The Steel Guitar Forum

I am curious, who was the steeler that played on the road for Tommy Overstreet about 1979-80-81? Fairly tall slim guy, salt-and-pepper hair at the time, played a single 10 Dekley through an Ampeg amp, great strong tone as I recall (similar to PeeWee Rogers' tone). Thanks in advance for the answer(s).

Tim R.

Sounds like the Forum's own Smiley Roberts.

Thanks Lem! I have thought for several years that indeed it was Smiley, but I want to be real sure. I'd like to hear it from him, if indeed it was him. The Dekley part I can understand. Probably the Ampeg amp came with T.O.'s equipment deal, endorsement, or whatever. Use to see more of that it seems. How about it Mr. Roberts, does that sound like you da man? And the Dekley/Ampeg setup?

Tim R.

Tim, it was indeed Smiley and as soon as he gets finished playing "tour guide" for some out of town guests in Nashville, he'll verify it for you. Salt & pepper hair? Ms. Clarol has since cured that affliction for him!!!!!

Mike,
I'll getchya fer dat. It was T.O. that had the "S.& P."hair. Mine was more like "nutmeg". (probably,more nut than meg.).

Yeah,it was me w/ T.O. back then. I left him,in '81,on account of "illness". (He got sick o' me.) I,still,do some work w/ him,on occasion.


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Thanks Smiley. Yeah, at that time as I recall T.O. had the Kenny Rogers white beard look. He was just starting to get into the Gene Austin material that he later did so much of. Seems like Gene Austin was his uncle or something.

I used to really enjoy some of T.O.'s material, I think probably I can still play "Ann" and maybe one or two of his other tunes. His stuff never really caught on with the musicians up here in Michigan, what I mean is you couldn't just go down to the honky tonk and hear the house band do his songs as part of their repertoire. But when I hear his music it takes me back to the late 1960's-mid 1970's era when country radio was still pretty good listening. I'm glad to hear that he is still performing.

So, comparatively speaking, how would you rate that Ampeg as a steel guitar amp? I recall that some of the old tube-type flip-top (Plexi?) models weren't too bad in their time. Their bass amps were always pretty good. Just curious, we don't see hardly any Ampeg gear out there anymore.

Tim R.

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Tim Rowley on 25 November 2001 at 01:43 AM.]</p></FONT>

Hey Smiley!!! I remember an old Ampeg ad where you told us why your VT-22 was such a killer steel amp. Wasn't Ampeg the Dekley distributor at that time?

Salt and Pepper? T.O. never did hire another steel player full time after Smiley.You might say no one could fill his shoes but it was actually his shorts,after they discoved clean air could exist on the bus .Them 40 footers ran better with deisel than "gas".

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CJC