Non Pedal Room at The TSGA

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 17 Mar 2008 11:25 am

This gets better each year......thanks to Rick Alexander who lugged a ton of gear all the way from Florida to Texas.....the players were wonderful, the show went smooth as...buttah.....the room was nice and so were the acoustics.....

photos and more info to follow....just wanted to get the ball rolling.......

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 17 Mar 2008 11:44 am

Yes indeed - a fun time in the Lone Star State was had by all.

Thank you Rick Alexander and Jeff Strouse for hauling all that equipment from Florida. And for setting it up, running it and tearing it all down.

I had a blast in Dallas:

1. Hanging out, laughing, eating and drinking with my non-pedal pals HowardR, Rick Alexander, Jeff Strouse, Chris Kennison, Chuck Lettes, Ivan Reddington, John Lang, Mark Switzer, George Piburn, Howard Kalish, Wade Pence, Steve Alcott etc. etc.

2. Backing up Herb Remington. WOW! I couldn't stop smiling when he went into the opening notes of "Boot Heel Drag". I felt like I was in the middle of a Bob Wills record.

3. Meeting some new cool folks... Eric Ebner from Tribotone bars. Eric is a super friendly guy, very intelligent, knowlegable and has a natural positive attitude that's contagious - great to hang with. Not only that, but he puts out an amazing high quality product (my Tribotone is on order). Todd Clinesmith from Clinesmith Guitars, Todd makes all those Bigsby reissues (nice resos too) everyone was going nuts over a few months ago. The pictures are great but seeing those guitars in person, wow! - 150% quality in everything - materials, fit, finish and TONE. Todd is also quite a good swing non-pedal player. We jammed a bit before I had to get on the plane.

Once again a weekend filled with too much fun, too much food, too much ETOH, too much laughing and excellent music.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 17 Mar 2008 12:45 pm

Gerald is correct; the cameraderie was contagious. And dittoes to what he said about Todd C. I have a PA Reissue guitar that Todd will convert to woodneck soon.

One thing I really liked, a result of our taking over the entire hotel, is that there were several acoustic jams going on in the front lobby area with significant listening audiences. This was something that could never have happened at the old hotel.

I think that for the first year hosting the Jamboree, the hotel deserves kudos. They're already working on what few problems there were, and the hotel is already majorly booked full for next year's show.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 17 Mar 2008 1:14 pm

I'm really excited to read these raves about Todd. I am even more excited that my PA reissue will be heading to Papa soon!

norm mcdaniel · Post by **norm mcdaniel** » 17 Mar 2008 1:25 pm

Yes I too was there to listen to some greats and I can
not say who was my favorite. I loved them all and had a great time---But no one said anything about Gerald Ross and the backup band. They were great and Gerald played the heck outta that big blond guitar. Wade Pense was still hanging on to a cold or something. All I can say is if he plays that well when sick he must be hell when he is well. And then there was Chuck Letts and George Piburn and there was-------------,Yeah I could go on, but you get the idea.

Norm McDaniel
Waco Texas

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 17 Mar 2008 2:55 pm

It was a great show, and Rick has an enthusiasm for the non pedal that rubs off on people. And he represented the instrument well on the big stage too. One of the most impressive things I witnessed was Gerald and Todd Clinesmith jamming in the lobby. I loved it!!

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 17 Mar 2008 6:53 pm

Here's Todd at his "baby".........

It was a pleasure to meet Todd.....great person who builds some of the finest instruments......and that ain't sugar coatin' anything either....

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 17 Mar 2008 7:02 pm

Bert Rivera giving it a whirl.....

and the winner is.........

Bob Hofnar........congrats Bob......see you playing your new baby soon......

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 17 Mar 2008 7:14 pm

here's something you don't see every day.....all these guys play steel......Ivan Reddington.....Wade Pence (on steel).....Gerald Ross.....Steve Alcott on bass

Ivan on steel....Gerald....Steve

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 17 Mar 2008 7:19 pm

Carco Clave on 10 string non pedal steel......man, can this guy play!.....and check out David Tanner's L5......ouch!

and his group was so fantastic throughout the entire weekend......

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 17 Mar 2008 7:29 pm

norm mcdaniel wrote:-But no one said anything about Gerald Ross and the backup band.
Norm McDaniel
Waco Texas

Well,......when you have Gerald Ross on guitar and Steve Alcott on bass.....you've got a rock solid rhythm section.....Ivan Reddington and Rick Alexander also on acoustic & electric doing a great job.....

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 18 Mar 2008 7:15 am

It was a pleasure playing with Steve Alcott on bass all day Friday during the Non-Pedal extravaganza.

Steve has a rock-solid internal metronome and knows just the right notes to play and when to play them.

John Lang · Post by **John Lang** » 18 Mar 2008 8:00 am

Gerald,

It was awesome having you and Steve as the rhythm section for my set. Enjoyed meeting and playing with you both. Looking forward to next year already.... remind me not to let Rick have all the solos next time!

John

C. Brattain · Post by **C. Brattain** » 18 Mar 2008 8:03 am

Thank You Rick, Great, Great, Great Show, Chuck Brattain

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 18 Mar 2008 8:18 am

Why wait till next year John?

Like I told you over breakfast, you would go over like gangbusters at the HSGA Joliet Convention in October.

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 18 Mar 2008 12:28 pm

Here's David Tanner, Carco Clave (steel) and Scott (forgot last name - bass player) at Robert's Western World in Nashville. Fiddler Rene' (forgot last name) is not in this video.

David sings his hit "Effingham".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVRILR0SCiM

Rick Alexander · Post by **Rick Alexander** » 18 Mar 2008 1:31 pm

Well I made it all the way home - in only 22 hours!
Many thanks to Jeff Strouse - I wouldn't have been able to do it without him. We drove from Florida to Texas and back non-stop, so I didn't have to stay in some stinky motel halfway. And he did the loading and toting of equipment so I didn't have to mess up my back any more than it already is!
He's good company, and he was a big help at the vendors' table too.
Here he is hanging out with Herb:

Our good buddies Ken Huber and Joe Lidgett also helped with moving the equipment from place to place,
and we owe them a debt of gratitude for that:

The Non Pedal Session was awesome, beyond all expectations - we had some super players, and the audience was wonderful.

We'd like to dedicate the entire show to Don and Margie Mays. Margie says Don is doing okay, but it's going to take a while. We sure missed her beautiful Steel playing!

We camcorded all the performances and I'm currently in the process of uploading them to my YouTube channel.
It's http://youtube.com/rickalexander47
There are over 60 videos in all, and they'll all be posted over the next couple of days.
Herb Remington's performances are already there, and Scotty's are on the way as we speak . .

Gerald Ross did an excellent job as house guitarist!
I do believe he knows every song ever written - at least all the ones that are worth playing.
Steve Alcott played Bass for us, and to quote Gerald:

Steve has a rock-solid internal metronome and knows just the right notes to play and when to play them.

I couldn't have said it any better.

Captain Ivan Reddington also did a great job playing rhythm guitar for many of the performers - here are Ivan, Gerald and Steve backing up Wade Pence - who performed a flawless set.

Wade and his wife also did a super job creating the marquee sign for the Session. Thanks so much Wade!

Anyway, John Lang opened the show - and got things rolling in fine style. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera warmed up for the first few performers, but we did camcord all the songs and they'll be on YouTube very soon.

George "Mr Boards" Piburn turned in a great eclectic set, as we did our best to back him up.

Chris Kennison played great as always - it wouldn't be a Non-Pedal Session without him!

Here's Dick Meis and his wife doing an excellent set, aided and abetted by Captain Ivan and Gerald:

Here's Chuck Lettes showing how it's done:

That's uberjazzguitarist Jim Stahlhut on the left.

Here's Gerald playing his set with Ivan and Steve.
It doesn't get much better than that -

And here's the group that kicked the Session into overdrive -
Carco Clave and his band of merry men, featuring his wife Renae Truex on fiddle.
David Tanner on Guitar.
With Scott slapping that standup bass who needs a drummer!
All toes were tapping . .

Carco, Renae Truex, Gerald and Steve backed me up - what a band!
And as if that wasn't fantastic enough, my favorite singer in the whole world - Red Kilby, was there to sing with me.

I'm so glad we got it on video . .

Scotty played a beautiful set, we were very happy to have him there.
Thanks for accepting our invite Scotty!

And our special guest star - The Legendary Herb Remington!

Here's the whole band -

L2R - Rick Alexander, Texas Playboy Walter Lyons, Herb Remington, Gerald Ross, Steve Alcott.

Herb did a phenomenal set. He dazzled everyone, including the band - and it's all on YouTube!

Texas Playboy Walter Lyons & Herb
We were really glad Walter came and played with us!

It was great to see so many old and new friends in the audience!
There are more pics and A LOT more to tell, but I gotta upload more videos to YouTube now . .

Todd Clinesmith · Post by **Todd Clinesmith** » 18 Mar 2008 3:27 pm

I had such a good time in Dallas. I wish I had more time to see more of the non-pedal players. Luckily I happened to catch Herb Remington's set. His playing and stories were great and he played all the tunes I hoped to see. Walter Lyons played alot of nice harmonies behind Herb's melodies which was just a kick. A well organized and recieved event. Thank you Rick A. for all your work.

Howard, thanks for posting those photos ( did you get a shot of the T-8 ??), All those nice comments and photos were sure nice to come home to . I think the most impressive thing I saw/heard was Gerald Ross' guitar playing threw TC Furlongs Amp ( I have one on order).... what a sound . Gerald is an extremely gifted musician. If I ever got around to a recording I would try my hardest to get Gerald out to record with. Also TC Furlong and Gerald jamming was quite inspiring.

Ditto the remarks on the Tribo-tone bars and Eric Ebner ( I have a C weight on order as well), these are a well crafted, hand made product that got alot of buzz over the weekend.
Good to see and play George Piburns excellent sounding George Boards.

I made so many new friends over the weekend and am already looking forward to next years show. I made my reservations before I left, so see you all next year. Thanks to Albert Talley and Herb Steiner for all there work.
Todd

Jeff Strouse · Post by **Jeff Strouse** » 18 Mar 2008 5:49 pm

Seeing those pics and videos sure bring back some great memories! What a fun weekend! It was worth the 36 hour car ride!

It's always great to hang out with my buddies...Howard, Gerald, Chris, Chuck...it's the 'kid's table' in Joliet...(the only thing missing was Harry D. and Rick Aiello). I finally put a hand shake to some 'old' forum friends, and met a lot of new ones (I couldn't even begin to name them all, for fear of leaving someone out!).

The music was great, as you can tell from the videos. And it was nice to find little jams going on in different parts of the hotel. The non-pedal session was outstanding! So many great players that I hope I can say them all in one breath...Ivan Reddington, George Piburn, John Lang, Gerald Ross, Carco Clave, Herb Remington, Rick Alexander, Chuck Lettes, Wade Pence, Scotty, Chis Kennison, Dick Meis...what a line up! The back up musicians were top notch!

Rick Alexander deserves a big kudos for all the organization, work, and resources invested into our great little event. It wouldn't have been a success without him!

Don Kona Woods · Post by **Don Kona Woods** » 18 Mar 2008 11:06 pm

Hey guys,

To all of you that contributed to taking the videos, still pictures, and doing your posts, mahalo or thanks for allowing us to be a part of the party.

And wow, what about Carco Clave's fancy Western Aloha Shirt?

Some of you, however, were lowering the standards of the dress code!

Aloha,

Don

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 19 Mar 2008 5:59 am

Don Kona Woods wrote:Hey guys,

Some of you, however, were lowering the standards of the dress code!

Aloha,
Don

well, we didn't post the photo of the guy who played in a pink dress........

Rick Alexander · Post by **Rick Alexander** » 19 Mar 2008 12:40 pm

Incidentally, we are planning on doing The Non Pedal Session again next year - so make your reservations now!
As of yesterday there were 15 rooms left at the Sheraton Grande DFW for the 2009 TSGA Jamboree . .

Nice view isn't it? I could see my van from my hotel window (Black Chevy lower right)
which I somehow always find comforting . .

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 19 Mar 2008 12:50 pm

More like 14 rooms.

I just made my reservation.

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 19 Mar 2008 1:23 pm

13 rooms........

Mark White · Post by **Mark White** » 19 Mar 2008 2:46 pm

I just wanted to thank you Rick, for shooting and posting all these great videos for those of us that couldn't be there!!

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