The Steel Guitar Forum

Trace drop the steel from his band? Opry Live tonight, no steel. Even did a song with the lyrics "dying for some steel guitar"....odd...I'm pretty sure it was his band. Don't remember who used to play steel with him, but there was none there tonight. Just the covered one sitting idle, Tommy's I assume.

What's up Trace?

Is bluegrass country music with the dobro®?

I played the Opry with Gene Watson the night trace was there and he did not have a steel player . I assumed Tommy would have played the spot with him but I guess he didn’t ! We were on right before Trace and Tommy was covering his guitar as I was coming on stage !

I was wondering because a lot of Trace's music has steel in it. One of my favorite songs of his is This ain't no thinking thing.

I don't remember exactly which songs he did on the Opry show, but could be none of those were "steel" songs. Of course he could have just been without a steel player for whatever reason at the time.

It was just the line in one of his songs "dying for some steel guitar" I found ironic since there wasn't one there.

It was just the line in one of his songs "dying for some steel guitar" I found ironic since there wasn't one there

Maybe that was the reason for that line in the song.

Richard Sinkler wrote:

It was just the line in one of his songs "dying for some steel guitar" I found ironic since there wasn't one there

Maybe that was the reason for that line in the song.

You got a point there, Richard!

And I can see where "no steel" might be disappointing. That's exactly how I felt when I purchased Ray Price's "Take Me As I Am" album back in 1968. Great songs, including his famous "Night Life", and not one damn note of steel guitar in the whole album! This album was the prelude to Ray's big hit "For The Good Times" (which the cognoscenti also knows had no steel guitar).

'Course, there have been many, many country music hits by artists that completely shunned the steel guitar.

Jerry Overstreet wrote:I was wondering because a lot of Trace's music has steel in it. One of my favorite songs of his is This ain't no thinking thing.

I don't remember exactly which songs he did on the Opry show, but could be none of those were "steel" songs. Of course he could have just been without a steel player for whatever reason at the time.

It was just the line in one of his songs "dying for some steel guitar" I found ironic since there wasn't one there.

I taught myself how to play the intro to "Thinkin' Thing" two years after I started playing steel. Paul Franklin plays the steel parts on the record. Trace has used steel in his band for quite a few years, and the first time I saw him play a live show, there was steel in the band, and it sounded incredible-I think at the time, a man named Steve Byam played steel with Trace, playing a Carter. The second and third time I saw Trace, his steel player was Randy Hess, playing a black JCH D-10. I don't know how "Every Light In The House Is On" would sound without steel, and I remember when I met Trace and Randy Hess in '03, Randy had talked with Trace about how I'm a steel guitarist because Trace said to me, "Randy told me you know how to play "Thinkin' Thing". Trace even said on a documentary called Honky Tonk Sound, "Country music features some sad songs, and the lyrics of those songs are not as powerful without an instrument that sounds like it's crying along with the lyrics, and that's possible, thanks to the incredible note bending abilities of the steel guitar

Wayne Addleman has been his steel player for a pretty long time. Wayne is from here - the general State College, PA area. I have been told, by people that I believe know, that Wayne is back here. I don't know any more than that, so please don't read anything else into or draw any other conclusions from the statement. But consider the possibility that Trace just doesn't have a steel player right now.