I'm sad to report that Forumite and pioneering steeler Marian Hall died last week due to complications from surgery. Marian's health had been compromised for some time in addition to the crippling arthritis that ended her playing career.
Marian deserves to be better known for her many accomplishments as a live television pioneer, resourceful and innovative steel guitar soloist, vocalist and songwriter. Marian became a familiar face on live TV in Los Angeles in the 1950s as part of the Town Hall Party cast along with “superpickers”, Joe Maphis and Merle Travis. Marian spent time gigging with Tex Ritter's Ranch Party, Tex Williams band, and even Spade Cooley's all-girl orchestra.
She was a neighbor and close friend of Paul Bigsby and was one of the few for whom PA would gladly do the chore of changing strings. Marian played while seated on a high stool with her Bigsby pedal steel raised up on its leg extensions giving the illusion that she was playing while standing. She had a wonderful, self-deprecating sense of humor and roared with laughter when she told me how the stool once collapsed on live television yet she somehow finished her solo while lying on her side on the stage. And play she could: red-hot, yet always tasteful steel runs and bell-like harmonics tumbled out of her amp while she flashed that girl-next-door-smile to the camera. That she was respected by musicians of the caliber of Travis and Maphis speaks volumes of her abilities.
I'll remember her as a whip-smart, gracious lady who was modest about her abilities yet quietly proud of her accomplishments and her rightful place in the history of California Country and Western Swing music. No doubt feeling the same way, last year, the Seattle Western Swing Society inducted Marian into its Hall of Fame. Not bad for a career that began on live TV at age twelve as one half of the sister duo, The Saddle Sweethearts. I join Cindy Cashdollar and all who knew her in remembering a great lady. R.I.P. Marian.[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 19 April 2006 at 02:52 PM.]
