Jerry Garcia & Steel guitar

Jim Ives · Post by **Jim Ives** » 17 Jul 2006 1:03 pm

When I saw the Dead at a small venue (maybe 400 people in attendance)in Colorado Springs during the summer of '69, Jerry was playing pedal steel. At first I thought it was organ because it had foot pedals, and I had never seen a PSG. The first set was dedicated to Brian Jones (from the Stones) who had just died, and it was a country set. After that set I asked Jerry what he was playing, and he told me. I heard real country music for the first time that summer(I was from New York after all) and then I put 2+2 together, and have been a PSG fan ever since.
-Jim

[This message was edited by Jim Ives on 17 July 2006 at 02:04 PM.]

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 17 Jul 2006 2:05 pm

McCloskey hit it. Garcia was a musician, pure and simple. No, he was no Tony Rice on acoustic, but his acoustic playng had weight behind every note. He was no Buddy Emmons, but he had some great ideas, didn't he? Not a great banjo player, but adequate---In short, Garcia was a musician, an artist, and the instrument just a method of expression. He expressed himself better on some instruments than others, but it's still expression.

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 17 Jul 2006 3:15 pm

Mike Perlowin wrote:

"My problem is with those who rank him as the world's greatest steel player, ranking him above Buddy, Lloyd, Paul Franklin and all the other greats.
This subject came up in a guitar forum..."

So this just hit me now-Mike, since you are a long time Forum member, is this the reason all these Garcia threads keep rising from the dead like Lazarus? Was this the original seed that was planted, because since I have been here, you have posted that info 2 or 3 times. That there is some underlying current around here that SOMEBODY thinks that Jerry was the best PSG player, but in fact it is no one here on the Forum with any reasonable amount of knowledge of the steel guitar and its players that would ever say something so absurd.

It may have been a few misguided Deadheads that felt this way...so why even bother to give them credit for having an opinion that matters?

Let's go for a sports analogy, since I really like to use them:

I have been a baseball fan most of my life, and once you get past the high dollars and steroids, it is still a beautiful game-but there are plenty of folks that just don't "get it" and they liken it to watching paint dry. I gave up on trying to convert them a long time ago-now I just blow them off. They've never delved into it below the obvious surface stuff, to be able to understand the nuances of the game.

It is the same sort of thing with misinfomed Deadheads that hold Jerry up as the steel king. And I'm a long time Deadhead myself!

Why bother to give that kind of ignorance on some other guitar forum the time of day when the purveyors of those thoughts are so obviously out to lunch!

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Mark
[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 17 July 2006 at 05:47 PM.]

Jim Eaton · Post by **Jim Eaton** » 17 Jul 2006 3:35 pm

I believe the whole flap about JG being the "best" steel player came about due to the "readers poll awards" in Guitar Player mag. Buddy won it hands down for the 1st 5 years it was done and then he was no longer in the voting, being a 5 time winner.
So the GP readers then started to vote for Jerry, since he was probably the only other steel player they knew of, "TYC" happened right about that same timeframe, so there ya go! IMHO
JE:-)>

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 17 Jul 2006 4:42 pm

Oh yeah, I forgot about that whole Guitar Player Magazine thing...

I still want to blame it on Perlowin though!

Another baseball analogy: Years ago, when they brought back the voting for naming the starting players in the all-star game, I knew it was a good idea for getting the people involved-but a bad idea as far as who deserved to be on the respective teams. Fans would go to the ballpark and stuff 20 ballots into the box with the names of their hometown favorites. Some guy hitting .245 with 10 home runs would beat out some up and comer young star from another team at the same position, who deserved it because he was hitting .325 with 20 home runs.

Any time the general public votes in these kinds of contests you have to take it with a grain of salt.

As far as Garcia winning in Guitar Player, it's like you say "Cousin" Jim-Buddy was retired after 5, and a lot of folks probably didn't know the names of any other steel players.

Doesn't diminish Garcia in my mind, I will always be a dyed-in-the-wool Jerry fan.

Of course the thing to remember Jim, is that the Guitar Player mag incident(s) happend a long time ago-there has been a whole new generation of younger Deadheads that probably got Perlowin's goat on that guitar forum-and most of them were probably in diapers or not even born when TYC was released.

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Mark
[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 17 July 2006 at 05:46 PM.][This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 17 July 2006 at 05:49 PM.]

Jim Eaton · Post by **Jim Eaton** » 17 Jul 2006 5:16 pm

Might as well throw a litte "Mad Maxx" in here for spice. "the young ones only know what they learn in the tellin's". The best thing that I like about Jerrys playing, both Steel,Banjo and 6stg was it was always from the heart. Isn't that best?
JE:-)>

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Emmons D10PP 8/4 -75'
Emmons SD-12PP 3/4
Zum SD-12 5/5 - 91'
76'Session 400
86'Nashville 400
06'Nashville 112 x 2

[This message was edited by Jim Eaton on 17 July 2006 at 06:17 PM.]

Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 18 Jul 2006 12:50 pm

I can't believe this sort of thread keeps on popping up either, and I'm a longtime
Garcia affcianado as well. Wel, it isn't us afficianados who keep bringing up the subject! We just like to get the last word.

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 18 Jul 2006 2:27 pm

I have to make a correction about the "Guitar Player" magazine thing. To the best of my memory, Rusty Young was the first five-time winner for steel guitar. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Mike Winter · Post by **Mike Winter** » 18 Jul 2006 4:53 pm

I would just like to say thank you to all concerned...this is a rare "Jerry" post in that it has remained civil...no weird tangents or flames, etc. Kind of nice.

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Mike
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Blue Moon Highway
(Country Music...and then some.)
www.bluemoonhighway.com

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 18 Jul 2006 4:59 pm

Hold your horses, Mike; we're not done yet...

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 18 Jul 2006 5:13 pm

Looks like Bob Weir still likes Pedal Steel. http://www.headsallempty.org/gallery/mf06/DSC_0315

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 18 Jul 2006 6:02 pm

Here's a cool story on Bobby's tele.

Brad
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/21/PKGND5LCDD1.DTL

Joe Shelby · Post by **Joe Shelby** » 19 Jul 2006 9:22 pm

Brad--
(Not to hijack this thread); I played steel
with Lawrence Hammond (and the Whiplash Band)
from 1976 to the end of 1977.
James Louis Parber was in the band before I came along, and remained until the end. He was a wonderful Tele player who loved Robbie
Robertson, James Burton, Albert Lee, Amos
Garrett, and Roy Nichols. He had elements of
all those guys' sounds in his playing, but
ultimately was his own man. He was humble,
soft spoken, and commonly would be up on stage 45 minutes before everyone else, loosening up. He didn't leave much recorded
work behind (other than the first band album,
Coyotes's Dream). After the Whiplash Band broke up, he worked with Billy C. Farlow (Commander Cody and the LPA) for a year or two, and then he contracted spinal cancer.
I don't think Bobby Weir ever heard James pick, but I don't think it would be a stretch
to say that (if he had) playing that '56 Tele would have been pretty spooky for him...

Joe.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 19 Jul 2006 11:30 pm

Why did Jerry quit playing steel after 1972?

I read that Jerry quit playing pedal steel shortly after the release of his 1972 album GARCIA, which included the steel soaked tune "The Wheel". Does anyone know if this is true?

He played PSG on American Beauty (1970), but no other Dead albums, according to the discography sites I’ve read. Two other PSG players played on later Dead cuts.
Jerry played on the first NRPS album (1971), and of course on CSNY’s Teach Your Children (Déjà vu, 1970).

So Jerry didn’t play steel (or didn’t record anyway) from 1972 until his death in 1995? I wonder why?

This site has a MIDI file of the steel parts for Teach Your Children! No melody, just the pedal steel parts playing to a track.

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My Site | My SteelTab

[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 20 July 2006 at 12:37 AM.]

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 20 Jul 2006 3:47 am

"The only Robert Weir I know plays guitar for the Grateful Dead," the colonel replied.

If a Hollywood screenwriter had come up with that folks would say it was too schmaltzy to be believable. What a great story. Thanks for that link, Brad.

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 20 Jul 2006 6:57 am

Doug,
See this link for an interview with JG that has some steel content: http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum15/HTML/011733.html

He played steel on at least 17 alblums on the discogrophies I'm finding. He also played steel on stage much later than '72, including the Dylan & The Dead tours.
Fun Stuff! Ya just gotta search it out.
Pete B.

Dave Lounsbury · Post by **Dave Lounsbury** » 21 Jul 2006 8:44 am

In the summer of 76 0r 77 I saw Garcia one night , buddy cage the next and the real treat was Joe Goldmark at some bucket of blood a few days later. needless to say I bought my first steel ( S10 ZB ) from a pawn shop in hayward.