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Topic: Joaquin Murphey, late 1950s picture, playing what??? |
Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 25 Nov 2009 10:13 am |
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I just located this snapshot of the Spade Cooley band playing at a supermarket opening. No date given, but I'd guess it is from the late 50s, when Spade was about to wrap it up.
Personnel are not identified, but that is obviously Spade in the sunglasses and Joaquin to the left with a lap steel.
Can anyone possibly take a guess as to what it is he is playing? Appears to be a single neck, blond, and may not be a Fender??
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 25 Nov 2009 10:18 am
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While I am at it, what in the world is this, probably from late 70s or 80s? It is Joaquin with some unknown LA band. Is that a commercially produced guitar or a one-off?
Last edited by Mitch Drumm on 25 Nov 2009 12:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 25 Nov 2009 11:08 am
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I'm gonna say those two are not Spade and Murph.
Maybe another band on the same bill? The man at the mic look's a bit more like Dick Lane than Spike.
And why when Cooley was hot tamales would he even be doing a show like that.
However, this could indeed be from the waning day's of his career when things had cooled down considerably and he'd gone back to the fiddle style that made him famous.
Can anybody ID the bassist and guitarist? |
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Michael Johnstone
From:
Sylmar,Ca. USA
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Posted 25 Nov 2009 12:46 pm
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The first one may be an S-8 Magnatone which Tom Morrell told me he saw Murph play in L.A. around that time frame.
The other one - the pedal steel was the S-8 with 6 pedals & no knee levers that was custom built for Murph in the late 60s/early 70s by a steel player and machinist who was a fan of Murph. I only know what Murph told me about that. The builder's name was "Woody" and Murph couldn't recall his last name. It was a short scale maybe 22" and played and sounded pretty good. He had his C6/A9 on there except with pedals. Murph played that one right up till Woody passed away around 1980 or so and his son and daughter showed up at Murph's door and reposessed the guitar by force even though Woody intended for Murph to have it. That's when Murph retired and started washing cars for a living. He didn't play another lick of steel till I met him in 1995 and Chas Smith and I got him back playing again. That's the guitar he played the one and only time he played Scotty's convention in 1974 and the one he played on the album Scotty produced in Nashville around the same time.He also played it on bar gigs around the San Fernando Valley which looks like what this picture was. Incidently,in 1996 when Murph had Chas build him the last guitar he ever had,it was a 9 string version of the Woody guitar except I talked him into trying knee levers which he had never heard of so it ended up being a 4+3. That's the guitar he played on the CD "Murph" which I produced and should be still available. The Smith 9 string sat around my studio for a couple of years after Murph passed in 1999 and eventually went back to Chas. |
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 25 Nov 2009 1:52 pm
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Michael:
Thanks for that info.
I dug out a scrapbook and located another pic I have of that same "Woody" guitar. I think I got it from Doug McGinnis.
It is an 8 by 8 color enlargement, pretty high quality, with a bit of a red tint. It shows the entire width of the guitar with the inevitable misspelling "Joaquin Murphy". You can see the edge of the J in the above picture. I don't have a scanner and can't post the pic. Joaquin looks a lot younger in it than in the above pic, by at least 10 years. No band members at all, just a posed shot against what appears to be living room curtains.
Do you figure this is the guitar used on his "Hawaii Forever" cassette, which was done in 1972?
Are you aware of any recordings he did post Smokey Rogers/Spade Cooley other than your CD, "Hawaii Forever", and the LP for Scotty? You'd think someone would have talked him into something in the 60s, but maybe not? I just can't find out much at all of his activities in that decade, when he apparently had a guitar at least some of the time. |
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Jay Jessup
From:
Charlottesville, VA, USA
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Posted 25 Nov 2009 5:58 pm
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| So that's what the 'Woody' guitar looked like, does anyone have any pics of Joaquin playing it at Scotty's? That guitar has never resurfaced in the ensuing 29 years I assume? |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 25 Nov 2009 6:16 pm
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Could that be Roy Lanham holding the archtop in the first pic?
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Michael Johnstone
From:
Sylmar,Ca. USA
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Posted 26 Nov 2009 1:53 am
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| Quote: |
| Do you figure this is the guitar used on his "Hawaii Forever" cassette, which was done in 1972? |
Yep that's the one. Terrible sounding recording BTW.Way too much reverb...
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| does anyone have any pics of Joaquin playing it at Scotty's? |
I haven't seen any but you can be sure someone took some. I have a cassette recording of his set someone gave me at his funeral which I listened to once and put away and never listened to again because it was just too hard to deal with at the time. I have a couple of cassette recordings of songs on bar gigs like the one in the picture where Murph sounds astonishing on the Woody guitar and really on top of his game.
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| That guitar has never resurfaced in the ensuing 29 years I assume? |
It's probably languishing in some Mexican pawnshop in East L.A.
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| Are you aware of any recordings he did post Smokey Rogers/Spade Cooley other than your CD, "Hawaii Forever", and the LP for Scotty? |
Nope - not that I'm aware of. That was not my recording BTW. I think Doug McGinnis had something to do with that one.
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| You'd think someone would have talked him into something in the 60s, but maybe not? |
The late great Jerry Compton used to tell me about cheesy gigs he and Murph used to do around L.A. in the 60s where he and Murph used to switch off between steel and guitar. Apparently Murph could play a fairly mean 6 string guitar although whenever I'd call him on it,he'd beg off and deny he even played standard guitar. But one time behind a couple of vicodin he grabbed a guitar in my studio and peeled off a very hip straight 8 Grant Green style jazz chord progression to Cherokee like he'd played guitar all his life - so I think Jerry was right.
Here's a rare one - Murph and Jerry after a swim circa mid 60s.
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Jay Jessup
From:
Charlottesville, VA, USA
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Posted 27 Nov 2009 7:40 pm
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LOL----now there's a picking situation you don't see very often!!
FWIW I checked the album cover for the 'Scotty' album just for grins, it list the recorded date as 8/24/76 and in the liner notes it mentions Joaquin being accompanied by his friends Jesse and Jewel Peck to play at the 5'th National Steel Guitar convention which in the liner notes says is 9/77 but under the accompanying photo it says 9/76 and I guess it makes sense that he would have done the recording and convention in one trip? While I don't recognize all the musicians on the liner notes BE played bass and Terry Bethal played guitar. For those that haven't seen the album Joaquin is pictured on the cover with a new black S-10 Sho-Bud, it does have six centrally located pedals and one knee lever and while it's hard to see clearly, I do think I see a thin string end hanging off the lower end of the guitar and there may not be strings in the 1'st and 10'th position?? So I am wondering if maybe Sho-Bud made him a guitar hoping he would play it or maybe I am just reading to much into an unlcear picture and its just something they dug up to pose him with? |
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Jay Jessup
From:
Charlottesville, VA, USA
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Posted 27 Nov 2009 7:51 pm
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Whoop's my finger must have stuttered!!
Last edited by Jay Jessup on 28 Nov 2009 5:55 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Billy Tonnesen
From:
R.I.P., Buena Park, California
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Posted 27 Nov 2009 9:35 pm
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Mitch:
The Steel player in your second picture resembles an old friend of mine who played for years in So. Calif. named "Larry Speers". It's hard to tell because the photo is so fuzzy. |
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Herb Steiner
From:
Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064
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Posted 28 Nov 2009 7:31 am
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I understand that the Sho-Bud on the Midland album was never owned by Murph or played on the album either. Rather, it was a guitar in Scotty's inventory that Murph posed behind. As Michael alluded, he played the Woody guitar on the album and the ISGC. I have a recording of Murph's set at ISGC as well, very similar playing to the album.
That Sho~Bud instrument showed up here in Austin a few years ago, probably the mid-90's, when Marty Muse was doing guitar and amp repair for South Austin Music. It was owned by a local guy who didn't play much steel. Marty called me up and asked me to come look at it. Which I did, and told him with my usual brilliance, "it looks like a late 70's S-10 Sho~Bud to me, Marty."
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.
Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? |
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Michael Johnstone
From:
Sylmar,Ca. USA
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Posted 28 Nov 2009 10:24 am
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| Quote: |
| I guess it makes sense that he would have done the recording and convention in one trip? |
Yeah it was all done in one trip - in a motorhome because Murph wouldn't fly. I guess maybe it was in 76 or 77 now that I think about it. Murph told me that Leon Rhodes played on that record too. It was all done in one day at some guy's home studio in the basement of a house. It was raining that day and Murph had tuning problems throughout the proceedings. He said his headphone mix wasn't right,the piano player wasn't "listening" and a few other tidbits and whenever he'd question Scotty about the wisdom of trying to cram the whole thing into one day just to save money,Scotty would tell him that everything was going fine and sounding good. He loved the fact that Buddy wanted to come down and play bass and he said that "Buddy introduced himself and then went off in a booth somewhere and just shut up and played great bass".The other story I remember him telling about that trip was that Scotty arranged for Murph to stay at Jimmy Day's house for a couple days and all he could remember was that "Jimmy was constantly smokin something and talkin crazy". |
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Herb Steiner
From:
Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064
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Posted 28 Nov 2009 10:41 am
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[quote="Michael Johnstone"]
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| ... and all he could remember was that "Jimmy was constantly smokin something and talkin crazy". |
What?! Jimmy Day?!? I'm shocked!! SHOCKED!!
(with apologies to Capt. Renault) 
_________________
My rig: Infinity and Telonics.
Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? |
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Lee Jeffriess
From:
Vallejo California
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Posted 28 Nov 2009 12:49 pm
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Buddy, do you have any comments about that session.
JM, I would imagine must have been an inspiration in your early years?.
I certainly hear it in your recordings with Jimmy Dickens band. |
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chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 28 Nov 2009 1:24 pm
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| I spoke with Buddy at one of the Conventions and he said that Joaquin was one of his heroes. |
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