Find Your Sensei

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 1 Dec 2016 9:33 pm

John Bohlinger takes a lesson from steel master Dave Ristrim. Subject: Paul Franklin's parts on Shania Twain's records. Good read!

www.premierguitar.com/articles/24945-la ... our-sensei

Glenn Demichele · Post by **Glenn Demichele** » 1 Dec 2016 9:51 pm

Awesome Bob!

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 1 Dec 2016 11:13 pm

Good one!

Don R Brown · Post by **Don R Brown** » 2 Dec 2016 7:01 am

Excellent article! Thanks for posting that!

Howard Parker · Post by **Howard Parker** » 2 Dec 2016 7:30 am

Mighty fine!!

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 2 Dec 2016 9:14 am

Thanks! Nice to read.

Frank Freniere · Post by **Frank Freniere** » 2 Dec 2016 10:00 am

Cool little article - thanks b0b!

Props to Dave Ristrim.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 2 Dec 2016 3:56 pm

Cool story.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 2 Dec 2016 8:30 pm

I have often thought that if Mr. Ristrim had pursued the direction he showed on his cover of Jeff Beck's "Cause we Ended as Lovers" (wr. Stevie Wonder) he could've been like, The DUDE. That is famous for being an emotion-laden, personalized song, one of the few "guitar instrumentals" to earn a Classic Rock radio rotation. Took some nerve, but he owned it. That whole CD of his is a MUSIC ALBUM, like Mike Neer's recent one or Sonny Landreth's "Elemental Journey", which is really an entire suite. You could play those notes on another instrument and it'd still be great MUSIC.
http://www.steelguitarshopper.com/produ ... -Park.html

Roy Heap · Post by **Roy Heap** » 3 Dec 2016 12:23 am

Neat story

Brooks Montgomery · Post by **Brooks Montgomery** » 3 Dec 2016 3:30 am

John Bohlinger certainly has his writing chops down. Nice.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 3 Dec 2016 6:06 am

I agree. Bohlinger is my sensei.

Wally Moyers · Post by **Wally Moyers** » 3 Dec 2016 7:03 am

Thats a great read B0B.. I've certainly been in his shoes many times through the years. Over the last couple of years I've been ask to join John Conlee and Teea Goans on a few shows and have more later in 2017. Although most of John's parts sound technically easy on first listen, the deeper you listen to them the more you hear the little things that set them apart. As most of you know, the great Buddy Emmons played on a lot of them. Teea for the most part has recorded a lot of great old country standards using the great Mike Johnson on her recordings. For years I've played most of these songs so you would think that would make it easier but for me actually makes the gig a little harder. They have done a killer job rearranging the songs and Mike plays some really tasteful and sometimes difficult steel parts on the records. I think its important to stay as true to the artist version as possible so will spend several days woodshedding and writing detailed charts with little reminders of whats to come in the song. On these shows we never get a chance to rehearse so you get one shot at it.. As in the article, if there is a part that I just can't get exactly I will fall back to what falls naturally under my fingers. The guys in the band have their parts together also so it all comes together. When its over its a great feeling when you've "pulled it off" and the artist compliment you effort..

Jim Park · Post by **Jim Park** » 3 Dec 2016 7:12 am

Interesting article....... but lays open the very issue with music today. It seems to be preoccupied with perception rather than content. Why not hire the older experienced player and embrace talent no matter what the age,race,gender, etc, etc. The classical music folks want to hear Perlman, not just some "fresh young face" . Look at the Time Jumpers......no " fresh young faces" there, but a collection some of the premier players in Nashville...... but alas, no CMT, CMA, any other TV exposure...... perhaps by choice maybe, LOL. And there are " fresh young faces" that are outstanding PSG players available........ just sayin

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 3 Dec 2016 10:03 am

Interesting article....... but lays open the very issue with music today. It seems to be preoccupied with perception rather than content. Why not hire the older experienced player and embrace talent no matter what the age,race,gender, etc, etc. The classical music folks want to hear Perlman, not just some "fresh young face" . Look at the Time Jumpers......no " fresh young faces" there, but a collection some of the premier players in Nashville...... but alas, no CMT, CMA, any other TV exposure...... perhaps by choice maybe, LOL. And there are " fresh young faces" that are outstanding PSG players available........ just sayin

I concur, Jim, but I'm not a fresh young face anymore...

ajm · Post by **ajm** » 3 Dec 2016 3:16 pm

Another thing that is amazing about this article is that a guitar magazine actually has someone on their staff that knows ANYTHING at all about a pedal steel. Premier Guitar does. Most of them don't.

Ahem, Guitar Player Magazine, we're looking at you............

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 4 Dec 2016 6:46 am

Jim Park wrote:Interesting article....... but lays open the very issue with music today. It seems to be preoccupied with perception rather than content. Why not hire the older experienced player and embrace talent no matter what the age,race,gender, etc, etc. The classical music folks want to hear Perlman, not just some "fresh young face" . Look at the Time Jumpers......no " fresh young faces" there, but a collection some of the premier players in Nashville...... but alas, no CMT, CMA, any other TV exposure...... perhaps by choice maybe, LOL. And there are " fresh young faces" that are outstanding PSG players available........ just sayin

I think young people in this country have always been more about image than content, but it's gotten far worse since the '60s. Even in the world of classical music nowadays, "image" is an important tool for increasing public appeal, and the concert ads bare that out. (pun intended) Sure, there's no fresh-young faces in the TJ band, but if you turn around, you'll find there's not many in their audience, either.

Maybe the time has come, and we now need AARP-TV, or a "Senior Network" to get our stuff heard? I can just see the pre-program notices coming onscreen, and that monotone voice saying:

"Warning, this program contains tasteful music, but no sex, raw language, or violence. Viewer discretion is advised."

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 4 Dec 2016 8:26 am

Maybe the time has come, and we now need AARP-TV, or a "Senior Network" to get our stuff heard?

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 4 Dec 2016 5:42 pm

The sad part is after all this dedication, sweat and effort, the steel is not going to be up in the mix enough that anyone will notice.

Brooks Montgomery · Post by **Brooks Montgomery** » 5 Dec 2016 11:06 am

Kind of off topic, but kinda spot on...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RGvrmltfMrA

Dave Ristrim · Post by **Dave Ristrim** » 6 Dec 2016 3:53 pm

Hey Everybody, I loved that article too! I've known John Bohlinger for almost 15 years now and he's quite the character and a great musician, writer, thinker and friend. Parts of the Nashville music/business scene are wacky, wacky, wacky for sure. But I've met and worked with so many talented people, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
Peace out, and keep steeling

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 11 Dec 2016 12:42 am

Incremental, inch-by-inch... I've had a minor WAR on with "Guitar Player" and "Premier Guitar" about TELLING us something about steels. They will happily do a rig runthrough on a musician, telling us all about a guitarist's fret sizes and pickup changes and string gauges and pedals and picks and end with -

"Duh, he plays a pedal steel too."

GRRR. It probably has a brand name, he probably puts some strings on it, he might even tune them to something-or-another, hey - what ARE all those weird flappy things down there?

15 years now; inch-by-inch, pedal-by-pedal I'm WINNING, though I doubt I've got enough "live"-left to celebrate the eventual VICTORY over STEEL IGNUNTZ (VSI-day?) Just gotta keep ASKING, article-by-article. All writers like to speak authoritatively, steels confuse the poor dears, when it comes to the weird flappy things especially they're dumber than bunny poop, so - just leave it out. Who's gonna notice, anyways?

GRRR! Rise Up! Unite! Etc! And So Forth!

Dave Ristrim · Post by **Dave Ristrim** » 11 Dec 2016 3:42 am

David Mason, I sure appreciate your take on "Crisis at the Theme Park". It was a snapshot of what I was into at the time. I've been threatening to do another Cd ever since, but keep stalling. One day soon, I will bang out another and try and make it as interesting if not more. I do have a short list of songs that'll probably be on it.

Les Cargill · Post by **Les Cargill** » 11 Dec 2016 1:42 pm

Before I do this, I commend Mr. Bolinger for his sense of humor and professionalism.

If I may be (quite a bit) grumpy...

"So why didnâ€™t I just play guitar and hire a killer steel player? Because TV likes young, fresh faces. "

TV can go straight to.... Florida[1] then.

[1] to paraphrase Gen'l Sheridan... if I owned ...Hades and Florida, I'd rent out Florida...

Signed, "Peter Ustinov in 'Logan's Run'"

Godfrey Arthur · Post by **Godfrey Arthur** » 17 Sep 2017 6:11 am

John even finds time to host Rig Rundown for Premier Guitar.

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