Pedal Steel Music

This is Bob Hempker with today’s newsletter.

I know many road players and guys who work the same show day in and day out can relate to this. I’ve fought the boredom thing on stage for years. We play the same old songs over and over. I’ve sometimes forgotten that we even played a certain song. How do we keep our mind fresh, and our enthusiasm up?

When we would go out on the road, sometimes we’d do 40 plus one-nighters in a row. That meant playing without much rest, and sometimes driving all night to get to the next gig. A lot of my road work back then was in a station wagon with 5 of us, and pulling a U-Haul trailer. Needless to say, things have gotten a lot better for the road players in the last 30 years or so.

For 24 years, I worked and traveled the road with Loretta Lynn. When I first went to work for her, she hadn’t had that many hits, so as a result to fill time, she would do other peoples’ hits or what many refer to as “cover tunes.” That kept us on our toes. As the years went by, she compiled more and more hits of her own. We would have a different audience every show, so the songs were fresh to the folks in the crowd.

It could really get to be a grind to those of us on the stage, including Loretta. Sometimes I would really yearn just to play something different than the same old intros and turn-arounds that were required to be played on her show. Most C/W music artists want their intros and turn-arounds played pretty much like the recordings. Signature licks have to be there, also. That leaves your fills pretty much to your own taste and discretion.

I fought the same thing the eight years I worked for Roy Clark. Sometimes I would say to myself, “If I have to play that darn ‘Thank God and Greyhound You’re Gone’ one more time, I’m going to scream.”

One year, I worked 400 plus shows with “Country Tonite” in Branson. I also did a morning show with Jim Owen. We did the same songs each and every show, over and over. Again, the fighting the boredom, and trying to keep your head in your work.

I have found little tricks down through the years I play on myself to keep from getting bored, and my mind wandering in the middle of a song. Sometimes, I will zero in on my tone, and try to really make it big and fat. Not just with amp settings and such, but with my own technique.

I’ll place my hands in different spots comparing the difference in the sound of the notes. I may use different fingers or my thumb for a lick I usually use another finger, or my thumb for. I’ll swap bars around . I have a 7/8″ bar and a 15/16″ bar. I’ll compare the tone and the way they feel. Sometimes I’ll pick block a passage instead of my usual palm blocking.

One of my favorite things to do to keep enthused in playing on a set show, is to think about my heroes. I can remember playing “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and thinking about how Buddy Emmons would have played it. Again the intro had to be like the recording, which Hal Rugg played on, but the fills were of my own discretion.

I always would fill every other verse. There is no actual chorus to the song. I might try to fill the first verse the way I would imagine Lloyd Green would have played it. The second verse, maybe I’d try to imagine John Hughey or Jimmy Day playing it. The third verse, maybe Weldon Myrick.

It was all according to which one of my heroes would pop into my head. I would sometimes play almost the whole show like that. I did this on Roy’s show, also. I can imagine so many of my favorite players’ styles on “Tips of My Fingers.” There was no steel guitar solo on “Yesterday When I Was Young,” but Roy said he always wanted one on it, and asked me to play something on it.

I thought for a while, and I concluded that Jerry Byrd should have played on that song. I played a solo the way I imagined maybe Jerry would have played it. I’m nowhere near in the league with Jerry or any of these other great players, but it is fun to imagine. I’ve done it a lot down through the years.

I don’t know if any of the rest of you have tried this or not, but it is a good mental trick to keep from me getting bored and fighting fatigue on the stage. I know it’s a condition we all fight from time to time, but we all have our own ways of dealing with it.

I’d like to hear from some of you, and hear your ideas about how you deal with this.

Check out our Christmas Specials at www.steelguitar.net/christmasspecials.html

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

Today’s newsletter comes to you a day earlier because of Thanksgiving. Here’s hoping you have plenty to be thankful for.

We are lucky enough to have Mike Daly once again write a newsletter for us. It’s great getting the insights from a great steel player with a high profile job such as Mike has with Hank Jr. Mike will also be out on a short Christmas tour with Travis Tritt starting the weekend after Thanksgiving.

So from here on out, it’s Mike Daly.

Here it is closing in on the Christmas season. Time to dust off your favorite Yuletide steel guitar licks, or is it?

Some players have a difficult time injecting their own thoughts and licks into preconceived music on the steel, the question being, when do you copy completely somebody’s approach and style to a song as to do the song and the original player justice and when to interject your own preferences and playing style into the mix.

The holidays bring a special opportunity for you, the steel player, to experiment and expand your own voicing’s and style to a whole genre of music.

The Christmas season has inspired some of the most beautiful and enduring music ever written. For centuries, some of these songs have continued to uplift and inspire people of all walks of life and musical heritage. The songs themselves are etched in most folks consciousness.

The beauty of trying to work up a Christmas tune is that they have been recorded in so many different styles and approaches that there is no definitive way to play these songs. From choral groups to Mannheim Steamroller to symphony orchestras, these songs remain vibrant and uplifting no matter how they are arranged.

So the challenge for you as a steel player is to find some tunes you enjoy and work at it until you find the arrangement that fits the song and showcases your individual approach and strengths on the steel. For some that might be a jazz approach to “Silent Night”. To others it might be a West Coast Bakersfield arrangement of “Joy To The World”.

Whatever you work on, the payoff is that when you are done with your arrangement it is truly yours, a one of a kind piece of music that you can share with others for years to come and help spread the good cheer of Christmas.

I think more players should be thinking in these terms, advancing their own style. I think that’s the reason six string guitar playing has had such an impact is that so many players allowed themselves to stretch their imagination, players like Chet Atkins, Jimmy Page, Wes Montgomery and Angus Young.

I’ve enjoyed experimenting with Christmas tunes and put out a CD called “Peace On Earth” in which I took great liberties to make the songs my own. You can order a copy from Bobbe.

It’s at the bottom of the page: www.steelguitar.net/cds.html

Many thanks to Mike Daly for this newsletter. We will be closed Friday, so we’ve put the Christmas Specials out early at www.steelguitar.net/christmasspecials.html
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

Today’s newsletter is by anonymous

Bobby Lee asked me via email when I was going to write a newsletter. I thought never would be an appropriate timeframe. However, a chance encounter last evening after leaving work triggered some memories.

I stopped at Publix grocery store to pick up a few things and saw Bill Anderson pushing a cart past the seafood section. I said, “Excuse me sir, but I just want to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed your music through the decades.”

He stuck out his hand to shake mine and said, “Thank you.”

Then he grinned, leaned in and whispered, “Just don’t tell anybody how many decades.”

If I see a star and don’t know them personally, I generally don’t say anything because I respect their time off and their right to privacy so I went about my shopping. As I walked away an old memory came back to me.

I was 16 years old and had my first part-time job at G.C. Murphy in the Harandale Mall in Glen Burnie, Maryland. It was a Saturday and during my lunch break I treated myself to a meal at the restaurant right outside the mall.

For those old enough to remember those fifties diners, every booth had its own little jukebox about the size of two cigar boxes taped together. I put the first nickel I ever put in a jukebox and played the first song I ever played on a jukebox. “Still”. I loved that song so much I put a quarter in and played it five more times.

Then that memory brought back the memory of the girl I was madly in love with at the time. She was something, endowed with all the beauty that God bestows on a sixteen year old girl.

That started me musing about the power of music and how it makes me feel when I listen to a song.

I’m coming from the perspective of a non-player, non-performer. I’m a listener. I’m part of your audience. This is a perspective that you guys can never have simply because you are players. You are no longer on my side of the fence.

The power of your music is in the emotion you draw out of me. Do you make me want to jump up and dance? Do you make me laugh? Do you make me sad? Or make me think? Do you fascinate me with your technique? Do you bore me and make me wish you’d get off the stage?

I came to Nashville hoping to become a successful songwriter. Didn’t happen. Oh well, at least I gave it a shot. I’ll never have to wonder what might have been. That question has been answered.

So let me tell you about an experience I had knowing that many of you will be insulted by what I have to say. I spent two days in a studio with six musicians with the intention of demoing a dozen of my songs. I had worked out the exact tempos I wanted, charted out every song and came to the session as prepared as I knew how to be.

The musicians had absolutely no interest in what the songs were about. Someone asked me, “Who do you want it to sound like?”

I said, “I don’t want to sound like anybody. I want the music to say the same thing the lyrics say.”

This confused them. When I passed out lyric sheets someone said, “We don’t need the words. We just need the chord changes.”

One of the musicians said, “Let’s do that Dwight Yoakam thing.”

Another said, “Let’s pick up the tempo.”

It became clear to me that the musicians were there to get the demo done as quickly as possible and get on to the next session. They were there to take money but not earn it.

At the end of two days I had a dozen tracks that sounded absolutely fantastic. The musicians were very pleased and congratulated themselves on how well they had done. However, I didn’t have even one track that would fit the lyrics I’d written.

Several months later the producer asked me when I was coming back to finish the demos. I simply told him I was fine tuning the lyrics.

So here is what I’d like to say to you guys. When you approach a song, listen to what the song is saying and at least try to get a feel for the emotion of the song. There is power in music, but only if you put the power in your performance and you can’t do that if all you do is play mechanically.

Jimmy Day put power in his performances. When I hear him I’m compelled to listen. It’s not the way he plays the notes on the beat, it’s the way he wraps the notes around the beat that makes me feel the emotion of the song. I don’t know how many of you will understand that subtle difference.

Terry Crisp is another one who can move me. I told Terry one day while he was out in the showroom, “Terry, I hope you don’t take this wrong, but you’re not a steel guitar player, you’re a musician.”

He looked at me real serious for a minute as he thought that over and then said, “Thank you.”

If you guys would approach a song as musicians first and steel guitar players second and put as much energy into the emotion of the song as you do the mechanics of playing, I think your audience would appreciate you more.

To me, I’d rather hear you play with passion than play with precision. Stir my emotions if you want my attention.

All this came out of me because of a chance encounter with Bill Anderson at the grocery store. I guess he’ll never know how much he influenced me, then and now.

Check out our monthly specials at www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html
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