The Steel Guitar Forum Store 

Post new topic Story about Tom Brumley and Together Again
Reply to topic
Author Topic:  Story about Tom Brumley and Together Again
Roger Crawford


From:
Griffin, GA USA
Post  Posted 1 Aug 2022 10:16 am    
Reply with quote

I just happened across this. If you’ve never read it, spend a few minutes and enjoy.

https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.19.25.2/mto.19.25.2.burns.html
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Dave Hopping


From:
Aurora, Colorado
Post  Posted 1 Aug 2022 2:06 pm    
Reply with quote

Cool article, with lots of SGF'ers name-checked. Thanks! Winking
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

Keith Hilton

 

From:
248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721
Post  Posted 1 Aug 2022 4:00 pm    
Reply with quote

Extremely detailed. Great article.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

gary pierce


From:
Rossville TN
Post  Posted 1 Aug 2022 4:32 pm    
Reply with quote

Thanks Roger, 44 pages but a good article.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Duane Becker

 

From:
Elk,Wa 99009 USA
Post  Posted 2 Aug 2022 6:48 am    
Reply with quote

Thanks for posting the article, great info. I don't think Buck or even Tom Brumley sat down and ever planned with analysis these songs, in particular Together Again. I bet they just sat down and played it-probably one take on the recording. These guys were amazing.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Gary Hoetker

 

From:
California, USA
Post  Posted 3 Aug 2022 2:57 pm    
Reply with quote

This is a historic piece of literature likely not to be found anywhere else. The Fender 1000 is the gold standard for the West Coast Sound, in my opinion. How I and many other would you have loved to sit down with Jay McDonald, Brumley and Mooney over a beer or two and discuss the recordings they played on with Buck, Merle and Wynn and how the music arrangements were decided. I bet much of it was spontaneous and ad-lib, emotionally driven and inspired.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Bart Bull


From:
New Orleans, USA/Paris FR/Berkeley USSR
Post  Posted 5 Aug 2022 8:42 am    
Reply with quote

Not enough footnotes and tendentious tautologies to achieve proper peer-review pomposity.

Might I suggest a bit of academic auto-tuning with this handy verbiage-o-matic?
https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/archive/scigen/
_________________
Undoubtedly the finest pedal steel player in Paris' 18th Arrondissement
Disaster of Touch, Tone & Taste; Still mastering the manifold mysteries of the Sho-Bud Maverick
Supro, Oahu, pin-striped Rus-Ler SD-10, y tiger-stripe-painted Stella
Hohner Corona Dos en Fa, y Gabanelli en Sol
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Kenny Davis


From:
Great State of Oklahoma
Post  Posted 5 Aug 2022 9:31 am    
Reply with quote

Laughing
_________________
Best lyric in a country song: "...One more, Moon..."
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Bob Carlucci

 

From:
Candor, New York, USA
Post  Posted 21 Aug 2022 3:44 am    
Reply with quote

yikes.. awful lot of techno babble in that article for a relatively simple solo played mostly on 2 strings with 2 pedals..Don't get me wrong, Tom's formidable skill is evident throughout that solo and the entire song, but much of the elegance is in the simplicity -simplicity by todays standards, in 64 it must have seemed an insurmountable task for an average steel guitarist to play that solo. I dunno, I guess I am just not one for that degree of over thinking a short, simple, yet very effective steel guitar solo.. Its just a great player doing what he was capable of, on a compromised instrument.. That solo was a testament to Tom's musical heart, soul mind ,and hands. I doubt he thought much about the technical aspects involved.. just went and did it....
_________________
I'm over the hill and hittin'rocks on the way down!

no gear list for me.. you don't have the time......
View user's profile Send private message

MIchael Bean


From:
North Of Boston
Post  Posted 7 Sep 2022 4:27 pm    
Reply with quote

My pal Chelsea Burns wrote that piece for her school dissertation at UT. Thats the reason it is so technical and elaborate. Her point being that it was a milestone in country music, that a limitation created a new piece of vocabulary in pedal steel.

We talked a lot about that solo when she came into gigs and when I'd see her at jams and parties. Chelsea is a mighty fine keyboard player and would bring her accordion to jams. Her research was impeccable, and when she sent me some of the written explanation of the solo, I learned it as meant to be and sent her a recording of it. I'm glad she's getting some notice for her work.
_________________
www.facebook.com/michaelbeanmusic
https://www.instagram.com/michaelbeanmusic/
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

Henry Matthews


From:
Texarkana, Ark USA
Post  Posted 11 Sep 2022 7:58 am    
Reply with quote

I got bored after about 5 minutes reading that. My head still hurts.
Tom was one of the greatest, hands down. It’s just the way the article was written.
_________________
Henry Matthews

D-10 Magnum, 8 &5, dark rose color
D-10 1974 Emmons cut tail, fat back,rosewood, 8&5
Nashville 112 amp, Fishman Loudbox Performer amp, Hilton pedal, Goodrich pedal,BJS bar, Kyser picks, Live steel Strings. No effects, doodads or stomp boxes.


Last edited by Henry Matthews on 11 Sep 2022 8:33 am; edited 2 times in total
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 11 Sep 2022 8:30 am    
Reply with quote

Quote:
I don't think Buck or even Tom Brumley sat down and ever planned with analysis these songs, in particular Together Again. I bet they just sat down and played it-probably one take on the recording.


I agree. Tom said that on many recording sessions he didn't know what they were going to record until he got to the studio! Never even heard the song until the day they recorded it.

I have to smile when I read (or try to read) this kind of in depth, laborious analysis of simple/roots/country/folk music. I'm reminded of the phrase... "Just play the damn thing!"
_________________
My Site / My YouTube Channel
25 Songs C6 Lap Steel / 25 MORE Songs C6 Lap Steel / 16 Songs, C6, A6, B11 / 60 Popular Melodies E9 Pedal Steel
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

Peter Dollard

 

Post  Posted 15 Oct 2022 4:48 pm     Its Simple
Reply with quote

I interviewed Brumley in 1996 on tape and he just said he was nervous and "somehow it came off"... He would have,, pardon the expression, rolled over in his grave with all this excessive Thomas Wolfe never ending analysis. Way too much
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Roger Crawford


From:
Griffin, GA USA
Post  Posted 16 Oct 2022 11:43 am    
Reply with quote

Jeff Newman was always saying that you should take a song and put your own feelings into it. The Together Again solo is the only piece he ever advised to learn to play it note for note.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

tom anderson

 

From:
leawood, ks., usa
Post  Posted 17 Oct 2022 6:27 am    
Reply with quote

I like the article!
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Bob Knetzger


From:
Kirkland, WA USA
Post  Posted 17 Oct 2022 2:01 pm    
Reply with quote

Maybe this writer can do a piece on how to tune an E9 neck and pedals.

Cue up the endless tempered tuning explanations...

Wink Wink Wink

I enjoyed this article, if just to learn more about the conditions of Tom B's employment: having to hit the ground running and be an effective and creative player in an existing band...and with technical limits on top of it!

Didn't Tom B have a similar sudden start to Rick Nelson's band: very first gig were those live Troubadour recordings?
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 18 Oct 2022 8:02 am    
Reply with quote

Quote:
Maybe this writer can do a piece on how to tune an E9 neck and pedals.

Cue up the endless tempered tuning explanations...


I can see it now! A comprehensive dissertation on temperament as applied to E9 pedal steel guitar.


_________________
My Site / My YouTube Channel
25 Songs C6 Lap Steel / 25 MORE Songs C6 Lap Steel / 16 Songs, C6, A6, B11 / 60 Popular Melodies E9 Pedal Steel
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

Jerry Horch


From:
Alva, Florida, USA
Post  Posted 18 Oct 2022 12:11 pm     Nice
Reply with quote

Gonna read it at bed time....
_________________
Franklin D10 /Walker Sterio Steel JBL's /DigiTech Quad4/ Korg Toneworks/ Dobro DM 1000 / Santa Cruz Guitar VA
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Ray Minich

 

From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
Post  Posted 28 Oct 2022 4:51 pm     Isgc
Reply with quote

At one of the last ISGC conventions i think there were 5 (I think) steelers on the dais that each paid homage to Tom's solo over the course of a most heartfelt tribute to Tom and his legacy. It was absolutely amazing.
_________________
Lawyers are done: Emmons SD-10, 3 Dekleys including a D10, NV400, and lots of effects units to cover my clams...
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

Jason Odd


From:
Stawell, Victoria, Australia
Post  Posted 1 Feb 2023 2:59 pm    
Reply with quote

That's the problem with fact checking everything but one key person's recall, you end up with a myth.

"Brumley noted that the band recorded “Together Again” immediately following the Golden West performance dates, with this same Fender 1000 (Bradshaw 1976). Within this context of a damaged instrument and no time for repair or replacement, Brumley used limited resources to create his now-iconic solo."

That's how Tom recalls it, but the gig when he joined at the Golden West Auditorium, that finished on December 29, then the band played a New Years show at the Big Barn in Fresno, and had a break.

“Together Again” was recorded at the Capitol studios in Hollywood on December 28, that's a month after Tom joined the band, now surely he'd have had time to make some at least rudimentary changes or repairs to the pedal steel, which would have also gone on the road with the band throughout January. They played a run of shows at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas over January 9-22, as well as shows in New Mexico and Phoenix, Arizona, famously the tour where the drummer Mel King was fired and Buck threw his drums offstage.

At best, Tom's recall of having to work with that roughed up steel guitar is probably more likely about an earlier session at the Capitol studios, on January 6, which was Tom's first session as a Buckaroo.
Buck and the Buckaroos recorded “Louisiana Man,” “Abilene,” “A Maiden’s Prayer,” and “Bud’s Bounce." Three of the songs from that midday session—“Louisiana Man,” “Abilene,” and “Bud’s Bounce”—would appear on the I Don’t Care LP, released later that year.
_________________
Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail

John McClung


From:
Olympia WA, USA
Post  Posted 1 Feb 2023 4:55 pm    
Reply with quote

Yikes, that deep dissertation is a bit much even for yours truly, Professor Twang!
Shocked Shocked Shocked
_________________
E9 INSTRUCTION
▪️ If you want to have an ongoing discussion, please email me, don't use the Forum messaging which I detest! steelguitarlessons@earthlink.net
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website

Arty Passes

 

From:
Austin, TX
Post  Posted 6 Feb 2023 2:45 pm    
Reply with quote

Seen as a dissertation, not a magazine article, the detail is understandable. Almost humorous to see it broken down into such excruciating detail, but good on her for taking it on. I thought she did a good job with it. Skimmed through a lot of it but found it interesting nonetheless.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail


All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Jump to:  

Our Online Catalog
Strings, CDs, instruction,
steel guitars & accessories

www.SteelGuitarShopper.com

Please review our Forum Rules and Policies

Steel Guitar Forum LLC
PO Box 237
Mount Horeb, WI 53572 USA


Click Here to Send a Donation

Email admin@steelguitarforum.com for technical support.


BIAB Styles
Ray Price Shuffles for
Band-in-a-Box

by Jim Baron
HTTP