The Strange Story of the Steel Guitar, Country's Most Magical Instrument 

What makes Grady so good is making videos not many would think of asking for and they’re so well researched and told

Don Helms deserves a mention. “Hey Good Lookin” is possibly the most iconic steel guitar line in country music history

Jerry Garcia’s pedal steel intro to Nash’s Teach Your Children is one of the best opening licks in pop history.

As a Native Hawaiian we have been contributing to the mainland for a long time

I am from Ukraine. It was years ago in my teens when I heard a random song featuring steel guitar. It went deep and stroke the very bottom of my soul. Much later after doing a research I found it was country music. Forever fan of both the genre and the instrument. Keep her cryin'. It's beautiful

Wished the video would have gone twice as long, would love to see the in-depth clips of him playing!

The history lessen we didn't know we needed. I loved it! Great job, Grady.

I’m surprised Speedy West didn’t get a mention. I’ve been a huge fan of Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West my whole life. There playing never gets old.

I'm not a particularly big fan of country, but I've always found this instrument fascinating, especially the pedal steel with all its complexities. I'm glad videos like this exist, and I hope the instrument expands into more genres

Steel guitar has ALWAYS been my favorite instrument since I could remember, and it is what spoke to me most in my love for country music. I play lap steel, and my favorite thing to do is incorporate jazz in it as he showed the night life album. To me, country isn’t country without the steel

I saw Reed with CWG in Columbus back in April. The crowd was so electric whenever he would do a solo. So much talent.

I was blessed enough to see Junior Brown twice. He built his own steel guitar combined with an electric guitar and switches between both while standing up. Definitely take a trip through his music, he does the opening for Better Call Saul and has been a legend for several decades now.

I always enjoyed hearing Sneaky Pete Kleinow, the pedal steel player for Gram Parsons band Grievous Angel and David Lindley who played lap guitar for Jackson Browne, both in the mid-seventies.

How could he not mention Ralph Mooney. He's the best steel guitar player ever. RIP moon

I would like to see beginner’s guides for other iconic and influential instruments in country music like the fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and fender telecaster guitar.

"When you hear twin fiddles and a *steel guitar,* you're listening to the sound of the American heart." -George Strait, in 'Heartland'

Have to talk about Jerry Byrd, the first inductee into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame, and who was known as the “master of touch and tone”…. He left Nashville when it appeared to him that Country Music was getting away from the sound he was using in the 1950s, and he moved to Hawaii, where he died about 15 years ago… my dad played steel in 1952 for Little Jimmy Dickens and became friends with Jerry Byrd…

There was some kind of World's Fair or Exposition in the US in the early 1900s, like 1904 or 1906 I think, and Hawaiian musicians were brought over to perform; people went absolutely crazy for it. This was likely the first major introduction of lap steel guitar playing to mainland America. There is an excellent 4-part PBS documentary called American Epic, about the "songcatchers", both amateurs and professional promoters, who fanned out across America with portable recording equipment in the early 1900's. It contains capsule histories of various music styles including Hawaiian music, Cajun music, Dixieland jazz, blues, country, folk and so on, fleshing out some of the subjects covered in Ken Burns country music series and delving into other tangential subjects. The story of the rediscovery of Mississippi John Hurt is particularly poignant; and the final episode features a lovingly restored 1929 Western Electric record cutter and amplifier system in gleaming brass and gold with a rack full of tubes. Famous musicians including Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, Elton John, and others show up to cut 78 rpm records direct to disk through a single shared microphone! A great series if you can still find it. I watched it a couple years ago online via Amazon Prime. I'm generally a bit more into hard edged lap steel (for blues and rock) than I am into pedal steel, but some of the players I like include David Lindley, Megan Lovell (of Larkin Poe), Junior Brown, and Cindy Cashdollar (Asleep at the Wheel). Several other people here have mentioned that you kind of forgot about Speedy West, who is every bit as influential as Buddy Emmons. You might have noted that Buddy played with Danny Gatton, or vice versa! If you wanna hear some really unusual lap steel playing, check out Dan Dubuque here on RU-vid; he plays heavily amplified *acoustic* Weissenborn lap steel, with lots of distortion and effects, in a very rhythmic and percussive style, and plays covers of Tool, Nirvana, and Rage Against the Machine songs. A huge sound! You wouldn't think this would work at all, but I really like it, even though the songs are a bit outside of my usual tastes. How is it that bottleneck-style slide guitar was never mentioned? It's just a different branch on the same slide-guitar tree. Some of my faves are Ry Cooder, John Mooney, Johnny Winter, Duane Allman, the awesome Dave Hole from Oz, and last but not least, Sonny Landreth, who combines the fingerpicking of Chet Atkins with the slide of Robert Johnson and Johnny Winter, and the electricity of Hendrix. He has been John Hiatt's secret weapon for several decades, and a regular at the Crossroads festival; Knofler, Clapton, and Brad Gill all sing his praises.... Other lap steel players worth listening to are David Lindley, Meghan Lovell, Cindy Cashdollar and Junior Brown. Even David Gilmour of Pink Floyd played lap steel on records and concerts, as did Steve Howe of Yes.

Love that Hoot Gibson has a part in this amazing story! He was one of my grandpa’s favorite cowboy actors.

This was an eye opener! I truly didn't know anything, like, whenever Grady's mentioned the "steel" in the instrumentation I've had no clue what he was talking about. The history was fascinating and now having language to put to that sound I grew up listening to is something I'm grateful for. Plus, Read had such a kind and generous personality, I was just smiling watching him. I'm sure his students love him. Loved the video and hope for more informative ones in the future!

Grady Smith is the one stop shop for all a country fan can ask for

What a swath of information we are so lucky to have. Read, thank you for giving us your insight, it's truly a treat. Thanks Grady for setting it up, keep up the amazing work. Your choice of topics you decide to cover is unrivaled.

I now desperately need to hear someone put a steel guitar through some absolutely GNARLY fuzz pedals

I'm honestly surprised that Junior Brown didn't get a mention here because he created a gut steel instrument that combines steel guitar and a guitar in one

I was always a fan of 1950’s music, and I was always drawn to the sound of a steel guitar in a lot of 50’s rock and roll, so I’ve never thought of the sound of the steel guitar as sad, it’s always put a smile on my face when I hear it,

For what it's worth, I have lived in Hawaii for most of my life, and I respect you for acknowledging the Hawaiian part of steel history! Thank you and aloha!

Awesome video. I was at that Jesse Daniel concert in Nashville! The concert was awesome in general, but Caleb Melo absolutely rocked it, even played with his face covered at one point. It was amazing!

As a longtime steel player myself, and an active member of the Steel Guitar Forum, I really enjoyed this video. No errors at all. The main thing that was missed out is why the pedals are there, to allow access to chords which couldn't be played with just a tone bar and open tuning, even with C6. I'm surprised there was no mention of Jerry Byrd and Don Helms, but you can't get to everyone.

I have always been a huge fan of the Steel Guitar and have always appreciated how much attention you bring to it in the videos. This is another great one.

Really wish there were more pedal steel players around. Would love to learn but it’s very expensive to get started. It’s the best instrument in country music, in my opinion. Would like to see a part two!

I love the sound of steel but knew hardly anything about it, this was such a cool interview! Read’s passion for the instrument was so great to see, looking forward to see him play next month

Great history. Never in a millions years would I have guessed that it came from Hawaii. But it just shows how all music have such complex paternities and lineage influences.

What a good start of the day is watching this episode of Grady! Thanks and greetings from the Netherlands

Just like your deep dive into Hunter Hayes and convo about Canada Country Music, you did it again! I love these formats as I learn about something that I didn't think about before. Keep up the great work!

Back in 1962, when I was a young lad, my local record shop near Birmingham (UK) stocked a lot of American country guitarists' LPs. One that I bought (I still have) is 'Nashville steel guitar' (Starday/London) with instrumentals by Pete Drake, Jimmy Day, Don Helms, Herby Remington, Dick Stubbs, Al Petty, and Little Roy Wiggins. 60 years later, it's still a great record.

having pedal steel and just steel tunes playing on a loop will be something so soothing to just zone out. no vocals...just steel on its glory swinging through all the moods. I think it will even help on finding sleep in restless nights

Love this video, I have always loved the lap steel, dobro and steel guitar even though I am a rock and roller. Found out many years ago that my grandfather on my Mom’s side played Hawaiian lap steel in bands in Hawaii. All the players you mentioned I love. Also Rusty Young who recently passed away, and Cindy Cashdollar.

Nice interview. Lloyd Green is my favorite. Exquisite. The ukulele reached Hawaii on 22 August 1879, first played there on that day by Portuguese. About 400 of them were brought on a ship to work on the sugar plantations. They brought what is now called the ukulele with them, and Hawaiians loved it. It’s a Portuguese instrument.

Hi Grady and Reed, you both did a great job! Thanks for your big support to the steelguitar community! Johan

The 2019 book about the history of the electric guitar, “The Birth of Loud” has detour through the history of lap steel. When steel players got amplified they got all the solos, which made regular guitar players want to amplify so they could get solos too. That lead to the invention of the electric guitar. It also mentions that during the Hawaiian music fad, bands would play what we would call country one night and Hawaiian the next. They weren’t going to leave the steel player at home on country nights, which is how steel became part of country. What’s striking to me is that a long forgotten musical fad lit sparks that lead to the defining sounds of both country and rock.

Just need to leave this here: I definitely missed a mention of Larkin Poe and Megan Lovell here. It’s not exactly country, but they are putting the steel guitar in the center of attention of their relatively young audience:)

I play both pedal steel and dobro and I love learning about the history of the steel guitar!

Thank you so much! I for one really needed this video for my own curiosity. I've been learning lap steel for 5 years and can't get enough of the history.

Great video. I started playing in the last few years, and I'll echo what was said in the video, the steel guitar community is very welcoming and supportive.

I wish this video had been around 10 years ago. It more or less sums up and validates everything I’d learned through years and years of scouring the internet with little to no guidance whatsoever (barring some obvious holes). I’m excited/jealous for any newb steel players that find this vid as a starting point.

I love listening to the steel guitar, particularly the Pedro or Dobro steels. It really is country music’s most magical instrument. I knew Bob Wills first popularized it in the mainstream but I want to thank Reed for giving us more insight into the instrument and I wish him and all the other steel players good fortune.

I'm so behind watching because you're on a roll with these videos! Finally got to watch this one, super interesting stuff. You're really good at finding cool people to interview and interviewing them well.

This video could have been twice as long and I would have loved every minute. In the mid-50s our family traveled from Virginia to California by car through the south. I was less than 10. My father loved music, so the radio was always on. That's how I fell in love with anything played on steel.

Wow, I loved this. I hope you put out more of these historical/educational videos, I enjoy them so much

I've been thinking about learning a different instrument. I'll definitely use this video as a guide on if I decide on doing something like this. Thank you for the video Grady. It was very nice and informative about an instrument I barely knew about.

I was at CWG concert in Fort Worth earlier this year. I was standing near the front row and was blown away by Read’s performance!

Live forever - billy joe shaver The best example of a steel guitar in history. I love that song.

Such a brilliant video! Deep dives like this show the rich diversity of country music's history. Country music today is often aligned with a white vision of what America 'used' to be - when in actuality many of the tools and mediums used to express stories were created/adopted by black Americans, Hawaiians, Native Americans, European immigrants, and more. Country music is so much more than the limited idea of American history and culture, and it is wonderful to see how different voices have contributed to the genre's evolution. Thank you Read and Grady.

Keep it up Grady! You provide info and insight that no one else in the industry is doing. Kudos!

Nice interview! I love the sound of all the modalities steel offers. Learned a few new names to lookout for as well.

This was the best video I’ve seen all week, thank you Reed and Grady!

This was cool, thanks Grady! Watched a Paul Franklin rig rundown video one time and just amazed how complicated pedal steel is.

Steel guitar is capable of adding amazing harmonic textures to a song that no other instrument can match. My golden example for pedal steel is the album version of “These Days” from Greg Allman’s solo album, Laid Back. I also liked hearing it on Working Man’s Dead by the Greatful Dead. The group traveled to Nashville(?) in 1970 to record their second album and though there was some collaboration with country music players, Jerry Garcia learned the rudiments of steel guitar and played it on several tracks which added wonderful mood and character to those songs.

This was a super cool video, Grady. Love it and awesome that Read was able to come on!

Literally got chills when Reed demonstrated “sad country” on the steel. That’s just why I love that instrument so much

This brought me back to my childhood, my grandpa had a custom built three neck Hawaiian/Steel Guitar, and he and his band used to play lots of dances back in the 1930's and 1940's. So I grew up with lots of music from the late 1800's forward, especially Western and Swing.

I hung out with Read after a CWG show in Asheville, NC. When you said you had an expert I was hoping it was him! Super friendly guy and extremely talented. Can’t wait to see him play a two show at Red Rocks!

I love the steel guitar. It can instantly give anything a country vibe. Brian Eno used pedal steel on his Apollo album as a tribute to the southern upbringing of some of the astronauts on that mission, to stunning effect (for the steel guitar nerds out there, Daniel Lanois played steel on that album). And it would be an oversight to not mention that the theme from Lon Lon Ranch in Zelda: OoT has a midi steel guitar sound, really giving that place a true Western vibe. Anyway, the care and work you put into this video is recognized. Thanks Grady!

Interesting and very cool video. Love the history behind this amazing instrument. Lloyd Green is the first person I think of when I think the steel so nice to hear him being recognized here as one of the GOATs. Thanks for doing this one!

Very glad to see Grady get someone who knows his stuff! Loved this video

Great video! It reminded me of the Cocaine and Rhinestones episode about Ralph Mooney. If anyone wants to learn more fascinating information about steel guitar and its place in country music, I highly recommend that episode as well as the series in its entirety.

Great video! And I say this as more of a general guitar fan, as opposed to a country music fan. Your enthusiasm (and Read’s too!) is pretty infectious. I loved the history lesson, I was aware of the role of Hawaiian guitar in developing slide guitar techniques, but not the names or the timelines, that was great to learn. Keep up the great work!

Awesome historical and current breakdown of this distinctive instrument that brings such a great sound to music tracks!

this is amazing stuff! I'm so glad to have learned this and I'm so glad you've both shared !

Great stuff! Really enjoyed this format and style of video Grady. I'm a fan of Smith Curry. He has put in some amazing work on our record! I absolutely have grown to love that classic steel sound!

Thanks for shouting out Laurel Cove Music festival, the most amazing venue ever!!! Super cool video Grady! Love love love. Steel guitar's sure make the music a million times better

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Reed a couple times when opening for CWG. Absolutely top notch musician and a even better guy to talk to!

Great work - I made a point of messaging Read on the Steel Guitar Forum, thanking him. Absolutely spot on, even mentioned my friend Susan Alcorn - great interview! I appreciate what you do - keep it up!

I've dabbled in lap steel guitar, playing and reading up on it for 30 years or so. The info in this video is spot on. Thanks for rounding up all these facts. To go much further afield, check out David Lindley (best known for his work with Jackson Browne) and the Indian steel guitar master Debashish Bhattacharya.

Sara Jory needs to be mentioned. Ok she’s from the uk but she made one of the best records of country standards when she was a kid!

This was super interesting! Waylon's "Rainy Day Woman" has the most hypnotic steel guitar of any song I know. It completely makes the song.

I’ve also heard “pedal steel” as a term in the studio which I operate one in the southern coalfields in WV. You guys have a great thing going on campus, as a friend of mine’s band landed a deal with the label at WVU, and a friend’s daughter did as well! One of my colleagues mentioned Buddy Emmons, and it’s unfortunate what compelled him to retirement. His music lives on!

My grandfather played steel almost all his life and I remember him playing sleep walk all the time, so the steel guitar is a very special instrument to me

Incredible video Grady! I never knew there was so much to know about steel.

Great video Grady! Loved the part where you were throwing out themes for Reed to play - super neat to see his ability demonstrated like that

Great Video, I’ve been wanting to learn to play this instrument for awhile. Ever since I heard Robbie Flint playing on Alan Jackson’s “Midnight in Montgomery” I was in love with that sound, maybe obsessed would be a better word. A key point in steel guitar history to mention is around 1953 when Buddy Issacs played on Webb Pierce’s “Slowly.” He had altered his lap steel guitar using door hinges and wire to “bend” the strings. Basically being the first to create and use that pedal steel sound changed the way people played from that point on. If I had to choose, my steel guitar “Mount Rushmore” would probably have to be Ralph Mooney, Buddy Emmons, Tom Brumley, and John Hughey.

Country without steel is less than satisfactory. I love all songs that start with a steel guitar!❤ fantastic interview.

What a legendary interview, even if this doesn't blow up in the moment, it will go down in the books. No doubt in my mind.

Solid video on the history and use of steel guitars. As a player myself I loved it.

Fabulous video. My uncle used to build and play steel guitars in the 70s so this brought back tons of memories

Dont forget about Junior Brown and his "GitSteel"

Thanks for sharing this. I found this super informative. I never really knew the differences in steel. I knew I loved the sound Hal Ketchum used to have with the dobro to Robert Randolph bluesy style, and all of the other styles also.

The steel guitar is really one of the things that got me into country music, and it's crazy just how lucky we had to get for that whole history to even come together. That just goes to show God loves him some steel

This was AWESOME! Thanks for the perfect combo of music + history :)

I was very glad you included Barbara Mandrell in the list of greats - - I saw her in Germany in 1970, she played Proud Mary on her steel guitar (she also played guitar and banjo), best I have ever heard that song sound.

Currently about 5 years in learning the Lap steel. Played guitar for 40+ years and thought "how hard could it be"? The answer is really freekin hard - but so rewarding. Great video Grady.

Cool video! Great history and music lesson from a great musician who really knows his stuff!

I just saw Robert Randolph open up for Zac Brown Band! He also played with them during the end of the show.

I'll be honest, I don't really like much country music but the sound of the steel guitar is absolutely amazing.

My favorite 3 - Sol Hoopii, Bob Dunn (Musical Brownies) + Ralph Mooney on the early Buck Owens records. This was a freaking cool video

Grady, this is the coolest video I've seen of yours! More of this type of stuff! Let's dig into the history.

Fascinating history and a really good interview! I have always wondered about this instrument. Very interesting!

This is one of the best videos I’ve seen in a long time. Well done to both of you!

Read is delightful. Thank you for the interview.

Great video !! As a budding Bluegrass Dobro player, I really enjoyed hearing the history of "steel". Cheers from Akron, Ohio.