Curly Chalker.....WOW Holy Cow!

Ben Godard · Post by **Ben Godard** » 30 Aug 2009 8:01 pm

I just watched some of his work on youtube and my jaw just dropped. How I missed this guy I'll never know. I'm telling you this man has opened a whole other window for me. I've never seen anyone play like that. His C6th is just unbelievable. And then to my amazement he turned right aroung and played the E9th just as proficeint. I like his out of the box style. And he is FAST!

I am jus't blown away. If I could play C6th like him, I'd give up the E9th.

Are there any instructional videos or books with him or his style?

Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 30 Aug 2009 8:19 pm

Ben,can't believe you just discovered Curly,Just my opinion,but no one will ever fill his shoes,Don't WASTE another minute,Get in touch here on the forum with either Bob or Mike Perlowin,get the DVD that was made of Curly years ago in a club,EVERY steel player should have this,It will do one of two things to you,Make you work harder,or make you want to sell your steel,To me he was [still is] the undisputed KING of the steel. YOU BETCHA, DYK?BC.

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 31 Aug 2009 3:22 am

Thanks for mentioning the DVD Charlie. I still have HUNDREDS of copies in my garage.

For those who don't already know about this, in December of 1986, Curly gave a concert here in California, and 2 weeks later, performed at Scotty's Christmas party.

Both performances were videotaped. Scotty still has his tapes, but the tapes of the California concert were lost when Jack Lox, the man who put the concert on died.

Jack also put on concerts with Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day, and Doug Jernigan, and one featuring local players Red Rhodes, Jay Dee Maness, Johnny Davis (who plays guitar on the Chalker concert) Ron Epperson, and myself. All these were videotaped, and all the tapes were lost upon Jack's death.

Fortunately I had a very high grade copy of the Chalker tape. At one point I had the only copy of the tape. I had the DVD made so these performances would not be lost.

The DVD, which is 2 hours long, consists of most of the California concert, (Jack did not start taping the show until after Curly started playing, and did not capture the beginning of the first tune, and one song was lost when the tape ran out,) and the first of 2 sets he did at Scotty's party. During the second set people in the audience got up and sang, and it was determined that this material wasn't worth including on the DVD.

Besides being available from me, the DVD can also be purchased from b0b, Scotty (who will undoubtedly have some in his booth at the convention) The South West Steel Guitar Association (I think Billy Easton has them) and Russ Rask up in Washington State.

Ken Byng · Post by **Ken Byng** » 31 Aug 2009 9:29 am

I would put Chalker in the top 3 players of all time. Phenomenal technique, incredible use of the volume pedal and a huge range of ability on both tunings. Many saw him as merely a C6 player, but some of the ballad stuff that he did on E9 was astounding.

His passing was a huge loss to the steel guitar world.

Alan Miller · Post by **Alan Miller** » 31 Aug 2009 4:11 pm

I cant believe Mike still has "hundreds" of these Curley Chalked dvds in his garage .
If the youtube vids made your jaw drop then this dvd will have you picking it up off the floor and then finding a good surgeon to stitch it back on again.

Everyone should witness this unbelievable players astonishing hands.

Jim Walker · Post by **Jim Walker** » 31 Aug 2009 7:53 pm

I consider Curly Chalker a steel guitar Legend! His nephew Randall is one of my very best friends and we have worked in several bands together. Needless to say I've heard some great family stories as well as some super rare family band recordings. I catch reruns of HeeHaw on RFD occasionally where Curly is featured. The stuff on youtube is awesome! As soon as I can manage to rub a few dollar bills together I'm gonna get me one of Mike's DVD's.

JW

Charles Davidson · Post by **Charles Davidson** » 31 Aug 2009 7:53 pm

If steelers REALLY knew how GREAT this DVD is ,Mike would be sold out in one day,It's like trying to describe a beautiful painting without the person seeing it. You HAVE to see and hear Curly to believe it. Plus I'm always proud to say he is a native of Alabama,also Jimmy Day,and Mr. Don. YOU BETCHA, DYK?BC.

Jody Sanders · Post by **Jody Sanders** » 31 Aug 2009 8:00 pm

Curly's DVD that Mike has is a must fot all steel guitarists. Jody.

Skeeter Stultz · Post by **Skeeter Stultz** » 31 Aug 2009 8:15 pm

I highly recommend this DVD to any PSG enthusiast and my hat's off to Mike for making it available.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 3 Sep 2009 1:43 pm

After hearing Curly on "Big Hits On Big Steel" and then seeing him in person, I made a conscious decision...10 strings was all I'd ever need. $:\$

Dana Shaw · Post by **Dana Shaw** » 3 Sep 2009 4:48 pm

Hi Mike, I would love to get a DVD of Curley. Do you have an e-mail address you could publish, or a phone number for that matter?

Jerry Roller · Post by **Jerry Roller** » 3 Sep 2009 7:01 pm

Curley was absolutely unbelievable. I believe one of the players closest to being able to do the Curley Chalker style is Johnny Cox. I believe he and Curley were good friends and spent a lot of time together and Johnny evidently picked up a lot of Curley's style. Curley is certainly a legend. Johnny is one of the best. I know of no other occupation that does not properly compensate a great performer according to his or her ability. One of the very best is driving a truck. (I think he still is). Sorry to get off topic but I believe Johnny is the closest to being a living Chalker (like) player.
Jerry

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 3 Sep 2009 9:07 pm

Dana Shaw wrote:Hi Mike, I would love to get a DVD of Curley. Do you have an e-mail address you could publish, or a phone number for that matter?

Dana (and everybody else) my E-ddress is Mperlowin@sbcglobal.net

I don't want to post my phone number, but I'll send it to you privately.

Marco Schouten · Post by **Marco Schouten** » 5 Sep 2009 6:24 am

Looks like B0b is out of stock.

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 5 Sep 2009 8:12 am

Marco Schouten wrote:Looks like B0b is out of stock.

As I said, I still have hundreds of copies. I'll talk to b0b about re-stocking.

Russ Rask has a box full of them.

Terry Wood · Post by **Terry Wood** » 5 Sep 2009 1:32 pm

Jerry Roller is right, Johnny Cox plays about the closest sound to Chalker's style you hear a player pickin' these days.

I did a Steel Guitar DVD instructional course that covers some of Curly's great C6th pickin' style on the song "Steelin' The Blues."

Curly was a Giant on C6th and I always dug his E9th stuff too!

Terry Wood

Gary Walker · Post by **Gary Walker** » 6 Sep 2009 7:31 pm

Having been in my teens in the 50s, I was accustomed to hearing Remington, Day and of course, Buddy. One day I walked into White's Music in Visalia CA and Gene Breenden was the manager and said, "Gary, you've got to hear the new album called "Travis". This was sometime in '61 or early '62. When I heard Curly playing some of the most incredible stuff on A Fender 1000, I was hooked for life and spent the rest of Curly's performing days buying every album that he played on. There has never been anyone like him and I doubt there ever will be. Many can hit a few licks and make it sound ever so great, but after a few bars, the mirage disappears. Not that the fine players out there aren't great either, but Curly had his mind in a special channel that we all would like to get into.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 6 Sep 2009 10:03 pm

Marco Schouten wrote:Looks like B0b is out of stock.

Not out of stock. The online catalog must be wrong. I have lots of them in stock.

Bob Hickish · Post by **Bob Hickish** » 7 Sep 2009 5:40 am

Here is some of Curly's grate E9th

http://www.etsga.org/mysteryplayer.mp3

Joe Rogers · Post by **Joe Rogers** » 7 Sep 2009 7:22 am

Bob, what album was this taken off of? I am not only a huge fan of Curly Chalker, but also of Charlie McCoy. Great playing on this particular cut. Thanks for posting !!

Joe Rogers

Bob Hickish · Post by **Bob Hickish** » 7 Sep 2009 8:05 am

Joe
Sorry ! I don’t know where it was recorded or what album , it
was a subject discussed here on the Forum . the tune
is call “ Alberta bound “ Maybe do a search -- I’m sure
more info will come up .

Hick

Joe Rogers · Post by **Joe Rogers** » 7 Sep 2009 8:23 am

Oops, my mistake. I recognized the name of the song when you posted it. That cut is off of the Nashville Sundown LP. Been so long since I listened to it I totally forgot about it. Thanks!!!

Joe Rogers

Jeff Evans · Post by **Jeff Evans** » 7 Sep 2009 10:05 am

Was Curly's E9th influenced by Lloyd Green?

Ken Byng · Post by **Ken Byng** » 7 Sep 2009 11:59 am

Jeff Evans wrote:Was Curly's E9th influenced by Lloyd Green?

Possibly - there is certainly a touch of Lloyd in part of that number. Curly would tell most people in the 70's that he had little or no interest in E9, and yet he must have done quite a bit of woodshedding to play as well as he did on that tuning. It just shows how great a player he was.

That album is one of my favourites.

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 7 Sep 2009 4:59 pm

Ken Byng wrote: Curly would tell most people in the 70's that he had little or no interest in E9,

However, he later said that he underestimated it.

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Curly Chalker.....WOW Holy Cow!

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