The Steel Guitar Forum

How about a brief report on where and the happenings for us old timers who slept in the new year remembering times past ?

After having to work on New Years eve for some 30 years and getting home at two or three AM, I am always thankful that I can now stay a home and go to bed early.

Me and my dog got up this morning not much later than I used to get home....had coffee, read the paper...and now checking this computer to hear about all the fun that everyone else had! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

I took the steel out lastnight to a place where other steel players were going to be thinking thst all I would have to do would be plug in to there equipment. but when i got there i found 0 steel players and me with just a steel and no amp, pedal, cords, lol oh well it got me in the door free, and I later placed the steel back in the car and went back in. happy new year

Our gig went well. We had a full house. Although it was primarily traditional country music the singer did pull a few 50's out such as "The Great Pretender". We played an RV park and almost all of the audience was "Florida Snowbirds".

My Indianapolis buddy, Bernie Waldon was on bass. Bernie has had some health problems recently but it hasn't affected his bass picking. It's nice to be able to pick and not have to worry if the bass is going to be there or not.

I guess if I had to rate it, this was probably one of my better New Years Eve gigs and I've been doing them since 1959.

We opened with God Bless America to a full house and had a wonderful night. Our 7 piece band played old country and western swing all night. Although capable, we play very little rock if any.

One of the more interesting gigs in a while. Lots of hats and hippies. We played about half and half, country and rock.
It suprised me how much a steel fits in Creedence and Clapton stuff.
The best news was we were hired for this saturday so we let the equipment set and went home. Yippy, no tear down!

We played to a packed house in Zuni, Virginia at the rec hall for the White Tail Park Nudist camp! If you've never played for a bunch of nekkid people you've missed something for sure. I'd always heard that most of those folks were out of shape and ugly but I think that was mostly the guys. There were some hardbodies there in the women dept. When we played the Electric Slide the dance floor was filled with mostly woment. Needless to say, we played it about 6 times last night and only had one request for it. Aside from all that, the music was fun. We had a large hall with a massive stage, great lighting, and the acoustics were wonderful. It was sometimes just a little hard (no pun intended) to play with all that jiggling!

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Have a good 'un! JH U-12

I played in a bowling alley banquet hall. There were five bands, ranging from country to Irish to blues and funk and cajun. Two steel guitars, two accordions, organ, blues harp, scratch board, full rhythm section. We combined all of our gear for a big PA and backline. My band played first, we were fairly tight, and fairly sober. After that everyone started getting drunk, lots of trainwrecks, but lots of great jamming, too. The room was almost full, and the crowd was quite diverse, from old-timers to college kids, from cowboys and NASCAR mullet dudes to punkers and shemales and lesbians. I had a drink at midnite, we played Auld Lang Syne for 10 minutes, straight then swing than straight again. One of my buddys, who's sober, stayed until the bitter end (early close - 2 am) and helped me pack up all my stuff, cart it up the stairs and drive it 12 miles home. Bless his heart. My wife and niece were still up at 2:30 am, waiting for me to come home.

Happy New Years, best wishes for the world.

Drew

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www.newslinkassociates.com
www.drewhoward.com

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Drew Howard on 01 January 2002 at 10:17 AM.]</p></FONT>

Let's see: made a fire, cooked some beef stew, had a 45 minute phone call with Cass (relatively short), a computer geek came over to analyze a dead Compaq, then went to my next door neighbor's house (only a quarter mile walk) for a rather tame party, came home, checked the Forum and eBay, stoked the fire, kissed my wife at midnight, then Kathy and I hit the hay.

Didn't make any bucks but was one of the best NYE's I've had in recent memory.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

I always thought Creedance Clearwater was country....but just couldn't afford to hire a steel player!

We had a fair crowd,but not as many as usual.
The front man had a bad cold so the lead player and myself had to double up. Made for a long night .I was home at1oclock.Jumped in the tub and washed the smoke and the dust off and went to bed.

We had a full house but I missed the show. While stairing at the guitar some girl pull off her panties and threw them on stage and bared it all to the band. I never seen a thing. Never happened like that when I played drums. Had to bring that P/P home for a little tweeking because something had moved a little but it's back to working great today and had a good oiling. I'm starting the year off with new strings for all the guitars and going to keep a record of all string changes and maintenance.

Did A good country gig at typical country joint in Perry OK. Got my money and was home by 2:am. Was my 38th tme for New Years. Hope I'm around to do it again next year. May have to do it with a new guitar by then. I've got the bug again. Have a good New Year everybody!!!!!

The thing that amazes me the most about you guys is how early you get home !!! I was usually 3:30 to 4:00 am getting home from a regular gig but then that was allowing for hauling all the sound equipment and a breakfast stop along the way.

Nothing of great interest to report and nothing to complain about. Just a good gig, a decent meal, made $120.00, only about 10 miles from home.

Tim R.

Played our usual Sat. nght gig in Galesburg Il. at a place called Audi's
It went pretty well. played until about 2:30. {pretty good crowd, but no exciting happenings,(no chicks taking off undergarments) haha I've just gotten back into playing, after a short hiatus, and have had the good fortune of playing with some really good people, especially our lead player who is a monster. After getting home ( a block and a half away)
me and the old lady had a pizza and went to bed.

I'll ask y'all to read my post over in PEDAL STEEL under "Temperature Change" for a frightening story about my New Years's Eve gig. As far as getting home,,,,it was close to 5am due the the load out. It always takes us about 2 hours to load out. Load in is closer to 3 hours,,,,,especially with those new G@&d*@*&# new stage lights!!!!!
BB

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If you play 'em, play 'em good!
If you build 'em, build 'em good!

Had a great gig in Savanna,Ill.,w/ Joe Diamond & the guys,at th "Bootlegger Too".

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<SMALL>kissed my wife at midnight, then Kathy and I hit the hay</SMALL>

Herb, you have a very understanding wife, either that or her name is Kathy.

Played at the Plough & Stars, an Irish bar in Cambridge. It was fun, we whipped up a swing version of "Auld Lang Syne" on the spot. Played til 2, went to a party afterwards, home at 5. Actually not much different from a regular Saturday. One thing's for sure, 2001 had to be one of the crappiest years ever, thank goodness it's over.

Stayed at home. Looked at the Steel and thought "Rest easy, ole buddy. We both deserve at least one NYE layed back and no worrys about whats gonna happen next."

All the previsouse(sp) years, has been a trip into HELL and I've cleared no money (due to transportation cost and charges for drinks,yes,even includeing cokes and 7up) whatsoever.

I,ve seen ladies undress themselfs,had beer bottles throwed at the band,watched as the police dragged customer from the place,even watched as the frontman fall off the stage.

To stay at home with the wife, with a layed back attitude, has been one of the best NYE events for me.

NYE was just fine for me, aside from a lingering cold congestion...(the only down side was being away from family)

Last Train Home played our "home away from home" (literally, for me as I made the drive from PA to VA)IOTA CLub and Cafe'.

Had a Catered dinner of pasta and homemade Italian Sausage, free drinks (in moderation for once)Played to a really appreciative crowd who was actually there to hear US as much as ring in the new year. Champagne at midnight with a cell phone call to my wife in PA... played everything from Long Black Veil to Autumn Leaves and was packed up loaded out and asleep on my friend's couch by 3:15.

I did indeed stay home last NYE, and that was fine too.

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"I AM ZUMBODY!"


<small>Zumsteel U12 "Loafer" 8&6 :: Fender T-8 Stringmaster :: Fender Tube Amplification
www.voicenet.com/~vanallen/ :: vanallen@voicenet.com :: www.lasttrainhome.com

For the third year in a row I played with my main band The Lowells at a small country school house near Lampasas, TX. It was a big pot luck dinner with a guy who smoked 10 briskets on the premises as well. Then the band started playing st 9:00 and went until 2:00. Even though both me and the guitarist are pedal steel players we don't have a steel in the band as I play bass. We have three front men doing three part harmony all night so that makes adding a seventh member pretty hard. The singers are Roger Wallace, Bill Bailey, and Mike Heil who are all Austin veterans and all very good. We played the heck out of Johhny Bush, Ray Price, Faron Young, and Mel Tillis all night with some 5 Royales and Hank Ballard tunes as well. Even though I got ridiculously sick from Cedar Fever over the course of the night and had our camping plans ruined by the cold wind and snow I still had a lot of fun!

Shaan

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The Pickin' Paniolo

I wasn't intending to do anything much, but ended up playing a party with my regular drummer and a bunch of his visiting buddies from New Orleans. I guess it qualifies as my first jazz gig and it was a total blast.

There were so many songs we played that were common to both Western Swing and New Orleans jazz standards: Anytime, Georgia Brown, Rosetta, All of Me, Moon glow. A whole bunch of stuff you never get to do with a country or blues band.

Fun Fun Fun, never got home till 4.30.

Packed house in Weimar, Tx. A GREAT crowd who came to party. Took RV to venue and after finishing packing up, walked fifty feet, and hit the hay. Drove home the following morning and made it by noon.

Bobby, I understand the load in/out times. We are about the same with seven folks humping it. It's the truss lighting that slows us up.

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Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas