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Topic: John McFee (Doobies/Southern Pacific/Clover,etc) new song |
Jim Palenscar
From:
Oceanside, Calif, USA
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Posted 7 Nov 2019 8:03 am |
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Who whoulda thunk it  Take a listen. ShoBud Professional 8/2. |
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Lee Baucum
From:
McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier
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Posted 7 Nov 2019 10:20 am
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Lee Warren
From:
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 7 Nov 2019 2:55 pm
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John McFee’s playing was an early inspiration to me, from his pedal steel and guitar work with Elvis Costello.
This is a bit of a departure from that, but he played on the Elvis stuff more than 30 years ago.
I believe he also played the beautiful guitar on ECs song ‘Alison’.
Hope to meet him down the road, and shake his hand. |
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Larry Dering
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 7 Nov 2019 6:43 pm
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| Wicked cool. Didn't know he was a steel player, much less at this level. Amazing stuff. |
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Dennis Olearchik
From:
Newtown, PA
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Posted 8 Nov 2019 8:19 am
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| It’s different than trad psg and I like it. |
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Jerry Overstreet
From:
Louisville Ky
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Posted 8 Nov 2019 8:25 am
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He is a hoss! Just a few years back, Music City Roots did a DB special with a lot of special guests. Its probably on youtube somewhere.
John played just about everything with strings. Dobro, slide, lap style, bottleneck, overhand bottleneck, ETS pedal steel, maybe std. guitar...I've forgotten exactly...but it was an eyeopener for me. I had no idea. |
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Brett Lanier
From:
Madison, TN
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Posted 9 Nov 2019 9:22 am
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| Kind of sounds like the steel was fed into a vst synth and then spit back out... or maybe triggering a soft-synth that's doubling it? Can't tell exactly what I'm hearing but I like it. |
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Joe Goldmark
From:
San Francisco, CA 94131
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Posted 10 Nov 2019 5:15 pm
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John is a killer! I was very fortunate to feature him on my "Seducing The 60's" CD. He mostly plays guitar but also takes a great steel break on "The Kids Are Alright."
Jim, where did that cut come from?
Mike Daly, you'd get a kick out of this!
Joe |
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Jim Palenscar
From:
Oceanside, Calif, USA
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Posted 10 Nov 2019 11:20 pm
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| John sent the track to me as I restored a Professional for him and he used it on that cut- 8/2 |
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Duane Becker
From:
Elk,Wa 99009 USA
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Posted 12 Nov 2019 8:13 am
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John McFee's playing is amazing! I recently found how much so when I tried to copy is parts for a local band I play with. Song is South Side Midnight Lady: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt7kEqWlSyc
Licks and fills are not that hard, but the execution of them and his style are very hard to copy. Reminds me of trying to copy Emmons' stuff. |
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Lance Clifford
From:
Oregon, USA
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Posted 12 Nov 2019 10:22 am
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| Wow! |
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Bruce Bouton
From:
Nash. Tn USA
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Posted 12 Nov 2019 12:29 pm
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He's also an iincredibly humble and nice man. Actually met him in the seventies when he was touring with Clover. Been lucky to have stayed in touch all of these years.
_________________
www.brucebouton.com |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Dennis Lee
From:
Forest Grove, Oregon, USA
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Posted 4 Feb 2020 8:27 am John McFee
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| My kind of musician, extremely talented, successful, but never lost sight of his origins. He remains humble, grounded, and is not afraid to share that he is still in awe of others. |
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Thomas Stone
From:
San Francisco
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Posted 4 Feb 2020 2:12 pm
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| Jerry Overstreet wrote: |
| John played just about everything with strings. Dobro, slide, lap style, bottleneck, overhand bottleneck, ETS pedal steel, maybe std. guitar...I've forgotten exactly... |
You forgot fiddle 
One of my all-time favorite musicians, and now a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! |
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Garry Vanderlinde
From:
CA
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Jack Stanton
From:
Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey
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Posted 5 Feb 2020 5:04 am
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| Very cool! The twin parts remind me of some of the old Crawford/Hicks arrangements. |
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scott murray
From:
Asheville, NC
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Posted 5 Feb 2020 5:14 am
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always loved what John played on this Grateful Dead tune: https://youtu.be/IFSnOZy955U
_________________
1965 Emmons S-10, 3x5 • Emmons LLIII D-10, 10x12 • JCH D-10, 10x12 • Beard MA-8 • Oahu Tonemaster |
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Joachim Kettner
From:
Germany
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 5 Feb 2020 12:41 pm
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I met him at a post-concert meet and greet at the Kern County Fair (in McBakersfield, coincidentally) when he was with SP and I was playing the beer garden gig. He signed my guitar 🤠!! The ink wore off by the end of our run ☹ï¸
Good to know he’s still out there killin it. This is a really cool tune. Makes me think of the Road Runner 🌵 |
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Jim Pitman
From:
Waterbury Ctr. VT 05677 USA
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Posted 7 Feb 2020 11:04 am
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Wow love it!
But this brings up a point.
With that much talent, how is it that he didn't play much steel with the Doobies or Southern Pacific?
I'll take a stab at it: Most fellow band mate rockers and producers were afraid it would make the song sound country.
I get this from some of the local folks I play with now and then even though I spent a couple years avoiding playing the major 3rd when I was in an R+B band. Comments like "We don't want to sound too country", or "most people don't like the Winy stuff".
PSG was always so pigeon-holed during the rock and roll hay-day which makes me sad. |
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 7 Feb 2020 12:25 pm
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| I think I can answer that at least partially, Jim. John McFee did track quite a bit of steel on the first SP album, pedal and non-pedal (solo on Reno Bound!). But he was mainly the lead guitarist for the group, and while his steel playing was excellent, his guitar playing was iconic and integral to the material. When the lead vocalist left the band, Mr. McFee took over with most of the vocal leads, which made sitting down at the steel kind of awkward. I can’t speak to the lack of steel on Doob tunes, but Skunk would have been available for that duty too. |
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Jim Pitman
From:
Waterbury Ctr. VT 05677 USA
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Posted 7 Feb 2020 12:53 pm
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| Yes Fred, is logical. Skunk, there's another rocker/sleeper pedal steel player. I love his sound on Steely Dan's Brooklyn. |
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John Goux
From:
California, USA
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Posted 22 Feb 2020 10:50 pm
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That’s a very impressive piece of music. The tone is so unusual, I can’t tell if I’m hearing steel, electric guitar or synth. Or bits of each. If that is all steel, even more impressive.
John |
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Craig Stock
From:
Westfield, NJ USA
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Posted 23 Feb 2020 5:40 am
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Thanks for posting, I too love the song, the stuff I love to hear.
_________________
Regards, Craig
I cried because I had no shoes, then I met a man who had no feet.
Today is tomorrow's Good ol' days |
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