The Steel Guitar Forum

Anybody know who played steel on Jim Reeves' version of "When Two Worlds Collide"? This album also has "Take Me Into Your Arms" and "I Love You Because". To my ears it could be Pete (he does the D-I-V-O-R-C-E- lick)or Buddy. Very sweet and choice steel all thru.

I believe it's Pete, possibly on C6.

wasn't it Lloyd on DIVORCE?

You're right about Lloyd there. It sounds like E9 stuff. Harold Bradley was "music director" on the album, if that tells you anything about player choices. man, the volume pedal control on the playing is superb - it's incredibly consistent.

https://youtu.be/8DAdyjiwuPU this might be the link.

Gotta be Pete Drake, and I would guess it's the unique C6th style he played that he made his name with in the early days. Since it's mostly triad-based with a sort of "A&B pedal" sound and doesn't use the 6th interval much it tends to sound like what we think of as E9.

Love his tone and phrasing. I love that era of his playing but had never heard this track. Thanks for posting.

Here's a link to a recent thread that touches on this:
https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtop ... 35&start=0

Wow Pete - that thread is DEEP! Very educational about Pete's hybrid C6th tuning. It illustrates what Bob Carlucci said about how all the notes are on both necks SOMEWHERE, if not all the chords. WHo's doing different tunings these days? (besides Jernigan who has a really different tuning that he got very fluent with very quickly).

Jim Hoke wrote:WHo's doing different tunings these days?

Me, ... and lots of other people.

What I'm hearing is Pete Drake, and C6th with the "G" on top.

'Lotta players run 'ol Pete down because he played simple stuff. But he had a certain knack for using his imagination and getting new styles and sounds that other famous players couldn't, or just didn't. I'm probably alone in this, but I get the feeling that if he were still around that we'd be hearing a lot more steel guitar in popular music.

Jim Reeves played my hometown ballpark and Pete was on steel. This was when he was playing C6th stuff on Roy Drusky and others recordings.

Jim Hoke wrote: WHo's doing different tunings these days? (besides Jernigan who has a really different tuning that he got very fluent with very quickly)."

Can you give us some more information about Doug Jernigan's new tuning, I hadn't heard anything about it. Thanks

Sorry but I can't remember, but it was not just an alteration of E9 or C6 - it was a whole different deal. He was playing stuff on it that didn't sound weird, just different combinations... He has a teaching thing going on w/ a company called Patreon; maybe you can contact him thru that.

Jim Hoke wrote:Sorry but I can't remember, but it was not just an alteration of E9 or C6 - it was a whole different deal. He was playing stuff on it that didn't sound weird, just different combinations...

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com//viewtopic.php?t=107822

Is the idea of this tuning to get both E9th and C6th on one neck, or for something else?

Looks sort of blues-based with all those E7 chord tones in there. Not very 6th chord-friendly. There's almost an entire scale in the middle - 6 consecutive notes a step apart. That makes for lots of cluster-type chord voicings. Haven't looked at much of the pedal changes - makes my head hurt! Wait - there are 6th chords in there too - D6 in 2 octaves.

I thought Jim Reeves was known to not like steel guitar. Maybe that came later due to his success with the Chet Atkins produced Nashville Sound era.

Bobby Garrett played steel on some of Jim Reeves early recordings. The late Russell "PeeWee" Walker the fiddle player brought an old reel to reel tape to my studio for me to copy of 4 songs Jim demoed in East Texas and Garrett was playing steel. Garrett was a C6 monster. I knew Garrett and I played gigs with Jim's bass player James Kirkland and he played bass and sung on of some Jim's RCA recordings. We both played for Tony Douglas and the Shrimpers and a local singer Bo Renfro in the 1970's. Garrett recorded on many records in Nashville so he is a suspect too. Garretts most known gigs were with Tony Douglas and Hank Thompson and of course he wrote Rose City Chimes and Shrimpsey which was an instrumental we played with Tony. I had forgotten about all that.
Here's Shrimpsey. It was our theme song with Tony and Garrett wrote it too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDZvM3v-dgA

Nothing shrimpy about that tune, David! That was some hot smokin steelin there!

I'll say Jim Reeves didn't like steel guitars!
There was one occasion that he kicked Bobby Garrett's guitar down a flight of stairs.
He said "all steel guitar players are crazy".
Erv

Erv Niehaus wrote:I'll say Jim Reeves didn't like steel guitars!
There was one occasion that he kicked Bobby Garrett's guitar down a flight of stairs.
He said "all steel guitar players are crazy".
Erv

Lol! I've worked with people that either worked with Jim or knew him well and he evidently not only disliked steel guitars but disliked people in general. He must have been a hard guy to get along with. In an interview with Chet Atkins he said Jim and his engineer at RCA, Bill Porter went sideways one day. He said Bill just made a suggestion in the control room and Jim looked at Chet and asked "Who is this guy" then proceeded to ignore him. After the session Chet said Bill told him he wouldn't work anymore with that Jim Reeves guy. Chet said he tried for a year to smooth that event over but it never happened.

It's a shame he had to be such a disagreeable person because I sure liked his music.
Erv

That Shrimpsey is insane!! That guy had his own style big time. How do ya think he got that bright, brilliant Mooney tone w/out sounding harsh and tinny?

Bobby Garrett was one of the best players ever. He was a close friend of Buddy & Jimmy Day and had their highest respect. In my mind he's very underrated, mainly because he wasn't in Nashville very long, preferring to live in Texas (Rose City?), and occasionally tour with national acts like Charlie Walker and Hank Thompson when not in the house band at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas. I view him in a similar way to other monster players who didn't get a lot of national recognition like Dickie Overby and Lew Houston.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZccPY-8gN8
Jambalaya - Charlie Walker

Supposedly when Bobby played live he played through two Dual Showman's on either side of the stage! He got a very punchy low end that you can hear at 1:27 of Rose City Chimes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eBLM69w2Zo

Joe

Joe Goldmark wrote:…Rose City Chimes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eBLM69w2Zo

Joe

Whoa. Never heard that version. That’s some absolute monster pickin’ right there.

Joe is correct about Bobby.
Hank Thompson At the Golden Nugget should be in every steel players collection. It includes Merle Travis (on guitar of course) and Bobby's playing is ferocious. It's available on Amazon as a cd and also on vinyl.

Joe.

Bobby's last gigs were with Boxcar Willie because he was with the band he started out with as a kid, Chuck Jennings on guitar and Harlan Powell on bass. Later Harlan started playing steel for Box. Harlan was the steel player and Chuck was the guitar player when I played bass for Tony Douglas. Bobby, Chuck and Harlan all started out together with Tony and they also played the Big D Jamboree in Dallas and that's were Buddy Emmons and Jimmy Day entered into their lives. Chuck and Harlan told me they were all like one big family at the Big D Jamboree. Just a bunch of talented people running around later to become legends in music.