They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well here it is. In the August issue of Guitar Player, p. 110, there is an article titled "Twang Guru Jim Campilongo: Stealing from the Steelers." He says:
<SMALL>Sometimes when I'm faced with a standard jazz-blues progression, I like to spice things up by asking myself, "How would a great pedal-steel player like Buddy Emmons or 'Curly' Chalker approach these changes?" When I do, I usually come up with steel-inspired voicings that involve tangy 1st-finger bends on the third string - bends that help me emulate the greasy chime of a pedal steel.</SMALL>
He goes on to describe how he uses a flat pick and the nails of his middle and ring fingers to pick triads, steeler style. It's complete with a couple of tab examples.
So top 6-stringers take licks from wherever they can find them. But some steelers complain that Robert Randolph is just duplicating standard guitar licks. Seems like a different mindset.
Location: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
State/Province: Pennsylvania
Country: United States
Postby Dave Mudgett »
This is pretty standard for a lot of guitar players, particularly playing more countrified styles. I've used a flatpick and two fingerpicks (Middle, Ring) for a long time, and copping steel licks is a long guitarist tradition. Guitar Player wrote similar things back in the early 70s when they discovered Roy Buchanan, and there's James Burton, Roy Nichols and many others back then also.
I agree that RR does a lot of standard guitar licks. It's not my approach (why would I want to - I'm a long-time guitar player), but there's nothing wrong with that to me either. It's about music, eh?
I had to overdub my lap steel to get those pulls, I just love that sound
So I bought a pedal steel.
Every guy on this forum can feel flattered.
It's inspirational.
I used to go watch Danny Gatton play nifty steel guitar riffs on his telecaster that I could only dream of on my ShoBud.
I also remember a guitar player (but unfortunately not his name) who was a regular at a bar in Billerica, Mass. in the early 1970's that played a Mosrite six-string with a whammy bar and a volume pedal who never sounded like anything else BUT a pedal steel guitar.
One of the best examples of this was a guy I saw in a bar on Broadway in Nashville around 1973 - I didn't catch his name - who never bent a string all night. He did it all with chord voicings,fingerpicking,a volume pedal and a Gibson 345. He sounded like Chaulker playing deep C6 chord solos to songs most steel players would play on E9. -MJ-
It's equally cool when steel players play horn lines or piano-style comping as part of their overall bag of tricks. Tasteful, tasteful -- that's always the hardest part.
Location: Bawl'mer, MD (formerly of MS, Nawluns, Gnashville, Knocksville, Lost Angeles, Bahsten. and Philly)
State/Province: -
Country: United States
Postby David Doggett »
Michael, unless there were two of those guys playing in bars around Nashville in the early '70s, I think I played with that guy once or twice. Seems like his name was Chuck. Bald-headed, and I think he was missing a lefthand finger. At the time, he played better steel licks than I did.
When I only played six-string I used to buy entire books, and memorize all those articles about "How to Play Steel Licks on your Guitar." You can get some things happening - it's a moving voice, or two, against a fixed voice or two, duh - but I still had to buy a pedal steel. The noises in my head just aren't there on a regular guitar, I wish I could play them on a kazoo so I wouldn't have to spend all this damn money. Now I that I have a steel, I spend all my time trying to play violin and sitar licks - duh.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by David Mason on 02 August 2005 at 04:19 AM.]</p></FONT>
A quick Forum search for "Forest Rogers" did not return anything. There is a short segment where a PSG player demonstrates some typical bending sounds, then Forest shows you 30+ licks on 6-string. There is a lot of string bending and volume swells of course, but also some nice chord analysis. Some of the licks sound a LOT like a pedal steel, most of them are not very easy and would take a lot of work to make them sound that good.
He plays them slow but, some of the riffs were tough to get by ear and rewinding VHS is not as easy as DVD. The video is good but, if you were really going to learn the licks the video would make you want the companion book.
Trying to get PSG sounds on 6-string crossed my mind when our own DVA bought a tele a while back... It seems a lot of the best country guitar players are trying just as hard as they can to imitate pedal steel.
I love the 1970 Byrds shows with Clarence White doing "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" songs made great by Lloyd Green, but I REALLY love “All we have are memories”, the instrumental bonus track on the “Sweetheart” CD re-release which has Clarence White and Lloyd Green playing together and trading licks!
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by John Lockney on 02 August 2005 at 08:07 AM.]</p></FONT>
Michael, that sounds like Danny Holder. He did a stint in LA for a while and then moved from there to Nashville I'm told. He played a 345 with six (6) Keith/Scruggs pegs on it and used a Thumbpick and 4 fingerpicks. He played Chalker stuff you wouldn't believe. I believe that 345 he got from Al Bruno....JH in Va.
any way i think about it, i can't derive a good connotation out of "greasy." but then i have trouble with "sick" and "bad" being something good. oh well, i'm old.
In the later years I actually developed some kind of PSG style on my electric guitars as well.
I use the whammy a lot for this, and incidentally my tele-type homebuilt has some kind of A-B change on the G and B string when pulled out fully. It's not so clean that you can actually make a chord with it, but it's enough for fast licks.
Location: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
State/Province: Pennsylvania
Country: United States
Postby Dave Mudgett »
I think it's clear from the context of Jim's statement, 'greasy' is high praise, far from an insult.
This term is used often in rootsier styles of music. For example, when applied to blues, it generally implies tasty, soulful and authentic, perhaps with some appropriate imperfection, or should I say, 'lack of sterile perfection'. Here, he seems to be redefining its use more in an analogy of spicy, tasty, non-health food.
I can't remember his name, but in the late '70's to early '80's there was a guitarist who played with Mickey Gilley that absolutley knocked my socks off. I remember closing my eyes and thinking that there was an incredible steel player onstage, then opening them and seeing only this player just getting everything out of his Telecaster that he could......
That's it,Dave!I've never heard it used as an insult where music was concerned...Michael,I'll bet that guitar player with Mickey was Rocky Stone...I think he is deceased.
When Jack Daniels had the group "Silver Creek" in the seventies, Hag produced an album of them. If you ever hear "Rainbows all over your Blues" from the album you'll think you're hearing a psg. There were no gimmicks, just fingers and talent.
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Howard, 'Les Paul Recording, Zum S12U, Vegas 400, Boss ME-5, Boss DM-3, DD-3, Sierra Session D-10 http://www.Charmedmusic.com
In terms of guitar players doing pedal steel licks, I can't complain, since I usually steal the guitar parts even more blatently. Speaking of Jack Daniels, I never heard him play any steel lick that wasn't perfectly tasty (if not downright greasy).
Let's not forget the late great Phil Baugh with his MSA pedal setup on his guitar. He sure could pull some great steel licks and chords on his six stringer.
