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Topic: Contemporary touring non-pedal steelers |
Andy Henriksen
From: Michigan, USA
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Posted 25 May 2016 12:18 pm
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[This discussion probably has occurred here already. I couldn't figure out how to search for it, though.]
Anyway, I discovered rather excitedly that Asleep at the Wheel was going to be playing near me later this summer, and I got very excited at the chance to see Eddie Rivers in person. (my excitement was subsequently squashed when I realized I am going to be out of state that same week. )
Anyway, that got me thinking - who else should I be on the look out for? Cindy Cashdollar is also on my radar, of course, but otherwise, I'm not even sure who is out there and worth keeping an eye out for.
I'm mostly looking at traditional steel music (country, western swing, Hawaiian) more so than experimental stuff or blues. Also, not so interested in dobro-ers.
Thoughts? |
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Cartwright Thompson
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Posted 25 May 2016 1:06 pm
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Rose Sinclair with Wayne Hancock |
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Chris Bauer
From: Nashville, TN USA
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Posted 25 May 2016 2:30 pm
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I'm nervous to suggest that I'm even remotely worth keeping an eye - or ear - out for but one of the bands I'm playing with (The Farmer and Adele) is starting to tour more and will be playing more out of town clubs, theaters, and festivals as time goes on. It's a combination of western/cowboy music and western swing.
As of the moment, confirmed out-of-town dates are in Knoxville, Asheville, Johnson City (TN), Chicago, St. Louis, Columbus (OH and a probable date in Columbus, IN), Paducah (KY), and Indianapolis. There are tentative dates being worked on for western New York, northern Ohio, the Carolinas, and Cape Cod.
If you're in any of these areas, let me know and I'll be happy to keep you updated on dates, venues, and times. I always love meeting up with other forumites on the road! |
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Andy Henriksen
From: Michigan, USA
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Posted 26 May 2016 5:43 am
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Cartwright - excellent suggestion! As it turns out he's in Detroit on July 2nd, and I actually may be free! Thank you!
Chris - I would absolutely come check you and your band out. I just found you guys on Facebook, and will keep an eye out for you around SE Michigan. In fact, if you ever do play here and need an opening band, let me know!
Surely there are others!? |
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Mark Eaton
From: Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 26 May 2016 10:24 am
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This is a great topic, and I am intrigued about additional entries myself.
Of course Andy you are narrowing the scope by wanting to hone it down to country, western swing, and Hawaiian. But the fact is (as you have likely figured out since you are posing the question here) there are very few players traveling the highways and byways of America whose main source of income is non-pedal or lap steel and they are playing those genres mentioned above.
When we had our first ever Lap/Non-Pedal Steel gathering a few weeks ago in the Bay Area at Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto we had three different rooms of steels going and in the back room where I spent a fair amount of time we doing more of the rock or blues with a little distortion thing along with a bit of Hawaiian, and in the front room where the great Bobby Black was holding court it was more your western swing with some some jazz standards and the like going on.
One of the guys laughed as he came into to the back room to check it out and said something to me along the lines of "man - I had to get out of there
and check out something else - every other chord in the front room is a 6th!" _________________ Mark |
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Steven Pearce
From: Port Orchard Washington, USA
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Posted 26 May 2016 10:30 am
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...no 'Tip of the Hat' to me, but in the Seattle area, there are a few really good bands
playing that have steel guitar.
The Fentons have some of the best all-original music in town, and I do play lap steel and Tele here. We'll be closing the show tomorrow night at Seattle Folk Life Festival.
www.FentonsTwang.com
http://www.nwfolklife.org
The One-Uppers are a great Seattle band with an amazing pedal steel player.
www.1uppers.com
AND let's not forget Portland Oregon, which has a huge roster of skilled steelers
The end of my report
Steve Pearce
_________________ http://www.fentonstwang.com/fr_home.cfm |
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Andy Henriksen
From: Michigan, USA
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Posted 26 May 2016 10:32 am
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Mark Eaton wrote: |
This is a great topic, and I am intrigued about additional entries myself.
Of course Andy you are narrowing the scope by wanting to hone it down to country, western swing, and Hawaiian. |
True. I guess I was trying to preemptively weed out suggestions of Nels Cline or David Gilmore or others that dabble in steel from a more experimental angle. Not that I don't enjoy that, but I literally have never seen a band that with a lap steel player that plays the sort of stuff I'm interested in playing. I want to change that. |
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Mike Neer
From: NJ
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Posted 26 May 2016 10:44 am
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Keep your eyes open for Caleb Klauder with Russ Blake on steel. Not sure if they are coming your way or not. _________________ Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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K Maul
From: Hadley, NY/Hobe Sound, FL
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Posted 26 May 2016 11:16 am
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I get out of town occasionally with the band called the Lustre Kings. We've played with Wanda Jackson backing her, shows with Bill Kirchen,an occasional twin steel extravaganza with Cindy Cashdollar and myself. A lot of other things in a lot of towns on both coasts and in the middle. I play a 1955 Fender Stringmaster or Custom. Sometimes a late 50s E-Harp 10 string. I also play with the Starline rhythm boys up in Vermont but they very rarely leave that state. _________________ KEVIN MAUL: Airline, Beard, Clinesmith, Donner, Evans, Excel, Fender, Fluger, GFI, Gibson, Hilton, Ibanez, Justice, K+K, Live Strings, MOYO, National, Oahu, Peterson, Quilter, Rickenbacher, Sho~Bud, Supro, TC, Ultimate, VHT, Williams, X-otic, Yamaha, ZKing. |
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Jim Rossen
From: Iowa, USA
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Posted 26 May 2016 11:21 am
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Chris Scruggs, Nashville (?) based, plays non-pedal steel and Spanish guitar, many bands/projects. |
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Mark Eaton
From: Sonoma County in The Great State Of Northern California
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Posted 26 May 2016 11:25 am
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Steven Pearce wrote: |
...no 'Tip of the Hat' to me, but in the Seattle area, there are a few really good bands
playing that have steel guitar.
The Fentons have some of the best all-original music in town, and I do play lap steel and Tele here. We'll be closing the show tomorrow night at Seattle Folk Life Festival.
www.FentonsTwang.com
http://www.nwfolklife.org
The One-Uppers are a great Seattle band with an amazing pedal steel player.
www.1uppers.com
AND let's not forget Portland Oregon, which has a huge roster of skilled steelers
The end of my report
Steve Pearce
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Good report Steven, but in order to stay the course relating to Andy's original
question - are you and any of the bands from the Northwest with lap/non-pedal players going to be piling into a van towing one of those white box equipment trailers and travel 2/3 the length of the country to the likes of Michigan and beyond to play gigs? Probably not, most folks in these kinds of bands have day jobs.
Andy, I hear what you're saying about David Gilmour who is one of my all-time favorite guitar players, and it's cool that he uses non-pedal steel for certain things,it seems to be more like an "effect" or a side dish for him - certainly not the main course. And I learned something new today - I didn't even know that Nels Cline plays lap steel.
I think you might to have to broaden your horizons about who you would like to see and what kind of music you'd like to hear on non-pedal. When Jerry Douglas travels with his JD Band, though he will play dobro the majority of the evening he will usually play lap steel for 4 or 5 songs, but it will be more the rockin' Jerry vs. the bluegrass or country Jerry when he goes electric. There's David Lindley, who may or may not have a lap steel with him - but as you know, it won't be country. Greg Leisz, might play a few tunes on a lap steel along with pedal steel with someone like Bill Frisell or perhaps Jackson Browne - not country. Darick Campbell is one of my favorite 8 string non-pedal players on the planet but with The Campbell Brothers it will be the bluesy gospel sacred steel style.
I guess beyond that unless others chime in with some great suggestions you are going to have to wait for The Wheel with Eddie, or Cindy Cashdollar to come back around. And the fact is with Cindy, last time I saw her was last summer with Albert Lee and, played a few tunes on her D-8 Remington, but most of the songs were on her Lap King six string steel that evening and they were more in line with rock or blues, same sort of thing she does when she's out with Sonny Landreth.
Edited: i see a couple other post have come in since was working on this long one, so we're making some progress. I believe since Chris Scruggs joined Marty Stuart's band that he is mainly on bass but I believe he might play a few tunes on a Fender non-pedal during the evening. And therein lies the point - Marty isn't hauling Chris around the country to specifically be a steel player in the Fabulous Superlatives. _________________ Mark |
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Steven Pearce
From: Port Orchard Washington, USA
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Posted 26 May 2016 11:49 pm
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Mark, sorry to get off the subject...And as you guessed,
there's no Fentons truck and trailer coming to a town near you. But when I joined this band in 1983, our schedule had us booked 26 days a month. The music was different and I was younger and a bass player. Oh yeah, still no day job. Good luck.
_________________ http://www.fentonstwang.com/fr_home.cfm |
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Paul Honeycutt
From: Colorado, USA
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Posted 27 May 2016 12:16 pm
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Roseanne Cash has a guy playing lap steel on her latest tour. I don't know who it was but he was real good. |
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