but as far as I can tell, there are not a lot of country bands here any more and the ones there are do pretty much exclusively the new "country". Very different style of playing.

Hopefully being in Texas you'll be doing all the truly great classics.

My advice is knowing songs is good, but unless there is a signature riff that is a 'must' to play for a tune, better to just understand how to play in a certain style, be comfortable in all keys, and develop your ear so you can follow along any song on the fly.

Agree with the above, go to the places you'd want a foot in the door and check out the reportiore. Start listening to a ton of that music so it gets inside you and find some people to jam with to get comfortable improvising and flying by the seat of your pants.

Johns advice about just being comfortable in all keys and having a solid ear is probably the most helpful, but I’d focus on learning classic steel instrumentals as well. Most bands you’d sit in with are going to have their own idea of what they want to play, and you can learn those songs once you know what they are. It’s anyone guess until you meet some like minded folks you’d want to play with.

If you know a bunch of classic instrumentals like Buds Bounce, Remington Ride, etc, you’ll have something unique that you can offer to any band you sit in with. Plus all those songs tend to have licks and tricks you can use in the new songs you’ll be learning.

Like Larry said,go check out the local country bands and take some discreet notes.Seems like most areas have a body of songs that the working bands play and that you'd probably be expected to know.

Here are a few other tunes:
Check Yes or No/The Fireman/Amarillo By Morning/Cowboy Rides Away/All My Exes- George Strait

Boot Scootin'Boogie/Workin' On My Next Broken Heart-Brooks & Dunn/Broken Neon Hearts-Ronnie Dunn solo

Guitars & Cadillacs/Little Sister/ Streets Of Bakersfield- Dwight Yoakam

Family Tradition/Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound/Born to Boogie- Hank Jr

A lot of the above(especially the Strait and B&D) have steel parts that are fun to play and instructive to learn.

There is a long thread on this already on the forum, quite extensive lists of songs

Go to some shows and walk up to the stage when the band is on break. Take the opportunity to glance at the set list they are using, and snap a picture with your phone. Also good opportunity to check out their gear if you like the way they sound and make an introduction. You’ll likely find after doing this a couple times that there will be enough overlap in what is being played in the area to make a list of songs that you could learn that would allow you to sit in with several bands.

Another thought....
Bar-band country is VERY closely linked to couples dancing, so the most successful tunes are ones to which there are actual dance steps, even when it's line dancing. It's an excellent idea to sit down with a country dance instructor for an hour or so and get a list of the songs they teach with.Consider it individual dance instruction without the dancing!

You don't have to be able to do the steps to know what they are; you just have to be able to play the tunes. It's also a good idea to listen to the bands people like to dance to, and watch the rhythm section.

Some of the most enjoyable gigs I've played were honky-tonk/dancehalls. Here's an old (partial) setlist I found buried in a closet:

"Pop-a-top" - Jim Ed Bruce
"Sing Me Back Home" - Merle Haggard
"Wreck of the Ol' 97" - Vernon Dalhart
"I'll Follow the Crowd" - Jimmy Heap and the Melody Masters
"(Sad and Lonely) Dancehall Girl" - Justin Tubb
"Dear John" - Hank Sr.
"Honky-Tonkitis" - Carl Butler
"Eleven Months and Twenty-Nine Days" - Johnny Paycheck
"A-11" - Johnny Paycheck's version
"Kawliga" - Hank Sr.
"She Likes Attention" - Warren Smith
"The Only Hell My Mama Raised" - Merle Haggard
"I Didn't Jump the Fence" - Cal Smith's version
"Conscience, I'm Guilty" - Jimmy Heap and the Melody Masters
"My Ears Should Burn (When Fools are Talked About)" - Roger Miller
"Mama Tried" - Merle Haggard
"Motel Time Again" - Johnny Paycheck

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

Do you play/ have a C6th neck, James?

Hey Glenn! That looks like a Bill Bailey and the Wild Bunch set list to me Did I guess right?

Hi, Shaan.
You guessed it. The set list is probably from 20 or so years ago.
It's been a long time since we crossed paths. How are you doing?

For 6th, George Strait's "Right Or Wrong", with Weldon, covers a lot of ground:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcpFXdUXUZs