The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm fascinated by the pedal steel tone and playing style on an older Starday vinyl album called "George Jones Sings His Greatest Hits". Tunes included are You Gotta Be My Baby, Ragged But Right, Boat Of Life, etc.

Who is the player?

What kind of steel (brand, number of strings, tuning)?

I don,t know if it's him, but Johnny Paycheck played steel for George a long, long time ago........tom

George's steel player is Tom Killen. He plays a black Emmons D-10. Johnny Paycheck did play steel for George at one time. Brett Day, Emmons S-10, Morrell lapsteel

Possibly Sonny Curtis, Hal Rugg, or Buddy Emmons. Mike Sweeney might know if he is reading this. He is usually up on these things. To the best of my knowledge, Paycheck only played bass for George.

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1985 Emmons push-pull,Evans SE200

I don't think Tom was even born yet when George was recording for Starday. Star was for Jack Starnes an day was for Pappy Daily.
I don't know who played on that record but maybe 2 or 3 players because back in those days they would release singles until they had enough to fill an LP.

Bob

A lot of those Starday sides were cut in Houston...Herb Remington is on some of them.

Hey Steve--

Worked a couple of dates this month with Hank Singer, and your name came up more than once . Some pretty good George Jones stories in there...

The early Starday sides, which were cut in Houston, indeed feature Herb Remington, but the later 50's cuts with pedal steel were recorded in Nashville and most often it was either Buddy Emmons or Jimmy Day.

I bought a George Jones album in 1963 when I was 10 years old so I could learn the instrumental "Jonesy" which featured Hal Rugg. I don't have it any more, but some of the other songs were "Ragged But Right", "She's Lonesome Again", and another instrumental by Hal called "Cuttin' A Rugg". As far as I can remember, Hal played on all the cuts.

John-I hope the names were changed-to protect the guilty...seriously though...I love Hank and his playing and we worked with George Jones and Ray Price together...sometimes both of them in the same week!He is a great friend and musician...I don't get to see him nearly as often as I would like.Jussi-you are correct-Buddy and Jimmy did many Jones sides after he started cutting in Nashville...this is the period of George's career I am least familiar with.I know they did a lot of Mercury stuff with George too-I think that was his next label after Starday.I don't have very many of the Starday sides...sorry...Steve

My favorite George Jones album is on the Musicor Label. I was at a party at his place when he lived in East Texas and I believe he said Buddy was on most of the cuts. We were Alcohol Challenged at the time, so I can't be sure. Jody.

Thanks folks. Steve Hinson & Jussi Huhtakangas both mentioned Herbie Remington, and indeed, some of the playing was non-pedal. As I look at the steel players from this era, it appears that I have a small pool of names to draw from. The names you've mentioned are familiar to me from Winnie Winston's book. Maybe I should be referring back to that book. I recall that Winnie would name a steeler, and then indicate with whom you could find that steeler's recorded output.

I have a cassette on what appears to be the "Bibi Records" label(?), released in England, and containing the following George Jones tracks:
Sweet Dreams
Accidentally on Purpose
Any Old Time
Who Shot Sam
I'll Take The Chance
Rain Keeps A'Fallin'
Yes I Know Why
Wasted Words
Window Up Above
Heartbreak Hotel(!)
Go Away With Me
No Money In This Deal
Not all of the tracks have steel, but the ones that do have a (to me) quite unusual style... I *think* it's pedals. Anyone know where in the chronology these would fit, and who the steel player would be?
Nick

You found an old one. I've never heard George sing six of those songs. I'd guess the steel you're refering to is Herb Remington with no pedals. He told me on the phone one time he had played on some his early recordings using a lot of bar slants.

Bob