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Topic: What Was the First Pedal Steel Record? |
b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 16 Nov 2009 11:33 am |
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We all know that Bud Isaacs ushered in the pedal steel era in Nashville with Webb Pierce's "Slowly", but Alvino Rey and Speedy West had been using pedal steel on their records in Los Angeles before that. I suspect that Rey was the first to record with pedals, but I don't know for sure.
What was the first record that featured a pedal steel guitar?
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Billy Tonnesen
From:
R.I.P., Buena Park, California
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Posted 16 Nov 2009 4:36 pm
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| Probably "Alvino Rey" with his big band in the 30's playing his custom "Multichord". As far as Country-Western, Dick Roberts on his Multichord with the early 40's Spade Cooley Band. |
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Larry Bell
From:
Englewood, Florida
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Posted 16 Nov 2009 5:01 pm
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Where's Al when we need him?
He was probably there when Alvino recorded it (whatever it was).
I miss Al Marcus.
I'll also bet Roy Ayres knows.
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My CD's: 'I've Got Friends in COLD Places' - 'Pedal Steel Guitar'
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Andy Sandoval
From:
Bakersfield, California, USA
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Posted 16 Nov 2009 7:57 pm
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| b0b wrote: |
What was the first record that featured a pedal steel guitar? |
Now are we talkin pedal steel guitar as we know it today with the pedals used in the way that Isaacs played or more of a MultiKord fashion where your using the pedals to change the tuning? |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 16 Nov 2009 10:01 pm
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Alvino Rey built an amp for guitar in 1930.When he formed his own band in 1941 the pedal steel was his featured instrument. He recorded it in 41, maybe before that.But don't know if he was the first. YOU BETCHA, DYK?BC.
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 16 Nov 2009 10:19 pm
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| Andy Sandoval wrote: |
| Now are we talkin pedal steel guitar as we know it today with the pedals used in the way that Isaacs played or more of a MultiKord fashion where your using the pedals to change the tuning? |
My question is, what was the first pedal steel recording. The first pedal steels weren't made or played the way they are today.
I suspect it was Alvino Rey, but I'm not sure what year or what song. Seems that someone must know the answer.
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Tony Davis
From:
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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Posted 17 Nov 2009 4:11 am
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b0b...I cant answer your question about first pedal steel....but I know for sure that the first country music record..(And this is set in Stone !!!"...was by Adam and Eve...called
"Dont sit under the Apple Tree with Anyone else but me!"...They had Snake on Banjo !!!!!
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Eric Stumpf
From:
Newbury, NH 03255
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Posted 17 Nov 2009 4:56 am
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| The pre-war Gibson pedal steel was called an Electraharp; very few were made. Alvino had several pedal guitars that he designed and built before Gibson produced the Electraharp (the name of which is also applied to their post-war pedal steels). There is a possibility that Rico Turchetti recorded on a pedal guitar before the war; most likely a home recording made on a Phono-cord or something like that. Jay Harlin also had a working pedal steel that he built in the late 30's and I can't imagine that he didn't make a personal recording or two with the instrument. As far as the first commercial pedal steel recordings made before WW2 are concerned, I bet they were done by Alvino. |
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Roy Ayres
From:
Riverview, Florida, USA, R.I.P.
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Posted 17 Nov 2009 2:57 pm
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Larry,
Thanks for the vote of confidence in my knowledge regarding early pedal steels. My best guess would be Alvino for the first recorded pedal steel, but that is only a guess. Dr. Hugh Jeffries was a personal friend of Alvino's and they corresponded/visited quite often. Hugh might have a more authoritative answer.
If there is enough interest to justify the time, do a search on "Dr. Hugh Jeffries" and email him a link to this thread through his Forum email.
====================
What I CAN tell you about Alvino is that his real name was Alvin McBurney and his professional career started two years before I was born.
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Larry Bell
From:
Englewood, Florida
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Billy Tonnesen
From:
R.I.P., Buena Park, California
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Posted 17 Nov 2009 6:50 pm
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I still have the long play record called "The Big Band Steel Guitar of Alvino Rey" that I purchased from Tom Bradshaw's Steel Guitar Record Club back in the 70's. I no longer have a records player I can play it on. There are eight songs on each side mostly old standards. One of the first Alvino Rey recordings I remember was "My Buddy".
Evem though Alvino did not play Country, As I remember, some of his pedal changes did follow a Melody Line from one chord to another. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 18 Nov 2009 9:16 am
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| b0b wrote: |
| The first pedal steels weren't made or played the way they are today. |
While that may be true, the idea of using the pedals for "moving changes" (picking/strumming the strings, and then applying a pedal to change the chord or voicing) was known in the late 30's. I can say that with some certainty because the procedure was described in a Gibson magazine ad in 1939.
I can't imagine that it took over ten years for someone to record this type (or technique) of playing. That's why this is one area I'm doing constant research. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 18 Nov 2009 11:03 am
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| Billy Tonnesen wrote: |
I still have the long play record called "The Big Band Steel Guitar of Alvino Rey" that I purchased from Tom Bradshaw's Steel Guitar Record Club back in the 70's. I no longer have a records player I can play it on. There are eight songs on each side mostly old standards. One of the first Alvino Rey recordings I remember was "My Buddy".
Evem though Alvino did not play Country, As I remember, some of his pedal changes did follow a Melody Line from one chord to another. |
I sell that LP in the Forum catalog. The liner notes are by Rey himself and they are extensive, but they don't really answer the question. One interesting quote is about the studio group "The All-American Jazz Band" in 1936-37: "I didn't use steel on the records because it wasn't taken seriously as a jazz instrument at the time."
Elsewhere in those notes he hints that "St. Louis Blues", the first hit for his own band, might have been his first record on pedal steel, but the sentence is ambiguous. He may have recorded some sides on the Electraharp before that when he was with Horace Heidt. And of course radio transcriptions were a part of the record industry in those days.
Were there any other pedal steel guitarists recording in the 1930's? I haven't heard of any.
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 18 Nov 2009 11:04 am
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| Larry Bell wrote: |
Wow, Roy
He must've been REALLY old.
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Alvino Rey was born on July 1, 1908. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 24 Nov 2009 11:19 am
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While I can't post a copy of the old Gibson magazine ad (my scanner has died), I can give you a quote from the ad...
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| Whole phrases can be blended together without breaking the continuity of tone. You can pick the strings just once and the foot pedals will bring in chord changes and progressions that flow together like voices in a choir. |
I don't know what anyone else thinks about that paragraph, but I think that's about as good a description of modern pedal steel technique as I've ever heard. And remember, this was printed over a decade before before Bud Isaacs legendary "Slowly" recording.
I have no doubt that someone (maybe Alvino, who supposedly helped design the Gibson instrument, or Jimmy Smith, who appeared in some of their earliest ads) recorded this new style of playing sometime in the '40s, but I've been unable to find such a recording...so far.  |
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basilh
From:
United Kingdom
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Posted 25 Nov 2009 11:09 am
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What about The Tavares boys ? especially Ernest.
There's a LOT of info HERE
And wasn't there a pedal player with Felix Mendelssohn's Hawaiian Serenaders pre 1940 ?
I thought Roland Peachey used palm levers and a couple of pedals on his three neck Abbott, that was a pre-war guitar. Roland recorded with Felix AND his own group.
I'll check out the discographies with Marsden and Rockwell. They will SURELY know.
John Marsden still has one neck of that guitar and there is pictorial evidence of its use in the form of short movies of Felix as well as the recordings.
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 25 Nov 2009 12:02 pm
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Thanks very much for the link, Baz. I read that Ernest built his own pedal steel in 1946, and started recording with it in 1947:
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| Ernestβs first recordings using his pedal steel were 1947 radio transcriptions, recorded in Hollywood, with The Harmony Hawaiians. One track from these transcriptions is included on a 1999 released compilation CD. βHAWAIIAN MEMORIES (rare transcription discs 1936-1947)β. (HARLEQUIN HQ CD 130) |
In Freddie's bio, there are no references to him playing a pedal steel before he started working with Leo on the Fender 1000 changer design. He may have played one, but none is mentioned in that document.
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basilh
From:
United Kingdom
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Posted 16 Jun 2017 2:21 am
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If you mean the fist record with pedal steel on it, then Alvino Rey
1939 with the King Sisters. On the Macgregor table (CP)
and Bluebird Nov 13th 1939 B-10512 'A Bee Guzint' B-10545 'In The Mood' BOTH Single 78's BUT both Reissued together on Ajazz 515..LP
The First SOLO pedal Steel recording would also be Alvino. I'll get the title Label and matrix number later..
With the Harlan Bros and Rico coming a smidgeon later..
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