steel guitar instrumentals.........

Ray Montee (RIP) · Post by **Ray Montee (RIP)** » 17 Aug 2016 10:29 am

Doesn't anyone play steel guitar instrumentals like in the days of olde?

Steel Guitar Rag, is NOT, the only steel instrumental; nor, is Sleep Walk.

What say you?

Dick Wood · Post by **Dick Wood** » 17 Aug 2016 10:35 am

Years ago I used to get asked to play instrumentals but these days no one seems to care anymore.

Gary Hoetker · Post by **Gary Hoetker** » 17 Aug 2016 11:27 am

Hey Ray,

Like this one "Release Me" by Jay McDonald from Buck Owens LP "On The Bandstand" circa 1963. Fender 1000. It's my very favorite. Hope u like it.

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

Rich Gardner · Post by **Rich Gardner** » 17 Aug 2016 12:07 pm

Last winter, while the cold wind blew, I hole up in the music room and worked up about 17 instrumentals on my Zum Stage One(E9). I play these, among others, at retirement communities during their dinner hour. Always well received. Admittedly, I play some of these on a nonpedal C6 steel. It was fun woodshedding last winter working these up well enough to play out on the pedal steel. I've been slowly adding to the list. Here are some of the ones I worked up with backing tracks using band in a box:
Sleepwalk
Teardrop
Unchained Melody
White Cliffs of Dover
Harbor Lights
Canadian Sunset
You Don't Know Me
Mack the Knife
Lonesome Town
How High the Moon
Last Date
I Left My Heart in San Francisco
Georgia
Can't Help Falling in Love with You
Wonderful Tonight
Tears in Heaven
Take it to the Limit

Steve Green · Post by **Steve Green** » 17 Aug 2016 12:24 pm

Our band played a live show (The Big River Jamboree) in Natchez, Mississippi, on the second Saturday of every month for 17 years (Jan. 1998 - Dec. 2014). We only stopped because the owners of the venue where we held the show sold the property.

We ALWAYS included AT LEAST one steel guitar instrumental in every show.

Frank James Pracher · Post by **Frank James Pracher** » 17 Aug 2016 6:15 pm

We have an original instrumental that we do... We all take a turn, but the steel has the main melody line.... We also do Sleepwalk ... We were working on Noel Boggs Steelin' Home at the last practice.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 18 Aug 2016 12:27 am

yes, I play maybe 4 to 6 gigs /month, I play at least TWO Instrumentals each gig. Sometimes 3 . The 3/4's ( Waltzes) are very popular at the dances. Two of the gigs we open with an Instrumental which is usually "I Love You Because"

The old days are not dead.

You can see a list of some of them on my web page.

www.tprior.com

Dennis Detweiler · Post by **Dennis Detweiler** » 18 Aug 2016 1:06 pm

Some that I've played at steel shows and clubs over the past 15 years:
Girl From Ipanema, Cherokee, She's Got You, Fat N Sassy, Same Old Me, Linus And Lucy, Broken Down In Tiny Pieces, Fraggle Rock Theme, Swinging High, When You Say Nothing At All, I Can See Clearly Now, Two Doors Down, Sweet T Pie, Someone To Give My Love To, Heaven Everyday, Dixie Drive Inn, Lutetia, Flintstones Theme, Panhandle Rag, On Broadway, Jessica, Sidewalking, Those Were The Days, Lean On It, Travelin', Redskin Rag, etc. Also a couple of originals. I try to break away from the standards when I can. We also played Charlton and Rhodes version of Steel Guitar Rag for a short time.

Ben Lawson · Post by **Ben Lawson** » 18 Aug 2016 1:52 pm

I got to play an instrumental this past Sunday. I thought "Faded Love" should be easy for the band. One of the guys has been suffering from serious health issues and he lost the chord progression. As someone who had played the song for years I thought he would be right with me but he followed the guitar player who was less familiar with the song. I guess we made up a new tune.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 18 Aug 2016 2:10 pm

I play in two classic country bands so I get to play instrumentals on every gig... SleepWalk, Steel Guitar Rag, San Antonio Rose, Cold Cold Heart, etc. When I play guitar with those bands I get to play Ghost Riders in the Sky, Tequila, Spanish Eyes, etc. My bands like to feature instrumentals (both steel & guitar), and that works for me!

Ray Montee (RIP) · Post by **Ray Montee (RIP)** » 18 Aug 2016 2:39 pm

Has our cherished music gone seriously down hill or have the players failed to rise to the occasion?

I NEVER saw a chart until I attended a Jeff Newman course.
Everyone back then seemed to know the songs and rapidly caught on to the chord progressions with minimal difficulty.
I was no super child.........but did start playing at age
14-15.

What's YOUR take on what has gone wrong, musically? We played an entire stage show with Carl Smith here in Portland some years ago. Never saw a chart. He'd turn and tell us the key and away we went. Some 14,000 in the audience tho't it was a great show.

WHAT say you?

Christopher Woitach · Post by **Christopher Woitach** » 18 Aug 2016 4:42 pm

The gigs I play at Jo Bar in Portland with my quartet (pedal steel, trombone, bass, drums) are 100% instrumental, no Steel Guitar Rag, no Sleepwalk. Just instrumental jazz tunes

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 18 Aug 2016 4:59 pm

Ray, a lot of music is very adventurous today. There is a lot of music happening all around, but you have to want to hear it. Steel guitar is not really in great favor right now as a feature instrument, but I think that there are a number of players who are making a strong argument for that to happen.

Also, being that it is difficult financially to keep bands together and rehearsed, it is often the case that musicians are hired, and if you hire players who can read and don't just rely on their ears to pick it up, you can play more challenging music right off the bat.

I just recorded a full album of instrumentals. Wait 'til you hear it!

Dennis Detweiler · Post by **Dennis Detweiler** » 18 Aug 2016 5:42 pm

Probably those that learned on their own and developed an ear for chord changes had an advantage. I started playing with musicians that were 15 years older than me. I had some mentoring and a personal challenge to learn quickly. I had to listen to everyone playing on stage and follow what I was hearing.
Cal Smith didn't carry a band early in his career. He did as Carl Smith, named the song and the key and go. Michael Twitty and Johnny Russell brought a lead guitar player with them, which makes it a little easier.

Bill Cunningham · Post by **Bill Cunningham** » 18 Aug 2016 7:12 pm

Good ears can get by without charts but even for tunes that we all know, they can make the difference between sounding like a good American Legion band and a more polished professional rehearsed group without the investment of a lot of rehearsal time.

Over the years I have backed several GOO stars who brought or sent charts that the Opry staff band always uses for the songs those guys could play in their sleep! Charts particularly allows the rhythm section to be more "together" on the chord foundation. Even on Faded Love there are opportunities for 2m substitutions. When added by everyone in the same places they sound great. But if not done consistently, the result is much less polished. Ever notice that Ray Price's band used a chart even for Crazy Arms? AND, that the left hand of the piano and the bass player were doing EXACTLY the same thing?

I think fewer instrumentals are a function of changing times and musical tastes. Play a gig of traditional country and a couple of instrumentals will be included. On more contemporary gigs, probably not....

Dave Stroud · Post by **Dave Stroud** » 18 Aug 2016 7:30 pm

I'd love to hear some more modern pedal steel instrumentals. I love the old stuff... but I've only noticed a few who have gone "out of bounds" and made some updated sounds. Stuff like Wally Moyer's "Let's Talk About It" and Gary Carter's "Lighthouse Tale". Interesting solos that don't scream classic country or honolulu music.

Christopher Woitach · Post by **Christopher Woitach** » 18 Aug 2016 8:17 pm

I wonder what Susan wrote - now THERE is a dedicated steel instrumentalist! And you too, Mike - I love what I've heard from the Steelonious project - beautiful. Buck Reid, Jim Cohen, Doug Jernigan... The list goes on and on... Do you mean on the radio, or only in a traditional country setting?

Seems to me there's tons of instrumental steel out there.

Rick Schmidt · Post by **Rick Schmidt** » 18 Aug 2016 10:03 pm

Ray.... Knowing what an important steel player you are in our world, I'd love it if you would give Mike Neer's new album a complete listen. It's non pedal and every song is a gem, although it doesn't draw from pop music of any kind. I'm thinking the word "Masterpiece"...I think it's an important recording of instrumental steel guitar, and it's pretty darn enjoyable too!

Terry Winter · Post by **Terry Winter** » 19 Aug 2016 3:51 pm

In one of the groups I play with we have our singer sing 2 songs then the guitar player and I do 2....love that set up!
Most every song we do we flip the song back and forth to each other.

Abe Levy · Post by **Abe Levy** » 19 Aug 2016 8:39 pm

Chris Scruggs.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 20 Aug 2016 2:27 am

So last night I subbed Amazing Grace for Waltz Across Texas, keeping a 3/4 in the lineup. I have been working on a simple clear arrangement of Amazing Grace and decided to lay it out there last night.

The dance floor filled, as they always do to a 3/4 but what was said to me was kinda kool, one of the dance sponsors tells me it was great but we never danced to Amazing Grace before ! Then says please play it again next time !

Ok, I will !

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 20 Aug 2016 2:44 am

Dave Stroud wrote:I'd love to hear some more modern pedal steel instrumentals. I love the old stuff... but I've only noticed a few who have gone "out of bounds" and made some updated sounds. Stuff like Wally Moyer's "Let's Talk About It" and Gary Carter's "Lighthouse Tale". Interesting solos that don't scream classic country or honolulu music.

I love what Gary Carter did with the tune but to avoid any confusion he didn't write The Lighthouses's Tale, it was originally done by progressive bluegrass band Nickel Creek.

Dave Stroud · Post by **Dave Stroud** » 20 Aug 2016 6:13 am

Mark, thank you for the correction. I had no idea! I'll have to go take a listen to the original...

Howard Parker · Post by **Howard Parker** » 20 Aug 2016 7:34 am

I'm fortunate to be playing as a featured soloist in a contemporary roots band. We'll definitely do a number of instrumentals during an evening's performance.

There won't be "instrumentals like in the days of olde".

Considering the band and our audience, a very good thing indeed.

h

Jim Newberry · Post by **Jim Newberry** » 20 Aug 2016 10:04 am

Well, today we have Steelin Home, Panhandle, Bootheel Drag, and Texas Playboy Rag in the set lists, Skipper! We're tryin!

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steel guitar instrumentals.........

steel guitar instrumentals.........

I don't understand............