A day in the life of a Nashville studio steel player.

[Ken Byng]

I almost forgot, and how could I?

A heads up for a British steel player who I saw in Nashville last week. Spencer Cullum was only on the Opry!! He was part of Caitlin Rose's band, and she was given a standing ovation for her first ever performance at the Opry. Spencer played ok. He had to follow Tommy White - never a great experience for anyone. I would politely say that Spencer is still in the transitional phase between out and out novice and proficient player, but the boy done good as we say. It looked very much as though Spencer was playing an S10 Show Pro to me. If so I would say he is a man of good taste. I will check with Jeff to confirm.

Just spoke to Jeff, who confirmed that he built Spencer a special Show Pro with built in tone & volume controls and his own name on the front. Spencer is a protege of Russ Pahl in Nashville, so look out for a rapid improvement in his playing over the next few years.

[Will C]

I told him that I don't know all of them, but mentioned Gerry Hogan, BJ Cole, Pete Hayward, Derek Thurlby, and one or two others including Sarah Jory.

Does that mean you don't think much of Dave Hartley then, Ken? <evil grin>

[Malcolm]

Ken so glad you had a fantastic time, wish I could have stayed on and gone on trip with you.Drive safe, and a have good flight back.Speak to you when you get back.Thanks for all the tremendous reports.Malcolm

[Ted Nesbitt]

Ken, tell the TSA guys that you are a good friend of Ivor (The Driver) Greenwood, that will do the trick. No doubt when you get back to this side of the ditch
Mr Roy Heap will be looking for a story. You could fill all the pages of his magazine with great stories of this trip alone. Have a safe trip back to DFW my friend
and I look forward to a call from you sometime next week.

PS.... The more I play this Infinity the more I like it.
Regards
Ted

[Ken Byng]

I told him that I don't know all of them, but mentioned Gerry Hogan, BJ Cole, Pete Hayward, Derek Thurlby, Dave Nash and one or two others including Sarah Jory.

Does that mean you don't think much of Dave Hartley then, Ken? <evil grin>

You know, that kind of remark is the reason why many of the better players in the UK don't post here. Just think before you do this, especially when you take a line out of a paragraph and it is out of context. Bobbe Seymour was well aware of David already!!!

Ken so glad you had a fantastic time, wish I could have stayed on and gone on trip with you.Drive safe, and a have good flight back.Speak to you when you get back.Thanks for all the tremendous reports.Malcolm

Malcolm
We could have had a great road trip if your situation had been different and you had the availability to come to Music City with me.

[Ken Byng]

Ken, tell the TSA guys that you are a good friend of Ivor (The Driver) Greenwood, that will do the trick. No doubt when you get back to this side of the ditch
Mr Roy Heap will be looking for a story. You could fill all the pages of his magazine with great stories of this trip alone. Have a safe trip back to DFW my friend
and I look forward to a call from you sometime next week.

PS.... The more I play this Infinity the more I like it.
Regards
Ted

Hi Ted
The State Patrol officers over here were so gratified to learn that Ivor had gone back to the UK. They wanted to do him for speeding, but they just couldn't keep up with him!

I am so pleased that you love your Infinity. I reckon that now the Franklin guitar is no longer being make by Paul Snr, the infinity will take over as the most sought after guitar on the market. I can see the price of Infinity's going through the roof actually. Buck's tie in with it can't hurt it either. I might see if Spencer can sub me for a new D10 in dark blue lacquer in time for the next Dallas Show.I bet Mr Greenwood will be tempted at some point.

Word has reached Nashville re the awesome Telonics TCA500 combo amp. Tommy and Mike J both asked me about it. Buck obviously saw it at Dallas. Jeff told me yesterday that he thought my Carter sounded incredible through it, so that means one thing. Move over Webb, you have a new stable partner coming to join you this year (hopefully before the Irish Steel Festival !). Mr Dunn just needs to get enough names down from interested parties to get a worth while consignment over here.

Speak soon mate - really enjoyed your company at Dallas.
Ken

[elparkirio]

And the winner of best thread of the year goes to Mr. Ken Byng!

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading all of this. I dream of one day making the move to Nashville and mixing it with the big boys. It's nice to know that some of the most talented musicians in the world can be so humble and live in a place together and seemingly get on and respect each other. I've been a few times and met some unreal musicians and everyone has been super friendly and super helpful.

Ps. If Spencers guitar was yellow then yes, it is one of Jeffs.

[Ken Byng]

And the winner of best thread of the year goes to Mr. Ken Byng!

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading all of this. I dream of one day making the move to Nashville and mixing it with the big boys. It's nice to know that some of the most talented musicians in the world can be so humble and live in a place together and seemingly get on and respect each other. I've been a few times and met some unreal musicians and everyone has been super friendly and super helpful.

Ps. If Spencers guitar was yellow then yes, it is one of Jeffs.

Thank you Matt - that is so kind of you.

There are 4 tiers of steel players in Nashville. The top tier belongs to Paul Franklin, Mike Johnson and perhaps Tommy White. This is in terms of income generation and ability to name their own price on sessions. I know for sure that Paul is a millionaire several time over. Not sure about the other 2 guys, but they are not struggling to live that's for sure.

The second tier are the road players, session players on smaller labels, bar players and teachers, like Buck, Doug Jernigan, Sonny Garrish, Tim Sergeant, Cal Sharp, Mike Sweeney, Bob Hempker, Vic Lawson and many others. These guys make a living. Never going to be considered as wealthy, but make a decent living.

Third tier are the club players who are a part of local country music bands. Some of these guys play really well, and I met some of them while I have been over here. These guys have day jobs in the main, and this enables them to play with who they want to and when they want to.

The 4th tier, to put it bluntly are just crap players who will never be able to play as long as they have an orifice down under in their nether regions. I saw one or two of these, and they appear to be there to make the numbers up in third rate bands who need a steel player but can't attract the calibre of players to make the band sound good.

Matt, if you can start in the 3rd tier, and maybe work you way up, then it can be done. I see a massive gulf between 1st and 2nd tier players in terms of income, but certainly not in ability. Some of the 2nd tier players are mustard, as with Buck. The good thing is that they all get on OK, and take their share of the pie without upsetting the balance. One thing is for sure, you cannot afford to rest on your laurels out here. I thought that I could play a bit, but sitting 3 feet from Buck Reid showed me that I know sod all. He plays stuff that you can only dream of playing, and even frightens some of the 1st tier players at the steel guitar shows. They don't want to follow him.

Hope that helps to give an insight to the situation here.

KB

[Mark]

What a great great trip Ken, and thank you for sharing it. You're right about Buck in the Telonics room... watching his picking technique so close up was a real treat! And in the same day... Steve Palousak!

Interesting that you mentioned his 7th raise, I must admit I struggled for years swapping between lowering the 6th and raising the 7th. It's interesting to hear how top players like Buck have their guitars arranged - good info.

Also interesting to learn about his C6 pedal 4 change... I use the standard pedal 4 change, but I have the string 2 lower on a lever... John Hughey kept the standard pedal 4, but also had that string 10 full tone raise; in addition he dropped string a 5 full tone on the same lever... Wish I knew about that change.

With regards to the Telonics Combo, a few of the next production batch will definitely be shipped into the UK; Dave told me last night, he greatly appreciates the support Telonics gets in the UK and Europe.
He said, combo cases with no corners need to be specially selected... and at least a couple of guys from the UK express a preference for no corners (Ken and myself)... So only the best combo's will be sent to the UK I could resist saying... that makes a change! I should say, this is a standing joke... someone told me a while back, all the best sounding steel guitars are kept in the US. I just happened to mention this to Dave, and it amused him.

Hope you have a safe journey home Ken.

Mark

[Ken Byng]

Hi Mark
I would have been cool with corners or no corners. I will probably put chromed metal ones on when mine arrives in any case. Goog news on the amp anyway. I think that after having so many players telling me that my tone was good (if not better than good) on stage that it convinced me that I had to have one. Give me a shout when it has arrived and I will arrange payment.

Re Palousek, he is also one of my favourite players, as I brought his CD to your place a few years back if you remember. He is a guy who lives on his nerves. He is hyper, and sweats profusely when he is playing. His lovely wife has straightened him out from the booze, as he nearly died of liver failure just under a couple of years back. He was in a bit of a mess, and she has done a great job to get him back on the straight and narrow. Great, great player, and he really digs into the strings when he picks, the same as Buck, Paul, Mike and Tommy. Picking really hard on either neck does give you much more sustain. Interesting that Steve didn't stay around long on the Mullen G2, and has gone over to the superb Rittenberry. The Ritts are up there with the top tone machines.

Buck changes things around on his tunings quite regularly. Always experimenting. He has the 6th string lower on one of his LKL levers, and the F# - G# change on RKL. Gives him a lovely Maj7 with pedals down and some lovely moving changes that he can't do without. I might forgo my LKV change and put the F# - G# change on the vert. I need to put half stops on both F# string raises.

I can't remember what Buck played on the C neck with his 4th pedal but it was really pretty. He just about fried my brain with what he was showing me. I can honestly say that I have seen most of the top players close up, but Buck is just on a different planet in the way he thinks. I joked with him that he spent too long around Jimmy Crawford, another off the wall player. Buck agreed that Jimmy was an enormous influence on him and was his mentor. I learned some from Buck on picking technique where he digs down deep on those amazing chromatic runs that he does, that sounds as though he is using a delay unit to get repeat notes but gets it without one!!

I am almost completed with packing my case for my return to Dallas. I would have arranged to meet Maurice Anderson normally for a meal, and it is so saddening for me that we have lost both him and Bobbe Seymour within 12 months of each other. They were like musical siblings. Squabbling at times, admiring each other all of the time. Reece was a permanent fixture at the Dallas Show, and the MSA room seemed very subdued and empty to me without Maurice's gentle personality in there. God knows, he and I have had numerous email discussions about tone over the years. Even if he disagreed with you, Reece would respect your opinions.

That's me just about done and dusted. Time to watch some crap US television, and then to get some shut-eye.

Good night all