West Virginia Creeper

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

I've been listening to the first Commander Cody album and curious about what brand of steel WVC is using. Does anyone know?

Thanks, Dave

Roger Shackelton · From: MINNESOTA (deceased)

I'm not too sure, but it may be a Sho-Bud.?

Rick Nicklas · From: Verona, Mo. (deceased)

Right after he ended his stint with The Commander, he joined up with us backing Stoney Edwards for approx a year and a half. Here is a picture of him sitting on the right. I can't tell the brand name. Maybe you can.

Russ Tkac · Posted 6 Aug 2007 12:17 pm

Looks like a ZB to me. You should be OK with that Dave. Smile

Russ

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

I was thinking ZB from the sound of it. The steel tone on that record is very nice.

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

Did he ever play with Stonewall Jackson? I bought an old LP in SLO years ago and was surprised to see signatures by the band and Stonewall himself. I remember the steel players last name was Davis and it was dated 1970 something and the show was in Richmond CA. I'll see if I can find it.

DZ

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

Interesting on how you picked out that ZB sound Dave. They are pretty recognizable to those of us that play them.

Chris Bauer · From: Nashville, TN USA

I know he had a ZB in the early to mid 70s but don't know if he had other guitars as well.

Rick - did you play with Stoney when Evan Zang was in the band?

Rick Nicklas · From: Verona, Mo. (deceased)

Chris, We were the band chosen to back Stoney after "Asleep at the Wheel" went out on their own. And, this was our original highschool psycodelic band gone country after the military. We eventually became an 8 piece group all living in a Wennabego. What a trip!!! Most people don't know that Steve's sister was in a daytime soap opera as the bad girl and she also played in a James Bond movie. Needless to say, we always seemed to find a place to park and watch her when the show was aired.

p.s. If you right-click on the picture above and check "Set as Background" you can see the steel a lot better when you go back to Desktop.

Joe Shelby · From: Walnut Creek, California, USA

His actual name is Steve Davis (Joe Goldmark could
give us the real story, since he knew Steve). The one
time I saw him play with Cody, he was playing a Sho-Bud Crossover, and I understood that was the guitar
he used on "Lost in the Ozone."
He also had a Gibson (non-pedal) console (the guitar
most associated with Don Helms), and probably others
as well.
Over the years I would hear he was playing with different bands around the Bay Area, but never saw him other than that one time (I was all of 13 or 14
at the time, it was at the Freight and Salvage, where
age wasn't a problem...).
It was there too that I saw Bobby Black for the first
time, probably not long after he had joined up with them.

Joe.

Rick Nicklas · From: Verona, Mo. (deceased)

Joe, Steve used to play that little lap steel as we cruised down the highways. About 4 to 5 hundred miles a day. And he always had a cigar going. He loved Bob Wills. My father also played steel and him and Steve had some good times pickin the oldies.

Joe Shelby · From: Walnut Creek, California, USA

I have heard that Steve had taken lessons from Jimmy Day, in Nashville, at some point.
He got a bad rap for years after he left Cody, which
was unfortunate, I guess due to what Dave Z. described as "loose" and "pitchy" work on that first
Cody album.
I still enjoyed it, especially on "What's a Matter Now."
The Stonewall Jackson thing doesn't surprise me, though I'd never heard that before...
Stoney Edwards was one of the finest singers ever around these parts, sad that he faded into obscurity
too soon.
(edited to say thanks, Rick, for those rememberances;
hopefully, someday Billy Bar Kirchen or the Commander
will set down in print some of the numerous tales from the Ozone...).
There is the Book "Starmaking Machinery," which chronicles the making of the one album Ernie Hagar
appeared on; "Tales From the Ozone" (?). Very good read if you can ever find it...

Joe.

Rick Nicklas · From: Verona, Mo. (deceased)

The last time I saw him, I lived in Pittsburg, California with my first wife and he came to the house and gave us a really nice gift and I had a pleasant chat with him. I could see that his life had changed for the better and he was happier than I had ever seen him. I often wondered where he went and how he was doing. I told him that I had taken up steel myself and he grinned the whole time I played but did not really seem to have a passion for Steel Guitar anymore.

Gary Meyer · From: Sacramento, California, USA

Seems I read that Billy C. Farlow was working on a book titled "Too Much Fun".

Herb Steiner · From: Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064

My pal Cornell Hurd used to play with Steve Davis in the Bay area and said he was an excellent flamenco guitarist.
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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?

Olaf van Roggen · From: The Netherlands

Thank y'all for the story of West Virginia Creeper,I love that record and listened to it a lot in my teens.
I like what he did on"Seeds and Stems(again)".
On the live at the Armadillo world headquarters'Bobby Black kinda rushed through the solo's.
Creepers' solo on Beat me daddy eight to the bar also sound very good....

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

When I saw the subject, I though you were talking about my wife, who is from Good Hope, WV. Very Happy

Hook Moore · From: South Charleston,West Virginia

Jack, Jack, Jack Smile

Hook
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Blaine Moore

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

You'll pay for that, Jack. You know you will. (In fact, I've just sent you a private email to let you know how much it'll cost ya to keep it quiet...) Whoa!

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

Sho Bud or ZB, whatever it is I like it.

The name I was talking about on the Stonewall Jackson album is Ken Davis, not Steve. Anyone know him? The concert was dated Sept. 1971, San Pablo CA.

Steve Davis · From: California, USA

Hey guys - now that I have found out how navigate a little around here - I can answer a couple of questions. My first pedal steel was ordered direct from Sho-Bud in Nashville. I talked to Shot Jackson on the phone and told him I was new to the instrument and he suggested a single neck eight string with the standard three pedal setup - no levers. I had to wait for a while while they made it and then drove to Nashville to pick it up. I loved that instrument and used it on Beat me Daddy - a live recording at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. The rest of the album was on a relatively new ZB and I was just getting used to the chromatic strings. I sold the Sho-Bud to Barry Gould.
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aka: The West Virginia Creeper

Johan Jansen · From: Europe

wow!!!
Welcome Steve!!!
JJ

Olaf van Roggen · From: The Netherlands

https://youtu.be/Nh_fUHi67I8
I ran on this clip today, CC & the LPA, down to seeds and stems with West Virginia Creeper.(Steve Davis)

Dave Zirbel · From: Sebastopol, CA USA

That's going way back! Good find! That's the 8 string ShoBud I think he played on Beat Me Daddy on the Ozone record.

Now if we can find any footage or recordings of the short lived line up with Jimmy Day on steel, that would be awesome! Very Happy

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Dave Zirbel-
Sierra S-10 (Built by Ross Shafer),ZB, Fender 400 guitars, various tube and SS amps

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