A commenter just sent me a snippet of his new album and even though the song is about office work, it has some great steel guitar.
What’s your favorite use of steel guitar in a song or your favorite song with steel guitar in it? Or talk about whatever…open thread.
I’d like to be a bit more recherché and put up a YouTube of this band from Athens, The Star Room Boys, that I used to love when I lived there. But I can’t find anything, so I’ll put up this predictable favorite.
dedc79
Midnight Rider by the Allman Brothers. Well, basically anything involving Duane Allman.
tbone
Bob wills, baby!
Ailuridae
tbone:
Steel Guitar Rag, FTW
cleek
i’ve always dug Bonnie Raitt’s “Walking Blues”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j43B8iOoT_c
Bob
I know this album is ragged a lot but I like it. Here’s a tune,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU0WcW2k2tc
Gin & Tonic
May not be what everyone thinks of when they say “steel guitar”, but it’s a steel guitar. Debashish Bhattacharya, as here, for instance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r_mRktR-68
W.Hackwhacker
Flying Burrito Brothers, “Six Days on the Road,” with Al Perkins on pedal steel. End of discussion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMWCxt8ABNg
srv
Anything Robert Randolph.
And when you really want to get down with steel, go to church.
Mustang Bobby
Anything by Les Paul.
Wrye
Gotta be Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The Dangerman
Just about anything Mark Knopfler after Dire Straits (and Brothers in Arms, I suppose).
srv
Steel Guitar as God intended it.
SatanicPanic
That one Kid Rock song bro
Fluke bucket
Jerry Douglas. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wUvTwH2gWI&list=RDjTnB5tZC4iM
Steeplejack
Buffalo Springfield, “Kind Woman.” A beautiful ballad by Richie Furay, with pedal steel by Rusty Young. Nice piano, too.
ETA: Steel guitar solo starts at 2:20.
raven
@dedc79: That’s slide not steel.
raven
All Right With Me, New Riders
Steeplejack
Old-school steel: Hank Williams, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”
raven
I didn’t know you lived here. John Neff is now with the Drive By Truckers.
ranchandsyrup
Pot Kettle Black by Wilco
@SatanicPanic: Lulz.
raven
The Star Room Boys “Why do lonely men and women want to break. . .
Of course the funny thing is that Dave is from Chicago!
gbear
This is a pretty minor favorite, but I love the song ‘Smoke’ by Joe Henry from the Trampoline album, and the pedal steel guitar lick is one of the things that make it a perfect song.
It helps that I know the pedal steel player, although it doesn’t help to know that he stole away the girlfriend of one of his best friends (one of my house-mates. He was devastated).
schrodinger's cat
Open thread needs kitteh, Palin Cat or Ceiling Cat? DougJ’s thread on Putin yesterday was the inspiration for this lol.
Steeplejack
Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, “San Antonio Rose.” Steel guitar solo front and center at 0:30.
Note: I’m so old that I can remember when I lived in Texas as a kid that geezers back then would routinely refer to “San Antone.” Good times.
schrodinger's cat
BTW what is a steel guitar? I know less about music than I know about football.
Steeplejack
@schrodinger’s cat:
Look at the video I linked here . Steel guitar close-up at 0:30.
Bob
@raven: Gee, not much tone wise is there? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_guitar
The Dangerman
@srv:
Cool link; the clip says “trailer”, which implies movie, but a quick googling (a frugal google?) didn’t find it. Can help please?
Also, since we have some good music folks around these parts, I’m looking for an Eminem (at least I think it was Eminem) song that was roughly about the Kennedy’s (or maybe about that Camelot period in general; I’m still on limited caffeine intake so far, so bear with me). All help appreciated.
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
If by “steel guitar” you mean actual steel guitar (e.g., pedal steel, lap steel), I’ve always liked the steel guitar parts David Gilmour plays in the intro to “Breathe” on “Dark Side of the Moon”. For slide guitar, Duane Allman’s work on “Statesboro Blues” on the “Live at the Fillmore” album is my all-time favorite.
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: The wiki lays it out.
raven
@Bob: Yea. Then there is JR Brown and his Guitsteel.
DougJ
@Wrye:
Good call. It never sounded so ominous.
the Conster
@cleek:
Yes! and Give It Up Or Let Me Go. Love love love Bonnie.
LABiker
Everybody should be listening to this right about now.
Luke Vibert and BJ Cole “Swing Lite” from the Stop the Panic LP, 2001:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb_J7n2HHg4
“Fly Hawaii” is pretty nice, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeA_fb1bnv8
Professor Purple
There’s lots to choose from but “Rainy Day Woman” by Waylon Jennings with Ralph Mooney on the steel is about as good as it gets. Especially the intro lick.
srv
@The Dangerman: It’s apparently a book with a trailer. At amazon.
Maybe in here somewhere, the video credits arhoolie:
http://www.arhoolie.com/index.php?subcats=Y&type=extended&status=A&pshort=Y&pfull=Y&pname=Y&pkeywords=Y&search_performed=Y&cid=0&q=sacred+steel&x=0&y=0&dispatch=products.search
Says at end of vid there’s a DVD somewhere.
raven
When DJ cited the Star Room Boys I assumed we were talking about pedal steel .
DougJ
@raven:
I did mean pedal steel but truth be told I don’t know much about guitars.
gbear
@cleek: @the Conster: As mentioned above, slide guitar is not the same as steel guitar. You have to sit to play a steel guitar, and you use your feet and knees to control the tunings. I played in a band with a steel player and watching him play was fascinating. I had no idea how he could coordinate all that stuff (and I’m a drummer).
Think Sneeky Pete in the Flying Burrito Brothers or Rusty Young in Poco.
Steeplejack
@raven:
Gotta agree with you, “steel guitar” means “pedal steel guitar,” and slide, Dobro, etc., are other things.
raven
@DougJ: It’s all good. There is also the great William Tonks here in Athens that plays steel with about everyone!
Honus
@Steeplejack: I’m with you on that old school country stuff. Almost all of it had great steel guitar. George Jones’ He Stopped Loving Her Today, and Merle Haggard’s Sing me Back Home has great solo. But I really like Pete Kleinow’s work with the Burritos, especially on Break My Mind.
Honus
@Steeplejack: Oh, yeah, also Mama Tried.
raven
@Steeplejack: But we’re old. We used Good Feelin to Know as our vows in my 1st wedding.
J.D. Rhoades
This John Paul Jones lap-steel version of “When the Levee Breaks”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzbA79ptJP8
jl
Some good steel guitar posted already.
But the FSM will punish any thread on steel guitar that does not include
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys-Steel Guitar Rag (1936)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1B0msHnYDs
the Conster
@gbear:
She’s playing a National steel guitar with a bottleneck, standing up I assume. Pedal steel is a different instrument.
raven
@Honus: Sneaky Pete was a mofo. Bobby Black for Commander Cody was a killer too.
raven
@Honus: Sneaky Pete was a mofo. Bobby Black for Commander Cody was a killer too.
Honus
@Steeplejack: Well, yeah, and about anything by West Virginia’s own Asleep at the Wheel.
Steeplejack
Judy Collins, “Someday Soon.”
raven
Al Perkins play pedal on Torn and Frayed.
Honus
@raven: No argument here, form a boy that grew up listening to WWVA in the 60s, and thought every song had steel guitar.
The Big Country was a great 50,000 watt C&W monster in those days. Every trucker in the east listened, and the station turned its signal toward Canada at night.
jl
And I’m a sucker for this stuff from Hawaii.
Need to start a petition to have a concert at the WH, ’cause Obama has to be a fan, right?
Bobby Ingano-“E Aloha No Honolulu”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-d5Qh5yXYw
raven
@Honus: Paw Paw. Ray and I have an uncanny resemblance and I shot the shit with him outside of a show in the 70’s and he thought he was talking in a mirror! He is a good bit bigger than I am.
cleek
@gbear:
misread.
Jr. Brown is my steel guy.
Honus
@raven: Great song. I love Ritchie Furay’s ringing voice in the a capella part at the beginning
biff diggerence
Marrakesh Express. But, I’m an old fuck.
Steeplejack
@jl:
Which is why Ailuridae posted it at No. 3.
raven
@cleek: Guitsteel.
jl
Hawaiian Steel Guitar Classics 1927 – 1938
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o031JMU6K8
SatanicPanic
@Steeplejack: You wouldn’t call certain types of resonator steel guitar? I thought that’s what they were made of.
raven
@Honus: Poco was really good, I thought Rusty was Neil’s brother for years.
raven
@SatanicPanic: I think some of us just differentiate between a pedal steel and the rest. Not that one or the other is better.
jl
@Steeplejack: Damn, how did I miss that? I was looking for it. Thanks. Glad it was the first one posted.
divF
“Four Wheel Drive” written by Buddy Emmons. The best performances I’ve seen are one at the Keystone Berkeley in the 1970’s by Lucky Oceans when he was with Asleep at the Wheel , and this one by Herby Wallace.
cleek
@raven:
i’m counting it.
jl
Put on your cowboy hat, take off the silver spurs, and sit down with a nice tropical drink.
Bobby Ingano-“Hula Blues”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4F4vRmZa-M
Steeplejack
@SatanicPanic:
That’s what many of them are made of, but in musical parlance—perhaps old-school parlance—when someone called for steel guitar they typically meant pedal steel guitar. If they were referring to the other they said Dobro or lap-steel. And it has to do with the unique sound of the instrument, not just the construction materials.
raven
@cleek: Your Wanted by the Police and My Wife Thinks Your Dead!
MomSense
I guess this doesn’t count according to the definition we are following, but I don’t care!
Booker White Aberdeen Mississippi Blues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsMpHHSLSlc
J.D. Rhoades
There’s also the lap steel guitar–basically a steel guitar with no pedals.
Ben Harper-Why Must You Always Dress In Black
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a4XnOhNjxc
David Lindley used to play one with Jackson Browne:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmiptK6C8g4
Montysano
When we lived in New Orleans in the 80s, we were huge fans of King Sunny Ade. He made nice use of pedal steel:
Ja Funmi
One of my favorite albums of 2013 was the debut album by Muscle Shoals band Belle Adair. It’s really lovely, spacey alt-folk/country:
The Unwelcome Guest
Trollhattan
Happened to catch Robert Randolph front for the Slide Brothers last year and it was a mind-blowing show. (Quick googling) Hey, it was this show right here.
http://www.slidebrothers.com/photos/?album=1&gallery=21
Just phenomenal musicianship. There was a talk beforehand in which I learned the slide guitar filled in for the church organ in congregations too poor to afford one. Another in the infinite list of Things I Didn’t Know.
I need to catch Keb Mo and Jerry Douglas someday. The latter hopefully with Allison Krause.
Ned Ludd
The “steel” in steel guitar refers to the metal bar that’s used in the left hand, not the composition of the guitar itself. That said, “steel guitar” is generally understood to mean a type of guitar that is played flat either in the player’s lap (lap steel), or with legs (table steel, etc.). “Pedal steel guitar” has foot pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of sets of strings to create different chord voicings, but not all steel guitars have these.
Regular guitars or resonator guitars (dobros) played with slides or steels are generally not referred to as “steel guitar”.
J.D. Rhoades
@MomSense:
Love that.
Steeplejack
Bobby Bare, “Detroit City.”
Steeplejack
How could I forget?! Patsy Cline, “I Fall to Pieces.”
jl
@raven:
Just in case Brown’s contraption is considered steel guitar:
Junior Brown-My Wife Thinks You’re Dead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRMNeoaosQw
john f
Hank Williams, the short solo in I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
Led Zeppelin That’s the Way
Kelly Willis Happy With That from her What I Deserve album.
burnspbesq
@srv:
Anything Robert Randolph
True. But first and foremost “The March.” And the version from the 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival beats the version from Live at the Wetlands.
The first song I ever heard that had pedal steel in it was the leadoff track fron The Gilded Palace of Sin, “Christine’s Tune.”
Best use of an effects pedal to make a pedal steel sound like something else: Rusty Young. Never figured out how he was able to make a pedal steel sound like a Hammond B-3.
Dobro should probably be its own category.
MomSense
@jl:
Love Junior Brown!!
Trollhattan
Also, too, slide, not steel guitar from the master–Muddy Waters and his band circa 1971. Watch him make that Telecaster cry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe2LZYFaIho
raven
@Steeplejack: Give me that guitar, take this rifle.
SatanicPanic
@Ned Ludd: OK that makes sense. Never was clear on the definitions
Misha
“The Train, the Drink, and the Dawn” by Kill County. (That’s a location video shoot; the studio track is on their Bandcamp page.)
raven
@Trollhattan: I wish I could find a copy of “After the Rain” with I Am The Blues!
Holy crap!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIbFJETrScI
Steeplejack
@Ned Ludd:
Agree with this. Good clarification.
Steeplejack
@raven:
“You can stay, boy, but that’s gotta go.”
Montysano
I was in Nashville recently and caught the regular Monday night show by the local studio all-star band The Time Jumpers, and was lucky to sit about 8′ away from the legendary Paul Franklin:
Together Again
My mind was properly blown.
Steeplejack
@raven:
I was waiting for you to drop in some Poco, but I can’t wait any longer: “You Better Think Twice.”
Montysano
@divF: this one by Herby Wallace
Holy Jeebus in the key of E9, that dude was amazing!
The Republic of Stupidity
Al Perkins on Gram Parsons’ version of ‘Love Hurts’ from Grievous Angel…
And if you like truly crazy, there’s always the fabulous Speedy West w/ Jimmy Nichols, from Tennessee Williams’ band in the 50’s…
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I have to echo others with the Bob Wills recs. IMO the best use of the pedal steel in the past 20 years of rock is Son Volt’s The Wind.
BGinCHI
Damn, really late to this thread but I LOVE that first Star Room Boys record!
After my time in Athens, alas, so I didn’t get to see them play.
burnspbesq
I have a Buddy Emmons LP from around 1975 on which he played the Pachelbel Canon in D. Pretty amazing stuff.
Bottyguy
Whit Wright of American Aquarium, “Clark Ave” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gANOVAH5FLI
raven
@BGinCHI: Well then
cintibud
I first got turned on to steel guitar from Neil Young’s “Harvest” album.
Edit: Oh, and Jr. Brown!
burnspbesq
@Montysano:
There is some great steel playing on the album he recently did with Vince Gill, Bakersfield.
BGinCHI
@raven: Gold!
I love the song “Gastonia.” And that was recorded for a Patterson Hood wedding party! Oh mama.
Amy
I haven’t scanned the WHOLE thread to see if this song is mentioned yet, but since AMC is criminally under-recognized, odds are excellent that it hasn’t been. Let me just toss into the ring American Music Club’s gorgeous Firefly from the album California. Can’t find a good mp3 or video, sorry … :-(
raven
@BGinCHI: We aim to please.
realbtl
Rusty Young pre-Poco used to play with a local rock band around Boulder CO in the late 60’s. He absolutely killed playing Hendrix on the pedal steel.
Steeplejack
One more: Patsy Cline, “Walkin’ After Midnight.”
Bill E Pilgrim
Late to this but “Rainbows All Over Your Blues” by Jon Sebastian was the first time I really noticed steel guitar, having grown up in San Francisco and not, you know, Nashville. It seemed like a pretty great example of pedal steel playing but what did I know, but when I asked someone who followed that stuff who “Buddy Emmons” was he said oh boy, let me tell you… turns out to have been by one of the best if not the best ever. Great solo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfk3wBeeaLY
The Republic of Stupidity
@burnspbesq:
Ya know, that does sound good…
Bill E Pilgrim
@Ned Ludd: Thanks, I hadn’t even clicked to play the video before I commented, I assumed we were talking about pedal steel when I read “steel guitar” because yeah, as you say.
What’s in that video is usually referred to as “slide” guitar, not steel.
Viperbuck
@Steeplejack, @raven, @cintibud
You 3 are all referencing the same cat. The great Ben Keith got his start in Nashville playing in Faron Young’s band and spent the early ’60s playing sessions including “I Fall To Pieces” for Patsy Cline and “Detroit City” for Bobby Bare.
When Neil Young came to town to do the Johnny Cash Show and start recording the “Harvest” album, producer Elliot Mazer called Ben Keith when Neil requested a pedal steel player. A musical and personal friendship was formed and Ben played on many of Neil’s albums until he passed away in July of 2010.
I’m sure Neil paid him well, but his ship came in big time when he produced Jewel’s debut album which sold more than 10 million copies.
James E Powell
Zevon – Bad luck streak in dancing school- most of the album
Steeplejack
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Gee, you made me realize I did the same thing. I didn’t listen to the Stones song in the original post but immediately went into a YouTube spiral thinking of great “[pedal] steel guitar” songs.
Steeplejack
@Viperbuck:
Great information! Thanks.
My earliest musical memories are of “country” music, so steel guitar has always sounded “normal” to me—not just some exotic instrument brought in for effect.
Fred
“High Time” by Grateful Dead. Not fancy but Garcia could play that thing with soul.
A Ghost To Most
@raven:
John Neff left the Drive-By Truckers a couple months ago. Too bad; he is my favorite steel player.
raven
@Viperbuck: Thanks.
The Illogical Planner
Can’t believe it got this far w/ no one mentioning the pedal steel in Joni Mitchell’s California. It always takes my breath away.
TIP
kindness
I have problems with ‘best’. I mean, as with this question there are so many great ones, you can’t really rate one to another especially if it’s a subtly different type of song.
For instance, the Country and Western peddle steel guitarists are certainly the most prolific but the few rock songs that incorporate it (Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Byrds, Old & In The Way, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, Poco etc) it is also frequently a very important part of the melody/counterpoint. How do you say one is better than another? I don’t.
MaximusNYC
This is not steel guitar (it’s synthesizers and drum machines), but it is a great ditty about office work:
https://soundcloud.com/vile-electrodes/office-politiks-explicit
Oh, and it’s NSFW, so listen on headphones if you’re in your cubicle…
Guiseppe Madre
Lap steel rather than pedal, but still a great tune and definitely not your standard steel guitar song/solo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqUa_G1h3pw
LTT
@DougJ “and even though the song is about office work”
What the fuck is wrong with you? Are songs supposed to be about only certain things? Fucking hell.
Bishop Bag
@Fred: Dating myself but the Grateful Dead shows 69 – 71 always had the New Riders of the Purple Sage second billed and Jerry Garcia would play with them and then do the regular Dead show. He was amazing on peddle steel and always looked like he was having a blast playing it. Fun Times!! I really miss Jerry…
Billy K.
@DougJ: Star Room Boys? Now that is a name I haven’t heard in a long time…
I assume you mean the sorta modern-loungy honky-tonk group. They swung their tour van through my old sleepy town many years ago. Still have their CD somewhere. Great band.
DougJ
@LTT:
No, I just don’t expect steel guitar in a song about office work.
LT
@DougJ: Sorry for the especially grumpy comment, but that sturuck me like “Oh Bob Dylan’s okay – I just wish he could sing” kind of comment that bugs fucking hell out of me. Why is such a huge portion of our culture so fucking stupid about music, about art, about fucking life? It’s depressing.
I guess I should know you better. Never mind.
DougJ
@LT:
No problem. I do wish Bob Dylan could sing though. ;)
dp
There’s a rock band from New Orleans called the Revivalists who have pedal steel as part of their regular instrumentation, and they are awesome. Check them out: http://www.therevivalists.com/
I am a huge fan of Dobro/National guitars. Maybe my favorite song with one is Jerry Douglas playing “Daylight” with Alison Krass & Union Station. It’s the first song on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC194-JrTw0
Ned Ludd
@gbear: Pedal steel is definitely an intimidating instrument to approach but I find it much easier than drums. With drums, you really need to be able to move each limb to an independent rhythm. That’s not really what’s happening with pedal steel. It’s really about sets of combinations of pedals and levers– a given combination of pedals and levers will produce a particular chord voicing in exactly the same way that you use the fingers of your left hand to fret chord patterns on a regular 6-string guitar. So your limbs aren’t really moving independently like with drumming.
DissidentFish
The live version of Heart of the Night by Poco from the No Nukes cd. Rusty Young, I think, on steel dueling with Phil Kenzie on sax. Two sometimes dubious instruments burning all the doubt away.
Dave
First woman ever inducted into the Texas Steel Guitar Hall of Fame… Cindy Cashdollar. Amazing instrumentalist based in Austin, originally from Woodstock, NY. Plays lap steel, dobro and Weisenbornn with wonderful technique and musicality. Check her out on YouTube, and also check her first album, “Slide Show”… If you like steel guitar, you’ll love her. Her live version of Remington Ride with Red Volkaert is great.
Bill
Gotta be Harry Nilsson’s Joy.
MvR
@Steeplejack: Yeah, I was going to say Hank’s steel player, or for a different kind of steel guitar, Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark Was the Night”.
MvR
Oh yeah, David Lindley’s version of “Mercury Blues” is wonderful!