The Steel Guitar Forum

Just a quick note on a reality check! Tonight we just had a rehersal for our usual upcoming fair circuit through the midwestern states. After 20 years of playing, I sometimes wonder what in the *&%% I am doing. We worked up a few songs and every year the act slowly drifts more away from Steel. My highlight of the eve was turning on the distortion on my session 500 and making racecar sounds on a song called "455 rocket". I often wonder why I am even in the band, someday it's going to occur to the rest of the members, "If we could eliminate his couple of notes during the show, we could make more money". Last year, we would often open for bigger acts with Steel players who were very talented, I mean some of these guys would burn up the neck during the soundcheck.When the show started, I might hear a chime or a slide once in awhile but there was so much potential that was wasted. I wanted to say something tonight, but why bother, you just end up looking like a jerk and everybody hates whiners. Last year we did the "Night Life" but it was replaced this year by "aretha Franklin, RESPECT". I hate to walk away from this gig because it is really a lot of fun( off the bandstage), my wife goes with me a lot of the time and I make really good money (about $10 a note....<laugh>). Fortunately, I am able to play with an old Western Swing band to keep my sanity once in awhile. I think I make about 10 cents a song with these guys and I love it! What do the rest of you guys do when the band wants to ROCK? I remember visiting an old Steelfriend of mine down in Amarillo Texas not to long ago, and all I could think of is these guys down here still know what music is about. Thanks for letting me Vent....

I think a lot of us can relate buddy! Now I don't have to vent, I'll just use yours!
Roberto Swerski

I know this seems weird but I am much more comfortable playing my pedalsteel on the pop or rock type tunes ( or better yet some new type of music that I never heard before) than the straight up country ones. On the non standard stuff I get to play whatever I want that helps the tune out. On the classic country stuff I tend to feel like an idiot playing a pale imitation of something someone else played so much better 30 or 40 years ago. Don't get me wrong, I love the classic stuff and really enjoy listening to steel players play it. I just don't like to play it very much myself.

Bob<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bob Hoffnar on 13 December 2001 at 02:05 AM.]</p></FONT>

Where's your band leader? If you make it worth my while, I'll come up there and "Convince" him and his kneecaps that you need to play more.

Bobbe, nice reference to "Bill Swersky's Superfans." Good SNL sketch.

Bob, I know what you mean, and I haven't even started playing yet. Only thing I'd say is, if it's in your head, you can play it. Who cares if it's not the exact same lick that Jim Vest or Norm Hamlett played? Those guys are my answer to the "who inspired you to play" thread. I'm not quite as "mature" as the rest of y'all, and growing up in the early `80's, they were THE DEFINITIVE structure of my musical growth. That's why I'm doing this. To keep something I believe in alive.

Sorry to get all philosophical, but a great man said "If you don't stand for anything, you'll fall for nothing." I will take it on myself to keep the steel alive in country music.

Garnett

------------------

"The New Guy"

----------------------

<SMALL>and I make really good money (about $10 a note....)</SMALL>

Kurt.....

Son, if the moneys there,play the gig.
A lot of us arn't diversed enought to play a wide venue of different styles of music on the PSG,so if the guy wants you to hit a lick ever now and then, DO IT !!! Collect the pay and go your merry way. Be glad you got the job in stead of someone else.

I think Paul Franklin said it.....
"If you want to stay in this business,Play what they want." Now,I don't see him havin' to look for work. 90% of us are into this Steel playing for the love of it,not as a day job. My outfit plays a number of gigs a year but the pay hardly covers the cost of strings and equipment for me. I also don't turn down any playing job offer on the side either.

Bottom line....... Play the gig !!! (and have fun with it)

I've worked gigs that I thought the same thing. Why am I here? But they wanted a steel and I did do a couple of things.

I just "back up to the pay table" and take the money and run.

I'm trying to recall something Joan Cox posted awhile back. It went something like:

What are doing in the next five minutes because after that I'm outta here and I think she said she did just that !!

I'm like some of the others here. I'd have to stay for the money and as long as they want to pay me for whatever I do I suppose it's OK with me. I think I've just gotten too old to complain anymore. Not that it ever helped back in "The Good Old Days !!"

Regards, Paul

Well, Kurt, you didn't say whether you're a full-time musician and whether you really need this money or not. I guess those are the key questions. If you have a solid day job and don't need to do this for the money, then throw yourself into that western swing band and make it the best damn swing band in the state. Play anywhere and everywhere, whether you're paid or not, just because it's the most fun you know how to have with your clothes on. My two cents.

------------------
www.jimcohen.com

I'm currently taking an "indefinate leave of absence" from my group of the last 5 years.
My burnout with pretty much every aspect of being in this band finally over-rode my desire for the spare walkin' money and stage time.
(I wanted to bail as far back as a year ago, but the good paying gigs kept coming - that's good "paying" gigs, not "good" gigs).
Freeing myself from that dilema was a huge weight off my mind.
I feel fantastic!
(Although, for the first time in a long time, I had to go to an ATM to get some walkin' cash the other day, but that felt great too! )
I'll sing it again...
Keep your daaaaaayy job!

I use to work in Nevada with a real lounge lizard-velvet jacket-ruffeled shirt-pop- music-jukebox of a band where I got to play very little "traditional" PSG in the shows,
but it paid well and I got to play alot of good golf courses around the state, so I gritted my teeth during the show and enjoyed myself during the daytime on the links!
Sitting in with local bands on my off nights was the most "musical fun" I had during that time period.
JE:-)>

Kurt, to boldey go where no steel player has gone before. I too miss the classic steel guitar music of the 50's, 60's and 70's but thats not why I'm getting paid for. So I find new (to me) creative sounds and licks to add to the whole band sound. If that means a chime or two so be it but I rearley stop there. Power cords, alternate melodies, folk style rythmns. Bobbe Seymore said it on one of his tapes, the instrument is limitless and one of the best rock n roll instruments out there. One just needs to break the mold and find new paths and see what they can do to add to the song as a whole. I love old swing and country but I get paid to play rock so I try to find something that adds to the overall sound. (I'll step off the soap box now)

------------------
D 10 Thomas with 8&6
Nashville 400 and Profex II
Asleep at the Steel

<SMALL>What do the rest of you guys do when the band wants to ROCK?</SMALL>

You should also rock out. And not necessarily resorting to fuzz and effects. For example, I'm in a band that plays 455 Rocket, and it is basically a bluesy/swing number, when you get down to it. So you can play blues lines, swing lines, play it on C6 if you are so disposed, etc. etc. That's only one example. Many rock and blues numbers will translate to something that you've played on steel. It requires some willingness, changing the rhythm patterns a bit, picking with a different sense of timing, but you can dig something out. On the other hand, if you HATE these styles of songs, then it will be hard to play something musical.

If you want to add variety, and maybe some fun for all, there's two extremes - you could get little 6-string lapsteel and play slide guitar type stuff on the rockers, or you could go MIDI and play horn shots on the Aretha tune, etc. Use the pedal steel when pedal steel sounds best.

<SMALL>On the classic country stuff I tend to feel like an idiot playing a pale imitation of something someone else played so much better 30 or 40 years ago</SMALL>

Bob, if you feel that way, its because you haven't been willing to devote the time and effort necessary in learning that particular historical vocabulary of the instrument. I can understand that, because getting deeply into that style is challenging and difficult.

Incidentally, because Buddy or Jimmy played a solo a particular way, that doesn't mean that a solo played differently in the same genre is necessarily "worse."

When playing country or Hawaiian, there is an established criteria by which steel players can be judged and critiqued regarding appropriate note choice, timbre, technique, etc. When playing non-traditional steel guitar music, no such measureable standards for performance exist, to my knowledge, unless its Demola Adepoju . So while its comfortable to not be compared to Buddy Emmons, Chalker, Day, Green, Hoopii, McIntyre, Murphey, Boggs, McAuliffe, etc., how does one judge his or her own development on the instrument, regardless of whether or not that music is performed onstage?

Charlie Parker, to my knowledge, never performed Dixieland jazz, but he quoted Dixieland riffs frequently in his music, as if to tell his fellow players, "hey, I know where this music came from."

------------------
Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Herb Steiner on 13 December 2001 at 05:01 PM.]</p></FONT>

Bill Crook gave you the answer. Your band leader wants to keep it going so he's made the play list up of songs people want to hear now days. Look out at the crowd and see all the young people there, they want something with a beat, they don't much care what the song is.

I learned way back in the fifty's that if you don't play what gets people out on the dance floor, you don't last long.

BC.

I love playing rock on the steel. I turn on the fuzz, and it sounds like Duane Allman on steroids.

The thing is, you have to play things that are appropriate for the music. The E9 cliche licks just don't cut it in rock. If you're going to play rock, or any other kind of music for that matter, you have to take it on it's own terms and play things that fit that style of music.

Thanks for the posts everyone. Yea, I was a little discouraged last night. Hey, we all deal with this sort of thing and it's always nice to hear some advice and remarks from everyone. We are all lucky to have a Forum like this with this much participation. Thanks again!!

Kurt...been there, done that.

I'm probably a rarity here. Decades ago, I did music because I had to. Oh yeah, I loved it, but I needed the extra money too. Back then, it was all new to me, so there was little chance of getting bored. But, as I got older, I found that playing what I didn't enjoy took the fun out of it. I do it for fun now. I "cherry pick" the few gigs I do, and if I don't think I'll enjoy it, I pass.

Let someone else put up with the prima donnas, the crappy joints, the lousy pay, the unappreciative audiences, and the heavy-metal sound levels. Even for former die-hards like me, there is life outside of the steel guitar.

Herb,
You pretty much nailed it with your response to my post. If I had the inclination it would be great to spend more time on the classic vocabulary of the pedalsteel. I really admire current steel players that are good
at those styles. It is a fantastic tradition that I hope we never lose.
For me, I hear another sound in my head that drowns out everything else so I figure it is best to follow it wherever it leads me.

What I was trying to say in regards to the venting thing is that "one mans kitty litter box is another mans secret hide out"...uhh... or something like that.

Bob