Posted on 10/06/2017 2:07:57 PM PDT by catnipman
If there is it one musical instrument that best conveys emotion to the soul, it's the pedal steel.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Very nice!
Thank you! Very nice.
I once lived with some family, and they had a guest over every day who was in a band. He used to come over and practice his pedal steel guitar.
This was our night, every night for the months I lived there. After 7, after dinner, we would retire and listen to this guy play for about 2 hours.
It really is a magical instrument that I can’t make a pleasant sound on.
Very nice! I have played pedal steel since about 1970, and used to work for Jerry Brightman building Performance Steel Guitars. There are 4 Shobuds in my house right now, and a Dr. Z Surgical Steel amp, + my dual-cabbed Twin.
Never seen one of those before. It sure sounds like a guitar, but it doesn’t look like one.
So after listening to the performance you posted, I found this short (6:59) video explanation about how a pedal steel guitar works, which I found very enlightening.
Steve Fishell explains how pedal steel guitar works.
The first steel guitar performance I ever heard was Santo & Johnny in 1959 playing Sleepwalk. I loved that tune and the sound of it.
I was only 9 then, but I got hold of the 45 and fell in love with the up-tempo flip side: All Night Diner.
That one rocks!
It was wonderful! I’ve never seen one and you brought out so much emotion from it. Thank you.
Melinda has a great touch. Thanks for posting.
The Steve Fishell link you posted is excellent for anyone on the thread who wants to get a VERY basic understanding of how one works.
The first one I ever heard was probably around 1962. Local C&W station was live-casting a local C&W band for a hardware store grand re-opening. I’d furiously pedaled my one-speed bike to the event (uphill both ways) because I’d heard they were giving away FREE sodas and hot-dogs, something nearly unimaginable to my 10 year old brain!
Yes, they DID have free sodas and dogs, but I’d never heard a live music band before in my entire life and was entranced with the performance, but most of all, I was just captivated by the steel guitar, which of course I had no idea what it was at the time, but when I excitedly described it to my parents, they told me it was a “steel guitar”.
I’ll never forget the scene: my first free sodas and dogs, my first LIVE C&W band, my first seeing a live radio broadcast, and my first steel guitar all rolled into one!
Thanks for the links; post.
I can't play a musical instrument (tried and failed a number of times), but I ended up becoming a steel guitar fan from - oddly enough - Jerry Garcia's pedal steel on "Teach Your Children Well." I can't stand C, S, N or Y now, and I thought Garcia was a freak even then, but that was an epic addition to a "rock" song that came out when I first started buying records. I also loved bits like Ben Keith's playing on Anne Murray's version of "Danny's Song." That was considered pretty square by my peers, but most of what passed for cool in that bunch is basically forgotten and almost unlistenable today.
Eventually I ended up listening to bluegrass and older C&W, which took me to people like Ralph Mooney as well as to the "Dobro" and people like the late Mike Auldridge.
Everybody slide.
Mr. niteowl77
It really is a magical instrument that I can’t make a pleasant sound on.
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There are few instruments that employ both arms and legs to play and none that have the ability to express infinite notational feeling like a pedal steel.
M4L Steel Guitar
Hank Williams —Don Helms
Ernest Tubb—Buddy Emmonds
Waylon—Ralph Mooney
Don Williams—Llyod Green
Merle—Norm Hamlett
Bob Wills-— Leon McAuliffe
“There are few instruments that employ both arms and legs to play and none that have the ability to express infinite notational feeling like a pedal steel.”
That, and you can only convey pleasant, honest emotions with this. You can’t convey anger with it.
That, and you can only convey pleasant, honest emotions with this. You can’t convey anger with it.
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Agreed, but you sure can make that great ‘cry’n’ sound, which is so popular with the instrument.
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