| Author |
Topic: Slim Willet |
Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
|
Posted 2 Feb 2018 6:07 am |
|
My first memory of hearing steel guitar was probably this. I must've grown up hearing steel before I knew a guitar could have pedals.
My dad used to like to listen to the Grand Old Opry in the '40s... Mother would take a walk around the block. I don't think they
had a car on my dad's teacher's salary. (He told her if he ever made $5000 a year, he'd buy her a fur coat.)
I recall mother echoing something about 'That Great Speckled Bird' as she'd leave the house. That music was very much a part of life,
what you'd hear on the radio in Snyder or Abilene, driving across the plain at night, through fields of mechanical dinosaurs--or so it looked
to a kid--watching the gas burn away in the twilight....
Tool Pusher From Snyder
I just found this interesting bio: http://www.popflock.com/learn?s=Slim_Willet
 |
|
|
|
Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
|
Posted 2 Feb 2018 9:41 am
|
|
Here ya go, Charlie--issued with 2 different titles:
Hoyle Nix also recorded that classic, covering Willet's version on the same label. I thought it would be on Youtube, but I don't see it. I wonder whose version might have been more popular locally at the time?
Jody Nix does it to this day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEtXCeYhAi8
 |
|
|
|
Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
|
Posted 2 Feb 2018 10:23 am
|
|
I'm guessing locally we heard the fellow from Abilene version. I was wondering why would you go and change a magic name like that, but needing to branch out from there I guess he needed a broader appeal. Myself, I knew what Snyder was but don't know a rotary rig.
I just recalled another popular tune Slim did, Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes, popularized by Perry Como, but I recall more of a conjunto or at least Cajun feel that I may have imagined, but from this version I can see why, it's all over the place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvkgs_IQUDw |
|
|
|
Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
|
Posted 2 Feb 2018 10:50 am
|
|
Slim's original came out in 1950 I think.
Jimmie Dolan recorded the song for Capitol in 1953, using the "Rotary Rig" title.
So, I'm wondering if Dolan/Capitol might have been who changed the title and Star Talent then reissued Slim's original with the Rotary Rig title in response---rather than it being an alternate title used in 1950?
I guess the identity of the steeler on the song is lost to history. Shorty Underwood on fiddle.
Slim's masterpiece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xldX6EdokeE |
|
|
|
Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
|
Posted 2 Feb 2018 11:26 am
|
|
Great. I love these sessions where it's not all put together to begin with, things happen.
Good to be able to identify unsung players, but I'll bet there were a couple of steel players in West Texas who didn't make the credits. |
|
|
|
Lee Baucum
From:
McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier
|
Posted 2 Feb 2018 11:49 am
|
|
Then there's the issue of my slim wallet...almost flat...
_________________
Lee, from South Texas - Down On The Rio Grande
There are only two options as I see it.
Either I'm right, or there is a sinister conspiracy to conceal the fact that I'm right.
Williams Keyless S-10, BMI S-10, Evans FET-500LV, Fender Steel King, 2 Roland Cube 80XL's,
Sarno FreeLoader, Goodrich Passive Volume Pedals, Vintage ACE Pack-A-Seat |
|
|
|
