Yes, I admit it - This man is my major inspiration and I listen to his playing as often as I can. Besides his famous work with artists like Johnny Paycheck, Charley Pride, Gene Watson, Mel Street and Faron Young, he did beautiful records with artists like Bob Luman, Tommy Collins, Norma Jean, Darrell McCall, Roy Drusky, Vernon Oxford and,...Also, he played with singers who are almost unknown today (like (Weldon Rogers, Patsy Sledd, Skip Graves and Bunnie Mills). Listening to this "unknown" material, I always ask myself, how can somebody record thousands and thousands of songs and still come up with fresh new ideas that perfectly fit the singer and the song all the time? Amazing!
Lloyd estimates that he has been on app. 25,000 songs during his career! I guess I could spend the next 20 years or so listening and discovering new "Shades Of Green" every day- and never get tired of it!
Listen to the vocals and that is where most of the great ones get their ideas for the licks. Their ability to translate to the steel guitar is the gift that makes them all so enduring.
The REAL Lloyd Green- Even tho he has done all this "Musical" things, The other side of Lloyd is that he is truly a great person. He used to come in my store in Nashville and we have have had many great conversations. He is a quiet guy but, I believe one of the people that no one could question his reputation and has been the inspiration to many. Where would Steel be today had ther been no Lloyd??ED Naylor Steel Guitar Works.
He's not only a great person and a legendary player, he also has this wealth of information about the instrument and especially the recording history of the 1960's and 1970's that he is always willing to provide.
I remember two or three years ago at the ISGC he did a presentation for Peavey in their room on Saturady morning which turned out to be a real memorable hour of Lloyd telling stories, answering questions about his tuning and his amp set-up and, of course, playing and explaining some of his favorite solos and licks. I guess it made the Peavey guys a little bit nervous, because the first hour was spent that way, without any explicit mentioning of Peavey (I think finally everybody was happy!).
Among all the great memories from the ISGC, this is one of my favorites!
Loyd Green was my idol, and still is. I'll never forget the first instruction course I orderd was 3 instrumentals by Loyd.
" Summer Clouds"- my favorite
" San Antonio Rose" and
" Steelin Away"
The thing I find most intriguing about Lloyd Green is this: Thro' my many years of playing steel, I've managed to swipe a lick from this artist or that one. I've managed to play some Issacs, West, Robinson, H.White,
J.Byrd tunes note for not and sound, tone-wise, reasonably close to the original but when it comes to Lloyd Green, I've not been able to reproduce ANYTHING that even "sounds" close to what Mr. Green might do. I don't understand WHAT IT IS. And yet, Sarah Jory and that fine steel player from Canada and the old Tommy Hunter Show ( I sincerely apologize for not being able to recall his name at this moment)....both have Lloyd Green sprinkled throughout their playing.
WHAT makes Lloyd so difficult for some of us to decypher? I'd love to play a single lick by Green that SOUNDS like him. OH well.
$36 for just the "Tom Cattin" tab??!!WOW!
opps!, spoke before my brain was engaged. that's for a bunch of tabs.
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Terry Sneed on 14 March 2004 at 08:26 AM.]</p></FONT>
Years ago I had a fine country-rock album Lloyd played on called "Callico". Very nice classic L.G. all over it. One song had this beautiful ascending run that just really grabbed my ear- just fit the song so perfectly and sounded so hip- I got my guitar out to try to figure out what he was doing, and lo and behold, it was just a straight major scale, albeit out of a different position than I was used to. I learned more from that one surprise than most of the other lick-stealing I've ever done. Still use that idea all the time.
What about Lloyd "the composer"? All of those great up-tempo songs, and the many beautiful slow ones...I find myself imagining what the lyrics would be to some of those ballads!
That actually happened. Lloyd wrote a beautiful tune called "Blue Bonnet Spring" and recorded it on the "Reflections" CD (the one he recorded in Germany.
Junior Brown put words to the melody and recorded the song as "Our First Bluebonnet Spring" on the CD "Mixed Bag".
Check out Lloyd's work with Nancy Griffiths - I was just listening to her "Little Love Affairs" album, which is a wonderful record for all kinds of reasons, but Lloyd makes it really special.
