Dick McIntire

Les Cook · Post by **Les Cook** » 15 Mar 2015 6:52 am

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Would like to have heard Dick playing a Tricone

Roger Fletcher · Post by **Roger Fletcher** » 15 Mar 2015 8:59 am

Andy Volk wrote:There's one alternate rhythm they used I'm curious about ... kind of goes .. one two AND three ... one two AND three. Wonder what they origin of that one could be. It shows up on some Jerry Byrd records too.

I have seen this pattern referred to as the Tuamotu rhythm after the group of islands in French Polynesia.

As for that thumping 4/4 style of rhythm guitar, the standard work for anyone interested is "Swing and Big Band Guitar" by Charlton Johnson and published by Hal Leonard.

Grateful thanks to all who have posted such priceless material in this thread.

Joe Burke · Post by **Joe Burke** » 23 Jun 2017 12:31 pm

I've been listening to so much early Hawaiian music that I couldn't help but to revive this post.

Mike Neer posted Forever and Ever a while back. I can't stop listening to it. Here is a link to it that I believe a forum member posted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKQAfNQ79Mc

Jack Aldrich · Post by **Jack Aldrich** » 23 Jun 2017 1:16 pm

Bill Wynne wrote:
Mike Neer wrote:I bought all of the Cumquat McIntire releases and fell in love with his playing.
I own all of the McIntire Cumquats, and I concur with the assessment of how tasteful this guy's playing really was.

Overplaying is the curse of the modern steeler. Guys like McIntire, Benny Rogers, and Billy Hew Len knew just when to hit it and when to walk the hell away for a couple of bars.

I have been beaten about the ears for stepping on a singer's solo. My knumu mele, Alan Akaka, gave me this mantra - "Play in the pukas". IMHO, that's what sets the good Hawaiian steelers apart from us run of the mill guys.

Jack Aldrich · Post by **Jack Aldrich** » 23 Jun 2017 1:17 pm

Oh, and to play in the pukas, you have to LISTEN.

Steve Marinak · Post by **Steve Marinak** » 23 Jun 2017 2:24 pm

OK...What's a Puka?

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 23 Jun 2017 2:50 pm

A quick Google search... Puka literally means "hole" in Hawaiian. Puka also refers to certain seashells with little holes in them. So if a player plays in the pukas, I assume that means he plays fills in the spaces between the vocal lines. In other words, don't play on top of the singer. Play in the holes, play around the vocal lines. That's a general rule in most styles of music, and one that I wish more steel players would adhere to. That requires listening and a good sense of where and what to play and when Not to play.

Bill Creller · Post by **Bill Creller** » 23 Jun 2017 5:20 pm

Seems like a reserved approach would make the listener look closer for the steel backing, as opposed to it getting in the way of a singer..

Not many steel players these days get to do a half verse in the middle of a song, like the old days. Maybe today's singers have too much of an ego problem ??
Hard to say, but it kinda suggests it..

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 23 Jun 2017 6:59 pm

Well, nothing will get you fired quicker than playing licks and fills on top of the singer. In a band situation, our job is to back the vocalist. That means playing chords quietly behind the singer and coming on strong with fills when it's our turn to fill. And if we're lucky we might get an intro or a solo. It's not a steel guitar show. It's a team effort to make the whole band sound it's best.

Roger Fletcher · Post by **Roger Fletcher** » 24 Jun 2017 1:45 am

There's one alternate rhythm they used I'm curious about ... kind of goes .. one two AND three ... one two AND three. Wonder what they origin of that one could be. It shows up on some Jerry Byrd records too.

I've heard this referred to as a Tuamotu rhythm after the island group in French Polynesia. Maybe some of our Hawaiian members could also comment on its similarity to some hula rhythms.

BTW, is the steel player in the Lani clip Hal Aloma?

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 24 Jun 2017 6:44 am

The kind of vibrato Dick used is really out of fashion today. It sounds so natural and relaxed that his playing never feels rushed, only musical and expressive yet, on the slow tunes, it does have an old fashioned feel in comparison with players like say, Tom Morrell who used very little vibrato.

To my ears,Dick sounds of his time but it's beautiful to visit his lost world from time to time. He could play ballads beautifully but also swing hard on tunes like this one ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MYjGa6hpuY

David M Brown · Post by **David M Brown** » 24 Jun 2017 12:31 pm

Andy Volk wrote:The kind of vibrato Dick used is really out of fashion today. It sounds so natural and relaxed that his playing never feels rushed, only musical and expressive yet, on the slow tunes, it does have an old fashioned feel in comparison with players like say, Tom Morrell who used very little vibrato.

To my ears,Dick sounds of his time but it's beautiful to visit his lost world from time to time. He could play ballads beautifully but also swing hard on tunes like this one ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MYjGa6hpuY

You can put me back in that time period any time and I'll be quite content to listen to that "out of fashion" style.

All day long.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 24 Jun 2017 1:12 pm

Me too, David. Me too. Bruce Clarke spent ridiculous hours on editing each of his McIntire CDs at the waveform level and the sound he achieved really brings the beauty of Dick's sound to the forefront. South of Honolulu is probably my all-time favorite McIntire tune: http://picosong.com/WFia

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 24 Jun 2017 3:04 pm

Wow, he gets a great tone on South of Honolulu. That's F#9 tuning, I believe. I can almost see him sitting in the studio playing his lap steel through a 1930s 5-watt tube amp, no reverb... but what a sound!

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 24 Jun 2017 6:23 pm

Yes, F#9th tuning, Doug. Just gorgeous lap steel playing. And then the vocals come in and they're perfect too. Again, we're not hearing a scratchy old 78. We're hearing the music mixed and cleaned up by the late Bruce Clarke based on a lifetime of knowing how this kind of music should sound.

Einar Baldursson · Post by **Einar Baldursson** » 25 Jun 2017 12:23 am

Thanks for sharing that tune Andy. I hadn't heard it before - sounds amazing. McIntire had such great tone, almost sax-like to my ears. I'm not sure if it's partly because of the tuning used but the pre-C6 players often seem to harmonise melody notes more sparingly using a lot of single notes and octaves. I should probably spend some time with C#minor and F#9 this summer just to get a feel for them.

David M Brown · Post by **David M Brown** » 25 Jun 2017 4:58 am

Thanks for posting the link - as these guys say, great playing!

John Limbach · Post by **John Limbach** » 25 Jun 2017 5:37 am

Andy Volk wrote:Me too, David. Me too. Bruce Clarke spent ridiculous hours on editing each of his McIntire CDs at the waveform level and the sound he achieved really brings the beauty of Dick's sound to the forefront. South of Honolulu is probably my all-time favorite McIntire tune: http://picosong.com/WFia

Andy:

Did Bruce post any others? Or is his library available by other means?

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 25 Jun 2017 8:45 am

I posted the above. I only have one of the Cumquat CDs. There a number of them. I don't know if the the CDs are available any longer (see below). Many forumites no doubt own the entire collections of McIntire and Andy Iona that Bruce did.

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... 97325c308f

Here are two links to Dick's music online ...

http://www.territorialairwaves.com/inde ... =30&id=196

http://youzeek.com/?artist=dick+mcintir ... 20McIntire

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 25 Jun 2017 9:27 am

A few years ago, I used the original sheet music and Dick's recording to do this arrangement of South of Honolulu in F#9. The sheet music was weird. It was all notated in a strange bouncy rhythm that's not how Dick played it. Almost immediately, I moved it over to C6th (it's in my C6th Gold book) so never really checked to see if this F#9 arrangement had mistakes. So it likely does but it'll get you in the ballpark.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 25 Jun 2017 9:51 am

Looks good, Andy. I'll have to delve into that when I get some time. I like the chord changes and the melody. Kind of exotic and mysterious.

David M Brown · Post by **David M Brown** » 25 Jun 2017 8:22 pm

THANK YOU!

Joe Burke · Post by **Joe Burke** » 26 Jun 2017 5:03 pm

I now can't stop listening to South of Honolulu! Love it.

My question is, how did some of you know it's in F#9? That tuning has never been brought up in my circle. Do many others use it?

I've been figuring it out in C6 for fun. I can't get some of it, but not what Dick McIntire gets!

Thanks.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 27 Jun 2017 1:22 am

In the 20 years or so the forum has existed there have been many knowledgeable people here including folks with extensive knowledge of older players. I first heard of the tuning here and tried it out years ago. There is also an extended version of F#9 in Jerry Byrd's large instruction folio.

Knowing that McIntire used that tuning, it was easy to tune it up on a steel and hear the intervals that match many of his recordings. The more you transcribe and arrange, the easier it gets to quickly find what you're hearing. For me, Freddie Roulette's playing is a big exception. I listen to Freddie play one of his trademark high register runs and I'm hard pressed to say exactly how he made those sounds even though I know how he tunes.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 27 Jun 2017 3:38 am

You guys and gals might be interested in this folio for F#9 tuning by Bernie Kaai:

http://www.lapsteelin.com/2014/07/30/ol ... s-tunings/