Liberal and conservative steelers

Leslie Ehrlich · From: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

In Canada, Liberals and Conservatives are generally thought of as political parties. In the United States, to be a liberal or conservative means embracing a particular political ideology (i.e. left versus right).

I've always been fascinated over the conflict between Americans who call themselves 'liberal' and those who are 'conservative'. After listening to both sides of the debate on several issues, I've tried to develop a basic understanding of both ideological camps.

Liberals want FREEDOM, while conservatives want ORDER. Liberals like PROGRESS or 'change', while conservatives are opposed to change and are hung up on TRADITION.

So in applying this basic understanding of liberalism and conservatism to steel playing, I would have to call myself a 'liberal'. I like the freedom to experiment with new sounds and even put steel in songs where it might not be readily accepted by other musicians. I also believe that the pedal steel guitar has the potential to move beyond the traditional clean country sound and into heavier musical genres such as hard rock and heavy metal. So I like to play through an overdriven amp and use a modified E9th tuning. I even like to do 'country' sounding pedal mashing with distortion! Sounds great!

So how do you see yourself when it comes to steel playing? Are you a 'liberal' or a 'conservative'?

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

Go to Oprah!

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

this thread will probably last another 5 minutes..or less..

t

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 08 February 2005 at 04:18 AM.]

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

This HAS to be some kind of joke, right???

Lem Smith · From: Long Beach, MS

I'm more conservative when it comes to playing. Especially when it's on an actual gig, I'll pretty much stick to what I'm familiar with and not venture too far out of my comfort zone. I leave that part to when I'm practicing alone.

Lem

John McGann · From: Boston, Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.

Yes, unless i mean no. What was that? Oh. Nevermind...

Rick McDuffie · From: Benson, North Carolina, USA

Leslie, the word "liberal" is usually used in a perjorative sense- by right-wing folks who want to discredit their opponent. The word "liberal" used to be a good word... i.e. we should be liberal in our willingness to help others and in caring for the disenfranchised.

By the same token, liberals who want to slur their opponents often refer to them as "fundamentalists," especially if their opponents espouse a distinctively Christian ideology.

Wherever a person stands on a particular issue, there is always someone MORE "liberal" and MORE "conservative". I've been called "liberal" by right-wingers and "conservative" or "fundamentalist" by left-wingers. Therefore I find these terms to be meaningless and irrelevant in describing political ideology.

We need some new words.

I do think that the PSG should be used on whatever kind of music one likes to play.

[This message was edited by Rick McDuffie on 08 February 2005 at 08:07 AM.]

CrowBear Schmitt · From: Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France

now i know i'm an anarchist
Thanx guys

David Doggett · Posted 8 Feb 2005 6:53 am

I think Leslie simply uses the political use of these words to illustrate their meanings, but he asks only about how we play steel guitar, not our politics. Interestingly, liberalism and conservatism are to some extent aspects of our personality and psychology, and therefore permeate all aspects of our lives so that (with room for some exceptions) political conservatives are more likely to be conservative traditional steelers, and political liberals are more likely to be liberal cross-genre steelers. There's probably also a geographic and small-town versus big city aspect to this. However, if we just keep this to how we play steel guitar, we can probably keep this thread going for awhile.

I am a liberal who attempts to play some of everything on steel. Right now my paying gigs cover rockabilly, punkabilly, roots rock, classic rock, traditional country & Western, alt-country, folk-rock, bluegrass, newgrass, Chicago blues, and blues-jazz fusion. At home I also play classical music, Hawaiian, and I'm working up to free jazz. It's a musical instrument. It should be able to play anything I feel like trying. So far, most of the limitations seem to be mine, not the instrument's.

Aside from the usual technical skills challenge of any instrument, I find perfect intonation particularly challenging with classical music. And with jazz, I have not yet found the tone that seems appropriate. A major part of jazz is the texture of the sound. Sax, vibes, piano, string bass, mellow hollow-body guitars and clean full amp tones are the rule. Like accordions and harmonicas, whiny-twangy steel guitar just does not seem to fit well into the jazz tone spectrum.

Webb Kline · From: Orangeville, PA

One of the wisest observations I've ever heard was by Robertson McQuilken, president emeritus of Columbia Seminary. He was referring to biblical truth, but it applies to virtually every aspect of the human experience where there are differences of opinion.

He said, "It is easier to go to one consistent extreme or the other than to remain in the center of biblical tension." You can replace biblical with political, educational, steel guitar technique or most anything else.

On the religious front, the social gospel became so liberal as to leave God out of the picture. In retaliation, the conservative Christians became dogmatic in their proclamation of the authority of the Scriptures and distanced themselves from social charity so as not to be affiliated with the "apostate liberals," and in the process, disregarded Christ's command to care for the poor, oppressed and disenfrachised sould of the world. This, in turn, made the social gosplers even more anti-bible and things such as the "God is dead" movement evolved from it.

The US is now more divided than ever because of liberals and conservatives alike gathering troops around those who support their political ideologies. What is bad about this is only the exstremists in either camp are ever heard, which makes the division seem more defined that it really is.

Musicians also have their camps and some will adamantly declare that improvisation is the heart of true music, while others will vehemently defend their reading and theory prowess.

In all of these situations, we profoundly disadvantage ourselves with our neanderthal us-against-them mentalites. God has made us all unique and given us all a certain take on things which can benefit others if they will listen. Likewise, everyone has something to offer us if we will not remain dogmatic in our views.

I have found invariably that McQuilken was dead-right. The truth and the answers to solve all of our problems, financially, spiritually, academically, medically, politically, domestically, and artistically are found when we glean the truth from both sides of an argument and dispose of the errors.

As a musician, I have always been an improv player. I thrive in a studio environment where I am depended on to lay down a usable track first take without sitting there for an hour trying to sytematically approach what it is I am suppose to be playing.

However, the way that I have gotten to that point is by applying a lot of musical theory and by reading tabs and music, all which help me to continue to expand my musical pallette, giving me a tons of resources to draw from.

The more we can all approach life with this balance, the better off we will be as a civilization. It scares me to think where we are going if we continue to polarize ourselves from each other with our shallow, myopic worldviews.

Come to think of it, maybe that is what is holding the steel guitar back from advancing as a leading instrument.

Webb Kline · From: Orangeville, PA

Very good points David. I concur!

Savell · From: Slocomb, AL

quote:

I've always been fascinated over the conflict between Americans ...

Liberals want FREEDOM, while conservatives want ORDER. Liberals like PROGRESS or 'change', while conservatives are opposed to change and are hung up on TRADITION.

Total confusion which comes with looking in from the outside and more of the same slanted pat-on-the-back fault finding with the U.S. of A.

Leslie, I share your love for the music and the instrument. But the back slappings gotta go! Let's play steel with that free spirit you're talking about and just let our feelings stay on our side of the border.

BTW, If I were a member of the Congress, they would have to cut a nook into the right wall and set a chair there for me.

Gary Meyer · From: Sacramento, California, USA

Thus the term "ad lib",for improvise.

Eric West · From: Portland, Oregon, USA, R.I.P.

Just to the right of Gengis Kahn..

Oh, and CB. Anarchy looks better on paper..

EJL

Smiley Roberts · From: Hendersonville,Tn. 37075

I'm a "liberated conservative".

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  ©¿©  It don't mean a thang,   


  mm   if it ain't got that twang.


       www.ntsga.com

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

ok..

My picks and picking hand are to the RIGHT..

My Bar is to the LEFT..

Somehow my RIGHT hand and my LEFT hand have to put the differences aside and play the dang song !

Robbie Bossert · From: WESCOSVILLE,PA,U.S.A.

The only difference I've ever noticed when comparing liberal and conservative steelers is that conservative players tend to sit more to the right of their stool while liberals sit more to the left.

Robbie Bossert

[This message was edited by pix1 on 08 February 2005 at 08:03 AM.]

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

My Rightist hand does not agree with my extremist Leftist knee all the time. Nor does my rightist hand agree with my rightist knee whenst it's time to push the Right knee Right whilst holding the Right foot conservative on the volume pedal.

I did however enjoy a Liberal dose of Bobby Seymour and Jimmy Day this weekend with the "Masters Series" CD. I must say the bass player on "Take Me As I Am" was not the least bit Conservative 'cause I wasn't watching the volume control when the tune started and darn near blew out the attic windows.

[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 08 February 2005 at 08:08 AM.]

Bill Llewellyn · From: San Jose, CA

One's social views and one's musical approach do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. I belong to a non-denominational Protestant church, a pretty conservative place, but our music is anything but. Our music director is from South Africa, and the worship band ends up playing rock, Reggae, soul, gospel, traditional hymns, and so on. As a matter of fact, just this last Sunday we covered a Tom Petty song in the service ("I Won't Back Down" -- fit the sermon to a T).

I'm pretty sure I can think of some well-known steelers whose social viewpoints are in one camp while their steeling would be characterized differently.

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Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | MSA U12 | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Fascinating, but off topic..

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