I was flipping arounded the channels today and landed on ESPN 2, which was broadcasting an awards show for extreme sports - snowboarding, surfing, bmx, skateboarding - all that sort of Gen X thing, Metallica received an award because they're the favorite band of angry skate punks, and Ozzy Osborne and band did a song.
There was also another band on, whose name of course I didn't catch, but it featured a lap steel player who was on the far side of amazing. The band was playing sort of a rock/blues number with all this Hendrix/VanHalen sounding guitar and it took a moment to realize it was all coming from the steel player, who was also singing lead. It was a four-piece band: steel, bass, drums and percussion; three African-Americans and one Caucasian; the steel player was a light-skinned black man with both arms heavily tattooed. He played what looked like a Weisenborn-shaped lap steel - big thick clunky neck - with a Stevens bar and no thumb or fingerpicks, and he was just roaring. It was definitely not Freddy Roulette and it was way beyond your father's lap steel. If anybody can tell me who these guys are I'd greatly appreciate it. They're about to become my favorite new band.[This message was edited by Mark Tomeo on 06 May 2001 at 07:32 PM.]
