What If Weâ€™re Just Passing Fruitcakes Along?

Chris Bauer · From: Nashville, TN USA

Probably a quarter to a third of the recording I do involves replacing someone elseâ€™s parts. I have to therefore assume that at least a quarter to a third of what I play gets replaced by someone else and, in turn, many of those parts are then replaced by yet another player.

So, it occurs to me, what if steel guitar parts are actually largely like fruitcakes at the holidays in that, in reality, there are really only a small finite number of them that just keep getting passed from one person to the next?

(Kidding, of course, but it did cross my mind...)

Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

I would haphazard a guess that the majority of pedal steel players are basically fruitcakes. What else could explain someone who willingly carries around enough gear to overload a half-ton truck?

Glad I still have a mouth organ (or two), a Green Bullet, and a VC-508 to fall back on.

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

Chris, your mathematical reasoning is of the highest order. A well-made cake (i.e. one with plenty of booze in it) will last for years.

Jack, I would love to follow fashion and replace my truckload with a laptop, but where I live I'm pretty much condemned to loud bands and driverless PA.
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Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

We seem to be, by and large, a group of "copiers" who mostly play the same songs in much the same way. And because there are far fewer steel "trendsetters" than there are "guitar trendsetters", the music we play has much less variety. The demise of big-name singers having their own bands that they record with has only exacerbated the problem. And when you top that all off with producers who rely on only a very few players, the number of different styles people hear reduces dramatically.

This is why we (mostly) listen to players who are no longer with us for inspiration.

Jeff Garden · From: Center Sandwich, New Hampshire, USA

We'll know it's all over when someone invents the "player" pedal steel that has all of the canned licks loaded in it and you just press "play" in the studio.

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Some artists are trying to recreate something they’ve heard someone else play, so they have the sound they want etched in their minds. It kind of keeps steel players boxed in, but it also explains why steel players have such reverence for the history, because we can never seemingly escape it.
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K Maul · From: Hadley, NY/Hobe Sound, FL

The fault,dear Bauer, is not in the Stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings. And in record producers.
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gary pierce · From: Rossville TN

Yes its kind of funny when the recording comes out, and its not the steel part you played on it, but hey, I got paid so no big deal to me..

Barry Blackwood · Posted 1 Aug 2019 7:17 am

Kevin Fix · From: Michigan, USA

I always try to keep Steel kick offs and leads like the original song so the song is recognizable to the audience. All the fill work is entirely my own taste. Originals are totally my own taste.

Mark van Allen · From: Watkinsville, Ga. USA

It’s been a while since I’ve done any Nashville session work, which seems to be where most of these posts are referencing. For sessions around Georgia, my recent experience has been the opposite- producers and artists seem to have a pretty clear idea what they want, and when they book me it’s for “what I do”, or what they expect from word of mouth. I can’t remember the last time one of my parts was replaced on the release, although there have been quite a few times they’ve used me to replace keys or a guitar part, usually for compositional reasons. I will say that most of the recording I get booked for is Americana, country, rock and pop with very little of what I would call “bro country.”
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Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

I just checked in our pantry.

The can on our fruitcake has a tag that says:

BEST IF USED BY MARCH 2055

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

I don't record very often. On one recording, my part was replaced by Bobby Black. I have no problem with that. Mr. Green

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Darrell Criswell · From: Maryland, USA

Johnny Carson had a theory that there was only one fruitcake in the whole world that was passed from one person to another since nobody liked to eat fruitcake.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

When the producer changes the player, what are they looking for? Different musical ideas? Different touch, tone, and feel for the song? The sound of a different pedal steel (â€œI want to hear an Emmons. This Carter isnâ€™t doing it for meâ€)? A more recognizable name on the credits list?

It seems recording has always been about a producerâ€™s sound as much as it is about the artist. Maybe that is as it should be, I donâ€™t know. That way artists can go to producers for their particular way of handling the music. Is that how it works?

Don R Brown · From: Rochester, New York, USA

I guess I'm a culinary innovator. I take the fruitcake and add clams.
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b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Herb Steiner · From: Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Bob Ricker · From: Nashville Tn

You mean from demo, to when masters are made, if the song gets recorded?

Ben Lawson · From: Brooksville Florida

On my first recording session, everything I played was replaced by a steel player I replaced when he went to work with Hank W Jr.
I was honored to try to take his place and
fully understood why I was outranked by George Edwards.
What a great guy and friend.

Rich Upright · From: Florida, USA

Oh; I thought this thread was about MECHANICAL parts on the steel itself, not MUSICAL parts!
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Chris Bauer · From: Nashville, TN USA

Bob R. - My experience is that it happens all the time at all stages of the process. Maybe ironically, if there's a signature steel part on a demo, it seems like the player on the master is more likely to use that part than come up with something new. That can certainly go either way, though.

Otherwise, replacing parts can be for all kinds of reasons having nothing to do with the quality of the original part. I've replaced parts played by far better players than myself and have had my parts replaced by everyone from great players to true beginners. Sometimes the artist or producer rethinks how they want the track to sound. Sometimes they add other overdubs that now clash with the original part(s). Obviously it's sometimes because someone catches a missed note or tuning issue after the fact but my experience is that that's rare.

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