The Steel Guitar Forum

Just watched a rerun of an earlier Grand Old Opry program tonight, featuring Martina McBride, Ray Price and I'm sure Paul Franklin. I say that with apologies :- ), because I only met Paul once in 1975 at his home.

It was a great program and I've never caught Martina before. She is great. The highlight for me was when Paul played a solo over "I can't stop loving you." It had WAY more intensity and just plain soul than anything else played on the whole program.

What was so interesting though was when Ray Price came on and they sang "Heartache By the Numbers" the whole energy of the band, the audience and most importantly Ms. McBride, went up two or three notches.

Now isn't that something? I saw Ray Price open (!!!?) for Trish Yearwood in Young Harris Georgia about seven years ago. His steeler? Another old guy named Jimmy Day...

Again, I am assuming that it was Paul behind that Franklin guitar and boy-howdy it sounded great. Usually he is buried in the mix on today's country stuff, but he was out front tonight. What a great sounding guitar!

Anyhow... how is it that the presence of an old(er) gentleman, a star from two generations ago can make the whole thing come alive? I tested positive for 60 last October, and Mr. Price is my Dad's age. Yet he got up there and the whole band came together, playing tighter, stronger and harder country than the previous 40 minutes. Martina got a whole bunch more into her singing and the audience got into it bigtime.

Long live C&W!!!

<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Tom Quinn on 10 December 2005 at 10:25 PM.]</p></FONT>

I saw the show, too. It was great. While Ray Price was singing, you could see that "I'm not worthy" look in Martina's face. The crowd got their money's worth on that show, for sure.



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Lee, from South Texas
Down On The Rio Grande

Mullen U-12, Evans FET-500, Fender Steel King

And I apologize for my bad typing -- it should of course be Paul Franklin, not franklin with a small "f" in the title...

Is there any possibilty to see this show through internet, streaming video (or audio at least)??

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Zumsteel S12U

Yo, Man! homepage

I just want to call attention to the Little Red Headed girl playing fiddle and singing harmony with Martina. She is Southeast Texas' (Vidor,Texas to be exact)own Jennifer Wrinkle. She worked with my band occasionally during the early 80's (she was a mere child then) along with her brother and big sis. She is an incredible talent as well. Job well done Jennifer!!!

When this show ran the first time, in Oct., I think, there were a bunch of posts about it. "I Cant' Stop Loving You" was what made me post comments too.

Hey Tom,

Is Paul the GREATEST or what!!!!
And a real GENTLEMAN to go with it too.

I saw that show and I'm trying to find out when it airs again so I can get my DVD recorder set up.

Yeah,I caught most of it too.Liked how she kept it country,but with a fresh sound.When Ray Price walked out on stage,I got that same tingling feeling that I always got when Joltin Joe steped in-to the batters box.
I hear the word great used so much that it has become almost meaningless,but with Ray Price in the room I know that I'm in the presence of greatness.Then to hear one of our finest steelers on the same show,what a treat.Ms.McBride won a bunch of hearts with her performance,for sure.Wish I had taped it.
PJ

I loved his suit! At first glance, it seemed almost a grey business suit, but if you looked closer, it had beautiful country style stichery.

That show really spotlighted the obvious for me -- there's still a huge pool of talent in Nashville, despite the dumbing down of the music by the prevailing powers in that town...

Add my vote for PBS, Don Imus, and most, Martina McBride.

I'll buy this one.

PS: "Satin Sheets" is signature country, without a doubt!

The Tammy Wynette tune gave me goose bumps! It was great! The whole show was terrific! Some good closeup shots of Paul too...

I was excited to see her show so much respect for the classic country. The is so much I don't like on TV these days. This was truly a thrill. Yea Martina!!! Oh yeah and Paul wasnt't half bad.......

Doug,
I taped the special last night and watched it for the first time today. It was great. I'd also thought the fiddle player was excellent, did back up vocals as good as she played fiddle. Up until 6 months ago I lived in Beaumont, Texas (near Vidor) and there are a lot of great pickers in that area.

Some of my last jobs was with Brett Godwin, lead player for Tracy Byrd the last 12 years and Bubba Moore who also Tracy's Bass player for just as long. Their off the road now and what a great people and knows how to play guitar/bass with the best of them. Must be in the water. I hope so, cuz I drank as much water as I could!

For those who don't know; Others from Beaumont/Vidor include Tracy Byrd, Mark Chesnutt, Clay Walker, Zona Jones,Curtis Day, Janis Joplin, The Big Bopper, Johnny Winter, Its where ZZ Top first received air play. I'm sure there are more but looking at this list you can just imagine how talented the pickers there are too.

Yeah, Tejas puts out some monster talent in the music world... I knew both Johnny and Janis in the 60s... great people form another era... and Johnny can still pick a bit... -LLL-