Greatest accomplishment as a steel player?

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 23 Apr 2002 9:07 am

Around 1970 or so I was working at a club in Huntington Beach, Ca. called "The Swizzle Stik". We had a regular Sunday night jam session which was pretty popular. I was playing both lead and steel as it was a trio gig. On night a young guy came in with an old Fender double neck which had been reworked into a pedal guitar and only a couple of the pedals worked on the thing. We got him up to play and he was horrible. I let him play my steel guitar sometimes when he'd come in and he was still horrible. He was so in love with the steel guitar and you could tell it by the way he talked steel and about the famous players. He started coming by every Sunday and we'd usually wait until the last set to get him up so he wouldn't mess up any of the singers who came in. This went on for about six months and then I never saw him again. I went to other jobs after that and in 1975-76 I went to Texas to play for a while. When I came back in the summer of '76 I went back with the band at the Swizzle Stik. I was on lead guitar only at the gig this time as we had the great Art Sanchez on steel. Art left to work the road with Billy Armstrong and we were looking for a steel player. I doubled for a few weeks and then one night this same kid who by now was 5 or 6 years older came in and said he'd like to try out for the job. He told the bandleader that he knew me but I didn't remember him until he jogged my memory about the old days at the jam session as he had a beard and long hair in those days.. The band leader called me aside and asked me how he played and I told him that he was horrible the last time I'd heard him but it'd been awhile. He got his guitar which was a very pretty and inlaid ZB Custom D-10. When he sat in he played the fire out of the thing and we hired him on the spot. We went to breakfast that night and he told me that if it hadn't have been for me letting him get up and play he'd never have made it past the beginner stage if it hadn't been for my help when he was starting. Just by letting him sit in and taking time to talk to him and never put him down. He stayed with us for a year before he left to do the road thing with Barbi Benton and then Mary Kay Place. We became very good friends and I learned a lot of steel from him as he passed me up a long time ago. His name was (is) Steve Silver and is one helluva great player. I've done other things on steel and music that I'm proud of but I think something like helping out this young man to achieve his goal is my greatest accomplishment.

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney tuning.

[This message was edited by Jerry Hayes on 23 April 2002 at 10:12 AM.]

John Knight · Post by **John Knight** » 23 Apr 2002 9:08 am

Hi Bobbe, How you doin? For me its everytime I strike an emotional cord in someone. The last time was with my younger brother, of all people, he hears me every weekend. We had just finished up mixing down my album and he was listening to a re-cut of My Tane, our dad recorded this back in the early 60's, soon the tears were just rolling down his face. I must have gotten it right.

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D 10 Thomas with 8&6, '61'D-10 Sho-Bud 8&4
S12 Knight 4&4
Nashville 400 and Profex II
81' Fender Twin JBL's
Asleep at the Steel

[This message was edited by John Knight on 23 April 2002 at 10:09 AM.]

Bob Tuttle · Post by **Bob Tuttle** » 23 Apr 2002 9:16 am

I am fortunate to have had a number of memorable moments during my career.
The first is the time in the early 50's when Al Petty took me and Al Perkins to the TV station in Midland, Texas and we played a couple of instrumentals together. I was about 12 or 13 and Al Perkins was 9 or 10.

Another is when I got to do a ten day tour with Ray Price, and play the Opry with Claude Gray. This was in 1967.

Then in 1980, playing with Mickey Gilley in the "Urban Cowboy" movie.

Oh yes, and playing a show with Hank Thompson, and another time, backing up Darrell McCall and Jack Green.

I'm sure there were more, but these stand out in my memory.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 23 Apr 2002 1:11 pm

Playing with the Big E at the Silver Dollar Saloon in South Bend and again at Dumplin's house, playing "Hello Walls" with Faron Young 1500plus times, being a Texas Troubadour for a week (Aw, Cal now) and a Cherokee Cowboy for a weekend, playing the Opry for the first time, playing on a session produced by Pete Drake, finding a song I'd played on on Audio Galaxy, meeting Bobbe Seymour...oh, the list could go on.

C#

Danny Bates · Post by **Danny Bates** » 23 Apr 2002 1:12 pm

My highlights;

(1979) Meeting and hanging out with John Lennon in Tokyo.

(1980) Playing with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin at the Shrine auditorium for Ronald Reagan.

(2001) Playing for 110,000 people at one gig.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 23 Apr 2002 1:15 pm

...and having Bob Tuttle as my teacher (the only one I've ever had) in Houston (Deer Park, really) back in the 70's wasn't bad either. S'how I learned "Touch My Heart".

Frank Parish · Post by **Frank Parish** » 23 Apr 2002 2:07 pm

It would have to be finally getting this thing in tune!

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 23 Apr 2002 2:44 pm

Hey guys, this is wonderful! I feel a lot of positive emotion in these stories and all of them are emotional to me. I really feel like I know the guys I have never met just as well as some I have. Donny Hinson, you're a nut! Mike Jones, I'm sorry you didn't have the chance to do anything memorable in your career.--------Ha! Barbra Mandrell having to sit on your lap and play "Steel Guitar Rag" on prime time T.V.would be a crowning achievment to a lot of us!
Keep it up guys, lets hear more, This is great stuff for a book. It also relates to all instruments (or singers,,, but I don't)

MORE!!

slick · Post by **slick** » 23 Apr 2002 4:13 pm

In 1986 my Dad was in a local hospital,dying
of lung cancer.He loved the old gospel tunes
and he loved steel guitar so i recorded Amazing grace,Precious memories and some other old gospel tunes on a cassette,just me and my steel.He would play that tape,cry and praise God,he thought i was the best steel player on earth.Nothin else i have ever done
or ever will do could come close to those
"Precious Memories"i played for and have of
my Dad.

Wayne Broyles

JACK HEERN · Post by **JACK HEERN** » 23 Apr 2002 5:26 pm

Doing my first album with Greg Galbraith on gitter, David Smith holding the bass, Bunkey Kiel on keyboard and Bobbe Seymour doing synth things with a regular guitar playing with a bar for strings ect. I got to do it my way, the way I felt it ! Sorry I don't remember the drummers name. This was my first time to play with pros. These guys were and and still are the best money could buy for a session. They made a scared Yankee feel at home and I never did catch any of them laughing at me!!
B T W this was recorded in a small studio in Hendersonville on Mallard Drive. I don't remember who owned the studio

jp
Bobbe might know who the studio belonged to.[This message was edited by JACK HEERN on 23 April 2002 at 06:28 PM.][This message was edited by JACK HEERN on 23 April 2002 at 06:29 PM.]

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 23 Apr 2002 6:08 pm

Owning the only music store north of Billy Cooper's that stocked the entire Sho-Bud and Emmons line in the 70's allowed me to introduce many to the instrument.Often called the "upright table slide" or the "steel pedal" by many who came to hear my band some became students and some of my students went on to play on the road with some big names.There's some satisfaction there.

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 23 Apr 2002 8:35 pm

Somehow becoming (and I have NO idea how) the "best pedal steel guitar player in the whole world" to our five year old daughter.

Mike Weirauch · Post by **Mike Weirauch** » 23 Apr 2002 8:47 pm

My greatest accomplishment in the steel guitar world would be when I brought the Late Ronnie Hiatt to St. Louis to the convention in 1998. He was like a kid in a toy store and he got to meet all his hero's except Lloyd Green who was not there that year. We became friends because of the steel guitar and through the Steel Guitar Forum. He was my friend and I miss him.

Kenny Davis · Post by **Kenny Davis** » 23 Apr 2002 9:54 pm

Reading through these posts made me think how fortunate I've been in playing with some of my favorite artists, or being part of an opening act. Some of you guys have been "road pickers" for some of the folks I've had one-nighters with. Looking back, It's cool thinking that if you told me when I was 16 what I would have done by the time I was 30...I would have laughed!

People I've played with: Freddy Weller, Leroy Van Dyke, Billie Jo Spears, Rex Allen Jr., Jody Miller, Wayne Kemp, Bobby Barnett, Soji Tabuchi, Mac Wiesman, Buck Trent, Norma Jean, Gary P. Nunn, and Byron Berline. Also did a late night (after the gig) demo session for the great Stoney Edwards that Wayne Wilson (Buckaroo bass player) did the vocals on. I think one of the songs found it's way to George Jones.

Opened for: Asleep At the Wheel, Brewer & Shipley, Michael Murphy, Dirt Band, Steve Young, C.D.B., John Hartford, The Dillards, Jimmy Buffett, John Conley, John Anderson, D.A. Coe, Buck Owens, and Bryan White.

Playing at the White House for Jimmy Carter, a fund raiser with GHW Bush, and doing Always...Patsy Cline was pretty cool too.

Rick Garrett · Post by **Rick Garrett** » 24 Apr 2002 3:54 am

Due to circumstances totally beyond my control I dont have any Great accomplishments on the Steel yet. Maybe someday because Im still nearly new to the steel. But I do want to share one of my lifes greatest moments concerning the Steel guitar. Back about 71 or 72 I had the pleasure of seeing my Dad play my 10 string Ricky at a gig in a little honkey tonk outside of Jacksonville Texas up at Lovers Lookout. They had a so so house band there and he was playing steel and running a music store in Tyler at the time and had sold all of his pedal steels so I loaned him my Ricky. He sat there all night long and made that little lap steel sound as good as any pedal steel you ever heard. I sat at a table not more than 10 feet from where he was playing and can remember him looking up and smiling at me as if it were yesterday. Thats one of my lifes coolest moments.

Rick

Richard Gonzales · Post by **Richard Gonzales** » 24 Apr 2002 4:11 am

Playing Steel Guitar rag with Spade Cooly at
11 yrs (1946) Santa Monica Ballroom, KTLA TV

Bobby Hatfield(Rightous Brothers) was my bat boy for American Legion baseball. Played in a combo (string bass) with John Wimber who developed and managed the Rightous Brothers.

Joan Cox · Post by **Joan Cox** » 24 Apr 2002 5:10 am

I think what I am most proud of is that I got to play in 1995 and 1996 at the Western Swing Festival with Leon Rausch and what is left of the Texas Playboys. The first year I got to set up my guitar along side of Tom Morrell and in 1996, I got to set up next to Bobby Koefer. We got to play 2 shows each year that were about 1 hour each. What really makes this special is that I didn't ask them if I could be on the show..they asked me to play. And yes, I do have pictures to prove it!

Joan

John Lacey · Post by **John Lacey** » 24 Apr 2002 5:33 am

1. Backing up many cool Canadian and American stars on Sun Country T.V. show in Edmonton in 1982.
2. Around the same era, backing up Ferlin Huskey, Freddy Fender, Buck Trent, Dave Dudley at Danny Hooper's Stockyard.
3. Hiring Buddy Emmons to play a concert in that era in Edmonton.
4. Winning the Instrumentalist of the year for B.C. in 1991.

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 24 Apr 2002 5:43 am

* [This message was edited by Gene Jones on 03 May 2002 at 09:11 AM.]

Bob Hayes · Post by **Bob Hayes** » 24 Apr 2002 6:15 am

My "Greatest Accomlishment has not happened yet. But I( guess some of my fondesed memories as a strugling steel player( who IS STILL Strugling) Would be playing in some bands and opening for some "stars". I was proud to play with the Remaining original member's of Jimmy Dean's "Texas Wild Cats" in the Washington DC area in the mid "70's" while a member of the US Air Force. Taking lessons from the Great Buddy Charleton, and opening for country stars Tommy Overstreet,Barbara Fairchild,Hank Thompson and some others while in a GI Band in Germany in the '70's. Also meeting Smiley Roberts in His early days in Springfield,Mass, and later when he was the great picker with Tommy Overstreet.I've been lucky to travele through most of the Us and western Europe and have the honor to play or work with many great stuggling musicians, and try ting to play what the people wanted with the best of our ability. I have my heros..and they are not all stars.I guess my greatest accomplishment WILL BE when I am able to step on the stage with one or some of my idols..and play adequally enough to be there. I'm still a young kid in an old body!
Grouchyvet

Hap Young · Post by **Hap Young** » 24 Apr 2002 7:06 am

I Have played with some Opry stars such as Del and Sue Smart Who had the #1 song "We Could" also Uncle Bob Hardy .One of my highlights was Sitting in with Bud and Jeri Isaacs for a couple hrs. Also with the man who recorded " Detour" ( Ive forgoten his name).
And last but not least is when I have the pleasure of playing Benifits for those not as fortunate as I am.

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 24 Apr 2002 7:48 am

I've had so many great accomplishments as a steel player. I've met a lot of steel players who influenced me to play the steel guitar. One of the greatest accomplishments was getting my first steel. I knew I'd found an instrument that I can play, even though I have cerebral palsy in my left hand. I'm glad to be in this great steel guitar community. Brett Day, Emmons S-10

Jody Cameron · Post by **Jody Cameron** » 24 Apr 2002 7:49 am

These stick out in my memory:

1. Being on the Reba/Brooks and Dunn tour for a whole year as the steel player for David Kersh in 1999. Playing huge arenas all over the country was a kick.

2. Seeing myself on TV a few times with Kersh.

3. Playing the Opry

4. Playing a club close to my home town with a National recording artist - and it just so happened that my High School class reunion was taking place at the same club on the same night. I loved seeing the envy in the eyes of all the jocks who were now flabby and working at "regular" jobs...hehe. I was the center of attention as far as "accomplishments"!

5. Watching the back side of Linda Davis while playing steel for her.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 24 Apr 2002 9:18 am

Playing a Hank Williams tribute show with the Country All-Stars tops my list. When you get those parts right with a band that plays the songs right, it has a magical effect on everyone in the room. It was hard to do, but it was well worth the effort.

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
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