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Topic: Mel Price |
George Rout
From:
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
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Posted 20 Feb 2021 4:52 pm |
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I'm just going through a pile of HBR (Hillbilly Researcher) cd's which I collected over the years. One is on Mel Price of whom I had never heard. He had some good music. I read up on him recently. I'm wondering if any of his steel players were noted guys. I couldn't find any reference to the steelers.
Geo
_________________
http://georgerout.com
"I play in the A Major tuning. It's fun to learn and so easy to play. It's as old as the hills....like me" |
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 20 Feb 2021 8:19 pm
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I really like him as well---I have since I first heard him in the 1970s. Especially Jailed and For You My Love.
Merritt Murphy is on steel on his earliest recordings up to about 1951.
He was using Gene Long on steel in 1956---I have an instrumental of Sweet Georgia Brown by the band, on which Mel introduces Gene. I don't think it has appeared on any CD.
Gene could be on the other mid 50s stuff, but I'm not sure.
Good band, mostly working on the East coast.
Songwriter Kent Westberry ("Love In The Hot Afternoon") told me that his wife was in the Santa Fe Rangers at one time, but I haven't located a pic of her with Mel as yet.
Here's a pic of Merritt. Gotta love those pants with the gambler's stripe.
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George Rout
From:
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
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Posted 23 Feb 2021 8:13 pm
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Thank you kindly Mitch for the informative response. Good stuff.
Geo
_________________
http://georgerout.com
"I play in the A Major tuning. It's fun to learn and so easy to play. It's as old as the hills....like me" |
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 24 Feb 2021 6:51 pm
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https://www.cecildaily.com/news/state_news/country-music-legend-mel-price-dies-at-94/article_cc5ee194-854b-5e8e-917a-70a4c8b0a09c.html
Obit;
Deceased at 94 in 2014 in Easton Maryland. He was in the Battle Of The Bulge in 1944. Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
Obit says there is an interview from 2014 on Youtube. I'm gonna look for it.
He began a Saturday night radio show in 1946 in Annapolis.
He was still on radio weekly over WAAI in Cambridge MD in the last years of his life. A Marylander from birth to death.
USO tours in 33 countries.
Two of Price’s sequined suits are in the collection of Marty Stuart and will be on display in the Marty Stuart Museum in Philadelphia, Miss.
Opened for Hank, Dickens, Tubb, and the Carters.
Never had a hit, but released maybe 30 recordings over 15 years or so. I had no idea he was still semi-active after circa 1960.
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