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Topic: Claude Brownell visit & jam session! |
Ernie Pollock
From:
Mt Savage, Md USA
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Posted 7 Oct 2000 6:02 am |
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What a wonderful surprise, on weds of this week the Great Claude Brownell stopped by my shop for a visit & set up his 'Long Neck Steel' (no pedals) mfg by Cougar Steel Guitars. We had quite a jam session for at least 3 hours & I have come to the conclusion that the man is a genius at the E harp tuning or Alkire tuning whatever you call it. I could play absolutely nothing on his guitar, I played one of my GFI D-10's with him. Bill Stafford, your were right when you told me he was incredible. I wonder if the pedals had never came along, and the steel went the Eddie Alkire way, that you can read piano music for, if the progress of the steel guitar would have been better. Steel will always be just a novelty instrument till you can go into a store and buy one & play it just like a trumpet player or clarinet player, standardization is the key. Please, this is only my opinion and not ment to be confrontational with all the pedal players (which I am myself a member). Just thinking about this wonderful player, Claude Brownell & what could have happened!! Your comments are welcome!
Ernie Pollock http://www.hereintown.net/~shobud75
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billchav
From:
Houston, TX USA
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Posted 7 Oct 2000 9:13 am
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| Ernie,I have always felt that Leon McAuliff's playing was influenced from his early studying under Ladis Marek who taught the Alkire system in Houston. I studied some with him later. It was indeed a treat to talk with Claude Brownell and Bill Stafford in St. Louis last year and listen to Claude play his extended E Harp. www.billchaviers.com |
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George Keoki Lake
From:
Edmonton, AB., Canada
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Posted 7 Oct 2000 9:52 am
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Ernie...I agree with your statement in regards to standardizing the steel guitar. However, you and I, (and probably most everyone who plays the steel), knows it will never occur as long as we keep seeking that
ellusive "perfect tuning". Orchestral arrangers, in frustration, will never take the steel guitar seriously as it is almost an impossibility to score a standard arrangement for our instrument which any steel guitarist would sight read as with say, a trumpet or the violin. Eddie Alkire, some 40 years ago, realized this problem when he formulated his "Eharp tuning" offering all the chordal structures one could desire along with fast picking passages while aiming at the necessity of reading. Very few took him or his tuning too seriously while he was alive. The steel guitar continues into 2000 to drift in a morass of tunings. Had he and his tuning been widely accepted, one would then be lead to wonder if the pedal guitar would have been necessary or ever reached its popularity. Claude Brownell, for those who have never heard him, is an absolute genius on the Eharp and at times you would swear he was playing a pedal guitar! Truly amazing!! Eddie Alkire, (rest his soul), must beam down with pride from his Heavenly Home everytime Claude performs! |
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Ed Naylor
From:
portsmouth.ohio usa, R.I.P.
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Posted 7 Oct 2000 1:14 pm
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| It is 5 P.MSat and Claude just left my store about 5 minutes ago. He stopped buy a couple days ago and stayed over to be a part of the " Gary Steele" family gathering here in Portsmouth. We had a great time "Jamming" around in my store the last couple of nights. I really am impressed with his style and playing. He has probably forgotten more about music and music theory than most of us will ever know. We had a blast playing with myEd Naylor "accidental" thumb picking tuning and his 30" scale steel. WHAT A GUY. Ed Naylor Steel Guitar Works |
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Maurie Junod
From:
Oak Forest, Illinois, USA
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Posted 9 Oct 2000 8:58 am
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Hi,
I had the pleasure of playing rhythm back up
for him for a while up in his hotel room
during the HSGA convention in Joliet three
years ago. He is the best Eharp player that
I have heard. When he performed on stage that
time he tore the place up with his playing
and comic capers.
Some other great Eharp players in the HSGA
are May Lang, Ray Gaitsch, and Jack Moore.
Claude has discussed the benefits of the
Alkire tuning with some of the pedal steel
greats. He told us that the main hang up
hindering it's acceptance is that it is so
difficult to learn to play.
He hails from Easton, PA. which was Eddie
Alkire's headquarters. So he was taught by the man himself.
just some thoughts, Maurie
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www.megsinet.net/~junod
junod@megsinet.net |
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Gerald Ross
From:
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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Posted 9 Oct 2000 9:04 am
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Another great E-Harp player is Detroiter Mae Lang.
Mae and her rhythm guitar playing husband Art are regulars at the HSGA Joliet convention. Mae plays a vintage E-Harp which she purchased directly from Eddie Alkaire in the 1940's. She primarily plays pop standards with a few Hawaiian tunes thrown in for spice. Mae is a graduate of the Alkaire school of playing and has taught this method over the years. She is an excellent site reader and can pick up any sheet of music and play it immediately on her E-Harp. Pretty amazing considering the positional or chordal approach that many of us take on the steel.
A few months back I recieved a tape of Eddie Alkaire performing some tunes. I like Mae's playing better. |
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Bill Stafford
From:
Gulfport,Ms. USA
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Posted 14 Oct 2000 6:11 am
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| I believe Claude will be at the Jaxjam so all in attendance there will have a special treat to discover that you do not need all the pedal and levers to give you all the chords required to play any song or any type of music. See you there. |
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Ernie Pollock
From:
Mt Savage, Md USA
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Posted 29 Oct 2000 6:41 am
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For those of you who have never seen Claude and his Longneck 'Cougar' steel guitar, here is a picture taken at my store earlier in the month. I am sure Claude won't mind me posting his picture, since he is such a great fellow and right good looking too!!
Here the 'Man' Himself  http://www.hereintown.net/~shobud75
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Ernie Pollock
From:
Mt Savage, Md USA
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