| Author |
Topic: Why did you take it up? |
Archie Nicol R.I.P.
From:
Ayrshire, Scotland
|
Posted 3 Sep 2004 3:41 pm |
|
Is there a particular artist or piece of music that inspired you to take up the steel? As a new member I would love to hear your views. Long story short, the song "Top Forty" on the B-side of a live Sha-na-na album from 1971 was mine. It's an uptempo corny number, but really catchy. Being influenced by my older brother, I,d been into the Stones, Who and Hendrix etc. After seeing Sha-na-na in the woodstock movie,(I had gone to see Jimi) I bought the Sha-na-na album and discovered the track. Checking the credits it read; Eric Wiesberg, Pedal steel guitar. This is becoming short story long, so anyway that was the song that got me going.
Cheers Arch.[This message was edited by Archie Nicol on 03 September 2004 at 04:42 PM.] |
|
|
 |
Ray Minich
From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
|
Posted 3 Sep 2004 3:59 pm
|
|
Tom Brumley's "Bud's Bounce" 1963. Life just ain't been the same since...  |
|
|
|
Sonny Priddy
From:
Elizabethtown, Kentucky, USA, R.I.P.
|
Posted 3 Sep 2004 5:57 pm
|
|
I Heard Steel Guitar rag On A Juke Box When I Was 10 Years Old That Sound Stuck With Me Even Though I Never Realy Started Playing Steel Untile Around 1981. I'm 68 Now HA, Still Play Every Sat. Night. SONNY.
------------------
|
|
|
|
Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
|
Posted 3 Sep 2004 6:11 pm
|
|
| "Kind Woman": Rusty Young with Buffalo Springfield. |
|
|
|
Bob Blair
From:
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
|
Posted 3 Sep 2004 6:12 pm
|
|
| Archie, I was just thinking about Sha Na Na and that 1971 album becasue we were talking about "Festival Express" on another thread. On the second day of that Festival in Calgary (July 5 1970 I believe) a subset of Sha Na Na came out and played some tunes, including "Top Forty". I can't find that album anywhere, darn it. (saw SNN at Reading the next summer, but only the full meal deal rock and roll show). I was wodnering today who played steel on Top Forty, so thanks for answering my question! I can't credit SNN with my pursuit of pedal steel, but that rock festival in 1970 that they were a part of had a lot to do with it - Buddy Cage, Sneaky Pete and Jerry Garcia (with NRPS at that point as well as of course the Dead) were all there. Someone played steel with "Son of Sha Na Na" on the Sunday, but darned if I know who. |
|
|
|
Brett Day
From:
Pickens, SC
|
Posted 3 Sep 2004 6:41 pm
|
|
| One song that made me want to play steel was a song called "What Do I Know" by the group Ricochet. I also decided to play steel since my left hand couldn't handle the frets on a standard guitar because of cerebral palsy. But, every country song I heard with steel in it made me want to play. Brett, Emmons S-10, Morrell lapsteel |
|
|
|
Les Pierce
From:
Shreveport, LA
|
Posted 3 Sep 2004 8:07 pm
|
|
"Buck Owens Live at Carnegie Hall" - Particularly the slow and fast medleys. I just loved the way the steel kept going on behind the melodies. Got me going the on bass, first, however.
Les
------------------
Strat,Tele
Dekley S-10
|
|
|
|
Terry Wood
From:
Lebanon, MO
|
Posted 3 Sep 2004 9:04 pm
|
|
Yes, my first inspiration was Lloyd Green's cuts of "I can See Clearly Now," "Here Comes The Sun," and his version of Santo and Johnny's "Sleepwalk." All these on same L.P. titled "Shades of Steel." I bought it at a local Wal-Mart Store for less than $4 back in early 1970's. Also a local radio disc jockey played these same cuts on his radio spots. Changed my life for ever!
Today I am just as big a Lloyd Green fan as then, I have every instrumental L.P., tape, or CD he's cut. My first pedal steel was a Lloyd Green Sho-Bud it costs about $1200 then, a lot of money in 70's. I earned about $90 a week then polishing casket lids for my livelihood! Fornunately, I paid for the steel and graduated in music and jobs. But he is a true artist in every since of the word. A very pleasant man too!
Terry
|
|
|
|
Brendan Mitchell
From:
Melbourne Australia
|
Posted 3 Sep 2004 10:42 pm
|
|
Yeah
Jerry Garcia playing with CSN&Y.
Brendan |
|
|
|
Ron !
|
Posted 4 Sep 2004 1:39 am
|
|
| `Dreams of the everyday housewife` by "Lloyd Green" is the song that made me do the switch from hawaiianguitar to the pedalsteel 20 years ago. |
|
|
|
Terry VunCannon
From:
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
|
Posted 4 Sep 2004 6:31 am
|
|
| I play Lap Steel today because of David Lindley. |
|
|
|
Sidney Malone
From:
Buna, TX
|
Posted 4 Sep 2004 3:30 pm
|
|
For me it wasn't a particular song or player. It was the heartfelt soulful music that the steel produces. Being raised on hard core country and Western Swing there was always lots of steel coming from our transistor radio while I was growing up.
My only regret is not starting to play earlier in life. It was always my favorite instrument for as long as I can remember. It just seemed like it would be way too difficult for someone with no musical background to learn. So at 30 yrs. old I said what the heck and went for it.
Like most, I still have a long way to go but you gotta start somewhere!!
------------------
MSA Millennium S-12U
Fessy S-12U
Walker Stereo Steel, Hilton Pedal
|
|
|
|
Archie Nicol R.I.P.
From:
Ayrshire, Scotland
|
Posted 4 Sep 2004 3:57 pm
|
|
Hi Bob, That same SNN album has a track called Canadian Money on it featuring Dave Bromberg on Dobro. I loved that track also, but at the time had no idea what a Dobro was. Someone told me it was a bottleneck acoustic guitar, but I was sure there must be more to it with that echoish(to coin a new word) sound. Buying a Mike Aldridge album put me right a few years later. It was an anti-draft song by the sound of it written by Scott Simon of SNN.
All the best Arch. |
|
|
|
Jerry Clardy
From:
El Paso, Texas, USA * R.I.P.
|
Posted 5 Sep 2004 5:35 pm
|
|
| Julian Tharpe - Take Your Pick album with Blondie Calderon |
|
|
|
Dustin Rigsby
From:
Parts Unknown, Ohio
|
Posted 5 Sep 2004 7:26 pm
|
|
I'll try not to write a book. It started about a year and a half ago when I met Larry Cole. We drive for the same company,and he would always talk to me about taking up pedal steel. I always said that it had too many strings. Last January, i went to a Gospel steel show hosted by Gary Preston,and got to witness some of the most awesome musicians I had ever seen. Bobbe,Sonny Curtis,and Herby Wallace were just some of the talent that was there. I bought a Carter Starter from Ed Jennings with help from Art Cockriel of Kentucky and Gary Preston became my teacher,mentor,and one of my best friends. This is a very condensed version,but I have fallen in love with PSG,second only to God,My wife and family.
------------------
D.S. Rigsby
Carter Starter and various six string toys |
|
|
|
Mark van Allen
From:
Watkinsville, Ga. USA
|
Posted 5 Sep 2004 7:57 pm
|
|
I've told this one before, Archie... I'd heard Steel before and liked it, but one day I bought "Suite Steel" and Buddy E's version of Wichita Lineman just killed me. A friend dropped by and told me there was a steel for sale just down the stret, which I bought. (Sho-Bud Maverick). I went to a music store and found Winnie Winson's book, and while buying strings from the gauges listed there, got introduced to a gal who was putting together a country-rock band, and joined up. The bizarre part, is this all happened one saturday afternoon! We had a gig the next weekend...
------------------
Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com
|
|
|
|
Brian Wetzstein
From:
Billings, MT, USA
|
Posted 6 Sep 2004 9:32 am
|
|
I have always enjoyed the sound of the pedal steel, but I think it was the album Trace from Son Volt that made me realize I was going to be a steel player.
"...try to make it far enough... to the next time zone..."
brian |
|
|
|
Chris Forbes
From:
Beltsville, MD, USA
|
Posted 6 Sep 2004 10:33 am
|
|
| Why? Cause I'm an idiot, that's why. |
|
|
|
Richard Sinkler
From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
|
Posted 6 Sep 2004 10:34 am
|
|
Loved the sound. The 2 things that really got me into the PSG were hearing Conway Twitty's version of "Wine Me Up" on the radio and seeing Jerry Garcia with the New Riders. I was able to ask Jerry what he was playing at a hall called "The Family Dog" in SF. It had 2 stages at each end of the hall and the stages were only maybe a foot or two off the ground. I was right in front of Jerry and was mesmerized by the PSG. After the Rider's set, I talked with Jerry and he showed me a little about the PSG before he had to make his way down to the other stage to play with the Dead. And, I don't think I had heard "Teach Your Children" at that time and had never heard of Buddy Emmons.
So, thanks to John Hughey and Jerry GArcia, I took up the PSG.
------------------
Carter D10 9p/10k, NV400
|
|
|
|
Archie Nicol R.I.P.
From:
Ayrshire, Scotland
|
Posted 6 Sep 2004 11:00 am
|
|
.[This message was edited by Archie Nicol on 06 September 2004 at 12:03 PM.] |
|
|
|
Archie Nicol R.I.P.
From:
Ayrshire, Scotland
|
Posted 6 Sep 2004 11:01 am
|
|
Hi, Jerry.
"Take your Pick"! You've got me in a
Mexican Sweat just thinking about.
Cheers, Arch. |
|
|
|
Will Holtz
From:
San Francisco, California, USA
|
Posted 6 Sep 2004 5:15 pm
|
|
| Being on the younger end of forum age spectrum (26), I probably have an uncommon answer. I was most influenced to start playing pedal steel by Mojave 3's album "Excuses for Travellers", which is ultra-mellow indie rock. Dave Gleason's Wasted Days (local alt-country featuring Joe Goldmark) was also eye opening to me. |
|
|
|
Ernest Cawby
From:
Lake City, Florida, USA, R.I.P.
|
Posted 6 Sep 2004 8:59 pm
|
|
lITTLE ROY, PETE D. JERRY B. J. DAY, BUDDY E.
JEFF N. SLEEP WALK, WELDON, M. AND THE REST
and now I can't quit.
I like them all, new ones every time I hear a new steel player not heard before.
John Le Masters, Chuck Haney, Chet Gibson. Freddie Carr, Roy A. Paul, Randy, Russ,
Larry Bullock, Jack Conyers, Roger C.
My wife even inspires me when she says was that you or Jeff playing, she lies but I love it anyway. ETC
ernie
|
|
|
|
Val Gethers
From:
Hesperia, California, USA
|
Posted 6 Sep 2004 9:50 pm
|
|
| "Sleepwalk"-Santo & Johnny |
|
|
|
Jim Phelps
From:
Mexico City, Mexico
|
Posted 6 Sep 2004 10:04 pm
|
|
| . [This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 17 November 2004 at 09:36 PM.] |
|
|
|
