Your Biggest Early Influence (redone)

Greg Thompson · Post by **Greg Thompson** » 2 Jul 2018 2:17 pm

Surprised to see Jeff Newman hasn't been mentioned so much? He had a big influence in a lot of 'now' players early careers.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 2 Jul 2018 2:30 pm

Rusty Young! Without Kind Woman, I would still be playing cello. (Well, nah, but you know what I mean...)

Bobby Nelson · Post by **Bobby Nelson** » 2 Jul 2018 3:09 pm

I understand but feel it's a shame that Jerry Garcia is on there and not Jimmy Day - just had to say it.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 2 Jul 2018 3:13 pm

I'm a big Jimmy Day fan myself, but I had been playing for a couple of years before I heard him.

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 2 Jul 2018 3:14 pm

Red Rhodes (and in a photofinish for runnerup): Jerry Garcia, John David Call, Bobby Black, Pete Drake and Lloyd Green. My exposure to other SGHOF players came later.

Charlie Hansen · Post by **Charlie Hansen** » 2 Jul 2018 3:39 pm

My biggest influence in taking up PSG was my late friend Ralph MacWilliams. Of course Lloyd and Buddy were always on the record shelf.

Jake L · Post by **Jake L** » 2 Jul 2018 5:22 pm

Steve Palousek was my main influence. He got me started on steel.

Paddy Long · Post by **Paddy Long** » 2 Jul 2018 6:56 pm

For me it was Buddy, then lloyd - and also Hal Rugg and Weldon Myrick ....and of course later on Paul Franklin.

Frank James Pracher · Post by **Frank James Pracher** » 2 Jul 2018 6:58 pm

Santo Farina

Kevin Fix · Post by **Kevin Fix** » 2 Jul 2018 7:53 pm

Jess Hurt from Toledo, Ohio. Jess was big friends with Scotty. Jess introduced him to me years ago. Almost 40 years ago I used to go down to Toledo to hear him play. He amazed me. Heck of a picker and a nice guy. I remember sitting at a table close to the stage so I could watch everything he was doing. He knew every one at the ISGC in St. Louis. He grew up with Ralph Emery.

John Alexander · Post by **John Alexander** » 2 Jul 2018 8:42 pm

Ben Elder wrote:Red Rhodes

Same here, watching him on Cal's Corral, Sunday afternoons in what year - 1965?

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 2 Jul 2018 11:28 pm

I voted Emmons because of the Judy Collins album which hooked me on the sound of the instrument. Then it was Al Perkins (another Stills connection) and Bobby Black to whom the word stylish truly applies.

Stu Schulman · Post by **Stu Schulman** » 3 Jul 2018 12:42 am

Sneaky Pete Kleinow has always been my favorite steel guitar player,I would buy anything that he played on.

Tim Herman · Post by **Tim Herman** » 3 Jul 2018 3:49 am

To just choose one, I chose Lloyd. Much Charley Pride in my Mom and Dads record collection. And Don Williams. But to be fair, lot's Buck Owens too.So both Tom and J.D. Then the Haggard albums, so Norm. Very recently some folks from the first steel cruise. I consider this my restarting point. Buck Reed, Bill Ferguson, Bill Cunningham, Tommy Dodd were the ones I had conversations with. Then there were all the fans there that my wife and I met too! I think maybe everyone that attended could play! Larry and Lynn, and Dan and his gal (I cannot for the life of me remember her name, sorry) Then there's always bOb! The great conduit of all things steel!

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 3 Jul 2018 7:33 am

My first poll on this subject had serious omissions , so I've redone it

.
It still has serious omissions - don't quite understand how Jerry Garcia made the list, but Jimmy Day didn't...

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 3 Jul 2018 7:38 am

Barry Blackwood wrote:Don't quite understand how Jerry Garcia made the lis,t but Jimmy Day didn't...

In the first iteration of this poll, Jimmy Day got 0 votes. I removed all of the entries with 0 votes to make room for Pete Drake, Buddy Cage and Don Helms.

If Jimmy Day is your choice, choose "Other".

Anyone can start a poll, by the way. This isn't like an "official" or "definitive" list of top players. Like it or not, a lot of people bought their first pedal steel because of Workingman's Dead, American Beauty, Teach Your Children and NRPS. By his own admission, Jerry Garcia wasn't as good a player as the country music professionals, but he was influential in bringing the instrument into the mainstream.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 3 Jul 2018 7:56 am

Not a proper poll, IMHO. You would get different answers depending on what era of time the poll was conducted. $:\$

Tony Glassman · Post by **Tony Glassman** » 3 Jul 2018 7:56 am

Greg Lasser, Lucky-O, Brumley, Mooney, Jeff Newman & especially Big Jim Murphy......... (not that you could tell by listening to my playing)

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 3 Jul 2018 8:09 am

Barry Blackwood wrote:Not a proper poll, IMHO. You would get different answers depending on what era of time the poll was conducted. $:\$

Forum members span all eras. Feel free to start an era-specific poll for members in a specific age group.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 3 Jul 2018 8:16 am

Forum members span all eras.

Yes, but many from previous eras have passed and can't vote..

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 3 Jul 2018 8:25 am

Yes, this is a poll of the living. Dead people can't vote here. Nothing I can do about that.

"In a poll conducted in 2018, nearly a third of steel guitarists cited Lloyd Green or Buddy Emmons as their biggest early influence."

How's that?

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 3 Jul 2018 8:50 am

That's good, b0b - prolly should have let that poll suffice..!

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 3 Jul 2018 9:10 am

I could have voted Garcia instead of Sneaky Pete, but I voted for Pete because it was his distinct style that first affected me in a way that made me want to play steel guitar. Just a matter of timing and circumstance.

I'm curious to see the vote tally for both of these steel guitarists as I'm sure many more players than me were affected by them. I hope their importance to the world of steel guitar is noted by this poll.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 3 Jul 2018 12:31 pm

My bad, not including Rusty Young in the list. Sorry!

Rick Schmidt · Post by **Rick Schmidt** » 3 Jul 2018 1:11 pm

Besides seeing the great Buddy Merrill on TV when visiting my grandparents, I use to see Rusty Young playing all the time in teen clubs playing rock music in 60's Denver... way before Kind Woman... but neither of those guys gave me the idea that playing steel was something I wanted to do. It was a few years later that somebody gave me a steel so I could play in their country band, that I discovered how cool it was through listening to Buddy Charleton play "Almost to Tulsa"

The Steel Guitar Forum

Your Biggest Early Influence (redone)

What famous steel player was your biggest influence when you started playing steel?