Hello fans and fellow players,
I received a nice CD from Arkansas Red. I listen to it every time I get in my car. Very pure country music. It reminds me very much of the great Doc Watson who I recorded with several years ago on one of his great albums. It sounds like Arkansas Red has been recording with Doc Watson himself.
I remember hitting it off very well with Doc’s son Merle who was also a very good thumb style player himself. This is a style of guitar that I dearly love. A style used by so many great players of yesteryear. Great players that make goose bumps come up on your arms. Players like Arlo Guthrie. Who could ever forget the great Arlo Guthrie album “Alice’s Restaurant”? And then of course we have the great Leo Kottke of Chicago.
It also seems like I’m starting to see a resurgence in great old music that was treasured so deeply by everyone in the middle Korean War years. If nothing else, like these years inspired much great music in those early days. I didn’t like the war, but I sure did like the music.
I missed all the great music from back in the twenties and thirties because I was born much later, but I was exposed to it and learned about it in my father’s music store that I grew up in. I remember all the folk pickers coming in and playing guitars in the store. The music they played was so full and so good.
The music that I hear kids in music stores play today is like, “How loud can you play?” Do they really think they can’t be heard unless they can drown out a Phantom jet at full throttle? I guess I shouldn’t complain because music is music. Or is it? The hard rock I hear today makes me appreciate Hank Williams more than ever. Not to offend anybody. Music has to keep moving I guess.
Actually, I really love all kinds of music. This includes the rock n roll of yesterday and today. I remember working in my father’s music store teaching 12 year olds how to play guitar. I’m still even in touch with a few of them. I can remember their names better than I can some of the rock n roll tunes that they wanted to learn to play.
House Of The Rising Sun of course is one I’ll never forget. I’m pretty shocked at how easy these songs are to play on steel guitar today. I remember working with a country group that would play Fox On The Run in one set and House Of The Rising Sun in the next set. I loved the variation in the material we did.
Where you live in the United States has a lot to do with the material you have to play. But I really love the diversity in tunes that I get to play on steel guitar. I’m glad that I play an instrument such as steel guitar that is capable of playing so many styles and that I’m not limited in what I can do.
But playing steel guitar has kept me out of marching bands.
Probably the greatest thing we having going for us as steel players today is teaching aids to help us become good players. One of the best is the Tascam GB-10. It allows you to slow a song down to half speed without changing the pitch so you can learn the notes of the song easier. I wish I had one of these when I was learning to play steel. We have a video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkje1we7G2g&feature=plcp
Check out our monthly specials at www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html and we’ll try to save you a lot of money.
The friend of all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
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Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
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