Midnight Rider Steeler? & Gatemouth Brown

Rich Paton · Post by **Rich Paton** » 1 May 2000 2:39 pm

Just heard "Midnight Rider" by the Allman Bros., from the album "Idylwild South".
There was a lot of great steel on it, or else Duane faked rhe sound impeccably. Did he play some PSG also?

I also heard one by "Gate" last week, & he completely ripped it up on the steel. The best SemiTractor sound I've heard. It felt like an 18 wheeler ran right over me doing '95! Is there an instrument he DOESN'T play with total mastery? Geeze!

Mike Dennis · Post by **Mike Dennis** » 2 May 2000 7:02 pm

Midnight Rider...

More then likely that was Duane Allman performing on the bottle neck slide guitar...

Duane was responsible for a lot of the Allman's arrangements... a real sign of his musical genius... and at such an early age.

This is also true when he came in to save the failing Dereck and The Dominos recording sessions...

Clapton was having a hard time getting the album off the ground... the sessions were going no where. After Duane was invited to join... and after a few session rehearsals which kicked some energy back into the group... the album was pretty much recorded live on the spot and the songs where put on record in the order they were recorded.

The rest is history...

One can only imagine... if Duane hadn't died so young, would he have gravitated toward the steel guitar? I'm sure the notes would have been sweet and original.

Mike Dennis
www.geocities.com/lstrings

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Mike Dennis on 02 May 2000 at 08:05 PM.]</p></FONT>

Mike Tatro · Post by **Mike Tatro** » 3 May 2000 6:48 am

I'm pretty sure that it's a "B-Bender" tele or something similar on that solo.

I've tried learning that solo a number of different ways... steel... slide... you name it.

If you listen, the bent notes are only on the b-string.

Mike Dennis · Post by **Mike Dennis** » 3 May 2000 10:50 am

High up on the neck...

One of Duane's riffs was to lie his pinky across the E & B string...pluck back on both strings while the third finger would bend the note 1 fret down on the 3rd string...

then on the 3 & 4 string, alternated the 1st finger two frets down on the 3rd string with his third finger back two frets up on the forth string... the whole time still playing the notes at his pinky possition ... laid across the 1st and 2nd strings and bending the third string when returning to that possition.

A very pedal steel guitar type of sound.

It's one of the first Duane riffs I had to learn... because that sound is great for playing country rock guitar.

Olli Haavisto · Post by **Olli Haavisto** » 3 May 2000 11:17 pm

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown`s CD "The Man "(`94) has Tommy Moran playing PSG.A great album,BTW.

------------------
Olli Haavisto
Polar steeler
Finland

Mike Tatro · Post by **Mike Tatro** » 4 May 2000 7:05 am

Mike, I guess you and will have to disagree on that one...

The bend you describe is well-known to me, it just doesn't sound like the lick on Midnight Rider. To my ears, there's clearly only too strings involved and the only way I could get it to sound right was by bending the B string, not the G string.

I've been wrong before, so I could be again, but it sure sounds like a B-bender to me. Also, there's no way (IMHO) that a Les Paul or SG is being used on that solo.

Mike Dennis · Post by **Mike Dennis** » 4 May 2000 3:14 pm

It's a great song isn't it... ?

One of my favs..

I'm going to have to pull it out and give it a listen again...

Rich Paton · Post by **Rich Paton** » 6 May 2000 4:09 pm

Thanks! Duane really fooled my ears!
Gatemouth is awesome.
If the Steeler you mentioned played what I heard, he is awesome too!