| Visit Our Catalog at SteelGuitarShopper.com |

Post new topic Julian Tharpe
Reply to topic
Author Topic:  Julian Tharpe
David Wright


From:
Pilot Point ,Tx USA.
Post  Posted 28 Aug 2023 3:05 am    
Reply with quote

Some great playing here....
https://www.reverbnation.com/deancharles/song/21090698-matilda

Changed title to refer to the correct last name.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Joe Krumel

 

From:
Hermitage, Tn.
Post  Posted 28 Aug 2023 5:20 am    
Reply with quote

Very cool! I am intrigued with his tuning and total abandon style! Those big chords,aggressive licks etc. The song sure sounds like Jean Shepard singing.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Thornton Lewis

 

From:
New York, USA
Post  Posted 28 Aug 2023 1:25 pm    
Reply with quote

I will preface this by saying the man is a better player than I will ever be but...it sounds like practicing on the bandstand to me.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Mike Neer


From:
NJ
Post  Posted 29 Aug 2023 6:21 pm    
Reply with quote

Killer!
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Tim Toberer


From:
Nebraska, USA
Post  Posted 7 Sep 2023 4:54 am    
Reply with quote

I need to come over here more often. I just listened to 4 newly discovered Vance Terry recordings and now this, and it isn't even 8 o'clock! Julian Thorpe Tharpe? is quite the mysterious player. That was amazing.... Thanks for posting that.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Nigel Mullen

 

From:
Cassilis, New Brunswick, Canada
Post  Posted 8 Sep 2023 6:02 am    
Reply with quote

That is amazing!!!!! NM
View user's profile Send private message
Tim Toberer


From:
Nebraska, USA
Post  Posted 9 Sep 2023 5:10 am    
Reply with quote

I just went back and read a bunch of old threads about Julian. I haven't been a member very long. Such a sad and strange story. Seems to be a lot of baggage surrounding this.

Every link to his music was a bad link. I found one song on Youtube with Jimmy Bryant, a short clip of him talking and tuning his guitar and some really rare expensive records.

What a shame. Some of the most incredible playing on any instrument I have ever heard. His music should be more available.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Ian Rae


From:
Redditch, England
Post  Posted 9 Sep 2023 1:29 pm    
Reply with quote

Just to be clear before I get in too deep, are we talking about Julian Tharpe?
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
David Wright


From:
Pilot Point ,Tx USA.
Post  Posted 10 Sep 2023 3:14 am    
Reply with quote

Yes, its Julian Tharpe..
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Roger Rettig


From:
Naples, FL
Post  Posted 10 Sep 2023 6:09 am    
Reply with quote

Remarkable ability!!!

A bit 'over the top' in places? Maybe, but how I'd enjoy having that capacity and muting it with some good taste.

He really was a great player, and the fat chords remind me of Curly.
_________________
Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
----------------------------------
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Tom Keller

 

From:
Greeneville, TN, USA
Post  Posted 10 Sep 2023 8:32 am    
Reply with quote

I was fortunate enough to catch a Ray Price show with Blondie Calderon and Julian Tharpe and 3 female violinist from the Atlanta symphony. What a show!
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
J D Sauser


From:
Wellington, Florida
Post  Posted 16 Sep 2023 3:09 am     Julian Tharpe - Previous Tuning Discussions
Reply with quote

Some old threads with some insight.

His "F9th" had a lot of natural similarities of a C6th with D's placed all over... Dm-"almost"-Dorian which in a C6th looking at the D string become evident too.

He recorded some very Late 60's/Early 70's styled PostBop/HardBop Album with Maurice Anderson in the early times.
Two very different men, but with a like inclination for modern Jazz in Steel Guitar. Maurice can be heard doing some of that "Jazz-Chicken-Picking" Tharpe was so very effective at... Zane Beck could be heard doing that quite well too in that time. Regretfully, some of the style proved to not stand the test of times and thus became a lost art.
ZB too, played a unique E13th with 5P & 5K which was very "universal"... just at a very pleasant higher "E"-tuning-based-pitch, very much like a "Swinging E9th". Zane King still plays evolutions of that tuning and nobody would be able to tell much the difference compared to E9th/C6/B6-Universal.

Keep in mind, in those times, many greats of PSG were not part of the Nashville A-Team and quite a good number of the early second generation in PSG were exposed to PostBop, HardBop, R&B, Soul (which all had Be-&-PostBop elements) in their younger musical heydays and thought the instrument had it to break into non-country music big time.


Discussion about the tuning:
For those who have joined here not Decades ago, Earnest Bovine is one who contributed a lot to understanding alternative tunings and some of the physics behind them. Here is his take on ONE of Julian Tharpe's setup and tunings:
www.steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/001039.html


20 string MSA:

https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=123539&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

On page 2, Maurice Anderson commented years ago about the "Joint D10" 20-string MSA they built him, and seems to indicated that JT changed the tuning and setup quite radically from the original idea of putting some sort of E9th and 6th tuning in the same "level" to an center-tuning with added strings on top and the bottom.
Which seems to suggest that JT went thru constant experimenting with tunings.

Here is Dan Burnham's YouTUBE videos on the Julian Tharpe tuning found on one 14 string BMI:

https://youtu.be/qFw8UuYi2zU
https://youtu.be/jq0FyETE6kc
https://youtu.be/EqNmpI4pBFo
https://youtu.be/a_yOtbp4ztY
https://youtu.be/fw_MHPHnDJo
https://youtu.be/0sAvsdctPD0
https://youtu.be/uSxxNNELBnA

... J-D.
_________________
__________________________________________________________

Was it JFK who said: Ask Not What TAB Can Do For You - Rather Ask Yourself "What Would B.B. King Do?"

A Little Mental Health Warning:

Tablature KILLS SKILLS.
The uses of Tablature is addictive and has been linked to reduced musical fertility.
Those who produce Tablature did never use it.

I say it humorously, but I mean it.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Jerry Overstreet


From:
Louisville Ky
Post  Posted 16 Sep 2023 8:16 am    
Reply with quote


Here's a photo of Julian's setup Sho-Bud JET 14 given to me by my buddy Boogie Sherrard who got it directly from him at one of the shows.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Tim Toberer


From:
Nebraska, USA
Post  Posted 20 Sep 2023 4:59 am     Re: Julian Tharpe - Previous Tuning Discussions
Reply with quote

J D Sauser wrote:
Some old threads with some insight.



... J-D.

Thanks for posting all these links JD. There was so much happening with the steel guitar back in the late 60's early 70's. It seems like jazz, the instrument went through a rapid development and has arrived at somewhat of an arrested state. Are there any live links to his music anywhere? It is hard to believe there wouldn't be more available. I see he recorded at least 5 albums. I am going on the hunt for these!
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
dlayne


From:
OH
Post  Posted 21 Sep 2023 7:27 pm     Wow
Reply with quote

Really enjoyed this! Very well played and vocal was fittin right in
_________________
Dan Layne
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Jump to:  
Please review our Forum Rules and Policies
Our Online Catalog
Strings, CDs, instruction, and steel guitar accessories
www.SteelGuitarShopper.com

The Steel Guitar Forum
148 S. Cloverdale Blvd.
Cloverdale, CA 95425 USA

Click Here to Send a Donation

Email SteelGuitarForum@gmail.com for technical support.


BIAB Styles
Ray Price Shuffles for Band-in-a-Box
by Jim Baron