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Topic: Megan Lovell |
b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 8 Jun 2021 7:31 pm |
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Megan Lovell is the best rock lap steel player I've heard. I just got Larkin Poe's CD "Kindred Spirits" and I'm blown away. Their videos are incredible, too.
Does anyone know what tuning she uses on her Rickenbacker?
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-š¯•“š¯•†š¯•“- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 2:22 am
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Those sisters are so talented! And they have that locked in special "thing" that you only see and hear with siblings like the Everly Brothers, Louvin Brothers, Quebe sisters, etc. Meghan has cited our forum pal Doug Beaumier as an influence.
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Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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Myk Freedman
From:
Brooklyn
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 4:20 am
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She is so great. I love her playing and tone. She has such a deep feel. Thanks for posting this!
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http://mykfreedman.com |
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Nic Neufeld
From:
Kansas City, Missouri
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 4:57 am
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I'm a big fan of their music...my style of playing is miles away from ML but that's the fun of steel, lot of room for different approaches. Because of her entry to the instrument she's pretty unique (started with bluegrass dobro hence the tuning, then they shifted over to blues rock). She plays more like a normal lead guitarist...octaves, not a lot of chords. I've seen her slant but very rarely...occasional behind the bar bends. But it is cool to see a Panda wielded in, well, a more modern context than we usually tend to use them (Mike Neer a bit of an exception here!).
I don't know what exactly their parents did right, but they are all very good on their instruments and probably hard working/practicing...I think Rebecca Lovell won a festival mandolin competition as a teenager. Definitely a lot of raw talent with her voice, for sure, and she's quite good on guitar (although seems to shy away from a lot of solos, perhaps ceding that ground to her sister).
Not that I don't like the blues / classic rock type stuff they do a lot of now, but I quite enjoy their early stuff...the second Lovell Sisters album where their songwriting starts to mature, the Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter series of EPs where they flirt with all sorts of music styles, probably trying to find their voice a bit, and some of their collaboration albums...particularly the Sound of the Ocean Sound with Thom Hell out of Norway.
Seeing them in Omaha this fall, again, now that things are opening back up.
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Waikīkī, at night when the shadows are falling
I hear the rolling surf calling
Calling and calling to me |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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C. Eric Banister
From:
Scottsburg, Indiana, USA
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 5:15 am
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| I find her to be such an inspiration to me. I love the covers they do on YouTube because I love seeing how she arranges non-steel guitar parts and makes them sound so natural. Her tone and phrasing on "Bell-Bottom Blues" just blows me away. |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Brian Evans
From:
Nova Scotia, Canada
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 6:50 am
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| I think their blues/rock playing is getting huge notice and reviews, all of the Joe Bonnamassa peeps know who they are, and that kind of tumbles higher and higher just on it's own. I've heard them play awesome roots stuff, almost acoustic stuff. She plays in Dobro high G, I do believe. I've recently started, for the first time since I was 16, playing with distortion dialed in on the amp, mostly because of her tone. |
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Greg Forsyth
From:
Colorado, USA
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 7:33 am
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| Megan Lovell's steel playing is the reason I got into playing steel guitars. She played on a song on an Enter The Haggis album named White Lake. The song is called "The Hunter and the Phantom Limb". It took me six months after I got the CD to check the liner to find out it wasn't one of the band members playing the steel! Great song. Check it OUT! |
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C. Eric Banister
From:
Scottsburg, Indiana, USA
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 7:56 am
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| Oh, and as an interesting resophonic sidenote, Megan's husband, Mike Seal, plays guitar in the Jerry Douglas Band. |
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Peter Jacobs
From:
Northern Virginia
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 8:52 am
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They're amazing to see live. It's cool hearing them with Elvis Costello, too. I love how fluid her playing is, and that she plays in any key without a capo from Dobro G tuning - that's something I have to think to hard about when I'm playing, singing and trying to remember where I am. Clearly they live and breathe what they do. What an inspiring player!
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Peter
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www.splinterville.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@splinterville6278/videos
Last edited by Peter Jacobs on 28 Oct 2021 1:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Nic Neufeld
From:
Kansas City, Missouri
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 9:24 am
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| C. Eric Banister wrote: |
| Oh, and as an interesting resophonic sidenote, Megan's husband, Mike Seal, plays guitar in the Jerry Douglas Band. |
Mike Seal has a pretty interesting fingerstyle approach. If you like fusiony stuff his playing with Jeff Sipe trio is good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OIpiOAUr-U
You hear his playing all over the very early LP stuff...he has a kind of "rolling" feel to some of his playing.
Apparently he had to quit the band in order to date her (probably a sensible rule for both the band, and the relationship!  )
_________________
Waikīkī, at night when the shadows are falling
I hear the rolling surf calling
Calling and calling to me |
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Jon Light
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 10:03 am
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My new foray into dobro in this pandemic year has taught me how deep a GBDGBD tuning can be (I had thrashed around with some alt. tunings and then suddenly realized that dobro G was huge enough to settle in with).
Then, as I considered where I wanted to spend my time on my new lap steel, the new-found comfort with this tuning was reinforced by Megan's demonstration of how much blues and soul can be found within. |
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Brian Evans
From:
Nova Scotia, Canada
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 11:20 am
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| I spent some time watching the series of videos on learning to play lap steel, so much to digest. But she showed one song where she tunes the B strings down to Bb, and the sound was instantly awesome. I am going to try that out! Makes my Em7 tuning into Em7b5, what could be cooler than that? EGDGBbD low to high. |
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Tim Whitlock
From:
Colorado, USA
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 11:26 am Re: Megan Lovell
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| b0b wrote: |
| Megan Lovell is the best rock lap steel player I've heard. |
She is VERY good but I still put David Lindley at the top of that list. |
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Nic Neufeld
From:
Kansas City, Missouri
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 3:46 pm Re: Megan Lovell
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| Tim Whitlock wrote: |
She is VERY good but I still put David Lindley at the top of that list. |
Complete sidebar...in the 4 years or so I've been on this forum/learning steel, I've heard David Lindley mentioned a lot but I don't know anything about him...and I should probably rectify that. Are there any tracks you'd recommend that are emblematic of his style? (eg, if you asked me about Larry Carlton, I would say listen to Kid Charlemagne)
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Waikīkī, at night when the shadows are falling
I hear the rolling surf calling
Calling and calling to me |
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Peter Jacobs
From:
Northern Virginia
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 5:01 pm
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Nic, thereĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢s so much to choose from with Lindley. As a sideman, he was on an amazing array of 70s rock classics, especially with Jackson Browne. For a lot of us, his Running on Empty solo was the gateway drug. His stuff with his band El Rayo X is an awesome mashup of funk, reggae and rock n roll. Later his solo and duo work, with a lot of Weissenborn, shows a huge range of taste and tone. If you look for videos, look as his vibrato Ć¢ā‚¬ā€¯ itĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢s huge.
If you canĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢t tell, IĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢m a fan.  |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 9 Jun 2021 7:03 pm Re: Megan Lovell
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| Nic Neufeld wrote: |
| I've heard David Lindley mentioned a lot but I don't know anything about him... Are there any tracks you'd recommend that are emblematic of his style? |
Mercury Blues is cool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHY0YxdswyY |
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C. Eric Banister
From:
Scottsburg, Indiana, USA
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Posted 10 Jun 2021 3:51 am Re: Megan Lovell
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| Nic Neufeld wrote: |
| Tim Whitlock wrote: |
She is VERY good but I still put David Lindley at the top of that list. |
Complete sidebar...in the 4 years or so I've been on this forum/learning steel, I've heard David Lindley mentioned a lot but I don't know anything about him...and I should probably rectify that. Are there any tracks you'd recommend that are emblematic of his style? (eg, if you asked me about Larry Carlton, I would say listen to Kid Charlemagne) |
I don't know if you use Spotify, but if so I can a playlist I put together called David Lindley Career Selections: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7u8VHppVj6Z8e8OeyNiIu8?si=de8297bac3f547e3
As the title suggests, it isn't exhaustive, just about 9 hours of my favorite stuff.
Sorry to derail the conversation - Megan Rocks! |
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Michael Diabo
From:
Nova Scotia, Canada
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Posted 10 Jun 2021 10:03 am
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Larkin PoeĆ¢ā‚¬ā„¢s cover album is really great. Popular tunes in very stripped down versions featuring both Megan and Rebecca upfront. Their last couple of original albums are some of my favourite.
Here is a video of just the two sisters playing Holy Ghost Fire. https://youtu.be/osWy51zRfjg |
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Stephen Abruzzo
From:
Philly, PA
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Posted 10 Jun 2021 2:21 pm
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I just love Larkin Poe. Such a talented band. I believe that she sporadically dabbles in Open D.
As to her playing slants, here's a link to the sisters playing Sweet Home Chicago....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF2Fr98W0gk
As to Lindley, go on YT and search of some videos of Lindley with Ry Cooder........fabulous stuff.
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Four Pettingills and a Clinesmith Aluminum. Fender Blues Junior. Quilter Mini-101. |
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Gene Tani
From:
Pac NW
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Posted 10 Jun 2021 7:05 pm
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MLovell talked about her history with steels in one of those vids, including taking up pedal steel, also her first Ricky Panda went flying thru a taxi when the driver slammed on the brakes and broke at the base of the neck.
Cooder and Lindley: amazing combination
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- keyless Sonny Jenkins laps stay in tune forever!; Carter PSG
- The secret sauce: polyester sweatpants to buff your picks, cheapo Presonus channel strip for preamp/EQ/compress/limiter, Diet Mountain Dew |
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Will Houston
From:
Tempe, Az
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Posted 12 Jun 2021 1:36 pm Megans new Beard Road-o-Phonic
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| I'll put this here cause her name is already up. On utube just saw her demo of her new Beard Road-o-Phonic, pretty damn nice, I want one. Don't know how to put a utube on here sorry. |
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Steve Lipsey
From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
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Posted 12 Jun 2021 9:03 pm
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Here's the YouTube with Megan and the roadie...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLepW7TVTBM
I have one of these new model Roadies...pretty great...although I might be selling it soon...I'm really only playing acoustically, not loud enough to need this baby...
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Williams S10s, Milkman Pedal Steel Mini & "The Amp"
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