What moment Stands out.

Larry Jamieson · Post by **Larry Jamieson** » 8 Apr 2008 6:50 pm

Two event stand out in my long, musical career. The first occurred when I was a senior in high school. I was a guitar player in a rock band called "The Mustangs." The year was 1967, and there was a World's Fair in New York. On Delaware County Day, my band appeared on stage at the New York Pavillion and did a 1/2 hour set. There must have been a thousand or more people watching, it was the largest crowd I had ever played for. "Wooly Bully" was #1 on WABC Radio in NYC at the time, and when we played it during our set, the teen age girls went wild!
Later, I attended the Hank Thompson School of Country Music at Claremore Oklahoma, and played in a Claremore College Country Band that opened for Hank Thompson. He talked with us after the show, shook our hands and was very friendly to our group of young men learning the country music business.
Other than personal playing events, my highlights include seeing John Hughey in concert on three occasions and getting to meet him personally.
Larry J.

Matt Dawson · Post by **Matt Dawson** » 9 Apr 2008 2:48 am

When Albert Lee came & played on my CD "River of Gold" ....and playing the steel live on "Woodstock" with Ian Matthews and 3 original members of Matthews Southern Comfort. Signing my first deal with a major label (BMG - the euphoria did'nt last....

Roger,
Mike Bell & I drove down to see Albert Lee in France on Sunday. He has a new pianist called Elio Pace who also produced their new CD which is fabulous! Great to hear them playing all this new material. They were on great form. I don't know when Albert last heard you play steel, but he was most complimentary about you and sends his regards.
Matt

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 9 Apr 2008 8:32 am

Hi, Matt!

Peter Baron sent me a copy of their new CD a couple of weeks ago, and I was very impressed!!!

This is easily the best they've ever done, with none of the mixing problems that I felt marred the previous releases.

The material is very fresh-sounding, and everyone's contribution is due high praise! I think that Elio seems a talented young man.

But - I always enjoy Albert's piano-playing, too, and he's terrific on that opening track.

How kind of him to be complimentary about me - he always gives credit where it's due, and sometimes (

) when it's not!!!!!

Good to hear from you!

John Richmond · Post by **John Richmond** » 9 Apr 2008 3:31 pm

1. Backing up Wynn Stewart at the Caprock Lounge, Hobbs NM, in 1978. I played my non-pedal double-neck Fender Stringmaster. I wish I still had that guitar.
2. Having Roger Miller sit in with his fiddle, Mr. R's in Santa Fe, 1980
3. Having Sammi Smith sit in, Tucumcari. My wife met her at the motel we were playing at and brought her to the lounge. She did "Help Me Make It Through The Night".
4. Jamming with Riders in the Sky--- Ranger Doug, Too Slim, and Woody Paul---at the Captain's Table, Portales NM, l982.

Don Drummer · Post by **Don Drummer** » 9 Apr 2008 6:20 pm

This was a pre career stand out moment but effected me greatly. Seeing ET at Beanblosom In. with Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe in the early 70's. I'd just started playing steel. ET's band at the time included Buddy Charlton. The band warmed up with some hot tunes, BC had christmas tree Sho Bud amp his tone and command knocked me out. I'll never for get it.

In the 80's Willy Nelson and band played at a jam session at the Longhorn in Charleston. The AFM had their convention in town and Gary Boggs got them all to come and play. After their set the sunday jam continued as usual and later Willy's band members started joining in one by one. By now its my turn to back some singers etc. on steel and guess who gets back on stage. I don't think there any photos of it but it was a gas playing "Remember Me" and another tune I can't recall. Don

Drew Howard · Post by **Drew Howard** » 9 Apr 2008 7:16 pm

The day I figured out the Lloyd Green solo on "So Sad"...

The time Big E asked me about my first digital camera at Scotty's in '97...

The time Billygoat took his Poli-Grip bottle out his pocket onstage at Mac's Bar and waved it at the crowd....

The time I got a pierced, tattooed Goth Girl to dance with an old guy in pajamas at the same bar...

The time Bo Diddley looked at me backstage @ Biddy Mulligan's and said "Boy, you SCARED or somethin'?"....

The solo I took standing on a table at a bar in Wichita...

Leaving our Mardi Gras gig, saxphones and basses sticking out the windows, an Alabama state trooper pulled us over, we had open beer in the car, our motor started a grass fire and he let us go....

The nite we slept on the beach in Florida cuz the motel rooms didn't come thru....

The night the road manager said "Here's ten bucks"...

The time I ate McDonalds salads for two weeks to save money on the road...

Playin' the Club Nirvana at the top of Times Square One....

Drunk and lost on the Lower East Side 4 AM....

CBGB's....

Milkweg Amsterdam....

Twayn Williams · Post by **Twayn Williams** » 10 Apr 2008 9:52 am

My stand out moment was being chosen to appear with Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto (both of King Crimson fame) to play a pure improv set (on guitar) with my buddy on drums. Unfortunately, the gig fell through at the last moment and I never actually got to jam with those guys

Instead, we played a set with a bassist friend of mine to an empty house and the other band that was supposed open.

I never said it was a good moment...

John Roche · Post by **John Roche** » 10 Apr 2008 2:04 pm

The day I met Johnny Cash at Wembley 1986 31 March, he asked me " excuse Sir where is the john" and I said John who?.

Frank Freniere · Post by **Frank Freniere** » 13 Apr 2008 1:25 pm

Standing on stage next to Ralph Mooney at the 1983 St. Louis Convention when I received the PSGA Appreciation Award.

Jack Ritter · Post by **Jack Ritter** » 13 Apr 2008 6:26 pm

this occurred about a month ago---we played a 90th birthday party for a lady at Woodward,Okla moose lodge and about 150 people -- relatives and friends-- were there and while I was noodling around after I got set up, a little girl came up and asked me what this "thing" was I was playing. I told her this is a pedal steel guitar. she said she was learning to play the violin- and then asked what all the floor things did and i showed her what the pedals did and etc. then i got up and told her to come up on the bandstand and i would let her play it. so I got her set down and showed her where to place her feet and then showed her what strings to pick and let her press pedal 1 and 2 and she really thought that was something. her mother came up to watch and the little girl told her momma " I want one of these!"
after the dance started and we had played a while, some one tugged on my left arm and this same little girl said " I want to give you a tip"<---it was a dollar bill, and then she had a piece of paper and asked if she could have my autograph. I said---you bet!! I told her she might need this dollar and she said " no, I want you to have it". I thanked her and
I told her I would put this in the frame of my Leon McAuliffe autographed record he gave me and keep it forever. she was thrilled to death, and this deal really choked this ol' guy up.
this ----I will never forget!!.

Bill Dobkins · Post by **Bill Dobkins** » 13 Apr 2008 7:25 pm

Jack, something simular happened to me about three weeks ago.There was a benifit jam sesson at the VFW for a little blind Girl who was seven. They were building funds so she could have an operation to restore her sight in China. I had set up my Steel and was checking the tunning when her Mother brought her to the stage. She wanted to know what was making that beautiful sound. She felt it all over asking a lot of questions and striking the strings and so on.
She then told her mother, as soon as I can see, I want one of these. she even got up and sang a couple of songs. Thats what its all about.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 14 Apr 2008 5:03 am

The night I realized that I could actually play a steel guitar. I'd been home practicing like mad for a few months, and when I figured my playing was ready for public consumption I went out to a club and sat in and got a gig.

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 14 Apr 2008 6:44 am

There are a few that always standout for me...

My first trip to Jimmie Crawford's basement in 1973...

First gig at Red Rocks Amphitheater...

Playing on a Gary Morris record and seeing my name in the credits next to Sonny Garrish

Most recently getting to play with Bill Purcell on a gig in San Francisco...

Hope there are more to come...

Kevin Macneil Brown · Post by **Kevin Macneil Brown** » 14 Apr 2008 7:39 am

Five years ago this month I got called in to sub on lap steel and tele for a new-ish band called Rusty Romance. We opened for Bill Kirchen and local (Vermont)legends The Starline Rhythm Boys. Since I grew up inspired by Kirchen and Bobby Black's work with the Lost Planet Airmen, it was really fun to play on the same stage and also meet the very affable and entertaining Mr. Kirchen in the green room
The best thing, though, was getting sucked full-time into the vortex of this band, and it has turned out to be a fun journey with some of my favorite people in the world. We even got to headline Moxie Fest in Maine last summer. (New Englanders will likely know what that's a'll about...)

www.rustyromance.com

Mike Poholsky · Post by **Mike Poholsky** » 14 Apr 2008 8:58 am

I don't remember (LOL) the exact date, probably around '70, I saw Poco in St. Louis. Jim Messina, Richie Furay, Timothy B Schmidt, George Grantham, and Rusty Young. The most incredible music I ever heard. I'd seen Garcia play steel, but Rusty was something else. The playing was unbelievable, and the singing..... Within a few days I was in Scotty's saying "Show me!"

Stuart Legg · Post by **Stuart Legg** » 14 Apr 2008 9:49 am

My best memory was while I was recouping from my auto accident I got to go with my dad Bo Legg on some of his gigs. Bo was playing lead guitar at the time but was learning the steel and I fell in love with that sound and because I couldn’t physically play the steel guitar I studied theory and everything about the E9th and bought endless tab and tech books about the pedal steel and I passed along every thing I learned to Bo. I always tell people jokingly that I taught him everything he knows about the E9 pedal steel. Bo agrees but always replies “based on the way I play you can’t call that bragging”.
One of those gigs was the most memorial and that is one that Bo did not play on but was a booking agent with Southwest Entertainment, booked the Beach Boys at a huge outdoor concert in Albuquerque NM and Bo wheeled me around in my wheel chair on stage before the show and back stage during the show and I got to hob knob with the elite and they all made a fuss over me and made me feel really important.

I don’t think they could have pulled that show off without me.

Bob I. Williams · Post by **Bob I. Williams** » 15 Apr 2008 5:57 pm

The one that stands out is when We were on a D.O.D. tour in 1992 and played at the World Expo. in the U.S. pavillion in Sevilla Spain. BOB

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 15 Apr 2008 7:40 pm

I've often wondered if there was a moment when some of the world class players - Buddy, Hal, Weldon, et al. - realized that they were world class players. I asked Paul about this once, for an interview for Guitar Player magazine, but he was too modest to give me a definitive answer.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 15 Apr 2008 7:47 pm

Cal Sharp wrote:I've often wondered if there was a moment when some of the world class players - Buddy, Hal, Weldon, et al. - realized that they were world class players. I asked Paul about this once, for an interview for Guitar Player magazine, but he was too modest to give me a definitive answer.

...Probably cuz he doesn't like to think back to fourth grade...

.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 15 Apr 2008 8:04 pm

4th or 5th grade would be about right.

If anyone wants to read it:

http://www.calsharp.com/music/Paul1.html

Paul Graupp · Post by **Paul Graupp** » 16 Apr 2008 5:37 am

Larry Robinson and I worked with a band called the Cimmaron Cowboys in Germany, France and Holland in the 60's. We were talking about this special gig just last evening.

We opened a show for Faron Young and our heroes were working with Faron that night.

O'Dell Martin on lead and Ben Kieth was on pedal steel. Probably the same instrument mentioned in a BK thread recently on the Forum. And as Reece said about seeing a clip of himself from many years ago"
"Those were very happy times in my life !!"

Regards, Paul

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 16 Apr 2008 6:11 am

Cal... thanks for posting the link to that Paul Franklin interview; I hadn't seen that in years and you did a great job!

I hope it doesn't get overlooked in this thread, I think most folks here would find it really worthwhile...

Stephan Franck · Post by **Stephan Franck** » 16 Apr 2008 8:34 am

Jim Cohen wrote:
Cal Sharp wrote:I've often wondered if there was a moment when some of the world class players - Buddy, Hal, Weldon, et al. - realized that they were world class players. I asked Paul about this once, for an interview for Guitar Player magazine, but he was too modest to give me a definitive answer.
...Probably cuz he doesn't like to think back to fourth grade...
.

I've been lucky enough to work with a few "world class" artists and performers, and the answer is always the same. They may think about status on their own time, but when it's time to work, they're alone to face their craft, with the same doubts and struggles, as everybody else.