Pedal Steel Music

June 20, 2013

When we get too busy to sit down and write a newsletter, we’ll pull up one of Bobbe’s newsletters from past years. Here is a replay of an 8 year old newsletter. Enjoy!

What is a steel guitarists main function in a band?

As you can imagine, it’s not to play rhythm or interfere with the bass’ low notes or to be playing loud at the same time the singer is singing. Steel guitar and fiddle are two of the instruments that are added to a band to add beauty and sweetness to the music. Every song needs this to make it more appreciated by the masses.

Every instrument in the band, except steel and fiddle, are percussive. Drums, guitars, piano, every note is staccato. Steel guitar is a warm, floating note. A band without something pretty in it like steel or fiddle is kind of hard to listen to for very long. Your subconscious mind feels as though it is being hit by every note and sound and can be very fatiguing over a period of time. Steel guitar, with it’s beautiful, flowing tones weaving amongst the other percussive instruments, creates a very pleasant, exciting but pretty feeling which contrasts wonderfully with the percussive instruments.

Steel guitar, being a lead instrument, should not be played on top of the voice, but it’s licks should be used to fill in the holes where the voice isn’t singing and is also used to take the present chord into the next upcoming chord like at the end of a verse and walking or sliding into the four chord of the bridge. This is where the bass player usually walks up from a one chord to a four chord. The bass player’s thumping percussive notes on this walkup can be made beautiful by a steel guitar flowing up above him to the same four chord. The drums and bass in a band are the chassis and the motor and steel guitar is the beautiful bodywork. They can get along without us but they won’t look very good!

Remember, when playing steel with a band, that fillin means fill in the holes where the singer’s voice isn’t and be sure to give the lead guitar his fills and stay out of his way and ask him to play very quiet rhythm if he plays anything at all during your fills. Some lead players think they have to play all the time and if they don’t, they think they have to play their rhythm just as loud as their fills were. I personally will not work with one of these kind of players over one time. The lead player is there to do the same type of job you’re doing, the difference being, he just isn’t equipped as well (grin).

What should a well equipped steel guitar player have in his pack-a-seat?

You should carry an extra volume pedal. Effects such as digital reverb, echo and chorus. You never know when a song will need this icing on the cake. At least, one or two extra cords. Extra bar in your pick pouch along with several extra thumb pick and at least one extra finger pick.

It goes without saying that a pack of .011’s is very necessary along with any others that may be prone to break due to your style of playing or your guitar. A complete set for both necks is nice to carry, even if you have to break a set due to an emergency. Some sort of distortion device. A power strip and at least one extension cord. My power strip is built into the side of my pack-a-seat.

Carrying a sitar bar can also be useful for the inventive player. Hand tools such as a speedy string winder, nylon tuner wrench, three or four allen wrenches sized to your guitar, a small multi-service Swiss Army knife or something with several tools built into it such as pliers, straight and phillips head screwdrivers etc. You may carry some of these things for years without needing them, but the day you do, you’ll be awfully glad that you had been carrying them.

I carry a headphone amp so that I can tune onstage or offstage where there’s a lot of noise and I want to hear me, not them and where I don’t want them to hear me. I can also tune by ear between songs by plugging the headphones into the third output jack on my volume pedal and leaving it there all the time. When I need to tune, I just turn the volume down on the amp and tune without bothering anybody or anybody bothering me. Most of you have seen professional players at big steel guitar shows using these phones to tune up while another act was on.

Why do you think they call it a pack-a-seat? Go ahead and pack it up.

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
Open 9AM – 2Pm Second and Third Saturday of each Month
Closed Sunday

May 30, 2013

This is Bob Hempker and I’ve been recalling a lot of the memories I’ve made through the years. You tend to collect them over time and it’s nice to smile and reminisce.

Don Helms was one of the first people I met when I came to town in 1969. Don was working with Hank Williams Jr. at the time. This was back when Hank had the Cheatin’ Hearts band. I was somewhat in awe of being around Don. He had been one of my heroes as a kid.

I went to work with Loretta not long after this. Don had played on all her early recordings that she did for Decca Records. The Wilburn Brothers were managing Loretta at the time and Don had worked for them and they all thought a lot of Don. Don was the Helm of the Wil-Helm Talent Agency that they had formed together.

Don was possibly the funniest man I have ever been around in my life. He was funny without try to be and had a bone dry sense of humor. I told him one time that he should start doing comedy. His reply was, “I tried that and everybody laughed at me.”

Don was so well known for the years he was with Hank Williams Sr. and the many hit recordings he played on at that time. He also played on Patsy Cline’s “Walkin’ After Midnight”, The Wilburn Brothers “Somebody’s Back In Town” and various other recordings with people other than Hank Sr. Don probably never got the recognition for that.

I remember one time there were several acts including Loretta and Hank Williams Jr. that were going to the U.K. for Easter for the Wembley Festival. That used to be an annual event for the big names of country music.

Don had an MSA D-12 and that thing weighed a ton. The case had a handle on each end so two people could carry it. Don and I carried that guitar all the way through Heathrow Airport in London. It just about killed both of us. Heathrow is kind of like Dallas-Ft. Worth airport except you don’t have a tram to ride.

Buddy Charlton was still on the road with Ernest Tubb when I first got on the road. He was another big hero of mine. Buddy and I got to be good friends down through the years while he was with Ernest. He was such a great player and a great stylist. I remember Buddy using his guitar case for a seat to sit on and play his guitar. I still to this day don’t know how he did it.

He also would change necks in the middle of a song frequently back and forth. That was such a unique idea I’m assuming that came from the old western swing stand-up players. I remember several of Ernest’s songs like “Half A Mind” that he would do this on. Anyone who thought C6th was just for jazz and swing would change their mind after seeing and hearing Buddy do this.

About this same time, we started working a lot of dates with Conway Twitty. For many years during the 70’s and 80’s I had the pleasure of being around Papa John Hughey on a daily basis. What a wonderful person and a great player! I can’t say enough about John Hughey. John was a real super perfectionist in everything he did, but at the same time, he was a humble man.

He and I were both playing Emmons push pull guitars at the time and using Evans Hybrid 300 amps. We hooked them together and we both used both amps. I don’t know if that started a trend or how it came about but I see more and more steel players using two amps.

I remember one time being on an overseas tour. My guitar got dropped and damaged by the airlines. I know you’ll find that hard to believe, but it did. Fortunately for me, John played a Jimmy Day style setup which I do too so I played John’s guitar for the rest of the tour.

Those were wonderful days. We were all like a big family and helped each other. No one was jealous of anyone else. Anything that anybody played, you could ask them how they played it and they’d sit down and show it to you. I am fortunate and very glad that I got to play steel guitar and country music in the era when I got to play.

I had the pleasure of getting to know and work with some of the finest people and musicians on the planet. It’s been a wonderful ride and it’s not over yet.

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

May 23, 2013

This is Vic Lawson and something came to my attention a couple of days ago. A person was very adamant that music should be free. This person felt that no one should get paid for a mere 3 or 4 minutes of work. He said that if we love playing music so much, we should just do it and not worry about getting paid.

The problem I have with this goes a lot deeper than his shallow opinion. Sure the end product may only be 3 or 4 minutes long, but it certainly takes a lot more than 3 or 4 minutes to create that product.

First off, somebody has to write that song. Joe Melson comes by from time to time and he said that it took him and co-writer Roy Orbison about a year to write, polish and hone “Blue Bayou” into the hit song that it became. The person assuming that it only takes a few minutes to come up with the words and music for a hit song has no grasp of the reality of the situation.

It also takes way more than 3 or 4 minutes to record a hit song. It takes a well-equipped studio and experienced and talented people to setup and operate the equipment to get the best possible sound on tape, or hard drive as it is today. You’re talking producers, engineers and musicians who earn their stripes through many years of striving to be the best they can be.

It is sad that the average listener has little ability to distinguish any difference between hackers and seasoned players. They don’t realize how many hours of practicing every day and how many years it takes to become proficient enough to make it look as easy as we make it look.

That results in opinions like the guy mentioned in the beginning has. They think anyone can learn a half dozen chords on a guitar and go out and be phenomenal. If it’s so much fun and so easy, you shouldn’t get paid for it. Or should you?

Let me make a comparison. Anyone with a reasonable amount of intelligence, diligence and motivation, can learn to be a lawyer or doctor, but when it comes to being a musician, it takes more than intelligence, diligence and motivation. It takes talent.

This secret, missing ingredient makes a world of difference because not everyone can learn to play with soul and passion which in my opinion is what separates the great players from the not so great.

Everybody needs to eat and everybody should be compensated for the work they do, even if it is fun. I think the guy above is motivated more by a desire to justify downloading music without paying for it than he is by any philosophical belief. I wonder how he’d justify going into a grocery store and wheeling a cart full of groceries out without paying for it?

For the guy who wants music for free, maybe he should listen to music made by musicians playing for free and see what he thinks of that. Go out on the back porch and listen to Uncle Hershel play his banjo. I’d like to see how much of that he could take.

The point is, if you want great music, it’s going to cost because good equipment, lessons and whatever else you need to get to a professional level don’t come cheap. If you want free music, then be happy with what you get.

How would you guys handle this? What would you say to someone who thinks he should get paid for the work he does but considers the work you do worth nothing?

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