first live steel

Billy Wilson · Post by **Billy Wilson** » 29 Dec 2003 4:02 pm

Do you folks remember the first time you heard a steel guitar played live? For me it was when I was a kid in Bakersfield Ca in the late fifties early sixties. This was a supermarket grand opening and a country band was playing outside in the parking lot. When I heard the steel I remember the thought that went through my head: Wow! That sounds impossible! It was as if somehow the guy was able to make the notes come out of thin air. Never forgot it. Also used to watch Cousin Herb's Trading Post on TV. I wish some of those were still around. Billy W

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 29 Dec 2003 9:09 pm

Those "Old times".. Yup.

I can still lay in a bed in a house, time, and bed I'd rather not be in and all at once, I'm laying on the top bunk in a USFS govt House in 1963 in Eastern Oregon listening to Ira Blue on KGO until the Fresno Cousin Herb Big O Tire show comes on. Merle, Buck, T Tommy, George and the whole bunch come alive out of an old RCA bakelite tube radio. I still listen to them in my head for hours. Maybe too many hours..

Things are still good, Kennedy hasn't been killed yet, dad's still alive, and he and mom are happy. Cassius Clay is The Greatest. Living in a big city is something I don't think I'll ever have to do.

Times are still good now, but the times when I close my eyes are sometimes better.

EJL

Actually the first Live Steel Guitar I ever saw was at the Crook County Fair in Prineville OR in 1963 or so. Bud Charleton was playing with ET. I didn't know that I'd get to "study" with him 15 years later.

Funny how things turn out sometimes.

[This message was edited by Eric West on 30 December 2003 at 12:40 AM.]

Ricky Littleton · Post by **Ricky Littleton** » 30 Dec 2003 12:57 am

The first time I saw a steel played live was when I was around 7-8 years old (1966 or so). It was outside the Rex Smalley Tire Store in Arab, Alabama. Country Boy Eddie and his band from Birmingham (Channel 6 WRBC television) we playing on the sidewalk there.

Ricky

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Emmons LeGrande - 8x4
Session 400 Ltd
Dan-Echo, E-Bow, Ibanez Distortion, Boss Comp./Sustain, Ibanez Auto-Wah

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 30 Dec 2003 2:56 am

For me I was 9 or 10 and the same year as Ricky.
Tommy Cass was my father's recording studio house steeler back in 1966, and he came to the house and was recording on his Sho-Bud. On the 1st 8 channel recording system in New England.

He sat me down at it and let me loose.

Then 33 years later he set up MY Sho-Bud for me.
And I have 64 tracks to record with at home ... my how times change...
But even now a Sho-Bud is still coooool!

I am sure I had heard steel before that, but can't be specific about it.. just too young.[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 30 December 2003 at 02:59 AM.]

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 30 Dec 2003 8:32 am

I think I was about eight or nine years old when I first heard a steel live. I went to a show in Myrtle Beach, SC called the Carolina Opry. The steel on the stage was a Zumsteel. I remember asking the steel guitarist if I could look at it after the show. Brett Day, Emmons S-10, Morrell lapsteel

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 30 Dec 2003 8:33 am

The year was 1989. Brett Day, Emmons S-10, Morrell lapsteel

Bruce Wutzke · Post by **Bruce Wutzke** » 30 Dec 2003 8:55 am

1966...one of Bill's Po' Boys....at a Farm Progress Show. Who would that'a been??

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 30 Dec 2003 9:12 am

It was a local guy named Bob Johnson, with Slim Franks and his band playing at Watkins Park in southeast Portland. Also saw him at Radio KVAN in Vancouver, WA. He played a triple-8 Fender. I was amazed at what came out of that table-like affair.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 30 Dec 2003 11:31 am

Very early 70's or 68 or 69 (note sure). Jerry Garcia live at the Fillmore West with the New Riders of the Purple Sage.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 30 Dec 2003 7:20 pm

I heard my first "live" steel at the Wagon Wheel restaurant in Angola, New York one Friday evening in 1963. I was 10. The steelers name was Tommy Rimer.

Then my dad built me a 6 string.

It's been a wonderful time so far...

Emmons SD-10, Dekley S-10, NV400

Roger Shackelton · Post by **Roger Shackelton** » 30 Dec 2003 7:45 pm

At the age of 17, in Nov. of 1960, I drove 40 miles to Montevideo, Mn. to see a Grand Ole Opry Show. Appearing on the show were Kitty Wells, Johnny & Jack, Bobby Wright, Bill Phillips and Marvin Rainwater. I don't know who the steel player was, but I stayed for both performances.

Roger

Gary Stewart · Post by **Gary Stewart** » 30 Dec 2003 11:46 pm

I was about 9 yrs old, and at a lake near Spokane WA, called fish lake.
I heard this wonderful sound coming from somewhere close to where our cabin was, so I went looking and I found on the balcony / porch, of a cabin near, four men playing music, a bass, guitar, accordion and Steel guitar. It was almost more than I could stand, It thrilled me so much, The gentleman playing the steel was the father of another member here on the forum, Duane Beckers dad, Harry Becker. what a fine and talented musician, they both are.

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 31 Dec 2003 12:07 pm

Around 1952-53 I was walking down the boardwalk w/my parents at the beach in Ino Shima near Yokahama and I saw a one-handed steel player playing a lap steel on a stand with a small 3 or 4 piece group playing Hawaiian and Japanese music.He had a bar mounted in some sort of prosthetic gadget on his left wrist.It was quite probably Billy Hew Len.

Anders Brundell · Post by **Anders Brundell** » 31 Dec 2003 12:23 pm

I heard Buddy Emmons rehearsing in Gothenburg some 25 - 30 years ago, before I knew anything at all about steel, and he played so exact that I thought that steel functioned like a keyed instrument - exactly the right note if you just hit the right key and the instrument was well in tune.
I could hardly have gotten a better first impression!