Pedal Steel Music

Having been in Nashville over 50 years now, I have seen a complete change in the country music business and in country music itself. The business of playing steel guitar is also totally different. When I first came to Nashville in the 60’s you could walk into any office anywhere and see anybody. You could work with any star simply by talking to him in his office or backstage at the Opry.

Traveling was almost entirely in a four door sedan and a trailer. Six guys in a car with a trailer was not an interesting way to travel, not to mention it was not very comfortable. At least, the price of gasoline was only 25 cents a gallon or less. Hotel rooms were $4 pr $5. I’ll never forget the first $25 a night hotel room. It was in Washington, D.C. Nowadays, you wouldn’t be caught dead in a room that cheap.

I remember what a beautiful city Detroit was and Newark, New Jersey too. Things sure are different today. Being a musician working on the road was a wonderful to keep your finger on the pulse of the nation. I still know people that I met during this time period. Getting to know the musicians themselves in Nashville, road and studio, was very good also. However, most of them now are gone. I remember them all and think of them often.

This kind of covers what went on in the old days. What’s happening today is totally different, in some ways better and in some ways not. The traffic in all big cities is much heavier, however the roads are much better to get around it.

When I first came to town I subbed on a TV show for Stu Basore and Curly Chalker. As I remember driving to north Madison to the TV station going right through the middle of town. Nowadays, there are three interstates and I can get to the station in less than half the time and less than half the stress. But gasoline being $3.50 a gallon sure is an unpleasant reminder of the way things are.

I think the main differences in Nashville are the music itself, what it takes to get a job and the way business it run, like recording sessions. Recording used to be a fun thing. Sessions used to be four 3 hour sessions a day with an hour in between to get to the next one. The union used to have power and enforce this ruling. Today that just isn’t true.

Automation in the control room in the studio is a substitute for talent in some cases. If the singer sounds a note slightly flat while the steel player played a note slightly sharp, the engineer can fix it faster with auto-tune than the artist or musician can redo it.

Another thing are the malls in Nashville. There must be ten or twelve big ones but there was only one when I came to town. The town has grown faster than the music business, but I’m sure this is the same all over the United States.Club work that used to keep so many musicians busy has now been replaced with karaoke, deejays standing with two turn tables in front of them and sometimes even internet streaming of playlists. Yes sir, friends and neighbors, things were different.

I spent a good part of my youth in Dallas, Texas. Work was never hard to get there, however over $15 a night was. I remember the big western swing bands working monster clubs. Sometimes you could make as much as $80 a week. This was good pay at the time. This is what made me want to come to Nashville. I’m still glad I did, but it’s not easy for a new musician to come to this town and support a house and a wife full of kids. To quote, this is a quote that Gene O’Neal used to say.

Our Christmas sale is in full swing. Be sure to check it and have your family check it for things you may need for Christmas. Since you used to be able to hear steel guitar on radio 24 hours a day and see it on TV much more often than today, it might be a good time to start a good collection of CDs and DVDs.

There is still a lot of steel guitar available from retailers like me, artists like Doug Jernigan and finding CDs at steel guitar shows. There are several of you that have been playing steel guitar all your life and it’s not something you’re going to put down. You can still enjoy your lifelong passion and know that there are new players starting to learn. We are seeing them come to Nashville all the time and most of them are great players.

Let us help you maintain your love for steel guitar and keeping your needs met. And remember, please get by and see me anytime you’re in this town.

Don’t forget to check our Christmas Sale. It’s all over the front page at Steel Guitar Nashville.

Bobbe Seymour

www.steelguitar.net
info@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 every Saturday until Christmas
Closed Sunday

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving so we’re sending the newsletter out the day before instead of the day after. We have a great Black Friday Sale figured out and it will be posted on the front page of the website on Friday morning. Of course, readers of this newsletter have already seen the sneak peek at www.steelguitar.net/blackfridaysale.html

I’m going to answer or comment on a few emails in this newsletter. I got one nice note from Larry Sasser, former steel player on Nashville Now. He says, “Hey Bobbe, how are you? Getting better I hope. Been wanting to talk to you and see just how you are.”

Vic Lewis’ daughter wrote “Good to hear from you again, Bobbe, I’m Vic Lewis’ daughter and I spoke to you a few years ago. I think it was just after my Daddy died in 2009.

Loved this newsletter. Your memories are an important part of history. I regret not asking my dad more about his travels although I have several stories he’s written.

I’ll bet you’ve got hundreds of road stories, what a life!

Louis Armentaro wrote “This is Louis Armentaro from Livingston, Montana. So nice to see you up and running again. It has been a pleasant experience buying supplies from you and your store down thru the years. I would like to know the ages of some of the old time steel players that are still active and playing steel guitar, even for just a few dates a year but still playing steel guitar at home. I am going to try to claim the title of the oldest steel guitar player who still pumps those floor pedals and knee levers. In ten months I will be 90 years old and my feet, knees and hands and fingers work as good as ever. Every day playing at home keeps you in good shape with the feet, hands, fingers, knees and the mind.

The director of the Atlantic Steel Guitar Club sent this email.

I would like to have your opinion on the CMA award show! The only thing “Country” I saw was a very old looking Alan Jackson, and an even older looking George Strait. At least they gave George a lifetime achievement award (which the called “Entertainer of the Year” — they already had Kenny Rodgers lined up for the Lifetime award.

I guess George and Alan have a steel player. It certainly was not dominant like it should have been.

If so, it was the only thing on the three hour show that had any steel — Is that show still controlled by Dick Clark’s former company? Did someone properly drive a wooden stake through his heart yet?

I’m surprised you’re still in business. Hope you can survive a few more years — I hope I can survive a few more years.

Keep Steelin’
Charlie Fullerton, director
Atlantic Steel Guitar Club
Sackville, Nova Scotia

It’s so good to hear from all of you. This way I don’t think I’m talking into the wild blue yonder. I’ve been forgetting to congratulate Lynn Owsley on his induction into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in St. Louis. Lynn is a good friend to all steel guitar players everywhere.

I congratulate anybody that has been selected by this organization because it sure makes the players appreciate the fact that they are appreciated. Lynn Owsley was a steel player with Ernest Tubb for 13 years until his untimely death. I remember many years ago Lynn wanting to borrow a couple hundred dollars from me. I asked, “How are you going to pay me back?”

He said “I’m going out on the road this weekend with Claude Gray and Claude loves to play cards. I know I’m going to win a small fortune from him.” So I said ok and a couple weeks later Lynn came in and I asked, “Well, did you win or lose?”

He said, “I always win.” He pulled several hundred dollars out of his pocket and the title to Claude’s bus out of the other pocket. I said, “What are you going to do with that?” He said, “I don’t know. You want to buy a bus?” Then he stated he was going out on the road with Ernest Tubb on a permanent basis.

I said, “Good. Bring me Ernest Tubb’s bus title.” I understand he did win it in a poker game and ended up giving it back. Lynn is quite a character and a friend of all that know him.

I asked Lynn, “What do you enjoy most about being in the Hall of Fame?” He said, “Being there with all my heroes, Ralph Mooney, Don Helms and Bobbe Seymour.”

I said, “I know what you’re talking about. A lot of great steel players have been honored by the Hall of Fame.”

Tommy White, a dear friend of many years who I’ve known since he was 14 years old. He should have become a member of the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame way before now. He obviously is one of the greatest steel guitar players of our time. If anybody should be a member of the Hall of Fame, he should. I think we all know that if we know steel guitar.

My heartfelt congratulations to both Lynn and Tommy.

There are several more I personally would like to see in there. Of course, there are a lot of players outside of Nashville that deserve to be honored also. There are many of you that I think an awful lot of around the world that I don’t get to see very often. Anytime you’re on a trip through this town, I would really like to have you drop by so I can see you.

I’m going to be making a new DVD at the beginner level. This will be designed for beginning players to build a firm foundation with classical steel guitar tunes every steel player worth his picks should be able to play. The DVD package will include my Steel Guitar Classics CD with all these tunes on it recorded with some of Nashville’s finest studio musicians.

I would like to thank all of you for being on my newsletter mailing list and don’t be afraid to let me know what you want to hear about. It’s not easy coming up with ideas week after week and I appreciate any input you give me.

Bobbe Seymour

www.steelguitar.net
info@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

I told you last week about working with Lynn Anderson and having to fly commercially to all the jobs.  I realized since that also Johnny Rivers was a fly job and the short tour I did with Tanya Tucker was a flying only job.

I don’t really care much for commercial flying.  On some jobs, the bus is just the best way to go.  You have your own bunk, carry anything you want with you and the bus usually stops to get food or drink whenever the band asks for it.  Airplanes just don’t seem to want to do that.

Of course, with us being in Nashville and having a California tour lined up, it’s much easier to fly to the west coast, leave the airplane and get on the bus for the short haul around the state.

When I was with Johnny Paycheck, we used bus only no matter where the job was.  Needless to say, I slept in the bunk a lot.  I always managed to get up to observe Johnny’s famous antics.

I’ll never forget sitting in my den one afternoon when the phone rang.  I answered it and it was Faron Young.  I was working for someone else at the time, but he had four jobs between Tennessee and Kentucky that he wanted to use me on, on steel guitar.

I told him I’d be glad to.  I made the arrangements of where to meet the bus.  He had a new band at this time which I was leery of the first day out.  After the first job we played, I was looking for excuses to not due the last three dates.  We came back to Nashville after the first day and I went home just for the evening to sleep and was supposed to meet the bus a day later for the last three days.

The more I thought about going back out, the more I hated the idea.  I called several players in town, Stu Basore, Doug Jernigan and Jimmy Crawford.  When I got to Don Helms, he said Faron wouldn’t hire a steel player with one arm.  I said, “Oh no, what happened to your arm?”

Don exclaimed nothing yet, but Faron would have to break it to get him on the bus.  This is when I realized that Faron was in the middle of one of his drinking spells.  Suddenly the phone rang and it was Jimmy Day passing through town and wanted to know if I had a little work for him.

I asked him if he’d like to go out with Faron for three days.  He said, “No, but I need the money.”

After a week or so, I called one of the guys in the band to see how the jobs went.  They said fine, that Jimmy did a good job, however Faron was a little miffed when I didn’t do the jobs myself.

About six months later I walked into a club in Nashville called Possum Hollar.  As I was walking down the long hall, at the end of the hall I saw this big ruckus going on and it was Faron Young inebriated telling interesting stories to a group of tourists.  I thought, “Oh no, how am I going to avoid this.”

About that time, Faron spotted me and yelled, “Ladies and gentlemen, there’s Bobbe Seymour.  A great steel player, but he might send somebody else to sub for him if you hire him.  But I love him and he’s a great friend along with being a good steel player.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad I wasn’t going to be suffering his wrath.  Not long after that he rehired his old band and I went to work steady for him for awhile.  I really got a kick out of his humor.  He was a very generous, honest person and like Johnny Paycheck, kept me laughing most of the time.

While watching the Jay Leno show the other evening, I noticed that his guest singer was going to be Gary Allen so I kept watching the show until Gary came on.  Sure enough, there was his good steel player, Chad Udeen, better known as CJ.  Sure is good to see steel guitar on these high profile shows.

I’m always surprised about where steel guitar is going and where it is.  I got an email from a country western band in Beijing, China explaining that they sing classic country and western songs in the Chinese language.  This just proves that steel guitar is everywhere.  I applaud this group and hope they become a big success in China.

These newsletters are for you, for your entertainment and steel guitar knowledge.  I would like to hear from you and know what you would like to hear about.  Do you like stories about my old days on the road or would you rather have listening to products and how I rate them or possibly just what’s going on in Nashville?

We are busy preparing our Christmas sale list and we’ll be sending out a special announcement to this mailing list letting you know the details.  We will be open every Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas from 9 AM until 2 PM.  I’ll be here as much as I’m able.

As I get my strength back, I’ll be spending more time at the store.  In other words, I’ll be in and out as much as possible.

In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at the Black Friday Sale we’ve created for you.
www.steelguitar.net/blackfridaysale.html

This gives you a chance to get a jump on all the Black Friday shoppers.

www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour