Russ Hicks in Sweden
Posted: 6 Aug 2001 11:04 am
Russ Hicks was this year´s teacher at the annual seminar in Furuvik (Pine Bay) near Gävle at the swedish east coast (some 2 hrs by car north of Stockholm). I doubt that you can imagine what a kick it is for us to personally meet and listen to top american pickers - you have them reasonably near all year round, we might see one (1) per year, if it ain´t too far from where we live. Anyway - Russ was great, of course, and inspired us all, even though we were very few this year (but I don´t understand why).
We had Weldon the first year, Lloyd last and Russ this year. I personally rank Lloyd as number one - both as a picker and, especially, as a techer. He´s a demanding teacher, and that´s very stimulating, at the same time.
Russ´ entire band at the seminar is spelled Charlie McCoy on guitar and good stories, and, once again, I doubt that you can understand how important theese visits are for us scattered steel pickers up in northwestern Europe.
Russ taught us some nice cheating unison string tricks to make a modest ride sound really fast, and also other nice things. It´ll take many nice hours by the steel at home to go thru all that again.
The Furuvik Country Festival is a 20 yrs old institution over here, and this year Moe Bandy and Danni Leigh were the main namnes.
Russ sat in with Moe´s band and Danni had Don Pawlak, a very nice guy from Seattle, on steel - a 20 yrs old Sho-Bud D-10. Danni´s style is very rocky, but Don had no trouble at all to fit into that music.
He even had a nice trick that I´ve never thought of before; he used a cut off drum stick as bar and sounded deceptively close to a piano that way. I know that a cigar tube bar could make a steel sound like a banjo, but this was a surprise for me. Play it high up on the neck and hammer like Jerry Lee Lewis.
Now ther´s yet a whole year to the next Furuvik festival, but you´ll survive that too, if you have no choice!
(I think I´ll move to Nashville or Texas when I retire!)
I haven´t yet got any pics from the festival, but some of them will be published at http://communities.msn.se/countryfolketiDalarna when I get them.
A biiig Thank You! to Weldon, Lloyd, Russ and also Charlie, for your important visits!
And my best to all you envied steel brothers in USA!
We had Weldon the first year, Lloyd last and Russ this year. I personally rank Lloyd as number one - both as a picker and, especially, as a techer. He´s a demanding teacher, and that´s very stimulating, at the same time.
Russ´ entire band at the seminar is spelled Charlie McCoy on guitar and good stories, and, once again, I doubt that you can understand how important theese visits are for us scattered steel pickers up in northwestern Europe.
Russ taught us some nice cheating unison string tricks to make a modest ride sound really fast, and also other nice things. It´ll take many nice hours by the steel at home to go thru all that again.
The Furuvik Country Festival is a 20 yrs old institution over here, and this year Moe Bandy and Danni Leigh were the main namnes.
Russ sat in with Moe´s band and Danni had Don Pawlak, a very nice guy from Seattle, on steel - a 20 yrs old Sho-Bud D-10. Danni´s style is very rocky, but Don had no trouble at all to fit into that music.
He even had a nice trick that I´ve never thought of before; he used a cut off drum stick as bar and sounded deceptively close to a piano that way. I know that a cigar tube bar could make a steel sound like a banjo, but this was a surprise for me. Play it high up on the neck and hammer like Jerry Lee Lewis.
Now ther´s yet a whole year to the next Furuvik festival, but you´ll survive that too, if you have no choice!
(I think I´ll move to Nashville or Texas when I retire!)
I haven´t yet got any pics from the festival, but some of them will be published at http://communities.msn.se/countryfolketiDalarna when I get them.
A biiig Thank You! to Weldon, Lloyd, Russ and also Charlie, for your important visits!
And my best to all you envied steel brothers in USA!