Bucky Baxter

[Curt Trisko]

I've had some spare time on my hands lately so I've been learning the pedal steel arrangement from a YouTube video of a performance of Bob Dylan and band playing "Forever Young".

https://youtu.be/74glHCy_Cww

I think Bucky Baxter is the steel guitarist. Judging from David Letterman's hair in the video, I think it's circa 1990. It's my first time learning one of Becky Baxter's pieces and this one feels distinct from other players. Is he known for having a distinctive style?

For parts I've learned so far, his music choices seem to follow the rules of thumb, such as when he plays and how he builds and resolves tension, but a small handful of parts had me scratching my head trying to figure them out, such as when he deviates from the chord position on the fretboard.

He also seems to be using a really washed out tone. The audio quality is crappy, so it's difficult to imagine exactly what it actually sounded like as performed. But I really like it. I first heard it when I was just deciding to learn steel guitar and I haven't forgotten about it since.

[Frank Freniere]

He employed a thin, jangly tone on Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road:" http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... ght=baxter

[Olaf van Roggen]

Bucky Baxter is one of my favourite steel players, i read somewhere he was a student of Buddy Charleton.

Here is Bucky with Suzy Bogguss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fM_jnS-MjY

I have two radio show record albums where Bucky plays with Steve Wariner in the 80's. They were a very good band the quality of the recordings aren't so good.Bucky recorded a cd in 1999 called "Most likely no problem"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieQiR5N3GHk

[Tommy Detamore]

I have known Bucky since the mid 70's. He played with the Good Humor Band out of Richmond, Va, coming in after Bruce Bouton left. I was with a band in Charlottesville called Captain Tunes, and we would play club dates together.

He was indeed a Buddy Charleton student, along with Bruce, Pete Finney, Tommy Hannum, Jay Jessup, myself, and others.

Bucky is one fine player, and I always loved his playing on Jim Lauderdale's "Honky Tonk Haze":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SWwHkSTjrA


http://www.goodhumorband.com/band_history.htm

[Curt Trisko]

Do you guys have any insight into his style to make it easier to pick up on? For example, the combination of poor quality audio, the presence of multiple guitars, and the washed out town makes it hard for me sometimes to figure out when I'm hearing triads vs. dyads and dyads v. single notes.

[Danny Margagliano]

This is an interview talking about being on the road with Bob Dylan. Check it out http://www.uncut.co.uk/features/life-on ... ylan-43229

It would've been awesome being a musician in those days. Then to take it a step further and be around one of the best ever.


Danny "wheels"Margagliano
http://destinpropertyexpert.com/[/url]

[Curt Trisko]

In this song, Bucky does variations of the same phrase, but comes in on a different beat each time.

The best example is during the chorus after sliding up the fret board into vi chord. He does a descending scale of single notes, which is a normal musical choice. Each time he does it differently, keeping it fresh.

What gives me trouble is that he starts the phrase on a different beat each time. At first, I thought I just had a horrible feel for the rhythm of the song. But then I counted out the beat and sure enough a couple of the variations of the phrase are staggered. So I sit down and learn one, get it down good, and then I screw up on the other. So then I sit down and focus on the other one until I get it right, and then it screws me up on the first one again.

Here's what I think Bucky is doing - and this is what I want your opinion on. For a couple other parts of the song where Bucky flourishes, I think how he made those parts is by starting with a rough, simple phrase and then dressing it up by adding a lead-in and then tinkering with the internal rhythm of the phrase. And so therefore, in order to feel it as a natural part of the song (instead of a bolt-on) you have to feel the rhythm of the simplified version of the phrase, instead of taking it at face value.

Does this sound like the kind of thing Bucky Baxter does?

[Don Drummer]

Curt, your observations show very much detail that should, when looking back on them, provide you with the answer. Most intuitive musicians do not always play the same thing, the same way acan't be taughtte same time in the same way. If you are trying to nail Becky Baxters style maybe you should reflect on the mindset of the player and how he thinks. Holding notes differently but playing the same the passage from time to time is a creative element that can not be taught.

[Curt Trisko]

maybe you should reflect on the mindset of the player and how he thinks.

You're 100% correct and that's the exact thing I'm looking for someone to help me with on here: what does Bucky do that's different than other steelers?

[scott murray]

Bucky is featured on Bob Dylan's MTV Unplugged episode and album, and also a country album by the Beastie Boys if you can believe that, called Country Mike's Greatest Hits

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[Curt Trisko]

Last Friday I made a recording of where I was at with the song.

https://youtu.be/VpibR4QXeEI

I still had not gotten down the part I was having trouble with before. Another couple parts I didn't even try.

This song has really challenged me in a few ways. I originally had my guitar tuned in JI. After being out of tune with the song briefly, I decided that it was the tuning and not me that was the problem, so I re-tuned to ET. That's the first time I've done that.

This also the first time that I've paid such close attention to tone. I wasn't about to tinker around for hours trying to match his tone exactly (which was probably distorted in the process that it took from it's original recording until it was posted to YouTube anyway). I just cranked up the reverb and decided that was close enough. Usually it's not too tough to figure out what effects are being used and then approximate them. But I still don't have a good guess on exactly what effects Bucky Baxter used. I learned that when tone is important and you're not getting it right, that it will mess with your playing because you'll try hard to compensate for it with how you pick, do vibrato, and work the volume pedal.

This song also ended up being a really good volume pedal exercise. I'm a believer in the volume pedal being used to give the pedal steel sound some dimension to fit the song better. Me playing along to this song didn't sound even close to right without liberal volume pedal usage. The volume pedal usage you hear in my video didn't get captured well due to how I recorded it, but you'll see that I'm always changing my volume. I still have a lot of room for improvement and it's one of the toughest things to get perfect.

This was a good project to work on. It's really exciting to experience my mind gaining new insight into the instrument. Focusing on a musical project like this and discovering some of the deeper aspects of playing gives me a window into what more serious players must see and hear with the pedal steel.