I had the pleasure of meeting Don Helms several years ago when he came to Hardy, Arkansas for a celebration show for my Mon's cousins, the Wilburn Brothers. He played for the Malpas Brothers and was fantastic on the old Hank songs. Also, back in 66, I had the opportunity to bring my group of rockers as guests on the Slim Rhodes show at the Mammoth Spring Reunion and the Great John Huey was Slim's steel player and his brother played bass. They were fantastic and John went on to great things, including becoming the steel man for Conway Twitty. I cherish these memories
I was friends with Jody Carver,steel guitar hall of fame,who worked for Leo Fender,,he passed at 93,I still have a message on my phone,miss you my brother,he played for me once,it was Angel music...
Buddy wearing that C6 smoothe out on Night Life.He is the Master,& we all owe him a huge Thank you for designing such a Beautiful instrument to share with the world.
I knew Pete Drake during my Nashville days...he always welcomed me to hang out at his studio...alone with lots of us "youngsters" when we were getting into the Nashville scene...great guy!
SPEEDY S & BRYANT S duets are in-,un-,dis- and overless improvable. Maybe Breau and Emmons came close on their duet cowjazz album on Blind Pig, or was it some other obscure tiny venture such as RCA .. LittleRoyWiggins ain t bad, but he is Hawaii, mostly. Pete Drake, Jerry Byrd, Hal Rugg, Noel Boggs, Lloyd Green, Curly Chalker, Ralph Mooney, Bob White, Maurice Anderson, Cecil Campbell, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Doug Jernigan ... LEON McAULIFFE. Thrre u go, kidFOes ...
The biggest omission (imho) was Jerry Garcia.. I'm sure all those cats were prob heros to him, but he earned his right to be there. Just listen to "Lonesome LA Cowboy" by New Riders of the Purple Sage, & "Teach Your Children", by CSNY, & you'll "get it". Rock on)!!
Agreed. Top 5, on any list of greatest steel players. It's kind subjective for position in that top 5, but I want to know how anyone hears crazy arms, rainy day woman, a million others and doesn't think of moon everytime they hear a single note of steel.
I admire Buddy Emmons. Although he didn’t “invent” (plan; design; build) the Emmons guitar, my brother-in-law, Ron Lashley, Sr. did, Buddy put his name on it because it was very good and had a very unique sound. That guitar “whines” (my description) like non other.
This is where it's at what happened to country music I think a lot of them need to stop straddling the fence jump over into pop and rap and get it over with
@@user-lw5xi9ec6p Not so fast. Isaacs did get one of the first pedal steels but he didn’t invent them. Herbert Hise working with Jay Harlin at the Harlin Brothers firm built the first one called the Music-Kord. The patent was number 2519044 which indicates it was granted in 1944. Jay Harlin held the patent. This instrument had 8 strings tuned E7 and 4 pedals. At almost the same time Gibson, in Kalamazoo then, came out with a 5 pedal instrument called the Electraharp. It looked like a desk and the 5 pedals were facing the left foot fan shaped like a hand with the the fingers stretched out. Harlin sued Gibson for patent infringement and Gibson had to stop making Electraharps. Meanwhile Bigsby had perfected his lever device and it was becoming popular. The sound got the attention of steel players who soon figured out pedals could get them all kinds of string manipulations. Forrest “Bud” Isaacs always said he was inspired by Bigsby. Harlin licensed his patent and Gibson became the first pedal steel that became widely commercially available. Other wanna be instrument makers started figuring out how to get around Harlin’s patent by changing the mechanics, like cables vs. rods, which pedals worked what strings, straight vs. rotary movement to work the strings, lever angles, etc.. Bud Isaacs is usually considered the first pedal steeler to play on a hit record, namely Webb Pierce’s “Slowly” in 1954. Actually Speedy West out in California had been using pedal steel since about 1947 on records that probably outsold Webb’s Decca single. Nevertheless Isaacs inspired a rush of Steelers to add pedals. Home made set ups had everything from chicken wire to brake pedals. Even Ralph Mooney rigged up his own pedal steel in his early days. Whatever the legal situation was, pedal steels became standardized with a few easily handled differences (see Jimmy Day) within a short time and are all about the same mechanically now. Not sure who added knee levers but they’ve been around since the late fifties. Sorry to say, Bud Isaacs passed away a few years ago, but he was playing ‘til the end.