Aww gee, where be my manners? Let me introduce myself...

[roofus_twang]

Holler y'all, how's yourselves? Myself is Ray (36) from the West Highlands, and it be mighty nice to make your collective acquaintance!

Perhaps some of y'all might have known my late Grampa? His name was Bert Llewellyn (aka Bert Burnett) and he played pedal steel in The Drovers, Canadian Pacific and The Trailblazers. I inherited his awesome Fender 400 pedal steel some years ago, and while I've enjoyed playing it in my own fashion since then, I've never really learned how to play it the correct way.

My Grampa had intended to give me lessons before he passed, but unfortunately we didn't get that chance. As such, my style of playing has mostly been the result of trial and error, but since I wasn't playing Country 'n' Western music, it didn't really matter too much.

That said, I've recently become re-acquainted with the pedal steel quite specifically through my love for First Aid Kit's ditty, Emmylou: -



I believe the pedal steel was played by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes). I'd sure love to be able to play like that, it sounds so gosh darn pretty. On the flip-side, I've also been diggin' the fantastical works of Speedy West, which sound pretty insane to me, I'm guessing he's a bit of an experimentalist.

Anyways, it's high time I stopped messing around with the pedal steel and learned to play for real. So I'm hoping to pick some brains, learn a few tricks and pick up some tips around this here forum. Thanks kindly for having me. I'll do my best not to be too much of a pest.

p.s. For anyone who's interested, I record under the guise of The Ramisco Maki Maki Rocking Horse; Little Beard (of The Kazoo Funk Orchestra); and Sir Fred (of El Jugador). Please help yourselves to some recordings featuring my many attempts at playing pedal steel:

• My Shoe Fell Off by El Jugador (2003) - http://bit.ly/my-shoe-fell-off
• Disco Disco Disco Theque by The Kazoo Funk Orchestra (2006) - http://bit.ly/disco-disco-disco-theque
• Solo Only (Instrumental) by The Kazoo Funk Orchestra (2008) - http://bit.ly/solo-only_instrumental
• Am Twitchin' by The Ramisco Maki Maki Rocking Horse (2010) - http://bit.ly/am-twitchin
• Under the Sky by The Ramisco Maki Maki Rocking Horse (2013) - http://bit.ly/under-the-sky-16
• And We Will Dance by The Ramisco Maki Maki Rocking Horse (2015) - http://bit.ly/and-we-will-dance

And hey, if my pedal steel performances haven't put you off, you can download a whole bunch of my recordings for free at Noisetrade (just put "0" in the tip box):
The Ramisco Maki Maki Rocking Horse @ http://noisetrade.com/ramiscomakimaki
The Kazoo Funk Orchestra @ http://noisetrade.com/kazoofunkorchestra

And for anyone who remembers my Grampa, I put all the recordings I had of The Drovers up on Soundcloud and all the photos and press clippings on Facebook:
Music by The Drovers @ https://soundcloud.com/thedrovers
Photos of The Drovers @ https://www.facebook.com/thedroversband/

If you're into the Twitter thing, you can follow me @ramiscomakimaki (http://www.twitter.com/ramiscomakimaki).

[Ken Byng]

Never heard the Drovers before, but whoever it is, that's a class vocalist on Welcome To My World. Nice production too

[Danny Mitchell]

Welcome Ray,

That's a right heilan cowboy style of conversing you've got going on there, I like it.

I also enjoyed the music you've posted, from the nutty leftfield of your many aliases to the classic country of your Grampa Bert's band, great stuff.

I'm sure there'll be guys on here who knew your grampa well.

I can hear the sort of naive approach in your playing, which is fine and dandy, but if you want to take it deeper you've come to the right place. I've not been playing that long myself, around 4 years, and this forum and the monthly meetings at Gartcosh of the Scottish Steelies have helped enormously.

I would strongly suggest a trip to Gartcosh, but it's a fair step from where you're domiciled up in the beautiful bit of God's country.

All the best with your trip!

Danny aka Uncle Fud aka The Bus Pass Kid aka The Pensioneer. (I do enjoy an alias myself)

[Willie Gamble]

Ken, that would be the wonderful Jim Lewellan on vocals and his brother Bert on steel, they were a great band, I had the pleasure of depping with them on a few occasions.
Sadly Bert died a few years ago, and I haven't heard of Jim for a good few years now, but he was or is a great singer.
I'm glad you liked them.

Asleep at the steel

[Ken Byng]

Ken, that would be the wonderful Jim Lewellan on vocals and his brother Bert on steel, they were a great band, I had the pleasure of depping with them on a few occasions.
Sadly Bert died a few years ago, and I haven't heard of Jim for a good few years now, but he was or is a great singer.
I'm glad you liked them.

Asleep at the steel

Well I know one thing Willie - you have some talent up there. Jim Lewellan is one of the best country singers that I have heard to come out of the UK. Sydney Devine was never my cup of tea, but Mr Lewellan is in a different class. Just wish the Drovers had made their way down our neck of the woods sometime. I would have made an effort to go and see them perform, definitely.

[roofus_twang]

Holy smokes that's quite a welcome, thanks folks, I was kinda expecting tumbleweed.

Ken - It's sure nice to hear you enjoyed that Drovers record. Willie is correct, it is indeed Jim Llewellyn on vocals (aka J.C Garrett or Jimmy Moore). Actually, I'm pretty sure it's just the two of them (Jim and Bert) on most of those recordings with the exception of the 'Fine Old Country Gold' record which featured the vocal chops of John [insert surname here] on a couple tracks, there could've been others involved too, I'm not too sure. As far as playing down your neck of the woods, I couldn't really say, but they certainly toured a lot from the mid 60s to early 70s at least. I'd have loved to have seen them throw down sometime too

Danny - Thanks muchly for that there warm welcome, I sure appreciate you appreciating my style o' conversing. Thanks for the kind words on the melodies, mighty nice of you to spare an earhole for them. Yeah I could certainly do with some pointers, coming into it as a half-assed guitarist on an 8-string steel when all the tutorials are for 10-string steels, I get a bit lost. I don't think I'll manage down to Gartcosh anytime soon, but if I find myself in the area when there be a rendezvous I'll do my best to hoof it along.

Willie - I believe we met once at the Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow. My mum, Joyce, introduced us, it would've been about 10 years or so ago, so that's about as much as I remember. Anyways, it's sure nice to be re-aquainted. As far as I know Jim's still with us, that said, he hasn't replied to my last email, so I best go follow that up.

Thanks again for the hearty welcome!

[bob adams]

Ray, your Grampa was the reason I bought a steel, I don't believe I ever missed a Tuesday night at the Normandy, if I did it certainly couldn't have been many! that Fender 400 and Jim's voice had me from hello! Jim was unquestionably the most soulful country singer in Scotland, his renditions of : Almost Persuaded, Hello Darlin, Miller's Cave, Mental Revenge and anything Haggard or Marty Robbins were outstanding, he used to sing a number called Say Goodbye that sent the shivers down your spine! I started gigging when they were quitting the Normandy and the highlight of my then early steel playing career was when 'The mountain came to Mohammed' Bert & Jim turned up to hear us at a gig in Barrhead! I nearly fell off my stool, I felt like Danny did the first night he played at Gartcosh!!! After ribbing me about all these levers and strings I had over him he said ' You are sounding great but remember your bar goes down the fretboard as well as up, there are some even nicer moves that direction... 'That remark has never left me'!

I too wish Jim would re-surface if on to have a chat with him about old times! Those were the days!!!

[Donny Johnston]

Ditto everything said above. Bert was the first person I saw playing pedal steel, A gent who did all he could to help, and the Normandy Hotel was the place to be. My past life flashes before me. Jim is a monster of a singer. I miss those days. Donny.

[roofus_twang]

Aww wow, this is all pretty incredible to hear. Y'all lived through a time that I can only imagine through old photographs and stories, and everything I have is up on the Facebook page, which ain't much considering the career they had, so hearing these stories from yourselves is really awesome - and I mean that in the true definition of awesome, not just the awesome that gets thrown around all the time.

Bob - I seem to recognise your name, perhaps we've crossed path's before or maybe my Grampa mentioned you to me, unfortunately my memory is mince, so I can't say either way, but it's lovely to be acquainted or re-acquainted. And it's really nice to hear how much my Grampa influenced you and how he supported you when you threw down your skills, it gives me a fantastic picture of the kind of guy he was out and about.

Donny - Again, lovely to hear these old stories. Great to meet you. My Grampa was also the first person I saw play pedal steel, hehe, but it was only ever at home, not in a band setting. I'm might envious of your memories.

If anyone has any photos or videos of The Drovers or Canadian Pacific, I'd sure love to see them.

Btw - Billy Neary, the sound tech and brother of John "Chips" Neary (Bassist), was on the Facebook page recently talking about old times, perhaps some of y'all know him too?

[roofus_twang]

I too wish Jim would re-surface if on to have a chat with him about old times! Those were the days!!!

I'll give him a holler