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Topic: Newest Member - Thats me! |
Matthew Prouty
From:
Warsaw, Poland
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Posted 17 Feb 2006 8:56 am |
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Just wanted to introduce myself to you all.
I have been reading the forum for a bit now and just got myself signed up. I live in São Paulo, Brazil and I guess I can boast to be one of many only a handful of steel players here in the city, but there are a few. Never played the pedal steel, but I convinced Bob Simmons to hook me up with one. I say convinced because I play lefty and had a hard time with everyone telling me to play righty. I been playing lap and 6 sting for years lefty and I am not interested in changing, plus what would I do with all that lefty gear anyway after switching? Not to worry there are no steel jams here, at least not yet.
Bobs in the final stages in putting together my guitar so I will have to make a trip up north to pick it up real soon, unless someone wants to volunteer to bring it down, you know it is gonna be Carnival next week!
Matt |
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Mark Metdker
From:
North Central Texas, USA
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 17 Feb 2006 10:26 am
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Matt,
Welcome to the forum ! Do you get a chance to play any of that fantastic Brazilian music on your steel ?
------------------
Bob
upcoming gigs
My Website
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Matthew Prouty
From:
Warsaw, Poland
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Posted 17 Feb 2006 11:01 am
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Bob,
We do do a variety show and do a little samba and forró, but just the rhthym section kicks in and gets the croud going, but nothing yet on the steel.
I am going to learn "Garota de Ipanema" (Girl from Ipanema) and let it rip one show. I am sure that will get them out of the chairs!
Matt |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 17 Feb 2006 12:12 pm
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Boy would I love to bring your steel down. (I understand you have a really good guitar builder doing it.) I'd love to immerse myself in samba for a while.
Welcome. Brazil! Wow.
I think I would do Orfeu Negru on steel. (Did I get the spelling right?) |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 17 Feb 2006 1:17 pm
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| Welcome Matthew,From Alabama,By the way The Girl from Ipanema has always been one of my alltime favorites.I'v allways loved all latin tempos. |
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CrowBear Schmitt
From:
Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France
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Posted 18 Feb 2006 2:18 am
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Welcome to this Great Forum Matthew 
i believe you're the first steeler from Brazil to join us
i'll ask the same as others here :
do you play Brazilian Musik on your steel ?
i try to & love it
have a good time w; us & don't be bashfull.
ask away & you'll get much help from the good folks here
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Matthew Prouty
From:
Warsaw, Poland
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Posted 18 Feb 2006 3:42 am
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I almost never play Brazilian music. I play mostly honky tonk and western swing. At least for the moment. The state of São Paulo reminds me a lot of Texas and Oklahoma. The cattle industry is huge here, as well as rodeo and all things "country". We have the biggest country entertainment venue in the country right be the house. Called villa country. More often than not the have a country music which is called Sertenaja, and to anyone who has heard the Mexican mariachi ballads would probibly agree that it a related style. Here is the bar.
http://www.villacountry.com.br/novosite/
To top that we also have the biggest rodeo in south america every year here in the state of São Paulo
http://www.independentes.com.br/
So to sum it up the south of Brazil is very different form the exported image. Most of the culture that is experienced or known about Brazil comes from Rio de Janeiro and to the north. The culture in the south is like night and day. Very interesting to say the least. Even further south you enter into the land of Gauchos where they have a cowboy culture like no other. Their style of BBQ is very impressive, cooking beef ribs on spits over an open fire!
M. |
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Jonathan Shacklock
From:
London, UK
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Posted 18 Feb 2006 4:20 am
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| Welcome Matthew, and thanks for opening my eyes to São Paulo - I had no idea about this side to Brazilian culture - it sounds like a great place to visit. The Villa Country looks amazing! |
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Jim Meiring
From:
Highlands, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 18 Feb 2006 5:12 am
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| Welcome Matthew. Some samba steel would be music to our late winter ears. best of luck. Jim |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 18 Feb 2006 9:32 am
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Matt,
I know what you mean about the different scene down south. Its like that in the states also.
I was wondering what songs the country bands play at Villa Country on a typical night. Are you guys doing the line dance thing down there ?
It looks like you get a pretty good view from the bandstand from the pictures on the site !
------------------
Bob
upcoming gigs
My Website
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Dale Bessant
From:
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
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Posted 18 Feb 2006 10:32 am
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Matthew,
Welcome to this great forum and enjoy this wonderful place.......Brazil, eh?.sounds kinda warm and cozy right now as up here in the "Great White North" today it is -19c and a strong wind makes it around -33c with the wind c-c-chill! welcome aboard.....  [This message was edited by Dale Bessant on 18 February 2006 at 10:33 AM.] |
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Ron Randall
From:
Dallas, Texas, USA
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Posted 18 Feb 2006 11:50 am
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| Welcome! |
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Matthew Prouty
From:
Warsaw, Poland
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Posted 18 Feb 2006 12:28 pm
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There are two basic types of country bands. The Dupla, usually two guys with an acoustic guitar singing harmony parts. These guys sound a lot like Mexican Mariachi balladeers. These guys are called Duplas Sertanejas. This is traditional Brazilian country music. They are often backed by a small band, but function as a unit alone with great harmony singing and simple guitar accompaniment.
The other Brazilian country type of band would resemble this band:
http://www.westrocky.com.br/banda.htm
They have that Nashville sound and sing American inspired songs. The songs are often in Portuguese, but some are in English as well.
The history of country music in Brazil can be found on the site for Chitãozinho & Xororo:
http://www2.uol.com.br/chitaozinhoexororo/
They are Dupla Sertanejo that combines the Nashville sound. Here is what they say about Country Music History in Brazil:
Música Country no Brasil
Country music in Brazil arrived in the 1960s introduced solely by the voice of Bob Nelson. Worn in the best style country, inspired by the North American actor John Wayne, he made, for about 40 years, the typical vocal call "Yodel" (sing tirolês (alpen)). But it was in the end of the 1970s that the country movement in Brazil had its explosion. Parallel to the success of the film "Deliverance", translated here as Bitter tasting Nightmare, whose track "Dueling Banjos" enchanted auditoriums of the entire world, the National Bands and Honky Tonks appeared in São Paulo that would divulge country still more music. At this time pioneering bands as "Cowboy Group", "Ugly and Bad", "Dollar Company ', "Nashville Express" and the singer Carlinhos Borba Troyano Cat, of the Group Cowboy, had agitated multitudes in the honky tonks such as the Show Days Saloon, Farwest Bar, Saloon Cowboy, Bang Saloon Bang and the Barbadinhos. Since then, thousands of people cultivate the passion for the world country.
So there you have it. If I could sum it up and put it in perspective, no matter what type of music you are talking about there has only been one phenonema in music and that was the British adaptation and subsequent domination in Rock and Roll, all other by other cultures, be it Rock and Roll, Blues, Country or Jazz, never achieves the level of success as the originators of the style. While there are artist who break through, rarely does a genre adopted from different culture achieve the success of the creator. This is the case with Brazilian country. While I may never be able to achieve the success that I might be able to if I were in Nashville or LA, but here talented or not, I hold the status of a musical ambassador which lends me an instant mystic and admiration prior to even playing a note.
All that aside, I can assure you that the music scene here is a very interesting and if not monetarily rewarding one, on a personal level a very rewarding one.
Matt
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Jim Hoke
From:
Tennessee, USA
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Posted 18 Feb 2006 7:45 pm
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| Welcome, Matt. (that sounds a little funny..) So yer' a lefty. I knew a lefty music genius-guy back in Oklahoma City who got the steel bug real bad, and I drove with him one day, way out into the distant boonies to look at a left-handed steel somebody had for sale. I can't remember if the guy even bought it, as it was pretty funky. I've seen lefty steels among the "steel section" in the wings at the Grand Ole Opry. "Ipanema" lays pretty well on the E9 neck, and is a natural on the C6 as well. Those Jobim tunes are fun to figure out, and the tempos are all pretty manageable. Sounds like you're more into the swing thing tho. You're gonna have a ton o' fun with that steel. See ya'. |
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CrowBear Schmitt
From:
Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France
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Posted 20 Feb 2006 1:39 am
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| Obrigado Matthew for fillin' us in |
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Matthew Prouty
From:
Warsaw, Poland
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Posted 20 Feb 2006 7:27 am
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CrowBear,
I see you know a little PorkandCheese!
Do you get a lot of action over in France playing steel?
M. |
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Dr. Hugh Jeffreys
From:
Southaven, MS, USA
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Posted 22 Feb 2006 1:07 pm
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| Mathew - Thanks for the E-Mail. Also, Is Brazil giving birth to any more Sergio Mendez type music? He is the best thing to come out of Brazil since Antonio Carlos Jobim and the Basa Nova. Is Astrud Gilberto still recording or retired on Girl From Ipanema? We would like to visit Rio some time--any suggestions? Best.....HJ |
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Matthew Prouty
From:
Warsaw, Poland
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Posted 23 Feb 2006 8:50 am
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Astrud has here latest CD out called Jungle. I have not had the opportunity to listen to it, however, it is on here site and has some sound clips from it. Since I live to the south of the Bossa-Nova and Chorinho belt which starts and ends in Rio, I am at a loss for a lot of what is going on in these scenes. I can however comment on the Sertaneja scene as that is what is dominant in the south.
As far as Rio goes, becareful, in 6 years of living in Brazil it is the only place where I have been robbed, cheated and attacked. I would only set foot in Rio if I were paid. There are thousands of place in Brazil so much nicer to the tourist.
Just recently a group of 30-40 English tourists were held up on the way from the airport to their hotel. The lost everything. Nothing like this ever happens in São Paulo were the police are "less" corrupt. But if still want to go to Rio do so with caution, stay in Leblon, do not take anything that you cannot live without. The value of life in Brazil is less then 1 cent! And never try to defend yourself. The only one person that I know of that got away with his life from an assult was the Special Intelligence Officer at the Isreali embassy. He broke the robbers arms and legs and then was expidited out of the country.
M.[This message was edited by Matthew Prouty on 23 February 2006 at 08:51 AM.] |
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