The Strange Story of the Steel Guitar, Country's Most Magical Instrument
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- Thanks to Keeps for sponsoring - Head to keeps.com/gradysmith to get 50% off your first order of hair loss treatment.
Today's video is all about the journey of the steel guitar, from its development in Hawaii, to its journey into Western movies, to its status as one of THE instruments of country music. We go over over the legends (Sol Hoopii, Barbara Mandrell, Buddy Emmons, Robert Randolph, Paul Franklin, and so many others) and the different kinds of steel guitars (pedal steel, lap steel, dobro, etc), and we do it all with the help of Read Connolly - the steel guitar player for both Charles Wesley Godwin and Zach Bryan! Read is the best. We love Read. I worked really hard on this one, so I hope you love it!
Read's social media:
readconnolly.com
/ readconnolly
00:00 - Country Fans Love Steel Guitar
03:11 - The Origin of the Steel Guitar
05:53 - How Steel Came to Country
09:51 - The Different Kinds of Steel Guitars
11:17 - The Main Players You Should Know
15:40 - What Pedal Steel Evokes In Music
17:20 - Pedal Steel Demonstration & Mood Challenge
20:02 - Lap Steel and Dobro
20:53 - The Next Generation
Find Grady:
Website: gradywsmith.com
Patreon: / gradywsmith
Subreddit: / countrymusicstuff
TikTok: / gradywsmith
Instagram: / gradywsmith
Facebook: / gradysmithwriter
Spotify: open.spotify.com/playlist/5SB... - บันเทิง
![[TH] VCT Pacific Stage 2 - Week 1 Day 1 // DRX vs ZETA | BLD vs TS](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AWaOqaxN6Y0/mqdefault.jpg)
What makes Grady so good is making videos not many would think of asking for and they’re so well researched and told
Aw damn, man. Thank you.
Here here!! Incredible content!
Jerry Garcia’s pedal steel intro to Nash’s Teach Your Children is one of the best opening licks in pop history.
Yeah, and Garcia had only recently started playing that instrument.
Don Helms deserves a mention. “Hey Good Lookin” is possibly the most iconic steel guitar line in country music history
I caught his show a few years before he passed. He basically told his life story while playing all those beautiful steel licks. His wife was with him and it was truly an act to see. From Hank to Ray Price all the way to Alan Jackson renting his steel guitar for more than Don ever made in a year while playing it. It was really special.
@@mraycgz that’s an amazing experience
Also, I think Speedy West deserved a mention, and in the "girl players" category, most definitely Sara Jory:
th-cam.com/video/fWJ2ur1tPWE/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=HandymanPete
Lloyd mains aka dixie dad deserves a mention. Also embarrassing that grady had to mention franklin. Should have been TOP of the list.
Oops my bad commented too early.
As a Native Hawaiian we have been contributing to the mainland for a long time
Since the early Worlds Fair Cultural exchanges
@@timturner36 even the civil war, both Hawaii born and native alike brother.
I am from Ukraine. It was years ago in my teens when I heard a random song featuring steel guitar. It went deep and stroke the very bottom of my soul. Much later after doing a research I found it was country music. Forever fan of both the genre and the instrument. Keep her cryin'. It's beautiful
What’s the name of the song?
More proof of the Universal Power of Music bringing all humanity together 👍🏼
The history lessen we didn't know we needed. I loved it! Great job, Grady.
"lesson"
I'm not a particularly big fan of country, but I've always found this instrument fascinating, especially the pedal steel with all its complexities. I'm glad videos like this exist, and I hope the instrument expands into more genres
Some classic hits like All I wanna do - Sheryl Crow, Tiny Dancer- Elton John, Something in the way she moves- james Taylor all incorporated steel guitars albeit not being county genre.
i believe the band Swans has incorporated a pedal steel player over their last few albums, theyre like nowave/noise/doom/experimental in terms of genre! one of my fav uses of the instrument tbh
Crosby, Stills Nash and Young used the steel guitar in "Teach Your Children". The progressive rock band "Yes" used it spectacularly in "And You And I"
The notes to play whatever "genre" anyone wants are all on the pedal steel guitar's fretboards - C6th or E9th, doesn't matter. But the specific tunings of each neck lend themselves to playing certain genres, simply due to the ease or relative difficulty of playing the chords common to the various genres. For example, the E9th tuning, and the common pedal copedants (what the pedals and levers do) was ingeniously designed for the country music genre, and is most often used for that. But if you want to play classical music on the E9th neck, the notes are all there.
You might go for Susan Alcorn, she also played with Mary Halvorson.
I’m surprised Speedy West didn’t get a mention. I’ve been a huge fan of Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West my whole life. There playing never gets old.
They did mention Buddy Emmons but they never mentioned that Buddy did a couple of records and tours with Danny Gatton on Telecaster.
@@goodun2974 is what you just said connected to the comment you' re replying under? If so, how?
@@OdaKa Speedy West + Jimmy Bryant = high-octane steel guitar and Telecaster interplay. Buddy Emmons + Danny Gatton = high-octane steel guitar and Telecaster interplay. If somebody is a fan of one of these pairings, they should probably listen to the other because they might like that as well. What, you really feel like you gotta play gatekeeper here?
@@goodun2974 No, I was asking genuinely. This is my first time learning about these people, so I wanted to know why you were naming different people than what was being talked about.
Steel guitar has ALWAYS been my favorite instrument since I could remember, and it is what spoke to me most in my love for country music. I play lap steel, and my favorite thing to do is incorporate jazz in it as he showed the night life album. To me, country isn’t country without the steel
How could he not mention Ralph Mooney. He's the best steel guitar player ever. RIP moon
Yep, my personal favorite.. along with Jerry Byrd.
Wished the video would have gone twice as long, would love to see the in-depth clips of him playing!
I saw Reed with CWG in Columbus back in April. The crowd was so electric whenever he would do a solo. So much talent.
I was blessed enough to see Junior Brown twice. He built his own steel guitar combined with an electric guitar and switches between both while standing up. Definitely take a trip through his music, he does the opening for Better Call Saul and has been a legend for several decades now.
Have to talk about Jerry Byrd, the first inductee into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame, and who was known as the “master of touch and tone”…. He left Nashville when it appeared to him that Country Music was getting away from the sound he was using in the 1950s, and he moved to Hawaii, where he died about 15 years ago… my dad played steel in 1952 for Little Jimmy Dickens and became friends with Jerry Byrd…
I always enjoyed hearing Sneaky Pete Kleinow, the pedal steel player for Gram Parsons band Grievous Angel and David Lindley who played lap guitar for Jackson Browne, both in the mid-seventies.
I was going to bring up Sneaky Pete's name but you beat me to it. I've been a Lindley fan for decades, seen him play a number of the number of times, and got to meet him at a gig. Meghan Lovell is another really good lap steel player.
Oh man, there’s nothing like Gram Paraons for me. GREAT mention
I love Gram parsons and sneaky Pete is one of my all time favorite pedal steel players.
"When you hear twin fiddles and a *steel guitar,* you're listening to the sound of the American heart."
-George Strait, in 'Heartland'
Arena western swing: th-cam.com/video/tJESFDgvwK4/w-d-xo.html
Grady Smith is the one stop shop for all a country fan can ask for
I would like to see beginner’s guides for other iconic and influential instruments in country music like the fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and fender telecaster guitar.
It would be great to see videos from other icons discussing their instruments (e.g., interview Jerry Douglas for dobro, Michael Cleveland for fiddle, etc.)
Love that Hoot Gibson has a part in this amazing story! He was one of my grandpa’s favorite cowboy actors.
As a longtime steel player myself, and an active member of the Steel Guitar Forum, I really enjoyed this video. No errors at all. The main thing that was missed out is why the pedals are there, to allow access to chords which couldn't be played with just a tone bar and open tuning, even with C6. I'm surprised there was no mention of Jerry Byrd and Don Helms, but you can't get to everyone.
For what it's worth, I have lived in Hawaii for most of my life, and I respect you for acknowledging the Hawaiian part of steel history! Thank you and aloha!
I was always a fan of 1950’s music, and I was always drawn to the sound of a steel guitar in a lot of 50’s rock and roll, so I’ve never thought of the sound of the steel guitar as sad, it’s always put a smile on my face when I hear it,
This was an eye opener! I truly didn't know anything, like, whenever Grady's mentioned the "steel" in the instrumentation I've had no clue what he was talking about. The history was fascinating and now having language to put to that sound I grew up listening to is something I'm grateful for. Plus, Read had such a kind and generous personality, I was just smiling watching him. I'm sure his students love him. Loved the video and hope for more informative ones in the future!
There was some kind of World's Fair or Exposition in the US in the early 1900s, like 1904 or 1906 I think, and Hawaiian musicians were brought over to perform; people went absolutely crazy for it. This was likely the first major introduction of lap steel guitar playing to mainland America. There is an excellent 4-part PBS documentary called American Epic, about the "songcatchers", both amateurs and professional promoters, who fanned out across America with portable recording equipment in the early 1900's. It contains capsule histories of various music styles including Hawaiian music, Cajun music, Dixieland jazz, blues, country, folk and so on, fleshing out some of the subjects covered in Ken Burns country music series and delving into other tangential subjects. The story of the rediscovery of Mississippi John Hurt is particularly poignant; and the final episode features a lovingly restored 1929 Western Electric record cutter and amplifier system in gleaming brass and gold with a rack full of tubes. Famous musicians including Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, Elton John, and others show up to cut 78 rpm records direct to disk through a single shared microphone! A great series if you can still find it. I watched it a couple years ago online via Amazon Prime.
I'm generally a bit more into hard edged lap steel (for blues and rock) than I am into pedal steel, but some of the players I like include David Lindley, Megan Lovell (of Larkin Poe), Junior Brown, and Cindy Cashdollar (Asleep at the Wheel). Several other people here have mentioned that you kind of forgot about Speedy West, who is every bit as influential as Buddy Emmons. You might have noted that Buddy played with Danny Gatton, or vice versa!
If you wanna hear some really unusual lap steel playing, check out Dan Dubuque here on TH-cam; he plays heavily amplified *acoustic* Weissenborn lap steel, with lots of distortion and effects, in a very rhythmic and percussive style, and plays covers of Tool, Nirvana, and Rage Against the Machine songs. A huge sound! You wouldn't think this would work at all, but I really like it, even though the songs are a bit outside of my usual tastes.
How is it that bottleneck-style slide guitar was never mentioned? It's just a different branch on the same slide-guitar tree. Some of my faves are Ry Cooder, John Mooney, Johnny Winter, Duane Allman, the awesome Dave Hole from Oz, and last but not least, Sonny Landreth, who combines the fingerpicking of Chet Atkins with the slide of Robert Johnson and Johnny Winter, and the electricity of Hendrix. He has been John Hiatt's secret weapon for several decades, and a regular at the Crossroads festival; Knofler, Clapton, and Brad Gill all sing his praises....
Other lap steel players worth listening to are David Lindley, Meghan Lovell, Cindy Cashdollar and Junior Brown. Even David Gilmour of Pink Floyd played lap steel on records and concerts, as did Steve Howe of Yes.
I now desperately need to hear someone put a steel guitar through some absolutely GNARLY fuzz pedals
Check out Robert Randolph. Amazing player!
Great history. Never in a millions years would I have guessed that it came from Hawaii. But it just shows how all music have such complex paternities and lineage influences.
There's like a 90% chance if you put steel guitar in your song I'll love it
Really wish there were more pedal steel players around. Would love to learn but it’s very expensive to get started. It’s the best instrument in country music, in my opinion. Would like to see a part two!
Back in 1962, when I was a young lad, my local record shop near Birmingham (UK) stocked a lot of American country guitarists' LPs. One that I bought (I still have) is 'Nashville steel guitar' (Starday/London) with instrumentals by Pete Drake, Jimmy Day, Don Helms, Herby Remington, Dick Stubbs, Al Petty, and Little Roy Wiggins. 60 years later, it's still a great record.
Dont forget about Junior Brown and his "GitSteel"
I wish this video had been around 10 years ago. It more or less sums up and validates everything I’d learned through years and years of scouring the internet with little to no guidance whatsoever (barring some obvious holes). I’m excited/jealous for any newb steel players that find this vid as a starting point.
I'm honestly surprised that Junior Brown didn't get a mention here because he created a gut steel instrument that combines steel guitar and a guitar in one
Oh he is fun
JBs' instrument is called a "Git/Steel" It's a T-style neck and a lap steel neck on one body.
I write Buddhist country (yes, really) and I've got a song called Steel Guitar, in which a succession of people ask the Buddha deep, probing questions about the human condition, and he begs off, saying:
I'd need a steel guitar
A touch of pedal steel
With a shiny bar
So it would make you feel
Like it was in your soul
From the very start
Yeah, to lay that down
I'd need a steel guitar
This came from my deep yearning for a steel guitarist to tell 'em how I feel. Fiddle and slide guitar are fine too, but I learned from George Strait, Gordon Lightfoot, Blue Rodeo, Lyle Lovett, Don Williams, Michel Rivard, George Harrison, and Zachary Richard (just off the top of my head) that if you want to land a punch, you're gonna need some steel.
Great video! I always wondered how steel guitar ended up in country. Funny how it's such an anchor part now, like it was always there.
What a swath of information we are so lucky to have. Read, thank you for giving us your insight, it's truly a treat. Thanks Grady for setting it up, keep up the amazing work. Your choice of topics you decide to cover is unrivaled.
Such a brilliant video! Deep dives like this show the rich diversity of country music's history. Country music today is often aligned with a white vision of what America 'used' to be - when in actuality many of the tools and mediums used to express stories were created/adopted by black Americans, Hawaiians, Native Americans, European immigrants, and more. Country music is so much more than the limited idea of American history and culture, and it is wonderful to see how different voices have contributed to the genre's evolution. Thank you Read and Grady.
Country has a bit of a checkered past. It is bluegrass intentionally scrubbed of "black" influence. Created by and for poeple that didnt want any of that "N** music". While I'm not trying to make any claims about modern musicians you can definitely hear that history in the genre.
Live forever - billy joe shaver
The best example of a steel guitar in history. I love that song.
I've not found any version of that song that has a steel guitar on it. Great tune, but no steel. If you can point to a version with steel, I'd love to hear it.
Country without steel is less than satisfactory. I love all songs that start with a steel guitar!❤ fantastic interview.
Hi Grady and Reed, you both did a great job! Thanks for your big support to the steelguitar community! Johan
Awesome video. I was at that Jesse Daniel concert in Nashville! The concert was awesome in general, but Caleb Melo absolutely rocked it, even played with his face covered at one point. It was amazing!
I'll be honest, I don't really like much country music but the sound of the steel guitar is absolutely amazing.
What I like to do is find good country songs with steel (usually from the 70s and 80s when steel guitar was used A LOT) and put them in a playlist. A good pedal steel solo can make a song magical
What a good start of the day is watching this episode of Grady! Thanks and greetings from the Netherlands
Read is delightful. Thank you for the interview.
having pedal steel and just steel tunes playing on a loop will be something so soothing to just zone out. no vocals...just steel on its glory swinging through all the moods. I think it will even help on finding sleep in restless nights
I was very glad you included Barbara Mandrell in the list of greats - - I saw her in Germany in 1970, she played Proud Mary on her steel guitar (she also played guitar and banjo), best I have ever heard that song sound.
Literally got chills when Reed demonstrated “sad country” on the steel. That’s just why I love that instrument so much
The 2019 book about the history of the electric guitar, “The Birth of Loud” has detour through the history of lap steel. When steel players got amplified they got all the solos, which made regular guitar players want to amplify so they could get solos too. That lead to the invention of the electric guitar. It also mentions that during the Hawaiian music fad, bands would play what we would call country one night and Hawaiian the next. They weren’t going to leave the steel player at home on country nights, which is how steel became part of country.
What’s striking to me is that a long forgotten musical fad lit sparks that lead to the defining sounds of both country and rock.
Steel guitar is capable of adding amazing harmonic textures to a song that no other instrument can match. My golden example for pedal steel is the album version of “These Days” from Greg Allman’s solo album, Laid Back. I also liked hearing it on Working Man’s Dead by the Greatful Dead. The group traveled to Nashville(?) in 1970 to record their second album and though there was some collaboration with country music players, Jerry Garcia learned the rudiments of steel guitar and played it on several tracks which added wonderful mood and character to those songs.
I play both pedal steel and dobro and I love learning about the history of the steel guitar!
Sara Jory needs to be mentioned. Ok she’s from the uk but she made one of the best records of country standards when she was a kid!
Seconded!
This video could have been twice as long and I would have loved every minute. In the mid-50s our family traveled from Virginia to California by car through the south. I was less than 10. My father loved music, so the radio was always on. That's how I fell in love with anything played on steel.
Just need to leave this here: I definitely missed a mention of Larkin Poe and Megan Lovell here. It’s not exactly country, but they are putting the steel guitar in the center of attention of their relatively young audience:)
ditto the Larsen Poe, and also not country, Ben Harper is a big lap steel player.
I was waiting for Megan Lovell’s name to drop too! To me they’re country. They started with bluegrass (with Megan on dobro), went to blues, and tour with Willie Nelson. Either way, Megan is an amazing lap steel player.
Very cool. Such a complicated instrument; I’m a guitar player, but can’t imagine learning to play pedal steel. Just amazing.
Mike Johnson is another great player who’s played on countless hits!
It took me a long time to realize that all of my favorite rock songs were songs with steel guitar in them. I was listening to Chicago III the other day and "What Else Can I Say" came on, one of my favorites of that album and I realized it had steel guitar in it. Even Chicago used the steel guitar! Steely Dan was another band whose first few records had a lot of steel guitar. David Gilmour played a lot of steel guitar on Dark Side Of The Moon, probably my favorite album of all time.
I have always been a huge fan of the Steel Guitar and have always appreciated how much attention you bring to it in the videos. This is another great one.
The very 1st Electronic Guitar was a Slide Guitar because the Slide Guitar was becoming very popular & they wanted more volume to compete w/ the Horns. George Beauchamp invented a Pickup that he could put on his Guitar so he could amplify it Electronically.
When great Grandma throws on the Hawaiian music, you know things are about to get Wild.
I just saw Robert Randolph open up for Zac Brown Band! He also played with them during the end of the show.
Nice interview. Lloyd Green is my favorite. Exquisite. The ukulele reached Hawaii on 22 August 1879, first played there on that day by Portuguese. About 400 of them were brought on a ship to work on the sugar plantations. They brought what is now called the ukulele with them, and Hawaiians loved it. It’s a Portuguese instrument.
For those of you who have not listened to much Hawaiian music, do your earhole a favor and give it a good listen. Even the Hawaiian language is melodic like like a bird singing and the music is as rhythmic as the interlaced waves.
Great video! It reminded me of the Cocaine and Rhinestones episode about Ralph Mooney. If anyone wants to learn more fascinating information about steel guitar and its place in country music, I highly recommend that episode as well as the series in its entirety.
Hey, it's Read! He was my first country music mentor. He helped this bluegrass guy put down my Martin and pick up a Telecaster for the first time.
I love the sound of steel but knew hardly anything about it, this was such a cool interview! Read’s passion for the instrument was so great to see, looking forward to see him play next month
Just like your deep dive into Hunter Hayes and convo about Canada Country Music, you did it again! I love these formats as I learn about something that I didn't think about before. Keep up the great work!
This was the best video I’ve seen all week, thank you Reed and Grady!
You might not read this but I just saw Charles Wesley Godwin & the Allegheny High live tonight. Just wow.
This was amazing. Thank you! My favourite instrument, hands down. Ralph Mooney was an amazing steel player with Waylon Jennings.
he’s the greatest steel player of all time
One pedal steel player that gets overlooked is Ben Keith. He gave an irreplaceable flavour to some of neil young's most iconic records like harvest and tonight's the night. He also played for country music legends like willie nelson, waylon jennings, tompall glaser, emmylou harris and others.
I'm so behind watching because you're on a roll with these videos! Finally got to watch this one, super interesting stuff. You're really good at finding cool people to interview and interviewing them well.
Wow, I loved this. I hope you put out more of these historical/educational videos, I enjoy them so much
Good video! I love the "steel sound", especially pedal steel. Two of my favorite players were Tom Brumley and Ralph Mooney.
I am fascinated with the evolution of "Honky Tonk".
--- Love 'Ol Hank, despite the fact, that Hank didn't have a drummer, didn't sing harmonies, didn't have a Telecaster, and Hank's fiddler, Jerry Rivers, was pretty much limited to double-stops.
--- When Ray Price "inherited" Hank's traditions, putting pedals on the steel, had just been invented, Ray started incorporating singing harmonies, and Ray's fiddle was more geared towards "single notes". "Crazy Arms" in 1956, is considered by some to be a "turning point" in "Honky Tonk".
--- THEN, Buck Owens seemed to take the Ray Price "Model", emphasize pedal steel more than fiddle, and added the snare-drum "brush" sound and Telecaster. BTW, the "brush" snare-drum sound, can be traced back to an old-time fiddle tradition, called "straw beating", which accompanied old-time fiddle tunes.
Speaking of "Telecaster", I am under the impression, that Leo Fender was the one who came up with the idea of putting pedals on a steel guitar. If Leo wasn't the first, he was one of the earliest.
--- Sadly, sadly, sadly, I had to "leave it behind", and, although I couldn't play it, I actually owned a Fender Model 1000 Pedal Steel Guitar, ironically, the most DISRESPECTED guitar, ever made by Fender.
--- The Model 1000 had two necks, eight strings each, with 8 pedals, usually three to one neck, five to the other.
--- When I first bought the Model 1000, I had my old-time fiddle instructor do some basic maintenance. When my old-time fiddle instructor returned the Model 1000, he said, "Get this monstrosity out of my sight, and never let me see it again."
--- I had paid $300 for the Model 1000, and $300 for repair.
--- As my instructor said, the Model 1000 was a MONSTER!!! I couldn't believe how HEAVY the guitar was. The body of the Model 1000 was NOT a "Frame" as later models such as "Rosebud", but instead, was a SOLID BLOCK OF WOOD, in a CAST-IRON frame! I never weighed the guitar, but I'm guessing that the two cases weighed close to 100 pounds.
--- My understanding is that the reason the Model 1000 quickly fell out of favor, was that the string-pulling mechanisms under the neck, were CABLES, not rods. I was told by a steel player, that the Model 1000 was difficult to keep in tune.
--- Nevertheless, man, oh man, I miss that guitar. It was an important piece of History, but I was on the move, and the guitar was too heavy to take with me. I used to think, "Most 1950's solid body guitars from Fender, are worth 10's of Thousands of dollars. I have, what must have been a PREMIER Fender solid-body guitar from the 1950's, and book value was $1,000."
I consider one of the CLEANEST non-pedal players, to be Jeremy Wakefield, who played with Wayne Hancock. Jeremy was so clean, that Lloyd Maines switched to Producer, to allow Jeremy to play.
Once again, great video.
Rock
Thank you so much! I for one really needed this video for my own curiosity. I've been learning lap steel for 5 years and can't get enough of the history.
Read Connolly is the MAN!! Thank you Grady 🙌🏼🙌🏼
This was a super cool video, Grady. Love it and awesome that Read was able to come on!
My grandfather played steel almost all his life and I remember him playing sleep walk all the time, so the steel guitar is a very special instrument to me
I enjoyed the video, especially the history section. Somehow you guys didn't mention how much concentration a pedal steel player must have to not mess up. In a country band performance I usually see the contrast between all the other smiley bandmates & the steel player looking like he's seriously reading a book.
Left hand , right hand, foot pedals and knee levers at the same time is like walking . chewing gum , juggling , and tumbling at the same time .
For the long time, I use tuning C#, G#, F#, G#, C#, E tuning, but then I found tuning what I like to use both dobro, and lap steel. And that tuning is Open A.
E, A, E, A, C#, E.
To me, this tuning feels more natural, it was similar with my older tuning, especially C#, and E part, but it was surprisingly easy to utilize in many different songs, both sad & melancholic and happy & upbeat. Open A, that is tuning what I recommended.
Keep it up Grady! You provide info and insight that no one else in the industry is doing. Kudos!
That was a fantastic episode. Thank you Grady and Read.
Great video. I started playing in the last few years, and I'll echo what was said in the video, the steel guitar community is very welcoming and supportive.
Awesome historical and current breakdown of this distinctive instrument that brings such a great sound to music tracks!
Very glad to see Grady get someone who knows his stuff! Loved this video
Love this video, I have always loved the lap steel, dobro and steel guitar even though I am a rock and roller. Found out many years ago that my grandfather on my Mom’s side played Hawaiian lap steel in bands in Hawaii. All the players you mentioned I love. Also Rusty Young who recently passed away, and Cindy Cashdollar.
Nice interview! I love the sound of all the modalities steel offers. Learned a few new names to lookout for as well.
this is amazing stuff! I'm so glad to have learned this and I'm so glad you've both shared !
Back in 1978, I was just a 22-year-old, Crazed Recording Engineer. And after just designing and building, Baltimore's, 2nd Largest Music Recording and Commercial Production Facility. I recorded this, country rock band. That came in to make a recording with me.
They sounded kind of sappy. I could hear a little bit of rock. And I decided to help them out.
So of the 2 founders of the band. One played electric guitar. The other one played a, Show Bud, dual neck, pedal steel guitar. And the other guy had his, Boing Boing sounding electric guitar. Pretty sappy sounding.
So I recorded the tracks. They came in to listen to the playback. We smoked some pot. And I had to fix this.
So I took the guitar track. Grabbed an old, blown out, diode bridge rectifier. In this power supply I had. And with a couple of alligator clips and wires. I connected it across the electric guitar track. And Bingo! It's all fuzzy now. So I plug that into a Dynamic Range Compressor. And I turned that up all the way. Now it's got some sustain. And it's a nice dirty fuzzy sound. Now it doesn't sound sappy. But there's still a problem.
That pedal steel guitar also sounds pretty sappy. And well? This just won't do. I need some more rock and roll going on here. Where's your keyboard guy? You don't have a keyboard guy? Okey-dokey then.
So I had a, Far FISA Organ. With an external, Hammond Leslie, rotating speaker. And I plug that into the steel guitar. Now it's sounding like something! Something that sounds like a drunken, Hammond Organ! It's awesome!
Well they loved it. The steel guitarist went as far as going out. And purchasing a little guitar pedal Leslie thingy. That just sounded awful. Nothing like the real thing. There's nothing like the real thing. You just have to get one. It's heavy. It's awkward. It's cumbersome. You just have to have one. And you can change the speed of the rotation and even bring it to a stop. It's awesome. It's from the late 1960s.
That a few years later. I found myself recording have jingles for a multimillion dollar Advertising Agency in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And I told the boss. He doesn't need to go to the top guy in New York City. Spending $60,000. For a couple of jingles. I could bring it in for one 10th, that amount. So the boss said okey-dokey go for it.
And we had a couple of tunes that were, country music theme, tunes. These were not just any jingles. They had a beginning a middle and and and. They had instrumental solos in them. They had good lead singers. And backup singers singing harmonies. The real thing.
And on this overdub session. This 74-year-old guy comes in. He's going to do the pedal steel guitar overdub for us. He's very nice. He plays very well.
And so I'm doing more than one take. Keeping the previous take. And as I'm playing them back. I segued from one to the other. At his solo. And he said whoa wait! What was that? I got real upset. I said it was just me fading between the two takes. But it won't be that way on the jingle. I promise. He said no! I've never heard myself that way before. That sounded awesome! Can you do it again? Can you make it that way? Why yes? Yes I can!
As it was very awesome. He never heard the previous take as he was laying down the new take. Yet together at that point for the solo. Was absolutely awesome! I think it was 4 hands going? It absolutely was! And he loved it. He said nobody had ever done that for him before. And that he was a regular session guy. There in Miami, Florida.
I think the pedal steel guitar is an absolutely awesome, remarkable, one-of-a-kind instrument. It can do things no other musical instrument can do. Changing keys in the middle of something you are currently playing and it's sustaining. Try to get a Symphony Orchestra to do that. They can't. They can't bend notes like that. Even though they are playing instruments that reasonable a steel guitar. But they are so old-fashioned. They are just fuddy-duddies. With a bunch of dead horse tales in their hands. And you only need those for playing, fiddle!. Hey diddle diddle.
I love recording steel guitar. It's been many many years.
RemyRAD
Cool my german father always called it "Hawaii Guitar".
Love Mike and the Moonpies at the beginning! ❤
that Hoot Gibson connection is amazing
Great stuff! Really enjoyed this format and style of video Grady. I'm a fan of Smith Curry. He has put in some amazing work on our record! I absolutely have grown to love that classic steel sound!
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Reed a couple times when opening for CWG. Absolutely top notch musician and a even better guy to talk to!
This was cool, thanks Grady! Watched a Paul Franklin rig rundown video one time and just amazed how complicated pedal steel is.
As someone that knows nothing about any of this, but am eager to learn now... thanks for this history lesson.
Saw Robert Randolph open for the Allman Brothers as a kid, I didnt give steel guitars much thought until recently when I saw Larkin Poe. Megan Lovell was playing an instrument that reminded me of RR but she was running around the stage. It was a lap steel she had modified. In looking into it, I came across her diy vids. I know steel guitars aren't recommended to be the first thing you try and jump into, but guess I'm jumping haha my amazon cheapo lap steel just came in and it's a blast so far, Ive got a list of musicians to look up just from this comment section.. thanks!
Great topic and great job telling the story of the Steel Guitar.
No matter how many generations to come may the steel guitar is always alive.
What a great informative video! Thanks Grady!
Incredible video Grady! I never knew there was so much to know about steel.
This was AWESOME! Thanks for the perfect combo of music + history :)
Thanks for shouting out Laurel Cove Music festival, the most amazing venue ever!!! Super cool video Grady! Love love love. Steel guitar's sure make the music a million times better
As a kid growing up in southern California with early country rock, it was Rusty Young and Sneaky Pete Kleinow that made me fall for the instrument.