Pedal Steel Music

Hello fellow players,

Okay friends, get ready for a very true embarrassing story, but I’m sure you’ll understand when we get to the end of it how I could be such a fool.

It was spring of ’92. I’m at my new recording studio on Music Row. The studio phone rings and a wonderful sounding female voice on the line says, “Mr. Seymour, this is Trudy, Roy Clark’s personal secretary. He asked me to call you and see if you would like to play with him, Chet Atkins, Boots Randolph and Jerry Reed.”

I asked her who else would be in the group. She named Vince Gill, Buck Owens, Danny Davis, most of the HeeHaw staff and several west coast musicians. I was very tickled, told her I’d be very honored to play. She said, “Then I’ll put your name down.”

A few days later when the printed program came out and went around town, many of the stars started calling me telling me that they were glad I was going to be there. About two days before the job, Trudy called again and I asked her if I needed to take my own equipment or if they had some I could borrow.

She replied that she knew that Roy had some things that I could use. During this conversation, I started hearing small bits of information that scared me a little. I told her that I needed to know what it paid and was it going to pay through the union or if it was going to be cash on the barrel head or what?

She laughed out loud and replied that this was a benefit to raise money for crippled children with MS and asked if I could donate $500. She said, “Well I just talked to Boots Randolph and he was donating $2000.”

I moaned and fell back in my chair, “What are you talking about? I’m a musician, I play steel guitar for a living.” I said, “Well, for me to show up, that’s about what you’re going to have to pay me to get me over there.”

She said, “Good gosh. I don’t think we understand each other. This is a charity golf event and you’ll be playing golf, not steel guitar.”

I said, “I’ve never played golf in my life, but I’m a very well known steel guitar player here in Nashville.”

Then she explained, “We don’t need a steel guitar player. We need a golfer.”

Well it suddenly got funny to me. I said, “You need to make a few more phone calls.”

I said, “It’s not the money, it’s my talent as a golfer which is just about nil. If you ever need a steel guitar player, call me first. If you need a golfer, call Stu Basore.”

I hung up the phone shaking my head in disbelief. Here I was, the only steel guitar player in Nashville to be invited to play in this legendary golf classic with some of Nashville’s biggest and mightiest stars and I didn’t even play golf.

Since this time, I have played with the scenario of why didn’t I just keep my mouth shut, borrow a set of clubs and go out there and play with these guys. Even though I’ve never played golf in my life, what if I would have done very well? At least I would have had a lot of television time as I think all the networks were there.

Even though they wouldn’t have realized my lack of skill for awhile, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been invited back the following year. I just keep thinking how funny it would have been. It was funny enough anyway.

Here’s an email I got from Randy Meeker which is obviously a great friend from over the years. Randy is a wonderful guy that owns a couple of very desirable Emmons steel guitars and one of those very rare Sho-Bud Super Pro II. I think it’s number six out of seven that were made.

He sent me such a nice email I wanted to share it with the rest of you guys that are very close to me. Here it is.

When I think Steel Guitar Stores – I think of Bobbe Seymour’s Steel Guitar Nashville

I’ve heard of other stores…but there are none like his. I’ve been to John Fabian (RIP) /Bud Carter’s Store in Mesquite TX and it was interesting but I bought my Steels from Bobbe.

I have purchased accessories all over – but Bobbe’s store has most of the best items that you will ever want and need. I constantly look for items that will improve my playing, downsize or improve my stage rig – most items come from Steel Guitar Nashville.

I bought my lap steels from Elderly Music in Lansing Michigan – Asher Lap Steels are not stock at most dealers – they also repair my Martin Guitars as the largest repair facility outside the factory.

I have a good friend that is a music dealer in Toledo OH – where I learned to play guitar and even taught guitar lessons for a while. I buy my back line (amps), thumb picks, George L Cables and a few other items – I like to shop there – but the store hasn’t stocked steel guitars since Fender quit making them.

Whenever I am in the Nashville area – I make it a point to stop in Steel Guitar Nashville – It’s a drool factory for a steel guitarist – always a lot of interesting guitars and one wiseacre store owner who’s looking to make you a deal that you will never understand – and you will be happy that you did make it. I certainly am. Bobbe may have my money – but I have his steel guitars….who do you think won in that exchange? It’s only money!

Bobbe, that’s my testimonial! And I’m sticking to it!

Peace
Randy Meeker

Thank you Randy. You’ve made my day.

See our monthly specials at … www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html.

The friend to all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
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

Hello fans and fellow players,

Well we are getting our first nice hot days of summer, however according to the calendar, it’s still winter. As long as it gives us a jump on playing steel all over the northern hemisphere, it’s fine with me.

Hearing good steel is a definite pleasure no matter how old you get and how far away from it you’ve been. There’s something magic about playing one of your first jobs of the year with a great band that you pretty well like everybody in.

The steel guitar season should be starting about now. If you’ve been watching television throughout the winter you’ve seen a lot of steel guitar being played in country, alternative country and rock and by little networks like RFD out of Branson, Missouri and of course, The Grand Ole Uproar out of Nashville, Tennessee.

It sure looks like steel guitar is a long way from dying. I remember being a little kid and never seeing steel on television. I sure do remember hearing a lot of steel guitar on records. There is a little store in Norfolk when I was growing up that sold 45 RPM records for 25 cents apiece and I would buy any record they had as long as it just had a little bit of steel on it.

I bought artists that were big at the time but are obscure now like Charlene Arthur, Diana Trask and Hawkshaw Hawkins. I even heard my first Jean Shepard record and bought it there. She was singing with Ferlin Husky a song called Dear John.

I personally feel that Jean has blessed us all with one of the greatest female voices in country music. I know she feels that God has blessed her with that voice that sounds like it does. What a girl! She’s had many great steel guitarists working for her over the years, even including myself as well as players such as Ralph Mooney, Bud Isaacs, Speedy West and many more Hall of Fame members.

So even back many years ago, there were places to buy country music records to learn steel guitar from. A quarter was a lot of money back in those days. One quarter would fill up the gas tank on my Vespa scooter which was good for nearly 100 miles if I didn’t run it too hard. With gasoline prices today and the mileage my muscle cars get, it costs me a small fortune to get around the block.

I kind of laugh now thinking back to my first few months in Nashville. My competition in steel guitar were all driving little Volkswagon bugs and getting 36 – 45 miles per gallon and I was driving a ’67 427 Corvette probably getting 12 -14 miles per gallon. But I still won’t buy a Prius.

I just got an interesting phone call from Smiley Roberts. Smiley is a pretty darn great musician with a sense of humor to match. I remember working television shows and being in the staff band here in Nashville and he would guest with Tommy Overstreet, The Compton Brothers or whoever he was working with at the time.

He did such a good job as a wild sideman. It was on one of these shows that I met Kris Kristofferson. Kris has holes in the bottom of his shoes that he has stuffed paper in on break thinking nobody would know how poor he was. I remember buying a candy bar while on break at the TV station. It was a Mounds bar and had the cardboard in the bottom under the candy.

I asked Kris if he wanted part of the candy bar. He said, “Yeah. I want the cardboard.”

I ate the candy and gave him the cardboard which he immediately but in the shoe. We hit it off real well. After this, I worked with him on many award shows out of Nashville and would go over to Mickey Newberry’s house when Kris Kristofferson was visiting. We’d talk for hours with me injecting my humor everywhere I could into the conversation which somehow ended up in some of those guys songs.

Think I got any money for it? No, but I had a lot of fun and I did get to be put on master recordings with Mickey.

Nowadays, I’m sure there are a lot of stores that stock old recordings that I’m on like a place called The Great Escape here in Nashville. So I guess kids can run out and buy records on cassette tapes and CDs like I used to buy vinyl when I was a kid. Amazing how things go in a full circle.

Of course, we also have hundreds of CDs here at Steel Guitar Nashville loaded with steel that we can make you extremely good deals on. Just call me and trust me to load you up with some good ones. Ten song CDs for $6 apiece. This is an even better deal when I was a kid.

Here at Steel Guitar Nashville, business is good, however as you must guess, trying to run a full service steel guitar store is not the easiest thing in the world and you may say I’m doing it for all of us. So don’t let me down, let me continue to be your main source for steel guitar supplies and remember how much I appreciate it and love you.

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

The friend of all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
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

Hello fellow players,

I’m sure most of you are members of the Steel Guitar Forum. This is a wonderful place to post and have everyone read your opinions and anything you care to make known. I can kind of feel the pulse and know what’s going on with steel guitar by reading it. Some things that are said I agree with greatly, but as you know there are a lot of people that post that don’t play steel guitar and really know nothing about it but still have an opinion to deliver.

It seems like as time goes by the general populace of forum members seem to get smarter and smarter, but there are some beginners who don’t really understand where they are in the pecking order and really don’t play steel guitar yet, that print a lot of nonsense and the readers just have to be careful while sorting out the good from the bad.

I have seen a lot of players make some very asinine statements that a few years later, it’s obvious they have learned a lot. I think this is very good and that’s what the forum is for. For everybody to converse, offer opinions and share what they have learned with the rest of the world.

Many times a new player won’t really know a great old professional poster from another new guy like himself that is just offering an opinion. He may have only been playing a few months on his Carter Starter or Maverick and he’ll jump right in there and blast a great player like Jernigan, Emmons or Hughey.

This is okay because I know he’ll learn in the future. Being on the forum is one way to learn. Just a word to the new guys from me. Lay back and read a lot before you do a lot of posting unless you state your credentials at the time of posting.

Very often a customer will come into my store and make a statement where everybody on the forum says the Sho-Bud Maverick is the best guitar in the world. About all I can say to that is, “For you right now, it might be. But as time goes on, you’re going to be wanting something else if you improve.”

There are many different ways to learn how to play. One of the best is to listen and watch. The better the players are to watch, the better off you are. Listen to great players like Cal Sharp, Mickey, Lloyd Green. What they play is not extremely complicated, but it is extremely good. There are some famous big name players on YouTube that can be listened to and learned from as you’re watching.

Some of the greatest fun I ever had with steel guitar was learning. Just like me learning to become a pilot. Some of the greatest fun I had learning to fly was during the learning process.

Buying DVDs that show you how to play are wonderful ways to learn also because you can watch them over and over as often as you have to. Going out and hearing a good band live and watching the pedal steel player very closely can be not just a fun experience, but also a very good learning experience.

See our monthly specials at … www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html.

The friend to all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
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