Pedal Steel Music

Hello fellow players,

A good thing about summer is that I get to see so many of you wonderful folks. I really like seeing each one of you and wish I could see all of you more often.

I’m watching steel guitar become more popular in music by the day, not necessarily country music, but music in general. I kind of made a derogatory remark on the steel guitar forum about the Jason Aldean steel guitarist, but he’s made me eat my words because I just saw him two or three weeks later and he is playing very well which means very smooth and doing fills the way we all like to hear them.

I recommend anybody that can go hear the Jason Aldean band to do so. This is not just a left over rock n roll group unless they want to be. I don’t know who the steel player is, I’m sure somebody will tell me, but he played very nicely the last time I heard him, very smooth and full.

I have heard about him doing steel guitar antics and trying to be more of a rock n roll artist than a rich steel guitar player. When I heard him, he sounded like he could be playing with any group in the United States anywhere. There are a lot of players working with big name groups that don’t sound like they should be working with the groups they are.

I apologize to him and Jason because this group definitely puts out some interesting sounds and it sounded like John Hughey possibly working with the Buddy Rich Orchestra. The moral of this story is, I shouldn’t be criticizing anybody without hearing them play more than one song.

Would somebody write me back and tell me who this young player is? I like surprises like this. Pleasant surprises are always welcome.

I just had a wonderful old friend, Larry Dahl, visit me from Florida. Larry has been a professional player in Florida for many years, always a good friend and a guy that studies steel guitar hard inside and out. The only problem is he was visiting me instead of me going and visiting him in Florida. Of course, if I drive to Florida, I like to do it in the winter.

I don’t think I’ll be traveling much this summer. I don’t have any steel guitar shows to play, big or small. I guess I need to sit here and wait for you folks to come by and see me even though I’m not spending as much time in the store as I have been, but my air conditioning is working, so come on in.

I was thinking how much easier it is to travel these days. Cars are getting better mileage, gas prices look like they’re going to be staying down this year. They have already dropped quite a bit this spring. Air conditioning in automobiles is very good nowadays and it seems like that in general, cars are nicer, holding up better and more thrifty on fuel than they have been in many years.

I remember Jimmy Day’s silly son that had a Plymouth 440 hardtop. I told him one day after he was complaining about an oil change and how much it was to change the oil, I said, “Do it yourself.”

He said, “I can’t do that. My lawn is full of ticks and I don’t want to lay down in the middle of them.”

I said, “Well that’s not going to hurt anything. Just get your girlfriend to pull them off of you with tweezers.”

He then asked me “So what am I supposed to do with them after I get them off. Those things are close to impossible to kill.”

I said, “It’s simple. Just rev your car engine up to about 3,000 RPM and dump the ticks down the carburetor.”

He said, “Then I guess I’ll have a ticking noise all summer long, right?”

I told him, “That ticking noise is going to be there anyway knowing that car the way I do and it’s a good way to get rid of the insects.”

I ended up buying that car from him a couple years later and I never had a bit of trouble with it. So that might be a good thing to do next time you get a can full of ticks. LOL It sounds like something Jimmy would have done himself.

Like the time he borrowed Buddy Emmons Oldsmobile. Buddy said, “Just treat it like it’s yours.”

Well he did. He sold it.

Check out our monthly specials at www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html and we’ll try to save you a lot of money.

Your buddy,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour

Listen To Steel Guitar Music Streaming 24 Hours A Day!

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday

Hello fans and fellow players,

I’ve been seeing some information about the old and famous rat pack which included Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford which in itself is a pretty hilarious group of characters. It made me think about the steel guitar player rat pack which was Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day, Big Ben Keith, Gary Adams and Darrell McCall.

These guys were the tightest of friends. If one of them had a job anywhere near Nashville, you could count on the rest of them being there. Darrell was a great singer. Of course, Buddy was a high quality steel guitar player as was Jimmy Day. All of them were dearly loved and could put on a great show by themselves if you had a microphone and a stage to perform on.

I could remember Jimmy Day’s personality totally changing when any of the rest of the rat pack went into a club where he was working. These boys performed well together and very well apart. I feel sorry for any poor singer that had these boys on the stage when he was trying to do a show because they would be upstaged by their sideman.

When it came to a good jam session these guys were right there to do their tricks. Quite an interesting rat pack. I’ve seen them get together on the road. I remember when I was working with Ray Price and they’d just come in and take the bandstand over.

It was a lot of fun to see them together. I used to think it would be a good idea for them to put their own show together. I don’t know how easy it would be to book, but with Darrell McCall singing and Buddy playing the steel or lead guitar and of course Jimmy Day playing bass, it was a great show as Buddy worked the microphone very well.

Gary Adams was one of the best lead players around so these guys in a jam session were like watching the who’s who of the jazz world. Big Ben Keith and Johnny Paycheck added a lot of talent and entertainment value to the rat pack. These guys were as hilarious as you’d ever want to see together.

I remember them scaring people like Faron Young off the stage at times, but Faron would always end up fighting for the microphone for himself. I’m sure many of you remember all these guys and especially when they were together onstage.

We have just received a big shipment of Peavey steel guitar amplifiers. We’re giving a free vinyl amp cover and free shipping within the lower 48 United States so now’s the time to jump on an amplifier whether you need one or not.

We have the new Mullen “Discovery” guitars in stock. These guitars are full professional guitars, three pedals, four knees, weigh only 27 pounds out of the case and 44 pounds in the case. In the case, they will go in the luggage bin over the seats inside an airliner. We have them in stock and ready to ship immediately so hit the phone and you can have one as fast as UPS can deliver it.

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

Listen To Steel Guitar Music Streaming 24 Hours A Day!

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday

Hello fellow players,

Well I’ve had hundreds of emails asking me to finish the Don Helms story about he and his last days with Hank Williams Sr.

I asked him, “Were you in the car when Hank died Don?”

He replied, “No, me and three other members of the band were on the way to a gig in West Virginia and had stopped to eat in a restaurant on the way from Alabama when word came over the radio that Hank had died.”

I said, “What happened then Don?”

Don said he decided to go straight back to Nashville to try to find another job. The rest of the band went with him and immediately started looking. They had many offers by the time they had gotten back.

As soon as Don went to the funeral, he started a job with Ray Price. This is back in the day when Ray sounded very much like Hank Sr. himself. Later on, Ray became infatuated with the styles of Dean Martin, Bing Crosby and so on and left the original Hank Sr. sound that he had started with.

This was back when stars were paying about $15 a day for road players. I asked Don during this little mini interview how this affected the bands livelihood. He replied that they were all very sorry about Hank’s death and that it affected them financially very deeply.

Don had just bought a nice house in Hendersonville and was not sure how he was going to pay for it. However, it must have not been too big a worry because it was as nice a house as there was in Hendersonville at that time and it was the house that he raised his kids and kept until the day he died. His widow Hazel is still there today.

The band had Jerry Rivers as the fiddle player and Pete Wade as the guitar player for awhile and all these boys stayed very close friends after Hank’s death, even buying houses near each other in Hendersonville on Riverside Drive.

Marvin Rainwater played bass. Sammy Pruitt played guitar at some point. It’s just hard to remember everybody at this point. I’m sure you can find more information on the internet. Information you’re getting from me is information that I’ve gotten direct from Don from talking to him here in my store during his many visits.

Somebody asked me if Hank ever traveled by bus or had his own bus. I never remember hearing Don say anything about them ever having a bus so I don’t think they did, however in those days, 1950-1953, everyone traveled by car or car and trailer, even to the point of putting the big bass inside the four door sedan.

Pretty interesting and tight fit, but remember these guys weren’t making very much money and transportation of any kind was expensive. With the musicians making $15-25. a week and stars seldom making over $250 a week, it was hard for anyone to get rich.

Don’s story about flat tires on the cars in those days was pretty interesting. He said it was hard to drive around the block without having a flat. Heck, I can remember that myself. Steel belted radials were a thing that was coming up in the future.

Don said, “At least the Cadillac had air conditioning and power steering which was very rare for any car in those times.” Even the places they played didn’t have air conditioning.

Don did write an autobiography before he died called Settin’ The Woods On Fire that you can buy from his widow Hazel.

After hearing Don play pedal steel guitar and remembering the old days, I grabbed him and sat him down in my store one day when he brought his pedal guitar in for some major work.

I said, “Don, you sounded much, much better on the non-pedal guitar. Why don’t you get rid of the pedal guitar and go back to playing the way everybody loves your playing of the past. I promise you Don, if you’ll throw that pedal guitar away, pull out your old non-pedal Gibson, you’ll make a lot of people happier, including your banker.”

He said, “Well I’ll tell you what I’ll do just for you. I have a guy that I’m going out this weekend with named Mike Church and I think he would like me playing non-pedal better than pedal anyway. I’ll try it and let you know when I get back in town Monday.”

Don came in town with his pedal guitar and said, “I’ll never want to play it again. You were totally right. Everybody loves my Gibson with no pedals.” So that’s the way the rest of Don’s career went.

Check out our monthly specials at www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html and we’ll try to save you a lot of money.

Your buddy,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour

Listen To Steel Guitar Music Streaming 24 Hours A Day!

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday