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Topic: Suite Steel....ahead of it's time? |
Russ Tkac
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Posted 9 Nov 2005 3:49 pm |
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I finished reading b0b's topic on instructional material and noticed that the Suite Steel album had three Beatles tunes! This album seemed to think outside the box.
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Posted 9 Nov 2005 3:53 pm
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You mean three tunes recorded "in the style of the Beatles"?  |
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Cliff Kane
From:
the late great golden state
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Posted 9 Nov 2005 3:55 pm
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| Cool---there is also "Legendary: The Steel Guitar Tribute to Eric Clapton", with Gary Morse, Steve Fishell, Johnny Cox, and Rick Byrd playing the steels to Clapton's tunes. It's put out by CMH Records in Los Angeles. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Cliff Kane
From:
the late great golden state
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Posted 9 Nov 2005 4:14 pm
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More "outside-the-box":
Bill Frisell's records with Greg Leisz, The Great American Music Club records with Bruce Kaphan, Daniel Lanois' solo records. Who am I leaving out? |
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Cliff Kane
From:
the late great golden state
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Posted 9 Nov 2005 4:18 pm
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| Yes, Joe Goldmark! You Northern Californians are pretty cool! Speaking of Northern California, who plays steel on the Mermen records? That stuff is a trip, very lovely....I think it's called "Ocean Music"? |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 9 Nov 2005 6:18 pm
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| Quote: |
| This album seemed to think outside the box. |
Well, IMHO, yes and no. Yes, it did feature some pretty significant rock songs, and yes, it did bring some great players of different stylings together on one album. But apart from Pete's playing, no, there wasn't really much "rock" in the sound. To me, most of the album's sound is decidedly "Nashville". |
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Skip Edwards
From:
LA,CA
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Posted 9 Nov 2005 6:48 pm
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Rusty Young's playing thru a Leslie along with Jay Dee on "Muddy Mississippi Line" was way outside the Nashville box in 1972.
Kinda still is today.... |
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 9 Nov 2005 9:50 pm
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I just transferred it from vinyl to CD. The Beatles stuff is nicely done - all Pete's stuff is stunning. Clarence White gets in a few signature guitar licks on "Sunshine of Your Love" as well.
Red's "Something" is kind of unusual and fun. I like Rusty's Leslie stuff (he did that a lot with Poco as well), but his C6 playing seems a bit "loose". Buddy and JayDee's stuff sounds pretty conventional. Nice playing if you're into that style, though.
IMO Even though Buddy plays the most, Pete sort of steals the show. Yeah, OK, I'm biased. I still think he played the most advanced stuff on the album. "Blackbird" is frightening. Is there anybody that can tab that out for me, since I'm using the same setup? I'll trade one of my children.... |
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Russ Wever
From:
Kansas City
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Posted 10 Nov 2005 12:53 am
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quote:
Rusty Young's playing thru a Leslie along with Jay Dee on "Muddy Mississippi Line" was way outside the Nashville box in 1972.
Curly Chalker played thru a Leslie, in Nashville, in the late '60's, when he recorded 'Big Hits On Big Steel'.
Also, in the '60's Jimmy Day used a Leslie on Johnny Bush's cut of 'Farewell Party'.
~Russ
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Skip Edwards
From:
LA,CA
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Posted 10 Nov 2005 8:25 am
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| Wow... I didn't know that. Cool. |
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John Macy
From:
Rockport TX/Denver CO
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Posted 10 Nov 2005 9:18 am
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Cliff,
Don't forget Chas Smith and BJ Cole...  |
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Jason Odd
From:
Stawell, Victoria, Australia
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Posted 12 Nov 2005 9:27 pm
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Suite Steel is from 1970, Sneaky's and Rustry's respective bands where on their second albums, Red had his first two albums with Nesmith's First National Band out that year, while Buddy had just released the Black Album as it's affectionately known.
Jay Dee was at that point in his life where he was leaving Bick Owens Buckaroos for the Tony Booth Band at the Palomino and the life of a session player rather than a tour guitarist.
It's essentially the first thematic steel ensemble album, and the first major label West Coast steel album.
Like most country-rock from the period, it didn't dent the charts. |
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Jason Odd
From:
Stawell, Victoria, Australia
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Posted 12 Nov 2005 9:30 pm
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Oh, and Sneaky Pete was recording songs in the style of the Beatles in 1965 as a founder member of Sir Raleigh & The Coupons.
Curious?, you can hear them on various garage punk compilations, mostly ones focussing on the Northwest scene as they split their Hollywood club gig at the Lazy X to record in Seatle for Jerden Records.
And yeah, he played steel. |
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Joe Alterio
From:
Irvington, Indiana
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Posted 14 Nov 2005 4:45 am
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quote:
Oh, and Sneaky Pete was recording songs in the style of the Beatles in 1965 as a founder member of Sir Raleigh & The Coupons.
Curious?, you can hear them on various garage punk compilations, mostly ones focussing on the Northwest scene as they split their Hollywood club gig at the Lazy X to record in Seatle for Jerden Records.
And yeah, he played steel.
Really?!? Wow....I'll have to find some of that music. Thanks for the info, Jason.
Joe |
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Herb Steiner
From:
Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064
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Posted 14 Nov 2005 6:25 am
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"Suite Steel" was the brainchild of LA country-rock producer John Boylan. He was producing Linda R. during that period. At the time, Los Angeles was teeming with good steel players and work for steel players was abundant. I consider mid-60's to the mid-70's to be the "Glory Decade" of steel guitar in Los Angeles.
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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 14 Nov 2005 8:28 am
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"Really?!? Wow....I'll have to find some of that music. Thanks for the info, Jason."
I just found...and bought...a sealed copy on eBay. It's released under "One Buffalo Heard". Pete co-wrote or wrote some of the songs.
Review will follow when I get it.
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Mark van Allen
From:
Watkinsville, Ga. USA
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Posted 14 Nov 2005 10:33 am
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Most of the tracks still hold up and they're still amazing arrangements. The day I got my copy in 1975 or so, I only got as far as "Wichita Lineman", played it about forty times... went out and bought a Maverick and joined a band the same day.
It's amazing when you think about it how a few bars of music can change a life.
Thanks again, Buddy.
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Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com
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Jason Odd
From:
Stawell, Victoria, Australia
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Posted 15 Nov 2005 6:30 am
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I actually tried to get a couple of good reissue labels sold on the concept of a 1960s comp (1959-1969) consisting of bands that featured steel players; The Impacts (Martin Brown), the Ventures (Sneaky Pete '64 and Red Rhodes '63 to '70 or so), Santo & Johnny, The Five Whispers (Bobby Black), The Goldtones (Glen Ross Campbell), The Misunderstood (Glen Ross Campbell), The Green Beans (Bobby Black), Sir Raleigh & The Cupons (Sneaky Pete), The U.S. Six (Bobby Black), The Green Kleen and Green Beens (Bobby Black), Juicy Lucy (Glenn Ross Campbell) and Boynzee Creeque (Rusty Young).
What Sir Raleigh & The Cupons tracks I've heard are really quite good. They show up on the Ace CD "Northwest Battle OF The Bands" CDWIKD 204 with their best track 'Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day.' They appear on other anthologies, however these are generally one off tracks. Eg: the V/A set, "Riot City! Rocking Northwest Instrumentals" also on on Ace.
The only collection is the Dewey Martin - One Buffalo Heard album from 1982.
It lists the musicians as:
Dewey Martin: drums, percussion, vocals
Paul Harris: bass
Peter Kleinow: pedal steel guitar
Dewayne Midkiff: guitar, vocals
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Dewey Martin is actually Dewayne Midkiff and he played drums and took the lead vox, Pete is of course on steel, Al Harris played piano, Norm Raleigh played bass, and Johnny Meeks played guitar.
Meeks told me that they all did harmonies, even Pete!
They started as the Norm Raleigh Band in Hollywood, then after Dewey joined he convinced them to move to Seattle, for years the group has been listed as a Northwest band, which in a way they were as that's where they recorded.
One of their biggest gigs was on January 30th 1965, when they played at the Seattle Center Coliseum with the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, The Viceroys, The Sonics, The Astronauts, Terry Black, and the Dynamics.
Great band, very 1965 Brit influenced, but with a bit of a punch.
As Herb noted, "Suite Steel" was the brainchild of LA country-rock producer John Boylan. He was also producing Rick Nelson at the time, and brought Buddy Emmons in on a 1969 session for Rick & The Stone Canyon band, this was before Tom Brumley had joined.
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