Pedal Steel Music

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

Hello fellow players,

I was asked about my first days and first jobs in Nashville. I moved to Nashville with everything I owned in January of 1969, however I had worked out of Nashville many times before with road bands like Wilma Burgess, Bobby Bare, The Compton Brothers etc. But my arrival in Nashville with everything I owned, all my guitars, amps and so on, was in middle of January ’69.

I’ll never forget it was an extremely miserable, wet, blowing snow kind of night and I checked into a motel on the north side of Nashville. I got a room for myself and my black German Shepard dog and fell asleep in the bed immediately. I woke up in the morning and my dog Baron had totally destroyed the room. Towels, washcloths, pillows and anything he could destroy, he had done it.

I made some phone calls and rented an apartment in Madison and apologized to the motel owners. They laughed and said forget it. The next day I went down to music row and got an audition with Ferlin Husky. I was hired on the spot, then found out that nobody in the band could play very well.

The following day after boarding my dog, I loaded in the back seat of a Cadillac Fleetwood hauling a trailer. Myself and the pretty poor excuse for a band headed for Spokane, Washington. Of course, we didn’t get there in time because the ego-maniacs that were driving the car didn’t know how to read a map.

As we got close to the job, we stopped at a gas station. I called Ferlin, told him the state of ignorance we were in and that we couldn’t make the job under any circumstances. He said, “Well, you have to make the job.”

I said, “Then give me your credit card numbers over the phone and I’ll lease an airplane and we’ll get there.” We were in Baker, Oregon at the time. I told the band to get us to the airport. Somehow they did and we loaded up in a twin engine Aero Commander and jammed it full of instruments and amplifiers stacked to the roof.

We had a pretty good snow storm going on, but managed to get off the ground. A couple hours later, I could see the lights of Spokane, Washington through the windshield of the airplane. Upon landing I rented a car with the same credit card number. We got to the motel, changed clothes, rushed to the auditorium, setup on the stage ahead of Buck Owens that we were opening for and were about to play the first opening tune when I found out nobody in the band knew what the opening number was supposed to be.

The band knew absolutely nothing and just stood on the stage totally frozen when the curtain was raised. I had never seen anything like it before or since. It wasn’t funny, it just totally terrorized me when I realized I was working with Ferlin Husky. The stage curtains had opened, we had been introduced and the band couldn’t even play Wings Of A Dove.

I was totally destroyed. I took my own credit card, went to the airport, booked passage back to Nashville so I wouldn’t have to look at these idiots in the car coming back.

I sat down in the passenger compartment, was there for about five minutes when I saw Ferlin boarding the plane and looking for a place to sit. I ducked my head but he saw me anyway. Doing his Simon Crum impersonation, he said, “Hey, can I sit down beside you?” He said, “Why didn’t you ride back with the boys?”

I said, “Do me a favor, don’t ever mention them to me again.” I remember he said something about me not making any money by buying my own ticket back to Nashville. I said, “Well, with this band, you’re not going to be making any money either.” Before an argument could start, I went to sleep.

I woke up in Nashville and went to my apartment unemployed. I thought well that’s the big time in Nashville. About every road job I had my first year had similarly disastrous results. I soon realized that the way to make money in Nashville was to stay off the road. Pretty soon a friend of mine that was a studio musician in Nashville put a few recording sessions on me and between that and getting a good little club job on Broadway, I actually turned a pretty good profit.

My second year in Nashville was very profitable. I am astounded even in this day and time that so many people out of Nashville judge a steel player by who he works for. I’m sure there are a few good road jobs out of Nashville, but let me tell you, that’s not the way to get rich.

Last time I made remarks like this, I got some very mean mail from some of my friends that were working the road. Like I say, there may be some good road jobs, but there are better ways to turn a profit.

My first few days with the great Compton Brothers band was about the same. I remember joining the band in Norfolk, Virginia. We were supposed to play a job in Washington, D.C. that night. We got there and the club was closed. Everybody turned and looked at me and asked if I had any money for diesel fuel for the bus. I said, “You mean you guys don’t have fuel for the bus?”

They said, “What do you mean “You guys”, you’re in the band now too.” I had joined the band because I was broke. Now I was about as forlorn as I could be. However, I still loved steel guitar, loved playing it, loved being in the band and knew that bigger things would follow. Sure enough, bigger debt followed.

We just lost the great Charlie Louvin which I have known for many decades. I won’t say he was a great friend, however I backed him up on several TV shows and club dates and found him very pleasant to work with. I ran across him many times in town in Hendersonville since we both lived here and during the CB craze, I bought a 600 Watt CB power booster for a transmitter I had bought from him earlier. It was a unit that Charlie had in his house for his wife to talk to him while he was on the road.

Charlie had this CB setup so that no matter where the bus was in the United States, he could stay in touch with his wife without paying for long distance telephone service.

It was so powerful after I set it up in my home that when I would key the microphone, all the lights in the house would dim and all the television sets within six blocks of the house could hear what I was saying to whomever I was talking to.

I don’t know what Charlie replaced it with, but his neighbors probably got radiation burns. I remember he had a 1200 kw generator on his bus. I remember several of the musicians in Nashville at the time being sucked into the CB craze and of course, we all had our handle. Charlie Louvin’s was “The Rainmaker”. Curly Chalker’s was “Big C” and I believe Buddy Emmons used “Double Ten”.

I was “Double Echo” and another great steel guitarist that was working with Tommy Cash at the time named Darryl Davidson was a fellow enthusiast. These were good days in Nashville when it came to camaraderie and communication between steel players.

I’ll never forget Charlie Louvin for just being one of us boys.

For you technical guys, David and Harry Jackson, builders of the Sho-Bud and the new Jackson guitars, let me know that they are working on an all new pulling mechanism which should be the greatest thing since sliced bread. These boys are always thinking.

I personally had no problems over many years with the tuning key twisting method of tuning on the Jackson, Clinesmith or Bigsby steel guitars. However, David claims he may eliminate that with this new soon to be employed changer. Is there no end to this genius’ talent?

I just received news that one of the truly great steel guitarists of all time from the golden age has just died. The incredible Buddy Charleton of Ernest Tubb fame has left us. More on this later as I get more information.

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

Hello fellow players,

I didn’t realize there were so many people out there that were so interested in my early days in steel guitar. Rather than a lot of yip yap that doesn’t apply, I’ll get right to the question. My service days in the Air Force have brought much to light concerning these critical years of learning steel guitar in my life.

There are many steel guitar players that have gone through the service, Air Force, Army, Navy. Great players. I found it very interesting that the great Curly Chalker, Don Davis, Billy Robinson and Joe Vincent were all in the service together and actually were in the same band in the service together. It was a seven piece western swing band and no matter what instrument was played in the band, it was a steel player that was playing it.

This makes me think about Stu Basore, Billy Deaton and myself being in the same band in Oklahoma. I think Chalker and the boys were in south Texas. Something very interesting about learning to play in the service is that you’ve got a lot of time to do it plus you have just enough money coming in to keep you alive, but not enough to make you rich enough to get out and get in to trouble.

As a matter of fact, I met Curly Chalker after he completed his service obligations one evening at Ardmore Air Force base. I was coming in from a visit to beautiful downtown Gene Autry, Oklahoma when I heard this gargantuous steel guitar roaring out of the NCO club. So I ran into the club at full kilter just as the band went on break.

I walked up to the steel player who was adjusting a double set of half inch tape recorders on the bandstand. Little did I realize that we were going to be friends for the rest of his life. He was playing a Fender 1000 with two Fender Bassman amps. My first words to him were, “Do you play any Joaquin Murphy stuff?”

He looked at me and said, “Only when I want to slow down and relax. Who are you?”

I said, “I’m a steel guitar player in full appreciation of your craft. What’s your name?”

He said, “I’m Curly Chalker, the world’s greatest steel guitar player.”

I responded with, “Let me be the judge of that.”

He then went ahead and proceeded to play some of the biggest Glen Miller arrangements I’d ever heard in full parts. He then did Dancing In The Dark, Sunrise Serenade and some other big nice arrangements all by himself. I felt like I’d had the wind knocked out of me. I let him know how I felt about his playing and we were immediately great friends from then on.

At the end of the night I went up to him and said, “Yes you are the world’s greatest steel guitar player.” Any player who heard him play at that period of time would have to agree. For proof of this, go to YouTube and check him out.

It was an email that I got from steel guitar player Skip Mertz on the forum and very dear player James Weaver this week that reminded me of these great anecdotes.

Friendships that you make when you are young and under outside duress seem to stay with you forever. These friendships mean a lot to you forever. James Weaver was a guitar player stationed at Ardmore Air Force base and turned out to be a lifelong friend, an extremely high quality person that has done much with his life.

Raising an incredible family with the help of his wonderful wife is one of these things of which I speak. Still playing guitar in the Oklahoma City area, he is one of those great friendships that can only be made when you’re fairly young and the pressures are on you.

So many of these friends that I made in the early days have turned out to be great players which goes back to another early lesson I learned in the world. Always treat everyone like a great friend with great respect when you first meet them because you’ll never know when they’re going to come sneaking up behind and running past you with a great burst of talent.

It’s awful easy to be a smart alec wise guy when you’re young only to have it turn around and bite you in the butt in later years. It was a long time before I was able to sit down between 1955 and 1975. I will say that I have made many great friends in the world of steel guitar and many players that I loved to death. I have lost many of these players over the past few years and every time I lose one, it seems like my heart is being ripped out.

Possibly players you don’t think about much anymore, but you should. Incredible players like Gene O’Neal of Charley Pride fame, Billy Braddy and Tom Morrell of Western Starlighter fame, Gene Pooler of Johnny Lee Wills fame and the list goes on and on.

The band last week that I couldn’t think of the name was The Miller Brothers Band in Wichita Falls, Texas. Now that I think back of most of these bands, the musicians themselves including steel guitar players and drummer … ha … were some of the greatest people I’ve ever met in my life.

I woke up the other morning with a song going through my head I haven’t thought of in many, many years. It seems like the words were “I’d trade all of my tomorrow’s for just one yesterday”. I don’t know if I’d really do that or not, but my medical expenses would be a lot less.

I would like to thank all of you who have emailed me so much of your own lives. I wish we all lived a lot closer. It sure would be nice to talk to many of you face to face and share old stories and careers.

I’d like to congratulate my dear friend Dicky Overby along with Roy Ayres and lifetime friend Ron Elliott for their recent induction into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. Dicky Overby, great steel guitarist from Texas that I met in 1959 in Colorado Springs. As friends, we hit it off immediately.

I was playing with Jan Howard on the show and forget who he was working with, however, I believe we were both playing Fender 1000s and I remember Dicky had every pedal on his guitar working both necks. I thought at that time having just met him that he would do well in the world of steel guitar as he has.

Rick Price, another player that I met as a youngster seems to have done well and if you’re out there Rick, I’ve got some pictures of you sitting in my living room in Madison, Tennessee in 1968 that you might like to have copies of.

There are so many of you out there that I know and haven’t seen for years. I hate it because I can remember every one of you and think of you often. Thank you for the friendship, I love you all.

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