Can you remember the first professional pedal steel player y

Bill Myrick · Post by **Bill Myrick** » 14 Dec 2001 9:11 pm

For me it was a young Buddy Emmons playing a steel with what I believe were added pedals to a standard guitar and it was with Ernest Tubb at The Audrain County fair in Mexico, Mo. sometime around "56 to 57" I believe. Made the hair stand on my arms and left a life time impression !!!

Bob Knight · Post by **Bob Knight** » 14 Dec 2001 9:16 pm

Doyle Grissom(sp?) Dallas TX 1961.

Chick Donner · Post by **Chick Donner** » 14 Dec 2001 9:40 pm

Yup . . . it was Len Ryder (Lemieux, of this forum) playing his 3 neck ShoBud in the New Frontier Lounge in Kalakaua Avenue on Waikii beach . . . saw him (and my 1st steel guitar) on Saturday nite - returned Sunday nite and BOUGHT it - still with a full leg cast on one leg, and I think I still had a cast on one arm at the time. That was not only the first steel PLAYER I'd seen . . . it waw also the first pedal GUITAR I'd ever seen.

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 14 Dec 2001 10:10 pm

JD Maness, at the Palomino with the Palomino Riders.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 14 Dec 2001 10:31 pm

Rusty Young, with Poco. I still can't do that thing with the chair.

Cairo Zoots · Post by **Cairo Zoots** » 14 Dec 2001 11:03 pm

Speedy West and Glen Campbell in Southern California in early 60's. WOW!

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ree-00-dee-doo

Jim Whitaker · Post by **Jim Whitaker** » 14 Dec 2001 11:25 pm

Chuck Rich on Cincy's midwestern hayride with kenny price on drums !

Joerg Hennig · Post by **Joerg Hennig** » 15 Dec 2001 12:35 am

Mooney with Waylon in ´83. Unfortunately, I was more interested in the guitar than the steel back then. The next one was Gerry Hogan with Albert Lee some years later. Steel a mystery to me.[This message was edited by Joe Henry on 15 December 2001 at 01:06 AM.]

ESnow · Post by **ESnow** » 15 Dec 2001 1:07 am

Paul Franklin at the Hall Of Fame club in Nashville fall of 1980. I went there 4 or 5 nights in a row to watch Paul and Phil Baugh trade licks. I also met Bruce Bouton there one of those nights. I was really hooked after that.

John Cadeau · Post by **John Cadeau** » 15 Dec 2001 1:35 am

Ollie Strong, working with Bill Long in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He got me hooked on steel guitar.
John

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 15 Dec 2001 1:59 am

The first steel guitarist I saw live was Rusty Young with the original Pogo, spelled with a G, before they were forced to change thier name.

The second was our fellow forumite Chas Smith.

Jerry Horner · Post by **Jerry Horner** » 15 Dec 2001 2:14 am

Billy Bowman with Bob Wills In Tulsa, Oklahoma at Cains Ballroom.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 15 Dec 2001 3:08 am

Noel Boggs with his Fender. It was 1962 at a USO show in Taipei Taiwan.

Rick Schmidt · Post by **Rick Schmidt** » 15 Dec 2001 4:05 am

Rusty Young at teen club called the "Rugged Room" in Denver probably around 66 or 67 with a rock band called the "Boenzee' Crik" (sp?). This cool band predated Poco by a coulple years at least. Now when I think about it, I can't remember noticing the absence of a lead guitar at the time. I'm pretty sure Rusty did all the leads on PSG, but that was a long time ago...

Johan Jansen · Post by **Johan Jansen** » 15 Dec 2001 5:11 am

Andre Sommer

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 15 Dec 2001 5:21 am

My first memory of a steel guitar was on the Harry Owens TV show in LA in the early 1950's, so that must have been either Freddie or Ernest Tavares.

I used to watch the Spade Cooley TV show also, so I think it was either Joaquin or Marian Hall.

The first pedal steel player I remember on TV was either Red Rhodes or forumite Carl Walden. The first pedal steel players I saw live were Bert Rivera and Tom Brumley, at a Buck Owens/Hank Thompson concert in Anaheim CA in 1966.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 15 Dec 2001 5:34 am

Bob White! (but that was pre-E9 so by definition it may not be "pedal" steel)[This message was edited by Gene Jones on 15 December 2001 at 05:38 AM.]

Perry Hansen · Post by **Perry Hansen** » 15 Dec 2001 5:55 am

Jody McCully(sp). He used the 3rd and 4th fingers on his left hand to pull the strings. He was on a 4 neck Rickenbacker. This was in Oakland, Calif. in 56. The next was Buck Turner in San Diego on a Fender Stringmaster with a door hinge for a pedal.
Perry

Jim Ashton · Post by **Jim Ashton** » 15 Dec 2001 6:16 am

Jimmy Anderson 1960 in Okinawa. He played a Fender 400. He was awesome. He was playing with another band. That band broke up and he started playing in our band. I played drums at the time. Later Jimmy moved on to Las Vegas and I heard he has since passed on. I always wanted to play steel after hearing him. I have been playing now for about 2 1/2 years steady. I tried one time before in 1976. Didn't work out then. Jim A.

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D10 Mullen, DPC1400,hilton pedal
Peavey 112e's. tubefex.

MALCOLM KIRBY · Post by **MALCOLM KIRBY** » 15 Dec 2001 6:20 am

Hal Rugg, I believe it was on the Eddie Hill early morning TV Show out of Nashville in the '60s. Jimmy Capps was the guitar player. WOW - what a way to start off a school day.

Steve Stallings · Post by **Steve Stallings** » 15 Dec 2001 6:49 am

The first steel player I saw live, was in my living room in Renton, Washington about 1966 or so. He was playing in a band with my step dad, Bob Adams. This gentlemans name was Larry Derosier and he was awesome. A few years back, courtesy of the forum, I located him and we talked on the telephone. He really didn't remember me, but clearly remembered my former step dad and this band.

The first big name/concert I saw with a steel was Poco/Rusty Young at Brown University in 1971.

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Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas

Larry Clark · Post by **Larry Clark** » 15 Dec 2001 7:38 am

Tommy Hannum was the first steel player I saw live. Played in a beer joint in Falls Church Va in the mid 70's. I believe he plays with Ricky Van Shelton now.

RON PRESTON · Post by **RON PRESTON** » 15 Dec 2001 7:54 am

Jack Smith, 1970, Tupleo, Mississippi, when he was playing for the "HAPPY GOODMAN FAMILY" and he was playing a cherry red D-10 Sho-Bud,(if my memory serves me right)and I was blown out the door, because he took time after the show to talk to me. I was 16 at the time. I seen him once in 1980-1981,New Years night, playing at the "LEMON TREE LOUNGE" in Louisville, Ky. where Tommy White played 6 nights a week for Mike Lunsford.

Chris Robbins · Post by **Chris Robbins** » 15 Dec 2001 7:57 am

John David Call of Pure Prarie Leauge at Western Ill University in 1975. Way ahead of his time and the reason I play today.