Country singers who hate steel guitar!

[Paul Strojan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSDK_XGjGRE Bagpipes, steel guitar and Glen Campbell.

[b0b]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSDK_XGjGRE Bagpipes, steel guitar and Glen Campbell.

OMG!

[Dave Hopping]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSDK_XGjGRE Bagpipes, steel guitar and Glen Campbell.

What???? No banjo???

[Fred Treece]

That was great!

[Roger Rettig]

Goodness! What a gem!!!

[Joe Krumel]

Speechless...........

[Bobby Nelson]

bOb wrote:

A well tuned steel guitar works well with other modern instruments. Bagpipes do not.

You got me there Bob - good call. Very interesting about their tuning though.

[Bobby Nelson]

Dang Paul! Hahaha!I wouldn't have bet you in a thousand years that anyone could've found steel guitar and bagpipes in the same clip in rebuttal to my post haha!Or that it would actually sound good!

[Fred Treece]

Fred: Strictly speaking, isn't 'Adios' Glen's last album? Regardless of semantics I recommend 'Adios' to everyone - Glen's voice works its magic as always, there are a number of little-known Jimmy Webb compositions and Mike Johnson's excellent steel playing is heard throughout..

I stand corrected.

[Michael Douchette]

The thing I don’t like about STEEL GUITAR is,

THESE STEEL PLAYERS SLIDE FROM A BAD NOTE TO A GOOD ONE.

Or from a bad note to another bad note.

[David Zornes]

Back in his "Heyday" (and to this day for that matter), Kenny Rogers' singing and records make MY skin crawl... A 3 min. waste of Country Radio air time when a good song could have been playing IMHO. Of course, I was spoiled playing for Gene Watson who LOVED pedal steel guitar. Many other great artists liked the steel guitar also and like Steve Hinson said, it showed as they had one in their band.

IMHO, it was Pete’s masterful touch on Kenny Roger’s “While The Feeling’s Good.” that made the song tolerable.

[Tiny Olson]

I agree with you completely David. The songs of Kenny's I refer to are the ones he released after he stopped using Pete on the sessions... the "pop, alleged country" stuff he did. Plus, I'd met Pete Drake several times (recorded in his studio, "Pete's Place") and liked him very much. I respected him for his incredible career and he was a good guy. I find Kenny's statements about Pete offensive.

IMHO, Kenny rode the heels of Dottie West into country music via their duets. Pete was all over those hit, duet records.

[Larry Welter]

in the mid 1980,s hank jr played our local fair here on a sunday afternoon,,i was in the audience with lots of kids and blue haired grannies,,hank stumbles out I guess drunk,,started singing "if you don,t like hank Williams you can kiss my ass' wow,,what a jerk,,he said in a interview once that by age 16 he had already mastered the guitar,,,really? but I do love his song whiskey bent,,,,,

[Gary Spaeth]

The thing I don’t like about STEEL GUITAR is,

THESE STEEL PLAYERS SLIDE FROM A BAD NOTE TO A GOOD ONE.

Or from a bad note to another bad note.

or pumping the volume pedal like an old fashioned pump organ

[Chris Bauer]

I was in an 'inherited' band on my last artist gig and six months in, management told me he actually hates steel guitar. The upside? There's not lick one of steel on any of his songs and so I got to make up parts all night long. I saw that as a major perk.

[Glenn Suchan]

Wasn`t it Chet Atkins who produced "Oh Lonesome Me" by Don Gibson, leaving out the steel so it would appeal to a cross over more popular audience?

Chet was a great guitar player but I'm not a fan of his work as a producer. Apart from slapping schmalzy strings over everything, he was also responsible for the mandolin disappearing from later Louvin Brothers records.

I heard it was Ken Nelson from Capitol Records who made the remark about mandolin being too "old-fashioned" that kept Ira from playing it after that.

Scott, I don't know anything about that anecdote, but the story doesn't sound like something Ken Nelson would do. Ken took the approach with recording sessions of allowing the artist a lot of room for self expression and pretty much just gave suggestions of how to successfully accomplish what the artist wanted.

Your story might actually be about Ken's close friend, Lee Gilette who was a producer and A&R director for Capitol Records.

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

[scott murray]

found this quote from a Charlie Louvin obituary, Glenn

In 1958, persuaded that Ira's mandolin sounded old-fashioned in an era of electric guitars, the Louvins' producer, Ken Nelson, asked him to stop playing it on their records.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/ ... n-obituary

[Mitch Ellis]

A well tuned steel guitar works well with other modern instruments. Bagpipes do not.

Thank GOODness!

Mitch

[Fred Treece]

found this quote from a Charlie Louvin obituary, Glenn

In 1958, persuaded that Ira's mandolin sounded old-fashioned in an era of electric guitars, the Louvins' producer, Ken Nelson, asked him to stop playing it on their records.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/ ... n-obituary

I wonder if Ken felt silly about it in 1959, when the electric guitar craze faded...

[David Mitchell]

I'm a singer, songwriter, producer, engineer and I hate steel guitars. I hate them so much I keep threatening to sell all 7 of mine. Just thinking how much richer I would be. I've got a bad addiction and need counseling.

[Glenn Suchan]

found this quote from a Charlie Louvin obituary, Glenn

In 1958, persuaded that Ira's mandolin sounded old-fashioned in an era of electric guitars, the Louvins' producer, Ken Nelson, asked him to stop playing it on their records.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/ ... n-obituary

Thank you for clarifying that story, Scott. I find it a bit surprising that it's true. It seems so different from other aspects of Ken Nelson's career as a record producer, of which I've read.

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

[Glenn Suchan]

found this quote from a Charlie Louvin obituary, Glenn

In 1958, persuaded that Ira's mandolin sounded old-fashioned in an era of electric guitars, the Louvins' producer, Ken Nelson, asked him to stop playing it on their records.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/ ... n-obituary

I wonder if Ken felt silly about it in 1959, when the electric guitar craze faded...

Fred, I don't think Ken felt silly considering that he was the producer from the late 1950's into the early 1970's for many great country artists such as Buck Owens (who started his professional career as a session electric guitarist for Ken Nelson at Capitol records), Wynn Stewart and Merle Haggard. It's my personal opinion that Ken Nelson, along with Ralph Mooney and Wynn Stewart was fundamental in creating the hard-edged and electrified "Bakersfield sound". Sadly, of those three, only Wynn Stewart has yet to be inducted into the "Country Music Hall of Fame" (NOTE: Ralph Mooney is a member of the "Steel Guitar Hall of Fame").

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

[Fred Treece]

As long as we can agree about that wacky electric guitar craze fading into oblivion in 1959, Glenn, we’re good.

[Clyde Mattocks]

The story about Ira not being allowed to play his mandolin on the Louvin records is true. My friend Jimmy Capps told me about that long ago and he said Ira was quite hurt by it. It's a shame because I thought his playing perfectly fit the songs. If he had lived, Ira would have had the last laugh because those cuts he played on are more popular today than ever. God bless Emmylou Harris and the Malpass Brothers for championing the great duo in a time it looked like their music would fade into obscurity.

[scott murray]

I believe Charlie also mentioned the Ken Nelson thing in his autobiography. not to veer off topic, but it's a similar situation. a lot of country singers dropped steel guitar presumably because they thought it had become "old-fashioned" as well.

it's a damn shame Ira was persuaded to stop recording with mandolin. he was one of the finest pickers of the instrument and I'm not even a huge mandolin lover. there's a story about a Louvins performance where Ira either didn't have a mandolin or his was unplayable, and Bill Monroe offered Ira his mandolin which was pretty much unheard of. that's how much Bill admired them, Ira especially. he was very complimentary of Ira's high tenor voice too.

Ira was a luthier also and worked for Sho-Bud in some capacity. he was known for his temper and violent outbursts at times... he apparently smashed several mandolins over the course of his career, but could almost always put them back together and make them playable again.

not sure if he built the mandolin seen here, but it's gorgeous


Ira's last recordings as a solo artist feature plenty of steel guitar, possibly Hal Rugg.