I know it’s a bit early for this..

[Ken Byng]

It's interesting to me that 3 of my favourite pickers who could get into top gear speed-wise, Buddy Emmons, Doug Jernigan and Tommy White are/were not pick blockers. Palm blocker Mike G Smith used to occasionally duet live with Paul Franklin and could more than match him in the speed picking department. So pick blocking is a variation of stopping the strings from ringing, but not the only way to reach super sonic speed. A friend of mine gave me an album of Travis Toy's recently. Travis can pick just about as quickly as any steeler I've ever heard, but by the end of the album my brain had just about had enough. I personally find fast pick blocking a little fatiguing compared to other forms of blocking. When you've played one track at warp speed, and then another one it starts to sound a bit samey. I never had that feeling when I heard Doug Jernigan play Black Mountain Rag. Doug's playing of fiddle tunes is a genre of steel playing that few can match for clean speed picking, let alone surpass.

Jimmy Day reportedly watched a young Nashville-based steeler flying around the strings on stage at St. Louis years back, and said to someone standing next to him "I wish I could play that fast............ and then I wouldn't!". Actually I think he probably would.

[Gary James Peters]

A good friend of mine, Dan Brown, who plays bass in The Fixx (a UK rock band that were, and remain, huge in the States) was recently on tour over there. On a night off he went to the Station Inn, not even knowing who was on the bill. It turns out it was a steel player he'd never heard of going by the name of Doug Jernigan. Needless to say, my friend Dan was blown away and emailed me to ask if I'd ever heard of this guy!!? He's far and away my fav of the truly fast pickers. He never sounds like he's churning robotic licks that he's drummed into himself over years of practising and gigging, no, it always sounds like a continuous flow of real musical ideas...musicality and Ken rightly says.

My feeling (at least for me) is that everyone wants to play fast if they can or could, but that the best players learn to play fast in order to play within themselves with real definition and precision. I spend all day every day trying to play faster, but when I'm recording or gigging I want to feel well within my limits, then you can concentrate on the music. It's nice to have a change of pace though, like a good footballer (I'm told).

[Nick Bidmade]

Oh dear.
I love the sound of pedal steel, those slow resolves, where you're taken where your ears don't expect to be taken on a slow raise or drop.
This is squiddly-diddly music, awesome... but really boring. Fast, but, so what? If that is the ultimate in pedal steel, I'm chopping in my steel and buying a trombone.
BORING.
Other opinions may differ. Hmmmm

[Donny Johnston]

I'm with you Nick, what you said, saves me typing it all again.I didn't get half way through the Nashville Cats track before the dreaded insect started buzzing. But it takes all kinds, I'm not a jazz fan but I love Jim Cohens playing. Takes all kinds, we can't all listen to the same stuff. Donny.