The Steel Guitar Forum

Jeff Au Hoy just sent us a "Seasonal" number performed on his Ricky FryPan, his 1947 Gibson L-7 and his upright bass. Jeff plays all the instruments - talented guy!

As we all know, Jeff lives in Honolulu. How's the weather there Jeff? Dipping down into the seventies at night? You'd better bundle up.

Thank you Jeff. We'll be fondly thinking of you on the beach in your shorts and slippas as we fight our frigid temperatures, freezing rain, blinding blizzards and through-the-roof heating bills.

All kidding aside - Beautiful tune!

Jeff Au Hoy - Let It Snow!

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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'



CEO, CIO, CFO - UkeTone Records
Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website
Board of Directors Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association

I think this presents a very strong argument for the idea of reincarnation.

Dang Jeff, sounds like you just stepped outta 1937. As Bugs Bunny would say, "Love it, love it, luh-uh-uhhhhhhhvvvv IT!"

Thanks for that!

TJW

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Todd James Weger --
1956 Fender Stringmaster T-8 (C6, A6, B11); 1960 Fender Stringmaster D-8 (C6, B11/A6); Regal resonator (C6); 1938 Epiphone Electar (A6); assorted ukuleles; upright bass

Jeff, that's really nice work - so smooooth!
I can almost see the flakes falling . .

Jeff, I want video of you playing them all at once!

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Half-assed bottleneck and lap slide player. Full-assed Builder of resonator instruments.

Nice! Jeff, what's the Hawiian word for snow?

The Hawaiian word for snow is "dakine shave ice"

Eskimos have twenty seven words for snow.

Hawaiians have negative four.
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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'



CEO, CIO, CFO - UkeTone Records
Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website
Board of Directors Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association

<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Gerald Ross on 07 December 2006 at 07:05 AM.]</p></FONT>

Very nice, also Moonglow. Jeff, you do have the touch! Muchas gracias.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

I CAN SEE TONS OF CDs HEADING OUR WAY,done just like that,nothing more or less. LOVE IT JEFF

<SMALL>Eskimos have twenty seven words for snow. Hawaiians have negative four.</SMALL>

Hey Gerald, I have twenty-seven words for snow too. They're all just the word snow with a "colorful" adjective in front of it.

That's why I live in Florida now, instead of Wisconsin.





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Todd James Weger --
1956 Fender Stringmaster T-8 (C6, A6, B11); 1960 Fender Stringmaster D-8 (C6, B11/A6); Regal resonator (C6); 1938 Epiphone Electar (A6); assorted ukuleles; upright bass

Jeff...I'm awestruck ! Great tone, technic, and just excellent throughout !
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BTW Gerald...The word "eskimo" is a 'no-no' ... much akin to the "N" word. They have been using the name "Inuit" for many, many years...just thought you'd like to know.

That's some mighty sweet pickin there Jeff, I love your vibrato, it's like a blast from the past. Treat yourself to an "Inuit Pie" on me.

Very nice playing all the way around, Jeff.

Question, not a criticism: Do you roll back the tone control on your guitar or is that just an old tube amp doing it for you?<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Mike Neer on 07 December 2006 at 01:59 PM.]</p></FONT>

Fantastic Jeff, Mahalo. Don

Jeff, your the greatest living Hawaiian steel guitar player on the planet! Merry Xmas...<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Jesse Pearson on 07 December 2006 at 03:35 PM.]</p></FONT>

Nice sounds, Jeff! Almost gets rid of my 'bah, humbug' attitude.

Jeff, you have a great sound. Very cool alternate melody, quotes & ending!

We had our first taste of snow tonight. Hmmm....

Hey Jeff, that was great. I suppose you are playing all the instruments. Great talent. Great show at the Halekulani.
Give me your home address so I can send you something.

I "can't" help but express this thought: There was a mighty fine Master who left us not too long ago; Whom I can't help but view as a standard to measure other Masters by; Quite an old grump when it came to criticising (in good faith) other Steelers' playing (and Music in general). I feel rather certain that He is looking down upon Jeff's playing, ...His eyes closed with His head nodding His full and silent approval in sync with Jeff's playing, ...equally well pleased with Jeff's maturing and accomplishment(s). Hearing those 3 HSGA recordings by Jeff, I was greatly warmed to realize that Jeff's Mastery has truely come to fruition, ....flawless and soul-touching in every aspect ....as far as I could determine anyway. What a wonderful and joyful thing to have watched occur.

Aloha,
DT~
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Denny Turner on 08 December 2006 at 01:24 AM.]</p></FONT>

Jeff, good to hear the Hawaiian come through! Good stuff!

JEFF, my friend........
Really, really nice performance. Nice and bright; plenty of bounce; soothing soft tones with the occasional uplifting spirit.

What I really enjoy, is the bar work you're doing. You're going to positions that I find totally impossible to anticipate.
And what can I say about your ryhthm guitar playing? FINE, Fine, fine.

Keep 'em coming.

Probably a lot more could be said, but I do not know how to say it. All superlatives.

Ditto, what all said above.

May your opportunities abound, keep up the good work, Jeff.

Aloha,
Don<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Don Kona Woods on 08 December 2006 at 08:17 PM.]</p></FONT>

Timeless sounds . . . the good stuff. Classic Hawaiian steel is as viable a vehicle for musical expression today as it ever was, and Jeff proves that every time. His playing is a respectful nod to the greats who have gone before, without slavishly copying any one of them. His own identity shines through.

Thanks, Jeff! Your work is a real inspiration and this recording is an especially welcome gift to all of us at Christmas time.

Sweet!

Hey thanks everybody. I'm truly undeserving of all these compliments. I certainly don't aim to sound ungrateful but in the interest of furthering good non-pedal steel, I feel it's important to take into account some of the unfavorable aspects of the recording as well.

First of all my intonation in many places will probably have someone with perfect pitch scrambling for some dramamine. The ending chime especially is pretty yucky. Maybe I can pass it off as sounding more bell-like that way (real bells always seem to sound off pitch). But perhaps that's a stretch.

Second, because I mostly played melody, I think it would have been a good idea to phrase in terms of the syllables of the lyrics. Problem is (gasp) I didn't know all the words to the song so I just winged it. What resulted was "babble" that was supposed to represent some words being sung. I think to someone who knows the words to the song, it might be a bit off putting that the phrasing doesn't match up.

Thirdly the swing is not tight. I'm wondering if this is a result of multitracking, my poor tempo skills (not enough time spent with the metronone), or both. One thing I don't like about my steel playing is that it tends to "float" around the downbeat, never directly on it. Kind of like a drunk guy trying to get "expressive" with his vocal... never quite locking in with the rhythm section. David Keli'i, Jules Ah See, and Jerry Byrd on the other hand were right on it... I think that's what gave their playing such a precision sound.

Fourth, my pinky violining doesn't quite cut it... you can still hear some pick attack.

Oh, fifth, I had the metronome track up so darn loud you can hear it bleeding out of my headphones in some of the spaces. Hence the rapid fade out in the end! The music stops but the tick tock keeps going! Yikes, sloppy joe.

Mike, I used a frypan with the tone control open...through 50's Magnatone student model amp (108 I think?) with the tone control closed almost all the way. I like to leave the tone open just enough to hear the pop of the attack but not so much that I can hear a lot of string and pick noise. I miked everything with a condenser no closer than about 5 or 6 feet, which I hoped would eliminate some of the high end and also give more that old timey sound.

Again, thanks everyone and happy holidays! <font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Jeff Au Hoy on 09 December 2006 at 04:51 AM.]</p></FONT>