Pedal Steel Music

Hello fans and fellow players,

It’s really funny how different areas of the United States perceive famous people differently. When I was starting my career I worked for many of the famous stars in the business and never looked at them as being any different from anybody I’d meet on the street and I sure didn’t treat them any differently.

Well, this isn’t true necessarily because I didn’t treat any of them very good I feel. I’d argue with Billy Walker, George Jones, Claude Gray and everybody I worked for like they were my brother, not like they were some kind of big star to be respected.

I moved to Washington D.C. to work a club named The Ozarks at 10th and K Street. It was right next to a storefront that Nixon had rented for office space for his election committee which was in the mid sixties of course. We have many so-called famous people in the club every night. People like Senator Harry Byrd wanting to sit in on fiddle and people that ran the country all day long and then sat in on the stage and had to listen to me tell them when to play, how loud to play and when to get off the stage.

Amazing. They were powerful folks that liked to have fun just like the rest of us. My time in north Los Angeles playing the clubs was really interesting. You never knew who would come in to hear you. There weren’t but two steel players in the area so once they had shown up, it was mostly famous lead guitar players after that.

These guys were famous, but not necessarily great guitar players. This was where I learned that greatness and fame really didn’t go together very often. What I did learn was what soul and what feel was. Guys like Duane Allman, Jeff Beck, Ry Cooder, Jerry Garcia, Jimmy Page and Chuck Berry would sit in and absolutely rock the place.

They had everybody jumping up and down screaming, but in observing them I realized that they did it mostly with feel and volume. Like Chet Atkins said one time, “I don’t mind a guitar player stirring up the crowd and making them jump around and scream with a high volume distorted solo, but that’s not me. I’m not gonna do it that way. I’d rather have them look at me, drop their head and just exclaim, wow, I wish I could do that.”

Chet was a true master, but there was a dividing line between Chet’s playing and many of the other great players like Larry Carlton, Eric Clapton and how about George Harrison, a really famous guitar player because of his fame, but not necessarily a killer in any style but his own.

I saw a clip one time of Jerry McDonald from Europe, a very nice laid back player that just kept amazing me from bar to bar. And then of course, there was Wes Montgomery. Wes not being a hard core rocker, but he had the talent to take what he knew and play it to its finest degree. The background music that he created to go with his style was about as wonderful as you could ever ask for.

Remember Sunshine Superman by Donavan? How about Soul Man by Sam and Dave and the licks that Steve Cropper played on guitar? These guys knew just exactly how to play the least amount of notes possible with so much soul and taste that they could rip the heart out of other musicians that can seemingly play circles around them.

If you’re not familiar with Steve Cropper, he was one of the two guitar players in the Blues Brothers movie and was on all the sound tracks. You might remember his work on Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay, a song he played guitar on and co-wrote with Otis Redding.

Listen to some of the solos on The Eagles recordings. How about the turn around on New Kid In Town? There sure is a wonderful world of music out there. It’s not all watch how fast I can play or listen to all this distortion I can use, but taste can affect the greatest of players as much as it does the simplest of players.

These are the things that make me love great steel guitar and great lead guitar. This is why I took it as such a wonderful off handed compliment to be hired by Chet Atkins on the sessions that I was lucky enough to work with him.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some extremely incredible players supposedly who I really didn’t like working with at all and I’ve had to suffer the indignity many years later of people coming up to me and saying, “Isn’t old so and so an incredible guitar player?”

In my heart I knew that I not only didn’t want to ever play with this guy again, but I didn’t even want to see him in a restaurant years later. It goes back to something that I touch on in about everyone of my newsletters. It’s not how famous you are, but how well you can really play your guitar.

There are many great players that may not be so great, but I have found that everyone of them have some kind of magic that can capture another soul with. I remember in 1970 playing an award show in Nashville and going to the restroom to get ready for the show to start and a long haired guy came in the room and he burst into a great big smile and put his hand out and he said, “I heard you playing with The Compton Brothers onstage a minute ago. You’re astounding.”

He said, “If I could play like you, I’d be the happiest guy in the world.”

I replied, “If you played like me, you’d be broke.”

He laughed and shook my hand (which had been washed by then). He said, “What’s your name?”

I told him. He said, “Oh yes. I read about you in Guitar Player magazine.”

I said, “What’s your name?”

He said, “I’m Jerry Garcia. I play lead guitar with The Grateful Dead”

I said, “Good. Why don’t you play steel guitar with that group?”

He replied that he owned one and did play it once in awhile, but he said hearing the players in Nashville scared him to death.

Several years after this I did a stint in North Hollywood, California with Johnny Rivers in a band his record company had put together with Nashville musicians, except for Herb Pederson from L.A. on rhythm and banjo and of course Albert Lee on lead guitar.

I complained vehemently to Johnny for having to play so loud. Johnny replied, “Turn it up. We’ll make them listen to us.”

My ears are still ringing from playing that loud and that was forty years ago. I played a double neck MSA through two Fender Twins. As you can tell, tone was not of great importance. Actually from the rock n roll we were playing, this may have been the right combination. I am glad we had a stage crew or my back would be even worse than it is today.

I think the point that I’m trying to make here is in the professional world of guitars, steel and lead, there are a tremendous amount of parallels between the two. Rock n roll, country, it doesn’t matter if you’re Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Frank Zappa or Andre Segovia. You need to throw your heart into it and have a good time. Enjoy it yourself and make everybody around you do the same.

Remember that we have many tracks to choose from with Nashville’s finest studio players that would go very well with the Tascam Guitar Trainer that so many of you have bought so you can work on developing your own soul and feel with steel guitar.

Tracks CDs are available here.

What do you get when you play New Age music backwards? New Age music!

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

The friend to all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
www.myspace.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,

Some discussion in this communiqué is concerning the social structure of the world wide steel guitar society. You must be a member of it because you’re reading this. There are thousands upon thousands of steel guitar players and musicians that love steel that are members of some sort of organization that links us together, like the steel guitar forum, my newsletters, the multitudes of steel guitar clubs throughout the world which includes some of the great ones like Scotty’s in St. Louis, Bob Maickels in New York and many others scattered throughout the US, Europe, Canada, even Asia, Australia and many other places on the face of the Earth.

You may ask, “Well now, what are you getting at and why are you mentioning this?”

Because our steel guitar society is very important to us, some of us as a work medium and others of us as a fun medium.

Think about the gun clubs like the NRA, car clubs like the NHRA, ham radio clubs like the ARRL and the FFA for farmers and the list can go on forever. The reason that all these clubs exist is because of the great love that people have for these hobbies.

Ever see the show on television called “Car Crazy”? Possibly someday we’ll have a “Steel Guitar Crazy” show like that. It seems like every Saturday on the Speed channel, we see many car club shows. These cover many cities in the world and pretty well shows us all that there’s a tremendous amount of interest in old cars, antiques, racers from all eras, brands and years.

The car following is so big that it’s divided into different brands and cars according to what your interest in them is. Same with motorcycles and airplanes and many other hobbyish items.

Well here we are with an equally big love in the steel guitar itself. There are different kinds of music that we love to hear played on them like country, Hawaiian, jazz, rock n roll and so on. Boy, if I had only had a club to join when I was a little kid and had all these wonderful sources to tap into to help satisfy my thirst for steel guitar and help me to learn.

Well today we have it. Every once in a while, a player, singer or housewife who really doesn’t know much about steel guitar will tap into our society through the forum or my newsletter and make a lot of people mad for some things that they say to us, but this doesn’t matter.

We need to welcome everyone in our society and this includes the “know it alls” that really know nothing, the guys that play very little but think they’re great and people that may build a product that really doesn’t work too well possibly in the beginning, these people also need to be welcomed with open arms and not be criticized too harshly because they may have a deep seated love for steel guitar that will and can mature over time and possibly someday these folks can be great contributors to our little steel society in the future.

Every once in a while I get shocked tremendously by seeing a steel guitar player that I may have scoffed at under my breath many years ago that can now play circles around me. I love to have this happen as this shows me that the world of steel guitar is safe and secure with a good future.

This world of steel guitar is going to be here long after I’m gone and if my books and recordings and teachings can be appreciated and help players after I’m gone, I’m sure wherever I go I’ll be a very happy guy.

My entire life has been devoted to steel guitar. I have not forced myself to be a steel guitar player or enthusiast, it’s just where my weak mind has taken me. Sure I have other interests in life, I love motorcycles, cars, cameras, video technology, airplanes and those wonderful puppies and kitties who grow up to be faithful pets that love me. I also love my dear steel buddies and friends that feel the same way I do about these things.

The name Mickey Adams pops into my mind, being a wonderful pilot, a great steel player and most of all a person who loves sharing and teaching all others around him. Well this is about all I wanted to say on this subject, but I feel I’ve said a lot of what’s really in my heart and every word that I’ve written here concerns everyone of you, whether you’re in Tyler, Texas, Reno, Nevada, Manhattan, New York, Detroit, Michigan or Miami, Florida, and yes you wonderful players on the left coast, Canada, Europe, Australia and anywhere else also.

Everyone of you are very important to everyone of us here in Nashville. So join those clubs and contribute all you can to feeding others that love for steel guitar and that funny noise it makes. Get on the steel guitar forum and let the whole world know how you feel.

As most of you know, we have sold hundreds and hundreds of Boss effects units over the years, actually numbering into thousands and these units are just as good today as they ever were and their 5 year warranty is almost never needed. I still stand behind everything that Boss makes. However, a new reverb that we’re handling now is the Digitech Lexicon licensed reverbs called HardWire.

These stereo reverbs have two inputs and two outputs, but can also be used and produce tremendous quality as a mono unit. I will personally guarantee that these units are about as fine as anything money can buy, regardless of what setting you put this great reverb unit on, plate, room, spring, hall, gated, reverse or modulated, you’ll be a very happy player.

For somebody that’s as dumb as I am and I’m not sure any of you are, it has round control knobs. This means when you turn them to the right, you get more of what they do, to the left you get less. To me, this is the way things are supposed to work, like the radio in my dad’s Packard Coupe when I was a little kid, or like the volume controls, bass and treble on the old Fender amps. This means you don’t have to see them when in the dark to make a precise, quick adjustment.

These are manufactured in the United States and only the owner’s manual is printed in China. You don’t have to read Chinese. They printed it in English.

There are three units that I feel a steel guitar player should always have, echo, reverb and dobro simulator. This unit has to be one of the three. Simple to operate and nothing will make your guitar sound better for less money. The RV-7 Stereo Reverb comes with a Velcro bottom that will make it not slip on carpet and make it easy to mount on an effects pedal board.

For those of you who have already bought this unit and are raving about it, thank you. Let everybody else know as a service to them and tell them it’s guaranteed to make them sound better regardless of their playing ability.

See it here!

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

The friend to all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
www.myspace.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 think one of the great things all us steel players have to be thankful for are the little newsletters that steel guitar clubs put out. Some of these clubs and the papers they put out aren’t very little. The Pedal Steel Newsletter out of Floral Park, New York put out by Bob Maickel is one of the finest continuous newsletters I’ve ever read.

This club does a wonderful job for its readers and members. I recommend anybody, anywhere joining it. The address is: PO Box 20248 Floral Park, New York 11002-0248. This newsletter they put out carries advertisements from all my competitors and articles on musicians along with written out instrumentals for steel guitar.

It also keeps you posted on coming steel guitar events and record reviews by big time deejay Mike Gross. I can’t say enough good things about this club or its members and followers. They also do one of the best shows in the United States and make sure that it has the finest talent obtainable from near and far.

How about some real fun now. Not only do I want to see what most of you look like, but I want to see you wearing one of our Steel Guitar Nashville tee shirts. So if you’ll email me a picture of you wearing any tee shirts that you’ve bought here at the store, the Cobra Coil shirts or any of the Steel Guitar Nashville shirts, I’ll post them on the website.

Guaranteed to make you a star overnight and who doesn’t want to be a star? You know what a star is? He’s that guy that stands in front of a bunch of musicians and yells the right key to them and threatens them if they play the wrong chords on Nightlife. Just kidding here, but having fun is the name of the game and I’m serious about the tee shirts.

If you don’t have one, order one. We have a choice of six or seven, every one of them guaranteed to make you famous on Broadway in Nashville, Broadway in New York City or the famous strip in Las Vegas.

A friend just emailed me that he wore a Steel Guitar Nashville shirt last Saturday night on lower Broad in Nashville and had to sign fourteen autographs before he could get to his car! So get those pictures to me, behind a steel guitar or not and we’ll get them on the website.

Like most places in the southeast, here in Nashville the temperatures were bumping triple digits this past weekend, so I didn’t get out to do much. One of my traditional things to do is to put the top down on one of my convertibles and drive through town and watch the fireworks, but found it much easier to stay in the air-conditioned comfort of my house and watch what I could out the bay window. I won’t even have to wash my car now.

I hope all of you had a happy, safe Fourth.

Little commercial here so that we can pay our bills. We still have a warehouse full of Peavey Nashville 112 amplifiers. We always try to keep a big stock in case the company decides to not build them for a period of time. When this happens, we always try to be the dealer in the United States that still has many of them to sell. I still feel this is about the finest amplifier that anyone can buy because of its volume, tone and light weight.

Another really good thing about selling a high amount of these amplifiers is the wonderful trade-ins they manage to bring me. Standel, Webb, all Fender models and amplifiers that are generally very hard to find, we take in on trade and sell them at the lowest prices possible.

When it comes to amplifiers, we will only take immaculate, low time amps with no wear shown on them anywhere. So if you’re looking for that immaculate Session 500 Peavey amp at a real low price, let me know. You name the amp and we probably have it and you will like the price.

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

The friend to all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
www.myspace.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