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Topic: Marian Hall recordings? |
Jon Nygren
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 12 Mar 2009 5:24 pm |
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Hello all-
Just wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction as far as getting ahold of some recordings that Marian Hall played on? I've heard a few Ranch Party clips but thats about it- really liked what I heard. |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 12 Mar 2009 7:18 pm One of my favorites!
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Marian is one of the most under-heard/appreciated steelers from the last of the golden era, and there is precious little to prove this point.
I hope your thread shows us both where to get the treasure trove of her playing, Jon! |
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George Keoki Lake
From:
Edmonton, AB., Canada
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Posted 12 Mar 2009 8:45 pm
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Wow! I have never heard of Marian Hall. Amazing. If anyone out there has any recordings they could put on the FORUM, that would be great ! I love the old style, especially acoustic steel.  |
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Lee Jeffriess
From:
Vallejo California
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Posted 12 Mar 2009 9:09 pm
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Jon, off the top of my head, I would suggest finding some of the live town hall party recordings.
She is the steel player on the earlier stuff, they can be a little random, and some of it is Billy Mize.
He is also sadly overlooked.
About 20 years ago I had a vinyl LP of it which I think came out on Country Routes records?.
There is a crazy steel ride on Town hall boogie, which I think his her.
She is really poppin some wheelies.
You should be able to hear the difference when Billy's playing, he sounds more Mooney like.
Also Im pretty sure she is on some of the Collins Kids Columbia recordings.
Beetle Bug Bop for sure.
Mitch? Jussi?.
Lee
Last edited by Lee Jeffriess on 12 Mar 2009 10:48 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 12 Mar 2009 10:01 pm
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Here is the video of Town Hall Boogie from which the track mentioned above was taken. Marian takes no prisoners:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy7E9RmGg2s
I haven't checked out the Collins Kids discographies, but you may well be right about that, Lee. I wouldn't be surprised if she is on other SoCal recordings that just haven't been identified.
I know of 2 45s:
Boxoffice 9614: Mirror, Mirror/First Star (under the name "Miss Marian (Marian Hall)"
Newhall 7104: Choo Choo Man/Right Back
I would guess these are from late 60s or 70s?
Here she is with Travis in 1955:
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 12 Mar 2009 10:56 pm
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Hey Mitch, that looks like one of the shots I posted up years ago from an Ebay auction of the old ViewMaster circular reels in 3D. Do you have the rest?
Those were some classic pix of Marian and the gang at a gig in California, which also included The Maddox Bros. And Rose that particular day.
Havn't seen them in a long time. Thanx for posting that! |
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Jussi Huhtakangas
From:
Helsinki, Finland
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 1:09 am
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| Marian is also on Joe Maphis' Columbia LP Fire On The Strings which BF has released on CD. |
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Randy Reeves
From:
LaCrosse, Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 3:32 am
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I miss dear Marian Hall. I have her on the Town Hall DVD produced by the Bear family.
on the Tex Ritter DVD she plays for George Jones, Patsy Cline and backs Joe Maphis and the gang.
she slays Town all Boogie. class, charm and beauty.
I miss her. |
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Jon Nygren
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 6:32 am
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Thanks Lee, and everyone else.
Town Hall Boogie is the one that piqued my interest. I actually transcribed the break with the harmonic 'train whistle' effect, and use it now from time to time. Now I need to find more, LOL. She has such a nice sense of melody, and smooooth.
What a great picture BTW, thanks for putting that up. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 6:39 am
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She had a unique playing position, it wasn't really sitting and it wasn't really standing.
She used a high stool and just sort of leaned back on it. Her Bigsby had extended legs but not to really a standing height.
Last edited by Erv Niehaus on 13 Mar 2009 6:39 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Jon Nygren
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 6:39 am
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| Anyone know what became of her Bigsby? Love the script of her name on the front! |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 7:00 am
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Marian gave me a cassette of her with the Town Hall Band - it may be from the LP mentioned above. The tunes are:
Town Hall Shuffle
Just Because
Lonesone Love
Cold Cold Heart
Oklahoma Waltz
Tennessee Two Step
Wagon Wheels
Little Red WAgon
Sweeter Than Flowers
Kentucky Waltz
My cassette deck bit the dust so if anyone wants to volunteer to make high-quality digital files I'll mail you the cassette and post the files for all to share here on the forum.
Marian was a very sweet person and quite witty and amusing to speak with. A few stories Marian told me ....
She recalled that Merle Travis was a brilliant, well-read person who could converse with authority on many subjects but tried to hide it a bit from the Hollywood cowboy crowd at the TWP show.
She got the THP gig when Billy Mize called her to sub for him. She said Noel Boggs really coveted that gig but she thought Billy had called her 'cause he figured she was no threat to his paycheck. Unfortunately for him, Marian so impressed everyone that she kept the gig thereafter.
Marian played the THP show the night when she was 9 months pregnant and Joe Maphis was totally freaked out that she might deliver the baby on stage.
Marian played siting on a high stool with her Bigsby steel up high on its legs. One night she was playing live on the air one when she somehow lost her balance and she and the guitar fell over backwards in mid-solo! She somehow kept playing. I asked how the hell she managed to do that and she replied with a hearty laugh, "Professionalism, or more likely stupidity!."
She was a great player and one very cool lady. |
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Randy Reeves
From:
LaCrosse, Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 7:41 am
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here is Marian and her daughter. I received this pic from the daughter just months before her mom passed away. |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 10:22 am
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| Andy Volk wrote: |
| She recalled that Merle Travis was a brilliant, well-read person who could converse with authority on many subjects but tried to hide it a bit from the Hollywood cowboy crowd at the TWP show. |
Merle was also a comedic characature artist of high substance. I have a copy of a cartoon drawing he made of a musical ensemble that easily rates him in the big leagues. Just another of many facets of a man that most only know of as a hot picker and writer. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 10:46 am
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| Merle's son is quite a picker also. |
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 10:59 am
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Here is a pic of her Bigsby with Bobbe Seymour at the helm. I don't know where it is now.
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 11:21 am
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Here is another pic of the entire Town Hall Party cast, Marian third from the right.
How many people can you ID?
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 11:38 am
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| About half. |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 11:41 am
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From this discussion about S-10 Bigsby steel guitars.
| Michael Johnstone wrote: |
Marian Hall spoke of a double neck with a non-pedal 8 in back and a 10 on the front with 6 pedals. She told me that once she discovered that a 10 string E13 w/pedals would cover all she wanted to play,she took off the back neck and put a pad on there. So apparently she "loafed" before Lloyd. She appeared to play standing up but was sitting on a high stool so she could work the pedals and a volume pedal. That ax also had one of those maple skirts w/the same finish as the guitar that came all the way down to the pedal rack which was quite big because of the heigth of the guitar.I'm sure that instrument still exists but I don't know who ended up with it when she passed. There's a great article w/a lot of pix in the Sept 04 issue of Vintage Guitar and that guitar and her copedant is in there as well as a Bigsby D-8 she had previous to that. I spent time with her in the last couple years of her life but I never saw that guitar - just a picture of it.She was so stove up with arthritus and her hands were so twisted up I don't think she wanted to be around a guitar so I didn't push the issue of having her pull it out and set it up. We mostly just passed the time talking old times and listening to records - mostly Joaquin Murphey records. She had trouble getting around but her memory never failed her and she was articulate to the end.
At her home in Laguna Beach in 2004.
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_________________
Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars |
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Jussi Huhtakangas
From:
Helsinki, Finland
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 12:50 pm
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| Mitch Drumm wrote: |
| Here is a pic of her Bigsby with Bobbe Seymour at the helm. I don't know where it is now. |
Hmm, Junior Brown maybe? |
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Billy Tonnesen
From:
R.I.P., Buena Park, California
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 5:28 pm To: Mitch Drumm
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| Is it possible that the picture you posted of Marian was taken at "Cowboy Park" near Newhall, Ca. They used to have outdoor concerts there on Sundays with a lot of THP entertainers performing. |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 13 Mar 2009 6:36 pm
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Marian said these outdoor shots were taken at Sierra Creek Park, maybe nick-named Cowboy Park, in the San Fernando Valley.
While the pix aren't able to be viewed any more thru this link, the archived thread provides interesting info - www.steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/006008.html
If Mitch, or someone, still has the whole selection of shots that were once shown, it'd be great to have them on this thread and preserved again. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 14 Mar 2009 8:45 am
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| I had 'em all on my old computer but they got deleted so I too would love to see them all again too. The originals were 3-d camera shots. At the time of the eBay auction, I thought it would have been so cool to publish them in book form with a cardboard 3D viewing adapter included. |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 14 Mar 2009 11:43 am
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| Yes Andy, to have seen the originals in 3D would have been almost like being there, and I desperately hoped to win the auction. The winner seems to have decided to sit on them instead of sharing this incredible find, so the basic 1D copies are all we have to enjoy, but what a joy they are. I just recieved them all from a helpful forumite, and I imagine they will be available one way or another for us all to look at. |
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