Heart... Hughey... and a hornet’s nest... maybe

[Joe Goldmark]

So Michael,

Why is it so? I have to believe that most of us came to the steel because it moved us and sounded so beautiful, which is for the very thing that you say is lacking in many of the current players. Also I'd bet that any steeler worth his salt would read your post and agree with you, and be sure you were talking about someone else. It's hard to believe that you could get to a high level of playing on this instrument and not play with heart, especially in a country setting. What do you think is going on?

Joe

[Billy Carr]

Very good topic here. You can tell it quickly if there's no feeling/emotion in a players playing. Especially live, when you can watch them. PSG has to be in the heart and come out through each person differently. Learning tabs/scales doesn't teach it. Hughey could touch you if you set and listened and watched him. I've only found two other players that could put chill bumps on me like Hughey did. Franklin and Bethel live. Of course, I hadn't seen the Big E live yet or Lloyd Green.

[Jerry L Miller]

a true steel player can not disagree with this thread ..........its 100 on
jerry

[Dave Burr]

Jim Cohen said:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When do you get to the part where folks start to disagree and want to burn you in effigy? I'm getting impatient...

When he starts naming names!!


db

[Ron Page]

I can’t top Jimbeaux’s remark.

Jeff Peterson hit the nail on the head. John and his contemporaries were pioneers of PSG and were not trying to imitated or emulate others. So their raw emotion was more prevalent than the technical aspects of their playing. I know it’s not that simple, but this has to be part of it.

Let’s just say John Hughey got “Lost In The Feeling” whenever he played, and his audience thereby did the same.

[James Morehead]

Michael, To me, it's an awareness of the highest dimension that is overlooked by many, not governed by speed or slow playing as some would suggest. We should all strive for this quality--honesty expressed by music, express withour steel guitars.

If you can feel your music, your probably past the "paint by numbers" mode, more or less, so to speak. Michael, I also believe that you yourself have this feel. Somebody that didn't, would never start a thread like this. But then, that's why your phone rings so much, I'll bet.

[JAMES BANKS]

Great post Micheal. It was always easy to tell John Hughey played with all he had. He always smiled and it was a pleasure to watch him play as well as listen. Long before I attempted to play steel, I remember listening to Conway and thinking that steel is different, it adds real feeling to what Conway is singing. Lloyd Green with Charley Pride is another example. After several years playing steel and learning the names of the greats, Emmons, Day, Green, Hughey, and others, I think back to the sound that made me love steel and you are right. It was the heart and soul playing they put behind the singer. Jeff Newman, said if the song is a heartbreak song, you have to make your steel cry like it understands and if the song is happy, it has to laugh like it feels the joy. That is playing with heart and soul.
James

[Gary Cosden]

You have touched on something I have been kicking around in my head for years. I am 55 and my son plays guitar and has had many bands going back to when he was 14 or so. I love him dearly and we talk music all the time. It has become clear to me that you simply cannot FULLY comprehend the significance of musical milestones like The Beatles, Hendrix, or stupendously great steel playing like John Hughey’s without having lived through the era yourself. A lot of you are old enough to really appreciate it when I say that John Hughey’s playing was a significant factor in my spending every freakin cent to my name on a pedal steel guitar when I was 19 years old. To my son it’s just a good story. Last week he came to visit and he said,” Hey Dad, where you ever into Tammy Wynette? I just heard “Stand by Your Man” on the radio and I never realized what a great song it was!” Warms my heart.
My earliest musical memory might well be my piano teacher over and over again telling me to play with feeling – “don’t be like that person who playing sounds wooden”. Well I am a terrible piano player but I guess the notion sunk in to some degree since I still remember. This is a fundamental truth that can never change. It’s all about expressing your SELF. When BB King, or Mose Allison for that matter, elegantly says all that can be said with one or two notes it makes a lasting impression. The same applies to John Hughey playing what is fundamentally a scale and making you want to drive your car into oncoming traffic! (Just a figure of speech – do not try this at home or anywhere else) It’s why I play in the first place.
The pedal steel guitar is such a wonderful tool for expressing yourself musically. I know in saying this I’m preaching to the choir but it does seem at times that the purely technical elements are over stressed and much has been lost in the process. Maybe this is a reflection or the current state of country and pop music in general but it seems to me to be a fundamental issue of faith in the inherent goodness of our own being.
Have faith that the era of great steel playing will show itself again and again in the future and in the knowledge that only the good stuff lasts forever.
Please forgive the rambling nature of my post. I know there is a point in there somewhere!

[Barry Blackwood]

Agreed, Michael. I have a theory that societal influences are having their impact upon many musicians playing these days, i.e., style over substance. While this has always been the case to some degree, I feel that it has become even more evident lately, consequently, here we are discussing it on the Forum. We have lost our focus on what is important and as a result, that 'feeling' of which we speak is in rapid decline. Just my theory, of course ...

[J Fletcher]

I would guess that if you are a studio musician, working five days a week in Nashville studios, you may not be able to play with heart all the time. Could be detrimental to your livelyhood, and mental health....Jerry

[Dale Gray]

Any picker can make your ears shake, but those that cause a lump in the throat puts them at the top. Thank goodness we still have some up and coming. Dale

[Richard Damron]

Michael -

No soapbox - Just a heartfelt "Thank You" - a thousand times over.

Richard
Gallatin, TN

[Bent Romnes]

Michael, you nailed it here. It is not the level of difficulty in executing any tune...it is the heart and soul the player puts into it.

Scales are simple yes but then isn't all music built around scales? It is the way John executes those scales..

That is the way it is with all the masters. It is the way they attack the string, the use of volume pedal the left hand bar handling.

We were listening to Emmons' Christmas album during dinner last night. A passage he played sounded very simple..but it was the execution that made me sit up and pay attention..

I was listening to John's Look at Us in the truck yesterday. It hit me like a song heard the first time, although I must have heard it 2000 times. It sent shivers up my spine...It was the master doing his thing.

I was standing up at the stage at the 1977 ISGC listening to and watching Lloyd Green...I forget the name of the tune, that doesn't matter. When he was done I discovered that there were tears running down my cheeks. The tune was a simple one I am sure. It was the way Lloyd played it that got to me.

It definitely IS in the way these masters perform their craft. It is their feelings that they display to us for 3 minutes. They expose their soul to us for a brief moment.

I have mentioned earlier that I would love to learn Lloyd's Ride, Ride, Ride. Well..I have now figured out something neat. The whole song is comprised of 5 or 6 different position licks. That is all! The licks are very very simple. It is the way Lloyd delivers these simple licks that makes the song. Although I will likely never be able to play it speed wise, it was quite a revelation for me to discover the simplicity in this piece, transformed into a beautiful thing through Lloyd's soul.

Jeff Newman wrote on the blackboard: THINK SIMPLE! It is the simple stuff executed masterfully that sounds good.

Let us all show these masters respect by listening, and starting interesting discussions like you did here, Michael.

Bent

[Don Brown, Sr.]

James, I have to somewhat disagree with the following: if the song is a heartbreak song, you have to make your steel cry like it understands and if the song is happy, it has to laugh like it feels the joy. That is playing with heart and soul.

It's right in a sense, but anyone who plays can quiver a bar, while sliding and make a steel cry, and still not get the same effect as another player playing the exact same passage.

The part that was left out is, the person himself/herself, has to be feeling it from deep down inside. I believe a steel has to become an extension of the innermost part of the player. And then again, every individual's inside feelings are much different from anyone else's, so that too plays a part in it. Some play with a greater feeling than others.

I believe it starts from a person expressing his/her feelings from inside, and comes outward starting with the very touch of the strings, from A thru Z of the person who's playing

Many times, I've (and I sure hope others have experienced this as well, so it doesn't make me look too bad ) been playing and had tears whell up so bad that the frets were blurred.

What I am saying is that no teacher on earth can put that inside of anyone.

Mr. John Hughey, definitely had it on the inside, or it never could have come to the outside, as it surely, and truly did. What great expression he contributed in all of his music. That's HEART, it can't be taught nor bought.

To speak the truth, I believe there are many, many great players. And Michael, you are indeed one of them, along with many, many others who are indeed on this forum. Sadly I can't say I'm one of them.

[Rick Collins]

The great Jerry Byrd said as much.

I know it takes much practice to learn "what NOT to play". It seems some musicians never learn this. Could this be the way rock & roll got started? ...could be.

[Howard Tate]

I'm like the rest of you; John Hughey and others fill me with emotion when they play something slow and beautiful. That's what I love most about steel, but I also think that some faster things can be played with feeling if that's what the player loves and feels. I love to hear guys like Buck Reid or Frank Rogers, for instance play a beautiful ballad, and then turn around and burn something up. I feel they put their heart into it both ways. Not everyone can do that. I can't play anything very fast, but I try to milk everything I can from every note I play. (Feel free to ignore this, my wife says I'm losing it.)

[Dave Stagner]

The great Jerry Byrd said as much.

I know it takes much practice to learn "what NOT to play". It seems some musicians never learn this. Could this be the way rock & roll got started? ...could be.

I've noticed that the older (and better) I get, the fewer notes I play. I think this is a Good Thing.

For me, making great art (whether music, or dance, or photography, or whatever) is about sincerity... expressing feelings as purely and directly as possible, without deceit or artifice. There are a number of different sides to this. First, you have to UNDERSTAND your own feelings, which means being honest with yourself. Next, you have to be brave enough to let other people really see what you're feeling. And then, you need to aquire enough technique with your instrument to be able to express the things you feel. How many people have wonderful things to say, but lack the skill to say those things? How many others can say wonderful things in private, but don't have the courage to say them in public?

Technique without feeling is, in a way, being dishonest with the listener. And feeling without technique is just frustration. Great musicians can do both... they have something to say, AND they have the chops to say it. It may take just one note (BB King), or a million notes (Coltrane), but it's there.

[C. Christofferson]

This thread has the same ingredient that those great players have and had. If one knows selflessness then one knows heart.

[Jerry Hayes R.I.P.]

Michael.......I think the "Heart" factor in the stringed instrument world can best be captured by a steel guitar or fiddle. I'm a guitarist first and steel player (?) second but I've always felt it was easier to play with more emotion on a steel guitar than a standard guitar due to the absence of frets! You can phrase more closely to the human voice on steel than you ever could with a guitar or piano. Horns can do some of it but they can only play one note at a time which has it's place. I love the good old "crying" steel guitar sound and although Ralph Mooney is my personal hero, John Hughey was (is) the master of that style of playing. Someone mentioned "Lost in the Feeling", to me that's a masterpiece as important as anything ever played by anyone at any time. Thanks for starting this thread as we all need to be reminded of what made us try to play this wonderful instrument..........JH in Va.

[Ray Minich]

The more I practice, the closer I come to that one day where I'll play that one lick, that one phrase, that even comes close to the level of emotion that the "Great Ones" seem to perform so effortlessly.

BTW: The fellas playing behind Bobby Flores on his tunes definitely make the "playing with heart" hurdle too.

Many times, I've (and I sure hope others have experienced this as well, so it doesn't make me look too bad ) been playing and had tears whell up so bad that the frets were blurred

Yessirree....

[Ben Rubright]

Bert Romnes wrote:

I was listening to John's Look at Us in the truck yesterday. It hit me like a song heard the first time, although I must have heard it 2000 times. It sent shivers up my spine...It was the master doing his thing.

I saw and heard John play 'Look at Us' in StL this past September and this is how it was and I too have seen and heard him play it many times. Tears streaming down my face.

[Michael Douchette]

So Michael,

Why is it so?

Joe, (my opinion) I think partially it has happened because of some of the modern advancements in communication. It would take years to perfect a craft on a personal level not so long ago. Today, a youngster can go to the music store, buy a DVD of his particular hero, and see in 30 minutes to an hour exactly how certain phrases and musical ideas came about and were executed. Gone is the personal experimentation, finding the proper placement of the note through trial and error, and all the wonderful doors that opened through the incorrect path during the hunt. Here is how so and so did it, and that's the way it's done. They can assemble and store away a vast catalog of random auto-phrases in their musical vocabulary, impress their friends at school with it, put it on YouTube, and they can then revel in the magnificence that is "theirs." How can they be wrong? Their friends idolize them, the opposite sex is slathering them with all they dreamed of, their website has 5,368,942 hits... and all it took was a box set of DVD's under last years' Christmas tree. All of their peers dine at the table of McMusic with them, so they must be right.

[Gary Preston]

Just let me sum it up like this --Michael always knows the right words to say and does it well i might add . Tks. Michael .

[Peter Dollard]

Mike,
I think in your opening statement that you have defined a really important point about how we learn the steel. Up until 1972 I think There were two Newman courses(the original C-6th and the two pedal one knee lever E-9th course). Of course it was just a record and tab....no one to tell you how to tune, no one to show you how to hold your hand, and probably few professional teachers in your area. So the way I learned was to hang out in bars and hope the guy would show you something. Up until 1973 when Newman actually gathered groups of steelers that was it. But the friendship that evolved out of those seminars gave birth to pedal steel associations where there were teachers and fellow students. Now the ability to buy everyone's intros and passages is readily available. So unlike those early people who had only their ear to figure stuff out by, we have gone the other way; Complete copying and striving to sound like your hero. Is it any wonder those older people came up with what they "thought" the guy was playing not like now where it is written out for them. So the path to sounding "original" has become much more difficult. Lloyd Green said learn the right hand and then learn your scales but avoid listening to just steel exclusively.

[LJ Eiffert]

Hello Brother Mikey D,100% on.Like I told you in person with our visit,I'm proud of you and as a true Musician to the steel Guitar and the art of Music.Just like the friendship you give,so real.God Bless. Leo J.Eiffert,Jr.