Why did you start to play the Steel?

Robert Todd · From: Atlanta, Georgia USA

I think it was Jerry Garcia on Teach Your Children and Dire Wolf. Or maybe Al Perkins on Last of the entire Last of the Red Hot Flying Burritos album. I had been playing blues open tuned bottle neck already, trying to copy Duane Allman on a gibson guitar, then I heard the pedals in country rock and I was hoooked.

Did I give up playing the blues? No, I now had another great open tuned guitar, a sho-bud that could do even better stuff than my Gibson.

My point is this. While I learned to love Emmons, the wonderful Bakersfield sound and others later in life, I found steel a completely different way than many. In fact if I hadn't heard it in country Rock I may never have taken it up because I HATED Nashville Country as a teenager.

I love hearing this great instrument used in all types of music. So many more doors will be opened and new musical paths will begin.

Just my $.02 worth.

[This message was edited by Robert Todd on 22 August 2001 at 10:15 AM.]

kyle reid · From: Butte,Mt.usa

I started to play steel, because I loved the Nashville Country Steel Sound & hated the Teach Your Children Steel Sound! kr

Leroy Riggs · From: Looney Tunes, R.I.P.

...because of one steeler in one song--Tom Brumley in "Together Again".

Robert Todd · From: Atlanta, Georgia USA

Gene Jones · From: Oklahoma City, OK USA, (deceased)

Robert, I also hated Nashville Country when I was a teen-ager as I started playing during the "western-swing" era.... But then years later, I learned to like it also.

Pete Burak · From: Portland, OR USA

I started playing steel in 10th or 11th grade after listening to a double alblum by Pure Prarie League (can't remember the alblum title).
Specifically, the song "Country Song".
I almost rented a Sho-Bud Maverick from a local music store (Rondo Music), but my Dad and I walked out of the place when they wanted to know names and addresses of our neihbors, relatives, ect, on the rental form.
Unbelievably, I looked in the local classifieds and there was a Sho-Bud Pro-1 for sale. It turned out to be a guy from another local music store who gave it a try and gave up on it. My Dad bought me this beautiful blonde birdseye 'Bud, which came with the Winnie Winston book, for $350, and the rest is history!
I still have this axe and it is now a 3x2 B6th tuning. I leave it set up in my practice room and play it regularly.
It looks and sounds Killer!

Larry Bell · From: Englewood, Florida

Growing up in Nashville with parents who prefer Big Band music, I never particularly cared for country music. BUT, every morning before school, I watched Eddie Hill's early morning show (late 50s early 60s) and his band included Jerry Byrd. Even a kid couldn't ignore the fact that this man is something special. It planted a seed.

I started playing steel in 1974 because country music was popular. In the meantime, I'd finished college and moved to Michigan. In 1975, I went to Scotty's convention and heard Buddy Emmons. It was all over. I thought I'd done died and went to heaven.

To this day, he never disappoints me. I was influenced by the country rock guys -- loved the few country tunes CSN/CSNY and the Dead played, really got a kick out of Cage and the New Riders, but Emmons was and still IS 'da man'.

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Emmons D-10 9x9, 1971 Dobro

Brett Day · From: Pickens, SC

I have cerebral palsy in my left hand and when I was little I loved the sound and looks of a steel guitar, but for some reason I loved acoustic and electric guitar the most. I wanted to play acoustic and electric guitar, but my mom and dad told me it would be hard. Then I thought about the piano, so I played by ear with one hand. Finally, I realized how much I love country music, so I told my mom and dad that I wanted to play the pedal steel guitar. The only problem was how I would handle the steel bar. I experimented with picks and pedals on a Sierra until I got my Emmons steel that I have now. I am glad to be playing the steel guitar because I love country music and because it's my favorite instrument in the world. Different country songs that I've listened to have good steel, and the more I listened, the more I wanted to play. The steel guitar is the best instrument in the world! Brett Day, Emmons S-10

Pat Burns · From: Branchville, N.J. USA

...I just love the sound...it's the most beautiful sounding instrument on the planet..

(well, I also love the sound of the classical violin, but the bars I hung out in didn't have any classical violinists)

Larry Miller · From: Dothan AL,USA

Leon McAulliffe

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GO TITANS GO!!!

[This message was edited by Larry Miller on 22 August 2001 at 11:28 AM.]

Randy Pettit · From: North Texas USA

Like Pete, my avenue to PSG was through the "progressive country" sounds of Pure Prairie League (John David Call) and Poco (Rusty Young) during the mid-1970s. Garcia's work didn't seem all that gripping to me compared to guys like Rusty Young. Growing up in Dallas, my parents were more into Big Band, Swing and Broadway Show tunes - I was fairly ignorant about the Nashville scene at that time and besides, most of us kids were deeply into rocknroll. It wasn't until I took my first PSG lessons in 1976, that I began to learn about and hear some of the legendary players like Emmons, Day, Green, Brumley and Anderson (sounds like a law firm).

Bill Fall · From: Richmond, NH, USA

It was either that, or a lifelong study of vector calculus!

G Strout · From: Carabelle, Florida

Listening to the likes of Neil Flanz, Rusty Young, and Ron Dann.

Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

Sometimes I wonder...

I watched Doug Jernigan on Sunday

Antolina · From: Dunkirk NY

Sometime back in either the late 40's or early 50's I heard ol' Red Sovine doing one of his famous recitations. The lyrics were Maudlin to say the least but that running steel in the back could make a statue cry. The rest is as they say....history

Joerg Hennig · From: Bavaria, Germany

I had some pretty cool records with steel on them for many years, Flying Burrito Brothers, Waylon Jennings w/Mooney, James Burton w/Mooney, Emmylou Harris, Commander Cody and more, so it must have been lurking in the back of my head for quite some time. But for some reason or another I was always interested only in the guitar parts. That´s now one of the biggest regrets in my life. I guess the final decision came about three years ago while I was living in Italy and had written some country tunes that I recorded on my four track and because I wanted "that" sound, I fooled around with my old Framus 8-string lap steel that I had always been using as a horizontal slide (tuned to open E or A). Now I experimented with C6 instead but did not get beyond a few licks. It was then that I thought, "I wonder what I could do with a pedal steel". Also around that time, my former band´s bass player gave me some tapes of the New Riders and Poco, so for the first time I heard Buddy Cage and Rusty Young. From then on I knew I just HAD to do that, too. But only about a year later, I had moved to Munich in the meantime, I was able to buy my first pedal steel, it was a downright ripoff but I was too inexperienced to notice at the time... But despite that I soon realized that the pedal steel is really "my" instrument. Changed my whole listening habits, too- I used to be a blues/rock´n´roll guitar player, started on steel with country rock, then became interested in the Bakersfield sound and then in hardcore honky-tonk (that´s what I´m gonna do a lot with my next band). I just wish I had started a lot earlier...

Rick Schmidt · From: Prescott AZ, USA

I grew up in the "mind expanding" days of the 60's in Denver Colorado. I used to hear Rusty Young play lead parts on steel in a pre-Poco local rock band around town, and hear Dick Meiss, Ron Miller, and Don Buzzard play in the western clubs that I'd ride my bike in front of before I was 21. I liked the instrument, but I was still more into Miles Davis and Hendrix then. I was serioulsy into learning to play guitar like Wes Montgomery, and thought of C&W as a less than cool bag.

Luckily some friends of mine were starting a country band..."Dusty Drapes & the Dusters"...and offered to buy me a steel guitar if I'd join the group and learn to play. They also gave me the Texas Troubador's record "Country Dance Time", and told me to copy that sound....that's where I got lucky. I'm still trying.

Even though I still tried to play steel like I was in "Weather Report" at first, I eventually grew to really appreciate what country music was all about. I must say that I'm more convinced now than ever that pedal steel is way bigger than just one kind of music.

Bob Mainwaring · From: Qualicum Beach Vancouver Island B.C. Canada

Mr Tom Brumley was playing with Buck at the time, and I wondered how that "rundown" was done that I heard more than once on 1st and 2nd. First of all I liked the "stataco" sound of fast pick blocking and was "sent" by some of the other guys who were/are good at this.
Mr Lloyd Green too is one of my all time kings that had that distinctive sound so loved by all who heard him.

Bob Mainwaring.Z.Bs.and other weird things.

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Hal Higgins · From: Denham Springs, LA

I've loved the sound of the steel guitar from the first time I heard it. My 3rd cousin played steel for a local country tv show and I would sit glued to the set (late 50's early 60's)and just hoped that the camera would zoom in close when he'd take a break. Then I got the chance to sing with a country group that had a steel player and that just made me want to play one even more. In 1970 in Bolton, CT, I was playing rhythm guitar for a country band, and doing some singing. The steel player (Terry Sutton, one of the best I've ever heard) left the band and started his own group with the Perry Sisters, so that left us without a steel. The lead guitar player happened to have an old Fender 400 at his house that he wasn't doing anything with and asked me if I'd like to have it.......I immediately said yes and he brought it the next night and gave it to me.....Another steeler named Paul Lambert got me started with a new set of strings and eliminating the two bottom strings and adding the chromatic top two and tuning it to a D 9th (no roller bridges on the 400) I was on my way to try to learn how to play. I practiced with headphones using any country album I could get my hands onto. After about 4 months of doing nothing by eat, sleep, walk and talk steel guitar, I set it up on the stage where I was playing. The first intro I took, I had to take my foot of the volume pedal because it was shaking so bad.....but as the night progressed, I found it getting easier. I still have a great love for this instrument today, and have been blessed to have performed with great steelers such as the Big "E", John Hughey, Weldon Myrick, and Junior Knight, just to name a few. That's how I got started.....................

Craig Allen · From: BEREA, KENTUCKY, USA

Alvino Rey;Leon McAuliffe; Bob White; Santo & Jonnie; a couple of local fella's from Connecticut that knocked me out, like Ray Gantick, and Harry Guffe who played for me for years.And then finaly the greats from Texas. Herbie Remington; Bob Bowman; and my hero Jimmie Day.

bob drawbaugh · From: scottsboro, al. usa

My mother made me! Boy, after 30 years I'm glad she did.

Miguel e Smith · From: Phoenix, AZ

Unintentional accident. I had taken guitar lessons (6-string)and I just wasn't knocking myself out at all. About the time I decided to ditch the guitar altogether, I thought I wanted to race motorcycles. So, I saved my money and called the store where I bought the guitar and asked them the value and they gave me a figure. With that number in mind, I saved up enough to add to that and drove down to the store one day with the idea of collecting the guitar money, adding it to the saved-up cash and going right away to buy that first Yamaha Enduro dirt bike.
When I got to the store, they told me that the figure they quoted me was "trade-in" value, not cash value. I wasn't going to have enough money. Broke my heart.
The sales guy told me to look around and find something I'd like in the store that I could trade for. Reluctantly I did and I found a 6-pedal Gibson Electraharp. I didn't even know what it was, but the salesman said he'd work out a deal to include some lessons on the fundamentals. Fortunately, that sales guy was Jim Evans (Evans Amps founder) and he knew great fundamentals which gave me a wonderful start.
Having said all of that, I'm not sure if I should thank him or curse him. A motorcycle would take up less space than a steel and all the accessories and would certainly cost less. I think a motorcycle stays in tune better too.

Mike

CrowBear Schmitt · From: Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France

the only steel rekord i had was the Buddy Emmons black album in 71. i was more into playin guitbox, but as i listened to that album over the years, i realized i that i could'nt ever play like that on a 6 stringer.
in 1979, a very close friend who owns a Musik store in gay Paree, had a Maverick that he never managed to sell.
one day he gave it to me sayin' that he was sure i'd manage to do sometin' w: it.
it took a while, but he was right !
c'est tout...

Frank Parish · From: Nashville,Tn. USA

Because I was living with a crazy woman at the time and for some ridiculous reason I thought if I could overcome the pitfalls of learning to play pedal steel I could have the patience to deal with anything including her. As it turned out I think those searing highs from Lloyd Green (and the earbleeding volume)finally ran her off. Pedal steel has been very good to me.

Al Udeen · From: maple grove mn usa

Frank! Was it "CRAZY" that you were playing for her!

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