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Topic: Hank Thompson's band 1958...Bob White on steel? |
Joe B. Long
From:
Llano Tx USA
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Posted 29 Dec 2014 7:20 pm |
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Could this be a young Bob White on a beautiful Bigsby steelguitar?
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Where do you want it?
Billy Joe Shaver |
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 29 Dec 2014 9:42 pm
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Certainly looks like Bob White to me; here's another from 1961, taken at the Someplace Else club in OKC with his own band.
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Roger Shackelton
From:
MINNESOTA (deceased)
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Posted 30 Dec 2014 5:33 am
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BOB WHITE played with Hank Thompson from 1953 to 1961 & he was the band manager for all those years.
This information was told to me by BOB himself, when I visited him in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1977.
The female singer in the above pic may be Bob's wife Sammi Smith. ??
Roger |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 30 Dec 2014 9:55 am
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Yep, that's them alright..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy-AT_R_d2U
"COUNTRY MUSIC TORCH SINGER SAMMI SMITH AND STEEL GUITARIST BOBBY WHITE SING AND PLAY "IF I HAD THE HEART OF A CLOWN".THIS RECORDING IS ONE OF SIX SONGS RECORDED BY WHITE AND SMITH.IT WAS RECORDRD IN OKLAHOMA CITY IN 1961 .THE OTHER SONGS WERE RECORDED IN CALIFORNIA.WHITE & SMITH WERE MARRIED FOR A SHORT TIME IN THE 1960s.,THIS IS ONE OF THE EARLIEST RECORDINGS OF SMITH WHO WENT ON TO BE ONE OF THE PRIME VOCAL INNOVATORS OF THE NEW URBAN COUNTRY MUSIC SOUND IN THE EARLY 70S..WHITE IS STILL REGARDED AS THE MOST INFLUENTIAL WESTERN SWING STEEL GUITARIST OF THE 1950s.HE PIONEERED THE FIRST 10 STRING PEDAL STEEL GUITAR..HIS B FLAT MAJ 7 #11 TUNING MADE IT POSSIBLE TO USE THE PROGRESSIVE HARMONIES OF THE BIG BAND POP SOUND..IT FOREVER CHANGED THE COURSE OF MODERN COUNTRY MUSIC.HE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MODERN SOUND OF HANK THOMPSONS BRAZOS VALLEY BOYS. UNFORTUNATELY THOMPSON WAS NEVER KNOWN TO GIVE MUCH CREDIT TO ANY OF HIS WORLD CLASS BRAZOS VALLEY MUSICIANS IN HIS WESTERN SWING BIG BAND OF THE 1950s.. FORTUNATELY HE WAS RECOGNIZED BY A GROUP OF HIS PEERS IN THE
1990s.THE SAME COULD BE SAID FOR SAMMI SMITH..SHE WAS ONE OF THE FIRST WOMEN WHO TOOK CONTROL OF THEIR BAND.,THEIR CAREER AND STAGE IMAGE.BUT BECAUSE OF HER LINK TO THE OUT LAW MUSIC MOVEMENT OF THE EARLY 70s.IN 2002 VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PAID TRIBUTE TO HER GRAMMY AWARD WINNING SONG "HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT" BY CHOOSING IT AS THE NO.1 POSITION OF THE TOP 100 COUNTRY MUSIC LOVE SONGS OF ALL TIME."
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 30 Dec 2014 10:17 am
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| Barry Blackwood wrote: |
Yep, that's them alright..
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKRs6MzUd1c
When Sammi was a teenager and still operating under her real name Jewel Faye Smith.
See the credits at 12:56 of the above link.
She certainly had an affection for the steel guitar. I saw her do a great western swing-ish set with Buddy E in Nashville in 1983, with Sid Hudson on standard guitar. |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 31 Dec 2014 4:19 am
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Look at those outfits--those were the days.
It makes me want to get myself an outfit and be a cowboy too. 
I see in the next couple of years he installed brackets on the steel's legs
so the thing would hold together better as he rocked. |
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Herb Steiner
From:
Spicewood TX 78669
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Posted 31 Dec 2014 9:12 am
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Wow, Bob's band played some totally wild arrangements on the pop tunes of the day. Sure different from what he did with Thompson.
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My rig: Infinity and Telonics.
Son, we live in a world with walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with steel guitars. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? |
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Craig A Davidson
From:
Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin USA
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Posted 31 Dec 2014 10:38 am
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| Sammi Smith went on to marry Jody Payne who played guitar for Willie Nelson. Sammi and Bob have a daughter by the name of Snow Jewel White who has a Facebook page about her dad. |
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Chris Lucker
From:
Los Angeles, California USA
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Posted 31 Dec 2014 2:19 pm
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I think it is Pee Wee Whitewing playing in that Hank Thompson photo playing the first of his two Bigsbys.
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Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars. |
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Jim Newberry
From:
Seattle, Upper Left America
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Posted 31 Dec 2014 5:51 pm
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I'm in contact with Pee Wee's granddaughter. I'll ask.
_________________
"The Masher of Touch and Tone"
-1950 Fender Dual Pro 8
-1950's Fender Dual Pro 6
-Clinesmith D8
-Clinesmith 8-string Frypan
-Clinesmith Joaquin
-~1940 National New Yorker
-~1936 Rickenbacher B6
-Homebuilt Amps |
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Chris Lucker
From:
Los Angeles, California USA
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Posted 31 Dec 2014 6:23 pm
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Just call pee wee. He has a birthday coming up.
Rayne, LA
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Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars. |
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Bobby Boggs
From:
Upstate SC.
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Posted 31 Dec 2014 11:48 pm
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This picture was taken before I was born. And I didn't get to know Pee Wee till he was in his 60's. But was he ever that tall? I gotta say the picture is of Bob White.
bb |
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Chris Lucker
From:
Los Angeles, California USA
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Posted 1 Jan 2015 5:15 am
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I don't think the player looks tall, that is what makes me think it is pee wee. I compared the image to the picture of pee wee in the Bigsby book page 130. In the Bigsby book photo, by the way, the caption is incorrect. Bobby Black is the player sitting behind PeeWee's Bigsby, then Larry Black playing the Tele and Pee Wee is sitting two over from his steel playing standard guitar.
On the other hand, it appears that both Bigsby pictures posted above reveal a replacement black knob on the endplate, so one knob that is cast aluminum and the other which is black phenolic. That is odd. So could well be Bob White. Pee Wee's Bigsby had two black knobs. Paul Warnik owns it now and is actually trying to locate the Bob White Bigsby.
1958 could have been the time that Pee Wee was no longer playing with Hank Thompson so he could stay closer to home in the Bay Area. I do know he agreed to come back and join Hank Thompson in the end of 1959 To play on the Capital Los Angeles Six Pack to Go sessions. He needed to buy a used Bigsby got that work. That Bigsby did not have his name on it, pee wee cannot recall the name it had, and he told me he thinks he sold it to a woman who needed a second Bigsby. I asked if it was Marian Hall, and he didn't think so.
This is all coming from memory and not my notes.
Looking at the picture, I think it is PeeWee playing Bob White's steel. But that is a stretch. Anyway, you can look at Pee Wee's collection of photos on his facebook page and see a picture of the Hank Thompson band when both Pee Wee and Bob White played.
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Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars. |
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Jim Newberry
From:
Seattle, Upper Left America
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Posted 2 Jan 2015 12:43 pm
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Just heard back from Ms. Whitewing and she says it is not PeeWee in the picture.
_________________
"The Masher of Touch and Tone"
-1950 Fender Dual Pro 8
-1950's Fender Dual Pro 6
-Clinesmith D8
-Clinesmith 8-string Frypan
-Clinesmith Joaquin
-~1940 National New Yorker
-~1936 Rickenbacher B6
-Homebuilt Amps |
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Chris Lucker
From:
Los Angeles, California USA
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Posted 2 Jan 2015 5:29 pm
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What year(s) were both in the band and on stage at the same time?
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Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars. |
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Andie Whitewing
From:
Lafayette, LA now Bellingham, WA
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Posted 19 Dec 2015 12:39 am Hrm...
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I don't think that's him. I could see how one might think so at a glance, though. Haha Jim Newberry, we meet again!
Andie |
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Butch Pytko
From:
Orlando, Florida, USA
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Posted 21 Dec 2015 6:26 pm
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Here's a couple of pictures that might help:
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Butch Pytko
From:
Orlando, Florida, USA
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Posted 21 Dec 2015 6:55 pm
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Well, something told me to do a trace back on the internet/Steel Guitar Forum on the 2nd picture, and I found this comment about who's actually playing Pee Wee Whitewing's Bigsby....
Billy Tonnesen
From:
Buena Park, California
Post Posted 25 Apr 09 6:40pm Reply with quote
Mitch:.
Yes, that looks like Peewee playing rhythm guitar.
Peewee was an excellent rhythm player. That picture was before my time. I wonder why Bobby Black was playing Peewee's Bigsby. Yes I did a recording session with Shorty up in San Francisco but not those two tunes. Once you played with Shorty Joe for an extended period of time, you became "Family".
When I would come up from Fort Ord on the weekend, Hank Doust had me stay at his house in the extra bedroom. His wife "Carmen" was a terrific cook Also, got to eat many times with Shorty's family. We also had an hour radio program Saturday afternoon and another Saturday night from the dance.
I just wanted to show another picture of Pee Wee Whitewing. Sorry for the confusion. |
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Russ Wever
From:
Kansas City
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Posted 21 Dec 2015 10:24 pm
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Trivial, perhaps, but in the first picture
of this post, the Mando player (who played
also fiddle) was also named Bob White !
~Rw
_________________
www.russface
www.russguru |
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Clyde Mattocks
From:
Kinston, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 21 Dec 2015 10:36 pm
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Isn't that Wanda Jackson in the full band picture above, in the back next to the drummer?
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LeGrande II, Nash. 112, Fender Twin Tone Master, Session 400, Harlow Dobro, R.Q.Jones Dobro |
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Jussi Huhtakangas
From:
Helsinki, Finland
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Posted 21 Dec 2015 11:35 pm
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It is Bob White in the first picture. When Pee Wee left the band Hank wanted to hire Bobby Black just for the fact that he would then have two steel players playing Bigsbys side by side, the other being Bob Black and the other Bob White  Unfortunately it never happened!  |
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Jussi Huhtakangas
From:
Helsinki, Finland
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Posted 21 Dec 2015 11:36 pm
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| Clyde Mattocks wrote: |
| Isn't that Wanda Jackson in the full band picture above, in the back next to the drummer? |
Yes she is! |
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Andie Whitewing
From:
Lafayette, LA now Bellingham, WA
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Posted 23 Dec 2015 9:18 pm Pee Wee Whitewing - Now Nearly 82
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In the top photo (whoever has a high quality originals I'd love it if you sent it to me at andiewhitewing@gmail.com) Pee Wee is behind Hank to the left and Bob White is behind Hank to the right.
I'm going to be seeing Bobby Black and Shorty Joe in less than a week and I'll be sure to ask them about the story behind Bobby, Pee Wee, and Larry doing an instrument switcharoo. I've seen both photos but don't have the highest quality versions.
This is fun. Thanks guys
Andie Whitewing, the non-steel playing singer. |
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Bill Cunningham
From:
Atlanta, Ga. USA
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Posted 24 Dec 2015 4:12 am
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| Russ Wever wrote: |
Trivial, perhaps, but in the first picture
of this post, the Mando player (who played
also fiddle) was also named Bob White !
~Rw
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Sure looks like Tiny Moore to me but this guy is not playing a Bigsby 5 string, so probably not him.
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Bill Cunningham
Atlanta, GA |
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Russ Wever
From:
Kansas City
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Posted 24 Dec 2015 9:51 am
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| Bill Cunningham wrote: |
Sure looks like Tiny Moore to me but this guy is
not playing a Bigsby 5 string, so probably not him. |
If it's any consolation, you'll find Bob White, rather
than Tiny Murphy, credited to mando & fiddle on the
bandmember roster underneath the pictures on ~> this page.
~Rw
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www.russface
www.russguru |
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