The Steel Guitar Forum

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 !!!

Doyle Grissom(sp?) Dallas TX 1961.

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.

JD Maness, at the Palomino with the Palomino Riders.

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

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

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ree-00-dee-doo

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

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.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Joe Henry on 15 December 2001 at 01:06 AM.]</p></FONT>

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.

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

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.

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

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

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...

Andre Sommer

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

Bob White! (but that was pre-E9 so by definition it may not be "pedal" steel)<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Gene Jones on 15 December 2001 at 05:38 AM.]</p></FONT>

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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