Larry King
From:
Watts, Oklahoma, USA
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Posted 12 Jun 2022 7:33 pm |
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I'll try to condense this article as much as I can, seeing
as to the length of our friendship . I've known him since
'86 or '87....I first met him at the TSGA show when it was
held at the Holiday Inn on Stemmons where he was a main stage
performer . Even then you could tell how much of a finesse
player he was going to be.
At that time he was living in Garland, but moved,
probably in
the early '90's to Branson. I do know that he and Deana just
had their 30 yr anniversary...they took a well deserved trip
to Europe . Their family consists of 4 daughters . We were
sitting in Shoney's when their first announced that it was
time to discover America. All the girls have very successful
careers and possess the beauty as well as the brains that aided
them to be that way
In Branson Steve got involved in real estate as a property
developer and home builder and he continues in that since he
moved to Bentonville Ar . It was when he was in Branson that
he did his first dates with {drum roll please} the often
imitated but never equaled Ray Price for a series of dates in
Reno Nv. Balancing between real estate and music , he played
steel for Pam Tillis , Larry Gatlin, and Moe Bandy . While he
worked for Moe , they backed up Johnny Rodrigues, Janie Fricke ,
T G Sheppard and many more. The Moe job lasted for 4 yrs and
he played the Opry several times with him.
Many of the dates were in Texas and we took several trips there,
first to Quihi where we forged a friend ship with Roger Edgington.
In 2005 we attended a huge Cowboy weekend where we saw Billy Mata,
Leon Rausch with Tom Morrell, Bobby Flores with Randy Reinhart, Jake
Hooker with Dickey Overby, Justin Trevino with Jim Loes named sburg...a total
immersion into 4/4 shuffles . We saw royalty. The years of '99 & 2001,
we played my favorite gig at Cowskin Prairie in Grove Ok...favorite
because the owner only wanted shuffles. It was at Cowskin that we
played a New Year show and had Jenee Keener with us....you probably
know her as Jenee Fleenor , fiddle player deluxe , and in recent years
named Musician Of The Year by the CMA and holds the distinction of
being the only female ever to receive that honor . Man we put out some
MUSIC that night . With John Terry on fiddle and vocals and Rick Jenkins
on lead, Steve on steel...oh my goodness that was fun . Later on when
other things demanded Steve's time , we were blessed to have an incredible
player , John Buffington.
A devoted family man....his wife Deana is back to teaching af6er taking
a sabbatical to raise the four girls. Steve has played shows in Oklahoma
Texas, Branson and many regional shows for smaller clubs. Speaking of Texas,
there's a foursome that have attended the TSGA shows for several years.
I'm going to ask you to remember that date of 2005...it will resurface in
the next interview that features a teenage phenom named Jack Phillips .
Steve will have a Zum at the OSGA Annual Steel Show on Jun 24 & 25 in
Jenks Ok which is being held at St James Presbyterian located on So.Elm
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Larry King
479-220-9443 |
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