Curly Chalker

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 12 Sep 2004 3:44 pm

Speaking of finding someone who can play that "gutting" Chalker style.....have you heard David Wright play?

www.genejones.com

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 12 Sep 2004 4:39 pm

I have some of the Chalker stuff on cassetes, and like it a lot, though nothing recorded could ever touch what I experienced sitting close up and catching him live. From what Herb says, it sounds like, as Ricky L suggested, San Antone was the wrong thing to listen to to get a sense of who and what Curly was. I do know this - for three nights in a row in the late seventies I sat transfixed by what he was doing at the Best Western Hall of Fame Inn in Nashville - that was relatively early in my steel-playing days, and I and just never heard or seen anything like what Curly did those three magic nights.

Gary Walker · Post by **Gary Walker** » 12 Sep 2004 10:04 pm

Curly and Buddy was also sharing solo work on a couple of Marcel Dadi's guitar instrumental projects. I think the engineer also had a hard time balancing the two steels because of their different styles and approach to studio work, but it was still great to hear these two doing their thing.

Terry Bethel · Post by **Terry Bethel** » 13 Sep 2004 6:26 am

I met Curly in the early 60's. I was working in Minneapolis, MN at the Flame Cafe. Curly was in town working with Hank Penney. He was a friend of Leon Boulanger, the man I was working for, they had worked together on different bands in the past. He came backstage and asked how I had the pedals arranged on my Fender 1000. When I told him he laughed and said "Don't do it that way,do it this way and you will have a lot better success at playing".
Well, I did, and you know what? I have had more success. To this day, I still have some of the pedals arranged the way he told me.
Curly was the ultimate "CHORD" player that I have ever heard play, not just steel but I am talking everybody that plays "CHORDS".
His voicings were incredible, considering the instrument he played. The steel guitar is the most beautiful sounding instrument in the world, (MY OPINION), but it also the most left footed, contankerous, tempermental,
and frustrating instrument I have ever sat down behind, (ON A BAD DAY THAT IS).
Other than that I love the darn thing.
Thank's "MR. CURLY CHALKER", for helping us wanna be's play as well as we do.
Terry Bethel

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 13 Sep 2004 6:28 am

Someone in another recent post said that Curly hated his work on Nashville Sundown. He showed up for the session prepared to play C6 as usual. But they made him switch to E9, which he was rarely playing at that time. His spur of the moment stuff on E9 for that session was very unsatisfying for him. I haven't heard that one, but out of respect for him, maybe I'll skip it.

Jim Phelps · Post by **Jim Phelps** » 13 Sep 2004 8:20 am

.[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 17 November 2004 at 09:40 PM.]

John McGann · Post by **John McGann** » 13 Sep 2004 10:19 am

Jim, I'm not surprised to hear that- I think it is pretty difficult to have that kind of command of harmony/chord structure without understanding the construction. I'm not surprised to hear that he knew exactly where he was at any given moment.

I hope to learn the necks half as well as Curly in my lifetime!

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Rick Schmidt · Post by **Rick Schmidt** » 13 Sep 2004 12:26 pm

I too am a big fan of Curly's! I think his harmonic approach was really ground breaking and way ahead of his time. I have to admit though, that to my taste his timing was sometimes almost a little too much "on top" of the beat. It almost seemed, in a similar way to Julian's, that he was trying to cram too much stuff into alot of his solos (...albeit GREAT stuff!!!) On the Home in San Antone cut, I felt it was Buddy's relaxed-yet-smoking touch that seemed to work the best. Yet still as an aspiring C6 player, I enjoy listening to Curly probably as much or more than anybody!

I highly suggest the live video that Mike P. recorded!!! It gives a very good idea what a great live player Curly was.

mickd · Post by **mickd** » 13 Sep 2004 1:56 pm

a bit off-topic, but does anyone know who the great vocalist is on the 'sweet dreams' clip ?
(I'm pretty sure it's not Patsy Cline..)[This message was edited by mickd on 13 September 2004 at 02:59 PM.]

Jim Phelps · Post by **Jim Phelps** » 13 Sep 2004 2:04 pm

.[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 17 November 2004 at 09:40 PM.]

John P. Phillips · Post by **John P. Phillips** » 13 Sep 2004 6:39 pm

Speaking of Curly's wife wouldn't it be neat to get her or some of his family here on the forum to give us some of their recollections of Curly ? Why doesn't someone start a thread of Curly stories or legends. I can't read enough about him. Jim, you certainly could supply a few I'm sure. How bout it guys ?

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JUST 'CAUSE I STEEL, DON'T MAKE ME A THIEF www.geocities.com/squire592001/jason.html

[This message was edited by John P.Phillips on 13 September 2004 at 07:40 PM.]

Gene H. Brown · Post by **Gene H. Brown** » 17 Sep 2004 3:24 pm

I could be wrong, but isn't that Curly Chalker on the later cut of Ray Price doing "Crazy Arms" with the single string kickoff with violins and also on the same album "Tonight I'm Going Out And Burn Some Bridges?
It didn't sound like anything Buddy would do, and if I'm mistaken, I'm sorry Buddy, it was sure beautiful and tasty no matter who did it.
It just had that Chalker flavor to it.
Gene

Gary Walker · Post by **Gary Walker** » 17 Sep 2004 9:06 pm

Curly did the Ray Price "For The Good Times" project in the early 70s.

Craig A Davidson · Post by **Craig A Davidson** » 18 Sep 2004 3:34 am

If you can find it an album with Dick Curless on it working the Wheeling West Virginia Trucker Jam has some killer Curly. That is the album where Curly plays this cool solo in Outskirts Of Town. Curless gets so involved in the solo that he loses his place and has to start over. He even credits Curly with knocking him out with the solo.

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1985 Emmons push-pull,Evans SE200,Hilton pedal

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 18 Sep 2004 7:19 am

Curly Chalker was a Real Musician, who happened to play great Guitar nd Pedal Steel Guitar, in his own way and his own style

Gene-Yes, I heard David Wright and you are right, he sure does sound a lot like Curly.

Doug-You already play very fine C6 and asked for advice and I would leave that D on the first string, (or the G, whichever is preferred.)

I like the D as it expands my chord structure. I use it a lot with P5 gives the Root D for the D7-9,and for diminshed runs with P5 and P6.

I use 4 picks and my grips skip the E 2nd string, for this. Try every 3 frets either way on the fretboard.....

I have a few of Curly's albums, but wish I had them all...........al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Charles Curtis · Post by **Charles Curtis** » 18 Sep 2004 9:21 am

Al, do you think that someday, someone will put out a "boxed" set of Curly's and Julian's recordings? Wouldn't that be neat?

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 18 Sep 2004 10:53 am

Charles-That would be great and a wonderful idea! .................al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 19 Sep 2004 1:06 pm

Curly is on the RFD broadcast of the Wilburn Brothers show this week. Plays one instrumental, two solos and one pantomine solo (mimicking the canned soundtrack from someone else's recording). Tone is awesome. Have never seen him play like this before. The first solo he took had a lot of chromatics and Lloyd Green style on it. THe second solo he got way up on the 24th fret and quivered the bar a lot like Hughey. His instrumental was pretty much all Chalker tone. What a treat to see the E9th neck on the back.

On another note, there are 3 of his recordings with Carl Smith including "I Love You Because" out on the newsgroups in MP3's right now. I mention this because these are rare recording, out of print, and I'm not sure even the used vinyl sellers have them anymore.

Greg

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 19 Sep 2004 1:57 pm

Greg, which newsgroup has his MP3's? I just did a Google newsgroup search and didn't find them.

T. C. Furlong · Post by **T. C. Furlong** » 20 Sep 2004 4:54 pm

In 1976, I was lucky enough to be present at what may have been one of the last Curly Chalker recordings to be released. In Chicago at PS Studios, Four Giants of Swing, Curly Chalker, Eldon Shamblin, Joe Venuti and Jethro Burns recorded an album in one evening and one day called Swonderful. The musicians all flew in (except Jethro who lived in Evanston, IL)and set up to record. That evening, the studio had a bad sounding Twin Reverb with almost-blown speakers for Mr. Chalker to use. He hated the sound of this amp and out of frustration, reached for his flask one too many times. The result was, let's say... "not up to his usual level of brilliance". I witnessed this and asked him if he'd like to use my Session 400 the next day. He was delighted to hear that a decent amp was coming. He was also very gracious and a real gentleman about the whole bad Twin thing. The next morning, I did bring him my amp and he played the most beautiful solos on day two. Later on, Mr. Chalker's solos from the first night were erased and Jethro Burns overdubbed electric guitar solos that I am sure many thought was Eldon Shamblin. In fact, Eldon only played one solo on that record and it was just great. If you listen closely, you can hear the bleed of steel that was once there.

I am still so grateful that I was invited to be there when this superb group of masters recorded this historic musical meeting....thanks to the vision of Bruce Kaplan at Flying Fish Records. I think it's available at MP3.com

TC Furlong

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 20 Sep 2004 5:45 pm

T.C.

I listened to this recording a few weeks ago and thought that it was just a decent representation of CC and wondered what the deal was. Now I understand more about it and know why. Thanks.

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 20 Sep 2004 9:01 pm

Several of the classic Carl Smith tracks with Curly ARE available on CD, the CD is called: "The 60's Hits of Carl Smith", on Collector's Choice Music, which is part of Sony Music Special Products. I got mine at Ernest Tubb's Record Shop here in town but it shouldn't be hard to find online. It includes "I Love You Because"; "Good Deal Lucille"; "Pull My String and Wind Me up"... They all have classic Chalker, with solos, not just fills.

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 21 Sep 2004 4:14 am

Thanks for the tip Pete! I just ordered my copy from Amazon where there's a lot of new and used copies of this for well below retail. I hope some of these also have the cuts Carl made with Jim Murphy.

Greg

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 22 Sep 2004 8:20 pm

A Cd version of the combined "Big Hits on Big Steel/Counterpoint" that Tom Bradshaw put out on LP years ago sure would be welcome!