Buddy Emmons, Les Paul, Curly Chalker--How Times Have Change

Dave A. Burley · Post by **Dave A. Burley** » 11 Jul 2011 10:29 pm

Back in the seventies the biggest time during the old DJ Convention was when us steelers could find a jam featuring a Jimmy Bryant on guitar and a few steel players. Those jams are what gave me the original idea of putting several pedal steel players in the same studio and recording them....When I started to take pickers like Emmons, Chalker, Reece, Jernigan and Tharpe on the road for what we called Jamfest/Seminars, we would sell more of the 'It's The First Time' album on each stop than the total of 'Cavalcade Of Guitars' cd's we have sold using the Forum, Ebay and the rest of the internet. I cannot fathom that our steel players of today have no interest in a vintage cd featuring the likes of Emmons, Chalker, Reece, Jernigan, Tharpe along with five of the greatest jazz guitarists of that time period. Yes it was a jam session. Yes, it was a jazzy jam session but content of that session is unbelievable. Each player playing off the others and at the top of their game. I have a lot of friends on FaceBook and most of them are playing double necks. Wouldn't that be an E9th and a C6th? Although there were probably a lot fewer steel players back in the seventies, I do believe that more of them were playing the C6th neck along with the E9th. For 35 years I was the only person listening to this unreleased cd and finally it's released. Now that it is released, I guess I am still the only one listening to it. I can't get 1,000 of them pressed . I have to have just a few at a time and believe me, it does cost. Maybe a soundbite on YouTube would help get it out there. I don't know how to do that...Anyone out there able to help me? It will be available late tomorrow on Ebay, and Ebay and PayPal takes quite a chunk. I don't know how to give you a link to Ebay. Maybe someone out there can help me with that. Just type in Buddy Emmons, Les Paul, Tal Farlow, Curly Chalker jam cd. That should get you there. I have memories from producing the Cavalcade Of Guitars that will last the rest of my life. What a session and what a story behind the session. Thanks for reading my rant if you got this far. I don't need the money, I just like to sell cd's. (B0B..If this doesn't belong here, please put it where it does belong)
Thanks
Dave A. Burley

Dave Ristrim · Post by **Dave Ristrim** » 12 Jul 2011 3:13 am

Hey Dave, probably a dumb question, but are you selling them direct? If so, how much? I thought I saw something about this cd a while back. I think part of the problem of selling a cd today is that there are so many new cd's to look at and consider, only the ones that are in your face a lot get noticed. Good luck with this project and I guess I'll have to get one. It sounds like a lot of fun to listen to.

Larry Behm · Post by **Larry Behm** » 12 Jul 2011 6:41 am

Dave with the tech of today you can dump your master to your PC and burn copies as you need them, even etch the label right to the CD and ship.

Just a thought.

Larry Behm

Dave A. Burley · Post by **Dave A. Burley** » 12 Jul 2011 12:26 pm

Dave, I do sell the cd's directly. I have upgraded my profile to include my name and address and the cost of each cd. Thanks for your interest. As far as burning cd's off of my home computer, I am totally dumb at that. I guess some of us older's cannot pick up things that easy. I still would like to have a soundbite put on YouTube but I don't know how to do it. I would also like to learn how to put a link to Ebay where the cd's will be sold but I don't know how to do that either.
Thanks for the reponse,
Dave A. Burley

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 12 Jul 2011 2:29 pm

Dave, I agree with you 100%. I just love that CD and have played it to death. I'm sorry, I don't know the ins and outs of the industry, but I'm going to contact the local PBS radio station and see if I can get them to put it on air, with your permission of course.

Maybe they will play some, or all of it. I believe it would be right down their jazz alley especially with all the guitar greats there, though they might not be especially aware of all the talented steel players on it.

I'll let you know.

Folks, this is one for the jazz archives.

Wally Moyers · Post by **Wally Moyers** » 12 Jul 2011 6:16 pm

Dave,

Get it on CD Baby or iTunes... No cost for CD's, artwork ,freight, etc... just sell downloads... Anyone on the forum could by it and listen to it now! I have owned a studio for 30 years and would be happy to help you any way I can..

Wally
http://www.studio84.com

Dave A. Burley · Post by **Dave A. Burley** » 12 Jul 2011 6:45 pm

Thanks Wally. Actually I would like the steel players to have a copy of the cd as it includes some pictures on the back and a short page on the inside cover that tells about the cd. Also I would like steelers to enjoy a reproduction of the original program book that was given out that night. I will probably put it on cdbaby sometime in the future but I am not that interested in just making money. The fact that I conceived the idea and produced it from A to Z doesn't mean that much to me. The fact that those legends of the steel guitar were on the same stage with those legends of jazz guitar, bass and drums does mean a lot to me. I can't figure out how I pulled it off. People ask me all the time how I got all of those pickers together at one time and one stage......I just don't know. It just happened. I would like to see all steelers, C6th and E9th to enjoy this historic concert. It definitely will not happen again.
I would like to get a little snippet of it on YouTube but I don't know how to do that. Jim Cohen was kind enough to put Bryant/Emmons and It's The First Time on YouTube but I can't keep asking him to do it every time I need someone.
Thanks for the support.
Dave A. Burley

Douglas Schuch · Post by **Douglas Schuch** » 12 Jul 2011 7:02 pm

Dave,

I agree with Wally: get the albums on a download site. Download allows for instant gratification for buyers and no hassle for you once you set it up for making the sales. Download sites also let you sample a short piece of each song before buying so you can decide if you really want it or not. There is lots and lots of stuff here in the Forum I would love to buy...but I live outside the US where receiving mail is problematic. Unfortunately, many download sites do not operate outside of the US either (licensing restrictions).

I no longer use CD's anyway: all my music is digital, stored and backed up on various hard drives. The rare times I buy a CD, I "rip" it to the computer, then put the CD away.

CD Baby charges $39 to set up an album for download, and then take 25% of sales. They can also put your music on other sites, like Amazon.com.

Still, though, it will take promotion from you to let the potential buyers know about the CD: posts on this site, getting it on Steel Radio, etc.

Good luck, and if you get it to download site where I can access it, I will surely grab a copy!

Doug

Wally Moyers · Post by **Wally Moyers** » 12 Jul 2011 8:10 pm

Dave,

All of the art work can be downloaded also. I haven't bought a CD in at least two years, all downloads. After you download you can always burn a disk...

It's a great thing your doing! You have a great way to market it here on the forum...

Wally

Elton Smith · Post by **Elton Smith** » 12 Jul 2011 9:28 pm

Sounds to me like ur beatin an old horse to dead.Sorry if I read this wrong,but thats how I see it.I want some new stuff.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 13 Jul 2011 4:43 pm

Well, I want to throw this in - Dave Easley sent me a little assortment of stuff lately, and I was astonished to find out he's got great-quality recordings of all three years he's played the jazz room at the International Steel Guitar Convention. There are some excerpts up on YouTube, but he's got the entire sets, including a lot of stuff that's not there - the OTHER version of "All Along the Watchtower"... this is stuff that other steel players should hear, because this guy is on his own planet if you want to rank "jazz" steelers.

b0b here is unfortunately up to his eyeballs in unsold CD's and can't take on anything. I have offered to help Dave Easley sell/distribute this, but I don't know a thing about ASCAP, credits etc. Dave E. is on tour in Europe, but he'll be back shortly. If somebody here could point to a few signposts for Dave Burley and myself, it would be greatly appreciated.

Dave A. Burley · Post by **Dave A. Burley** » 13 Jul 2011 6:20 pm

Elton.....This is not old stuff. It was recorded 35 years ago but never released so it is new stuff. This so called old stuff included the best pedal steel players in the world. You won't find any so called new stuff that will compare to this old stuff/new stuff. I wish we could put out some new stuff by Chalker and Tharpe but they are gone.
Thanks,
Dave A. Burley

Elton Smith · Post by **Elton Smith** » 13 Jul 2011 9:22 pm

What pisses me off Dave ,is your just here trying to make a buck.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 14 Jul 2011 5:15 am

I will order one Dave.
As soon as I have my finances checked for this month. Would an added 5 dollars be enough to cover the overseas postage? You do great work!
Joachim

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 14 Jul 2011 7:21 am

Elton, I don't think that's the case at all. I paid my money, I got a great CD and was glad to get all that history.

There's a lot of great music that we would have never been able to hear were it not for this production. I seriously doubt Dave's getting rich on it.

Jack Stanton · Post by **Jack Stanton** » 14 Jul 2011 6:36 pm

Elton,
Don't know if there's any back story between you and Dave, but considering what it must have cost to bring players of that caliber together, book a club, pay for the recording and then sit on the tapes for 35 years, I think Dave's entitled to make what he can on this project.

He's offering a snapshot in time with a lot of the greatest players ever to pick up their respective instruments, many of which are no longer are with us or are actively performing, and he's doing it at a pretty reasonable price.

I'd too would love to see something new along these lines. Why don't you see how much time and expense it would take to get Paul Franklin, Tommy White, Randy Beavers, Doug Jerrnigan, Larry Carlton, Brent Mason, Robin Ford and Johnny A to record an album? I'll gladly pay you $15 for a copy

Herby Wallace · Post by **Herby Wallace** » 20 Jul 2011 2:49 pm

First, I hate giving an opinion on the Forum as there are always people out there who will cut me down who think they are experts. First, I have done 15 steel guitar albums over the years and 35 courses and the market is nothing like it used to be as most customers want everything free as on youtube and so on. To be honest, even though my playing personally is not 100% yet since I had a stroke 5 years ago, I have no desire to do another album even if my playing ability returned 100% as it is not worth the time and effort anymore or the expense as I still do all of my projects in a studio with real musicians. Now, to Dave's project. I just got my copy and I listened to it all the way from a show I did in Michigan this past weekend and this blew me away. I had heard about this when it was done in 1976 and wished I could have been there to have heard it live, but I was on the road full time then. This is a once in a lifetime CD that has to be a classic having 5 of the all time best steel players and 5 of the all time best jazz guitar players playing off each other. For anyone who likes jazz and swing like I do, I can't imagine not wanting and buying this CD. For what it's worth Dave, it's not the CD but the way times are with sales in general so don't give up and I promise you I will tell everyone I know about it. Also, I attended all those DJ conventions in Nashville from the time I was 13 years old until they tore down the Andrew Jackson Hotel and I was lucky and got to jam with many of the heavies and this was one of the highlights of my career. I have all of Dave's other projects and they are all classics and great but this new one is in a class by itself. I hope everyone will support Dave on this as I am looking forward to volume two of this already. Also, I forgot to mention that the rhythm section was also unbelievable. Louie Bellson on drums who used to play The Tonight Show years ago is one of the best of all time.

Herby Wallace

Dave A. Burley · Post by **Dave A. Burley** » 24 Aug 2011 9:38 am

It has become more and more apparent to me that anything with a form of steel guitar jazz is not acceptable on this forum. We have released four cd's. The best selling out of all four has been the Jimmy Bryant/Buddy Emmons cd. The worst? The Cavalcade Of Guitars which features all of those legendary steel guitar players with the legendary jazz guitar players. An historic session featuring 13 Hall Of Fame pickers on the same stage. That project probably took a few years off of my life because of the stress involved. There are no more copies of the original program booklet available so therefore that cd can now be sold for $15.00 which includes shipping.
The first recording we produced was 'Its' The First Time' which featured 9 of the greats in a studio for a recorded jam session. 1,000 copies on vinyl almost sold out within just months. That was in 1976. Do we have a different breed of steel pickers today? Strictly E9th?
At the end of this year I will no longer be involved in selling these classic cd's. Too much hassel. I'm not interested in making money, I just want the product out there for you all to enjoy but you have spoken.
Thanks,
Dave A. Burley

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 24 Aug 2011 5:14 pm

Dave wrote:

Back in the seventies the biggest time during the old DJ Convention was when us steelers could find a jam featuring a Jimmy Bryant on guitar and a few steel players.

No kiddin', Dave. From something I wrote 20 years ago:

When the Opry was still downtown jam sessions like these used to go on all the time at The Den and Tootsie's and The Wheel on Broadway, at the old Sho-Bud store, backstage at the Opry, in hotels during the annual DJ convention, and in Printer's Alley. Guys would stay up picking all night until the sun came up, high on speed, and invent licks and write songs that'd be on the radio in a month. You could park your car downtown and walk around and see Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Bryant, Doug Jernigan, and Paul Franklin and you could learn more about your axe in one night than you could learn in a year's worth of music lessons back home with Miss Poultice, and tourists and musicians from out of town would go home bragging about all the hot picking they had heard from the Nashville cats... In the good old days, guitar slingers prowled the streets, deadeye steel players lurked in the shadows, and a jam session could break out anytime someone pulled a Telecaster on you.

Dave A. Burley · Post by **Dave A. Burley** » 24 Aug 2011 10:11 pm

Cal...Probably the best days ever for a steel picker. Jimmy Bryant and Buddy Emmons jamming upstairs in Tootsie's. Julian Tharpe with his Dee-Men's Den on the corner of 4th and E. Broadway and part of the Merchant's Hotel. Jamming every night there. Jamming in the Merchant's Hotel. Jammin in the Wheel and just about any place that had a plug in. Oh, the glorious days of the old DJ Convention. If the hotel rooms could only talk at the old Andrew Jackson hotel. Well, really they can. I was there and witnessed a lot of off the record going on's. Boy, the story I could tell about Gene Autry and Tex Ritter. That story has not ever made the rounds...a little too wild I think.
I can still smell how great Sho-Bud smelled with those new pedal steels and other instruments. I can remember back in the day at Roy Acuff's museum and the smell in the backroom with that delicious moon. Dang....Just to have another sip with Roy and Brother Oswald....I could go on for hours but better quit before I tell something on myself. (G)
Dave A. Burley
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Drew Howard · Post by **Drew Howard** » 25 Aug 2011 5:19 am

"Miss Poultice"

Doyle Weigold · Post by **Doyle Weigold** » 25 Aug 2011 5:20 pm

Dave and Cal, you brought up the DJ Convention and all the hot spots back then, I think it was the third week in Oct. I'd set aside for the convention every year. It must have been when Boot's Randolph had "Yakity-Sax, and they had a sax player in Demon's Den. All of a sudden I heard some one say something like "Get them sheep out of here, this is cattle country". Here came the Big E. Needless to say he finished out the night. What an era in country music. Good luck on your project. D W By the way does the "Top Hat" in Marion, Ind. ring a bell, Dave, with Buddy Emmons, maybe Doug Journigan, and maybe Jimmie Bryant. ????????

Dave A. Burley · Post by **Dave A. Burley** » 25 Aug 2011 7:05 pm

Doyle...We did a lot of things with the steel guitar for a couple years. I believe I had the boys there and the following night in Ft. Wayne if I remember right. It was a long weekend. We went from there to Galesburg, Michigan on and then to Muskegon, Mich. where we recorded. That session might be out soon. Thanks for reminding me of the name of the place.
Dave A. Burley

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 25 Aug 2011 8:27 pm

they had a sax player in Demon's Den.

That might have been Johnny Gore. He used to come around a lot and jam.

Joe Casey · Post by **Joe Casey** » 26 Aug 2011 4:51 am

Just wondering??? Will Buddy or the estates of those greats recieve any royalties from these releases or did they sign off ?? Now I realize for now it isn't a big project and return won't be piles of $$$..I have tons of Tapes I was privy to record with permission for my own personal enjoyment..But I'm sure if I released any for sale I'd be sued fast...

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Buddy Emmons, Les Paul, Curly Chalker--How Times Have Change

Buddy Emmons, Les Paul, Curly Chalker--How Times Have Change

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