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Topic: Native American Pedal Steel Players???? |
Mike Ormsby
From:
Ontario, Canada
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Posted 14 May 2021 11:29 am |
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I have just taken up the lap steel....and I am part Ojibway (Anishinaabe)....a good friend wondered why I didn't just play pedal steel (I explained easier to play lap steel & easier to carry)....and he also doesn't think there are are any Native American pedal steel players....I'm sure there are but couldn't think of anyone? SO my question is:
any Native American pedal steel players? |
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Terry Wood
From:
Marshfield, MO
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Posted 14 May 2021 11:50 am
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| Yes my Good Jimmy Dreadfulwater is Cherokee and lives near Talequah Oklahoma. He is a Great entertainer. He plays Pedal Steel Guitar, Guitar and Fiddle. He also Sings quite well. I'm part Cherokee and there are others. Glad your playing Steel Guitar. I build GFI Steel Guitars too. If you decide on a Pedal Steel Guitar later I can help you locate one. Best regards! |
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Frank Freniere
From:
The First Coast
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Posted 14 May 2021 1:56 pm
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| Haven’t seen him on Midwest Country (RFD-TV) in a while but I believe Joe Savage is part Native American. I think he calls himself a “Finndian.†|
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David Ball
From:
North Carolina High Country
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Posted 14 May 2021 3:10 pm
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There was Chief Mack Thomas and family with Mack playing his Bigsby back in the old days. I don't know which Native American people he was part of though.
Dave |
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Larry Dering
From:
Missouri, USA
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Posted 14 May 2021 5:06 pm
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| My dad and his family was Native American Indian, Cherokee and Choctaw. However my mother was Irish and Italian. So I'm only partially native American Indian. The fiddle was my grandfather's instrument. Dad played guitar and harmonica. I began guitar in my teens and lap steel in my 20s. Pedal steel was finally in my life in my 30s. No turning back now. I love the steel guitar. Have fun with it. |
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john buffington
From:
Owasso OK - USA
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Posted 14 May 2021 7:01 pm
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I am part Cherokee and have a roll number.
Last edited by john buffington on 14 May 2021 8:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Keith Hilton
From:
248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721
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Posted 14 May 2021 8:02 pm
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| Mixed blood Cherokee and Choctaw. My Grandmother is on the Dawes Rolls. |
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Stu Schulman
From:
Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)
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Posted 14 May 2021 11:26 pm
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Chief Thomas Mac was an incredible pedal steel guitar player,Who I met in Anchorage Alaska,He was working on the North Slope for one of the "Big Oil"companies.There are Records by the "Mac Family Band"out there.
_________________
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952. |
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Dylan Keating
From:
Montreal QC
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Posted 15 May 2021 2:06 pm
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I am also part Ojibwe--- my grandfather is from Couchiching First Nation in Northern Ontario, but he eventually moved to Thunder Bay.
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"Steel a little and they throw you in jail, Steel a lot and they make you King." |
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John McClung
From:
Olympia WA, USA
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Posted 16 May 2021 11:34 am
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Chief Mack Thomas' son John Thomas was a student of mine in 2011, studying pedal steel.
_________________
E9 INSTRUCTION
▪️ If you want to have an ongoing discussion, please email me, don't use the Forum messaging which I detest! steelguitarlessons@earthlink.net |
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Darvin Willhoite
From:
Roxton, Tx. USA
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Posted 16 May 2021 7:24 pm
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Mack Thomas was in Claremore, Oklahoma in the early '70s. He worked with my uncle that owned a music store there. I had just started playing the steel and his playing blew me away, and was part of the reason I got hooked on steel. He was playing a D10 that had been custom built, about the only thing I remember about it is that it had ball bearings on the pedal shafts, and it supposedly cost him $6000. He was probably there only about 6 months, I don't know where he went from there.
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Darvin Willhoite
MSA Millennium, Legend, and Studio Pro, Reese's restored Universal Direction guitar, as well as some older MSAs, several amps, new and old, and a Kemper Powerhead that I am really liking. Recently added a Zum D10, a Mullen RP, and a restored blue Rose, named the "Blue Bird" to the herd. Also, I have acquired and restored the plexiglass D10 MSA Classic again that was built as a demo in the early '70s. I also added a '74 lacquer P/P, with wood necks. |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 16 May 2021 8:18 pm
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I remember seeing a very cool Pedalsteel player at Scotty’s convention in maybe 1988 who did a ton of behind the bar finger pulls. I’m pretty sure he was a Native American. If there is a record of who played written down I’m sure I could figure out who he was.
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Bob |
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Dennis Lee
From:
Forest Grove, Oregon, USA
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Posted 17 May 2021 11:53 am Native American Steel Player
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My long time friend, Wilson Gillette, Lakota, living in Arizona for many years now. Plays a D10 Franklin.
I was his bass player when he was inducted into the North and South Dakota Music HOF back in 2012. First steel player I ever worked in a band with when he lived in Oregon. He has chops I only wish I had!
Love ya Brother Wil |
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Paul Pearson
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 17 May 2021 1:27 pm Native American
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| I am a member of poach band of creek Indians I do have a roll number I play southern gospel music |
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Marty Holmes
From:
Magnolia ,TX USA
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Posted 17 May 2021 7:15 pm
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| I think Jason Bolands steel player was native American though i cant remember his name. |
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Jeremiah Wade
From:
Bladenboro, NC
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Posted 18 May 2021 7:45 am
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My great grandmother was Cherokee from Oklahoma.Makes me 1/8 but I don't look anything like a Native American.
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I'd rather be pickin' |
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Joe Goldmark
From:
San Francisco, CA 94131
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J R Rose
From:
Keota, Oklahoma, USA
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Posted 19 May 2021 9:03 am
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My Great Grandmother was full blood Cherokee and came here on the Trail of Tears. Her name and my Grandmother's are in the Dawes Book with a Roll Number but they did not go back and resign so I am not able to get a number. Some political scheme. And to look at me you would never know I am part Cherokee. My Dad was a tall, slender man with cold black hair and dark brown skin. I took after my Mother, English/Irish. But I would like to get a roll number, I am Proud of that heritage. J.R. Rose
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NOTHING..Sold it all. J.R. Rose |
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Glenn Shankle
From:
Kyle, TX
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Posted 19 May 2021 4:48 pm
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| Marty Holmes wrote: |
| I think Jason Bolands steel player was native American though i cant remember his name. |
I think that was Roger Ray. |
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George Macdonald
From:
Vancouver Island BC Canada
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Posted 20 May 2021 7:54 am Native American Steel Players
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| I knew Mack Thomas when we lived in Orange County Calif. in the 70s. At that time Mack was playing a D11 ZB into a Standell amp. He was a terrific steel player, and was with a Gospel group at that time, [not the Thomas Family]. He introduced me to another Gospel group in the area that was looking for a steel player. Mack's younger brother John played drums in our group. I played with that group for almost 10 years and we made 5 albums over the years, before we moved back to Canada. By the way, Mack told me that he and his Family were Seminole. |
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Duane Brown
From:
Reno,Nevada USA
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Posted 20 May 2021 7:12 pm
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| I am a descendant (one of many) of the last Comanche war chief and the first US Congressman from Oklahoma Quanah Parker but so far removed that I could never own a casino. |
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John McClung
From:
Olympia WA, USA
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Posted 21 May 2021 11:18 am
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Duane: hello and how you doing? Sure loved your playing and getting to know you at our induction into the Northwest Western Swing Music Society Hall of Fame!
_________________
E9 INSTRUCTION
▪️ If you want to have an ongoing discussion, please email me, don't use the Forum messaging which I detest! steelguitarlessons@earthlink.net |
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Darrell Criswell
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 21 May 2021 11:56 am
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| Terry Wood wrote: |
| Yes my Good Jimmy Dreadfulwater is Cherokee and lives near Talequah Oklahoma. He is a Great entertainer. He plays Pedal Steel Guitar, Guitar and Fiddle. He also Sings quite well. I'm part Cherokee and there are others. Glad your playing Steel Guitar. I build GFI Steel Guitars too. If you decide on a Pedal Steel Guitar later I can help you locate one. Best regards! |
Jimmy Dreadfulwater is a great entertainer, he refuses to call himself "Native American" saying he is an Indian. He tells a lot of ethnic jokes about his ancestry. He also has a bass player often with him who can sing some great Ray Price songs. If you have a chance to hear him you are in for a treat. |
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Vic Lawson
From:
White House, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 21 May 2021 12:44 pm
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Just enough Choctaw to have a card!
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Rittenberry Steel Guitars, Eminence Speakers, Milkman Amplifiers, GHS strings,Lava Cables, |
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Wesley Medlen
From:
LaCygne,Ks
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Posted 21 May 2021 1:06 pm
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My great great grandfather was a full blood Choctaw if iremember right is supposed to be buried around Tallequaw his last name was Parker his son my great grand father was Clarence Parker from Ponca City Ok. I knew him well. SoI have a wee bit of native America in me. From my dad back thru my Grand dad Jesse Medlen and my grand mother Grace Parker all played music around Copn, Fewey and Coffeville, Ks but I am the first on steel. Wes
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Justice S10 Jr, Gibson Electra 6string, Boss Katana 100, Steelers Choice ,Gretsch 6 string lap, Hilton VP |
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