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Topic: Does anybody recognize this steel player? |
Elliot Brindley
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 2 Aug 2012 9:06 am |
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This steel guitarist was in my grandfather's band in Lansing, Michigan in the early 50's (around 1952 or 1953). This photo is from a gig at a hotel in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan...
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Andy Sandoval
From:
Bakersfield, California, USA
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Posted 2 Aug 2012 9:43 am
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Very cool photo.  |
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Elliot Brindley
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 2 Aug 2012 9:48 am Thanks!
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| My grandfather is the one in the middle. |
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Billy Tonnesen
From:
R.I.P., Buena Park, California
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Posted 2 Aug 2012 8:24 pm
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The old "Dog House" Bass Fiddle. How many of you old timers remember driving to a gig in a four door sedan with this Bass Fiddle taking up the middle of the back seat with the neck hanging over the front seat for sometimes 500 miles ?
_________________
Sacramento Western Swing Society Hall of Fame, 1992 |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 2 Aug 2012 10:22 pm
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Billy,
The days of cramming into a car and driving 500 miles with a doghouse base never left us. Still happens all the time. In NYC bass players have orange bags they tie over the top of there basses so they don't get side swiped while taking a yellow cab to a gig.
_________________
Bob |
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Elliot Brindley
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 3 Aug 2012 7:52 am
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FYI, the guitar that my grandfather is holding in this picture was destroyed when my grandmother's house took a direct hit from an EF-3 tornado on April 27, 2011...
The house was completely obliterated, but my grandmother got out alive and my grandfather's recordings were not lost because they had already been converted to CD prior to the tornado. Thank God! |
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Joey Ace
From:
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
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Posted 3 Aug 2012 1:43 pm
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Someone needs to ask L.T. Zinn.
He was around at that time in that area. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 3 Aug 2012 2:03 pm
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| I was born and raised in Sault Ste. Marie (MI) but would have been too young to have seen these guys. Was it the Hotel Ojibway? |
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Elliot Brindley
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 3 Aug 2012 5:11 pm
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| Yep! That's it. My grandfather took me and my dad on a trip to Michigan when I was a teenager and he showed me that hotel when we passed through Sault Ste Marie. |
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Elliot Brindley
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 3 Aug 2012 5:15 pm
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| Everybody in Lansing, Michigan in the mid 50's to early 60's knew who Dusty Walker was. He was the local celebrity and he rubbed elbows and played his fiddle and sang with all the Opry stars that came to perform in Lansing. I have hundreds of photos of him with singers like Webb Pierce, Ernest Tubb, Johnny Cash, Faron Young, etc. |
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Daniel Policarpo
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Posted 3 Aug 2012 9:30 pm
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| I love photos like this. Looks like a good bunch. I'd like to hear a tape of this. Thanks for sharing! |
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Kevin Hatton
From:
Buffalo, N.Y.
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Posted 4 Aug 2012 12:10 pm
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| Is that Kirk Douglas on lead guitar? |
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Elliot Brindley
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 8 Aug 2012 9:33 am
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I asked my grandmother and she said she thinks the name of this steel guitarist was "Vance Cheeseman".
Has anybody ever heard of a steel guitarist by that name? |
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Elliot Brindley
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 8 Aug 2012 9:37 am
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| Well, I Googled Vance Cheeseman and there's a guy by that name, 83 years old, who lives in Vermontville, Michigan. I think this guy is still alive! Wow! |
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Bob Blair
From:
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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Posted 8 Aug 2012 9:42 am
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| I bet he'd love to see that picture! |
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Elliot Brindley
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 8 Aug 2012 10:17 am
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HOLY COW!
I just spent the past 20 minutes talking to Vance Cheeseman!
He confirmed that he was the first steel player in my grandfather's band!
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Elliot Brindley
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 8 Aug 2012 10:17 am
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| He said he's not good with computers, but I will find out if he has any younger relatives that I could send that photo to. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 8 Aug 2012 7:59 pm
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That's pretty amazing, Elliot. Congratulations!  |
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Elliot Brindley
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 9 Aug 2012 6:20 am
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Thanks, Barry! I'm excited to be able to talk to somebody who played in my grandfather's band! My grandfather died in 1998 and I never got a chance to talk with him about his music career because I was too busy being a teenager and worrying about myself.
My grandfather died 1 month after I turned 21, only a few months after I bought my first Buck Owens CD and started the journey that led me to where I am now. |
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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Posted 9 Aug 2012 8:18 am
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| That's great stuff, Elliot! |
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Elliot Brindley
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 9 Aug 2012 8:41 am
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| Thanks, Dave! |
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