Gutsy Pluckers

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

"Gutsy pluckers" of the steel guitar do so much better than those who hop around trying to decide how they will spend their time. What is all that about?

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Rick Abbott · From: Indiana, USA

I am not sure what you mean, but I think you are saying: "Play it, like you mean it, and don't spend so much time deciding what gadgets and 'technique' you will attempt." If I'm off base, I'm sorry.

An old player named Warren Pearson came into my music store and wanted me to sell his Emmons D-10 for him. I said I would for a couple of lessons, no charges on the ebay sale. He gave me the lessons, but they didn't stick because they were not really what i want to do. About 3 weeks before he found out he had brain cancer he came in my shop and absolutly played the daylights out of my steel. I was working on a guitar and was listening from around the corner. I'd look around to watch him, man he was playing with gusto! A few clams, here or there, but his hands were just going for it, his picking was not careless, but carefree. Thad day I stopped being so damn carefull, and started playing like I mean it.
He died, but left me with one of his secrets. I'm not too great of a player, but even my mistakes are made with enthusiasm!
_________________
RICK ABBOTT
Sho~Bud D-10 Professional #7962
Remington T-8, Sehy #112
1975 Peavey Pacer

Barry Blackwood · Posted 28 Apr 2009 6:37 am

Bill Ford · From: Graniteville SC Aiken

I guess you could call me a "GP", if I think it will sound good/OK. I'll do it, if it doesn't sound like I thought it would,I don't do it again.

Bill
_________________
Bill Ford S12 CLR, S12 Lamar keyless, Misc amps&toys Sharp Covers
Steeling for Jesus now!!!

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Barry,

Doing anything but "gutsy plucking". Not too promising to say the least.

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Rick,

Thanks for sharing those parts of your life, as they relate to friend and a steel guitar. A sad story, indeed.

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Once again subscribers are reading nouns into my posts. This post refers to action at the fingertips, not the tongue, as it should be assigned to a verbal intent. I never have, nor will I ever use the term "Gutsy" for any other reason. I'll just leave that for others to squander as they see fit.

Barry Blackwood · Posted 28 Apr 2009 2:26 pm

Bill, you know you are on the fast track to win the award for "Most Vague Topic Title" don't you? Confused

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Barry,

You could become wealthy overnight if you developed a food or drink that would eliminate the sluggardness that is common during practice sessions. The half-hearted approaches to the pedal steel guitar are too numerous to account for. That is the basic reason for so few players who can park their steel on stage with confidence. Rehearsals are an absolute prerequisite beforehand. That is not to say that the circle of steel guitarists are totally void of selected players, who are "Gutsy Pluckers". Bloopers or just out of sort leads, played with the thunderous roar of accompaniment, is shameful. Steel players stick themselves in a dark corner, and unless there are steel players in the audience, it would surprise me if others are aware of of what is being played. We are way overdue to bring this issue into public view.

Charles Davidson · From: Phenix City Alabama, USA

I,m a gutsey player,takes a lot of guts to jump up on a bandstand and play with REAL pickers, DYKBC.
_________________
Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC !

Ulric Utsi-Åhlin · From: Sweden

Now & then You witness a performance by players who
are not "naturals",and have limited technique,but
practiced every little lick & trick a million times,
and never threw in a variation,and,probably,couldn´t
; now,as much as I like the Oscar Peterson school,
regardless of instrument,these players quite often
deliver good,meaningful music by simply playing
"...the onliest way I know...".
McUtsi

Danny Bates · From: Fresno, CA. USA

Hi Bill. Just a quick note about "Gutsy Pluckers"...

Gutsy Pluckers will all certainly blow a gasket when they read this post but I unequivocally must make the case that this is typical of the kind of noise Gutsy Pluckers enjoy making. Here's the story: Gutsy Pluckers spew nothing but lame licks and bad timing. In every case, one cannot help but recall that their plan is to treat the audience like brainless creeps. Gutsy Pluckers's janissaries are moving at a frightening pace toward the total implementation of that agenda, which includes turning misogynists loose against us good citizens. For heaven's sake, this is where the rubber hits the road. In fact, I have had to say that to Gutsy Pluckers on many occasions and I will keep on saying it until they stop trying to bring discord, confusion, and frustration into our ears. What is often overlooked, however, is that it has been said that one positive outcome of the Law of Unintended Consequences is that if we help others to see through the empty and meaningless licks uttered by those goombahs then they won't be able to help acknowledge the preternatural wickedness of the blood flowing through my veins. Now that's a rather crude and simplistic statement and, in many cases, it may not even be literally true. But there is a sense in which it is generally true, a sense in which it unquestionably expresses how the purpose of my post is far greater than to prove to you how juvenile and revolting they have become. The purpose of this post is to get us all to start thinking for ourselves because they act like they have mystical powers of divination and prophecy, but the musical evidence is too contrary.
Just the other day, some of Gutsy Pluckers's misguided sympathizers forced a prospectus into my hands as I was playing a song. The prospectus described Gutsy Pluckers's blueprint for a song in which mutinous boneheads are free to encourage individuals to disregard other people, to become fully self-absorbed. As I dropped the prospectus’s ego onto an overflowing wastebasket, I reflected upon the way that if I am correctly informed, the above statement is entirely suited to Gutsy Pluckers, who here, as elsewhere, do not possess a single creative idea for the future but lives only in the past. In any case, difficult times lie ahead. Fortunately, we have the capacity to circumvent much of the impending misery by working together to present a clear picture of what is happening, what has happened, and what is likely to happen in the future. Are you prepared to discuss this to stop Gutsy Pluckers?
It should be intuitively obvious even to the most casual observer that it is immature and stupid of Gutsy Pluckers to guarantee the destruction of anything that sounds like a vital, steel guitar community. It would be mature and intelligent, however, to provide an antidote to contemporary manifestations of grumpy, lewd officialism, and that's why I say that we have a dilemma of leviathan proportions on our hands: Should we expose all of their filthy, subversive, and destructive activities, or is it sufficient to proscribe them and their spin doctors as the most dangerous enemies of the real musician? I could give you the answer now but it would be more productive for me first to inform you that if any of them were paying attention—which it would seem they are not, as I've already gone over this—he'd see that they occasionally make comments accusing me and my band of being mephitic warmongers. These comments are typically couched in gutter language (which is doubtless the language in which they habitually think) and serves no purpose other than to convince me that when you tell Gutsy Pluckers's gofers that it is important to realize that Gutsy Pluckers's functionaries are merely liars with charisma, they begin to get fidgety and their eyes begin to wander. They really don't care. They have no interest in hearing anything truthful. Then they throw another hissy fit if we don't let him sit in and destroy the ears of good, honest customers. At least putting up with another Gutsy Pluckers hissy fit is easier than convincing Gutsy Pluckers's associates that it takes more than a Gutsy Pluckers's idea of music.. It takes a great many thoughtful and semi-thoughtful people who are willing to serve on the side of Truth.
While we do nothing, they keep on gloating and smirking. And they will keep on gloating and smirking until you tell them things that Gutsy Pluckers don't want to hear. Yes, they may have some superficial charm, but Gutsy Pluckers's endeavors have kept us separated for too long from the love, contributions, and challenges of our brothers and sisters in this wonderful adventure we share together—music!
As barbaric as the Gutsy Pluckers's excuses are, if Gutsy Pluckers's plan to poke and pry into every facet of our gigs is to be discouraged then the wisest course of action is to build a new understanding that can transport us to tomorrow. Before we start down that road I ought to remind you that they do not tolerate any view that differs from their own. Rather, the Gutsy Pluckers discredit and discard those pickers who contradict them along with the ideas that they represent. Their proposed licks are eerily similar to those promoted by madmen such as Pol Pot. What's scary, though, is that their extollment of revisionism has been ratcheted up a few notches from anything Pol Pot ever conjured up. Wink

Who is he???
Once one begins thinking about free speech, about callous scrubs who use ostracism and public opinion to prevent the airing of views contrary to their own meretricious beliefs, one realizes that Gutsy Pluckers's cult followers argue that his canards are good for the environment, human rights, and baby seals. These are the same savage smut peddlers who criticize other people's beliefs, fashion sense, and lifestyle. This is no coincidence; our battle with Gutsy Pluckers is a battle between spiritualism and corporatism, between tradition and subversion, between the defenders of Western civilization and its enemies. With the battle lines drawn as such, it is abundantly clear that Gutsy Pluckers justifies his ostentatious campaigns with fallacious logical arguments based on argumentum ad baculum. In case you're unfamiliar with the term, it means that if we don't accept Gutsy Pluckers's claim that he answers to no one then he will assail all that is holy.
This seems so obvious, I am amazed there is even any discussion about it. If you observe some repetition in my statements, it is because such repetition is needed for clarity and emphasis as I do something about the continuing—make that the escalating—effort on Gutsy Pluckers's part to bombard me with insults. What a joyful affair it would be for Gutsy Pluckers if he managed to get away with bombarding me with insults. He'd be laughing through his snout like a sow. He could practice human sacrifice on a grand scale in some sort of manipulative, invidious death cult. And he could trick us into trading freedom for serfdom. We must not allow Gutsy Pluckers to do any of these.
The Orwellian implications of Gutsy Pluckers's jibes are perfectly clear. That, in itself, will condemn us to live with muzzy-headed morbid-types before you know it. Despite total incompetence, Gutsy Pluckers is often afflicted with an amazing conceit that causes him to break down age-old institutions and customs. If you delve deeply into his activities and thus, in tranquil clarity, submit to contemplation the ipse dixits of damnable buggers, you will indubitably discover why he believes that national-security interests can and should be sidestepped whenever his personal interests are at stake. That's just wrong. He further believes that those who disagree with him should be cast into the outer darkness, should be shunned, should starve. Wrong again! In closing, please remember that my ultimate goal is to deal summarily with nasty champions of deceit, lies, theft, plunder, and rapine. If I advance, follow me. If I stop, urge me on. If I retreat, kill me.

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Hi Danny,

You have tweaked my imagination far beyond its limitations. The expertise in bombastic critique overshadows my puny efforts to become self-taught in music, as well as becoming prone as a decipherer of common sense advances made through literary logic. I would be hard put in fully understanding where your literary blows have landed. When I move from one position to another, I feel as though I've been thumped by a class act thumper, who bears all the marks of inflicting a demoralizing clout, if challenged. Your literary performance demonstrates some of the very best ever written. (IMO) IF your musical abilities should be the equivalent of your mighty pen, the "Gutsy Plucker" theme may embrace your best efforts to remain in a state of anonymity. California is "the place to be", and is respectfully submitted as an implication circumventing each unexplored musical criterion, and whose energies are directed to exploitations that weary harmonic creativities. Harmonic blendings have been forced to take a hike there in the wake of dreadful opportunists milling about with boom boxes slung over their shoulders. They stalk every movement along beaches, sidewalks, picnic areas, etc. where humans gifted with music appreciation are pelted with absolute distortion, and by inflicting noise disturbances.

richard burton · From: Britain

Would an overweight steeler count as a Gutsy Plucker?

My father was the last in a long line of famous pluckers, and I have the tee-shirt to prove it Shocked

Danny Bates · From: Fresno, CA. USA

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Richard,

We live in a world where everything counts for something. As for the distended tummy, the results of a calorie ladened diet, I cannot comment to grown men whose rationalizations are topsy-turvy at the waistlines. For certain, it's a common enemy of fitness. BTW, are you referring to the bird in the bush, the one that panics and takes flight, after it is "pointed" out? Oh Well

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Danny,

It becomes most difficult to respond to accreditations of the magnitude engendered. I became instantly aware of your skills in producing unlimited points of interest with relative ease. Gold or no gold, you've added to the enrichment of California by your skills in thinking and writing.

Barry Blackwood · Posted 29 Apr 2009 1:04 pm

Let's see, eighteen replies, ten of which are Bill's .....

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Barry,

The figures prove very little. You are surrounded by prompts of every description in this world of oddities. Your insistence that my replies are out of proportion with incoming responses is an oddity.

Barry Blackwood · Posted 29 Apr 2009 3:02 pm

Now it's eleven of which are Bill's. You're talking to yourself again .....

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

Barry,

I would definitely stop talking, period; provided that you as a musician, have more to offer than your replies.

Barry Blackwood · Posted 29 Apr 2009 5:08 pm

Likewise I'm sure, Bill. Winking

Gary Lee Gimble · From: Fredericksburg, VA.

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