Hello fellow players,
The year end is over which leaves us a whole new year to contemplate and plan for. There are many players throughout the world and we have a big spring and summer season coming.
We’ve had quite a bit of snow in Nashville as most people have in the eastern part of the United States. It’s pretty enjoyable for me, but a lot of people took it seriously. Those that wanted to see it real badly had their chance. To those who really didn’t care for it, it was still pretty good because it was still fairly warm along with it and it didn’t last but a couple weeks. Now we have a couple 65 degree days before we take another plunge.
Interesting seeing the big country music boys tour busses spinning their tires. Bands like The Oak Ridge Boys who have their offices next door to Steel Guitar Nashville, have their monstrous instrument trailers connected to their busses which makes it even harder to navigate in the snow.
Of course it’s nice to see them around town here where they seem to have full control of the roads, but when they are going into the Rockies in Colorado or the Smokies in North Carolina, Virginia and north, I’m sure it could be a very interesting trip before they get back.
But country music has got to be played everywhere because it is enjoyed everywhere. Thank goodness that the days of riding in a Cadillac Fleetwood with the bass in the passenger compartment with us and my little Sho-Bud permanent in the trunk being over. Of course, it sure was warm in that Cadillac cuddled in there with the rest of the boys with their three inch feather down stuffed quilted coats.
Of course, a couple guys would bring their dogs. We all hated having to get out of the car for anything. I remember pulling into a gas station one time and I asked Little Jimmy Dickens if he wanted to get out and pee with the rest of the guys. He said, “Don’t worry. I just did about three miles back.”
I said, “We didn’t stop three miles back.”
He said, “Neither did I.”
This was on our Canadian tour in the sixties. I always wore my winter Air Force gear when traveling in the winter.
I have an awful lot of thank you’s to put out from the past year. Disc jockeys around the world that have played so many of my CDs should be at or near the top of the list. Like most people here in Nashville, when we put a CD out, we never know where the hotspots for each of us are going to be.
For me, the hotspots turned out to be New Zealand, Holland, Switzerland, Austria and France. It’s very nice to be appreciated in places you can’t even spell. Of course, I’m still having trouble spelling Tennessee. Being appreciated by people that actually don’t even know what steel guitar is can have a special gratification of its own.
We get visitors to the guitar shop from all over the world, but seldom from the charming little country of New Zealand. Here with us right now from New Zealand is Jason Ward. Jason plays steel guitar in church and is probably the only steel guitar player in New Zealand who plays in church.
His comments about the state of steel guitar in New Zealand are “Steel is not big in New Zealand. There are some players but most are into rock and roll instead of country.” The most famous steel guitarist in New Zealand is an American named Jim Molberg.
Jason has two Gospel steel guitar CDs “Whispering Hope” and “Sweet Anointing”. He recorded them both to be very easy listening so people can sleep to them. He is a believer in simple melodies and soft, smooth sound.
Jason happened to be passing through and decided to stop and see what we had to offer. He is on his way to south Texas with a friend who lives there and will be traveling to Arizona for a few days, then on to L.A. to hop a plane back to New Zealand. Anytime you happen to be passing through Nashville, consider stopping by because we love visitors.
We would like to give special recognition to Jim Molberg as he has many great friends here in the United States. Jim is a great player and can play about anything that there is in steel guitar. So between these two players, New Zealand is very rich in steel guitar, if not in quantity, definitely in quality.
New Zealander Ann Pascoe is very sensitive to steel guitar and being one of the foremost disc jockeys and program directors in her country, I personally appreciate her being a steel guitar lover and she makes me a disc jockey lover. All us steel players should appreciate what these worldwide disc jockeys are doing for us. No matter where they are, they are expanding our world.
Because of not doing much pushing of products through the Christmas season out of respect for what the season is actually really meant to be, Steel Guitar Nashville will be giving excessively great deals throughout the first part of the new year. In case you haven’t noticed, we have some great deals on new and previously owned steel guitars. Let’s make it a great 2011 for everybody.
Check out our monthly specials at http://www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html We can save you a lot of money.
Your buddy,
Bobbe
Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday
