Hello fellow players,
The last couple of newsletters I was telling the story of me breaking in to Nashville with the hopes that it may help anybody else wanting to do the same. I’ll never forget what Hal Rugg told me backstage at the Ryman Auditorium during an Opry performance.
I introduced myself, looked him in the eye and said, “Hal, I’m here in town to try to make a living and have fun playing steel guitar and any help I can get from you, I will appreciate.”
He looked me square in the eye and said, “You’re not going to get any help from me. Any work you get because of me will be because you play good enough to take it away from me. Don’t expect me to give you anything, recommend you or even say anything good about you.”
I reminded Hal of this about 15 years later and he laughed and said, “Oh no. Did I really do that? I must have been in a tough mood that day. I’d probably just lost some work to Pete Drake or Lloyd Green.”
Hal and I were never number one buddies, but that’s just the way Hal was. A bitter competitor. I respected and liked him very much and always had great respect for his playing and still do. Lloyd Green was not as openly competitive as Hal was and I did get some funny remarks from him when I took away a major Faron Young album in 1971.
I must mention here that Lloyd Green and I have always been wonderful friends and I appreciate him and his wonderful wife Dot for always being so good to myself and about anyone they meet.
So if you come to Nashville, be prepared to prove yourself because for the most part any work you get you will have to take away from somebody else.
I had been working the road with several major stars in 1969, 70 and 71 and a few recording sessions popped up. After averaging a couple sessions a week and complaining about the road to a dear friend, Stu Basore, he said, “Why don’t you quit the road and not do it anymore?”
I replied, “Well Stu, I’m afraid I’d starve to death and I don’t need my ’59 Edsel repossessed.”
He laughed and said, “You will automatically get a lot more recording sessions if everybody in town knows you’re not working the road.”
So I did. Sure enough between subbing for Stu on the Ralph Emery TV show and doing several other shows like Porter Waggoner, Pop Goes The Country, The Del Reeves Show and many custom and legitimate sessions, I was suddenly making more money than I’d ever made in my life. Still not enough to put a down payment on a Boeing 737, but enough to make me very happy.
As a matter of fact, I was very happy. I looked around one day and realized that I was making good money by snatching meat out of the jaws of some of the world’s finest steel players, all of which turned out to be great friends.
In many of these newsletters, I have thanked Nashville steel guitarist Stu Basore and am now thanking him again for his consideration for his fellow man, namely me.
Stu is one of those weird players who may not really send you into orbit when you first hear him, but you can watch him play a live job hour after hour and he will never make a mistake and he will play some of the most tasteful E9th, albeit slightly different than about anybody you’ll ever hear. And when it comes to tone, he was the King of Kings.
Stu is a very commercial steel player in town, which is one of the reasons he gets so much work. He may often just be in the background and only doing things when called upon proving he is one of the finest in the business. Stu gets a tremendous amount of respect and adulation from all the other players in Nashville. He is one of the most dependable commercial steel guitarists the town has ever known.
Stu has raised a family, bought a house and raised two daughters in Madison, Tennessee, suburb of Nashville, by just playing steel guitar for the last 50 years. It seems to me like he would be a great candidate along with Sonny Garrish for the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. They sure have my vote.
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I just bought out a small collection of non-pedal steel guitars. A Fender Dual Professional, either 1948 or 1949 and in immaculate condition. It has the Roman numeral fretboards and the very desirable Boxcar pickups.
Another guitar is a Fender Stringmaster twenty two and a half inch scale in beautiful condition, the finish and the chrome being near perfect. This looks to be about a 1954 with original tweed case.
Another very interesting steel guitar is an original Jerry Byrd Frypan with original horseshoe pickup, Jerry Byrd fretboard and tuning keys. This guitar is factory original. This could be a great player and is in excellent condition. Pictures will be on the website within a week.
The reason I mention these guitars in the newsletter is because they are pretty rare and I like to let my newsletter buddies know first about some of these good deals. The prices are very fair on everything here.
Now how about this for a deal? I have a 16 track Tascam tape machine with a simple mixing board and a couple pieces of outboard equipment that I will sell for $690. If you’re like me and still prefer the warm analog sound over the brash digital sound, this is a real deal.
The Priceless CD was recorded on a deck like this one. There’s no question in my mind that analog sounds better. When these were new, they cost over $5000. I’ll pay the shipping anywhere in the lower 48 states.
Check out our monthly specials at http://www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html We can save you a lot of money.
Your buddy,
Bobbe
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
www.myspace.com/bobbeseymour
Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday
