I haven’t played much slide guitar in the last couple of weeks. It goes like that sometimes. Sometimes it’s all I want to do-sometimes I put it away. So, for the last hour or so, I’ve been giving myself a crash course because I know I’m going to be playing plenty of slide stuff tonight. I had to get myself back in that groove, don’t you know?
You know, I’m one of those guys that played electric guitar before playing acoustic. That’s odd to a lot of folks. Lou Whitney says; “There are two kinds of guitar players in this world. There are the one’s that learned “Wildwood Flower” as their first song and, everybody else.” I’m everybody else. I couldn’t play a passable “Wildwood Flower” for you, if you threw a $20 in the tip jar. But, I could throw “Dust My Broom” at you if you woke me up in the middle of the night.
Anyway, as I was furiously running through my bag of slide licks and tricks I came up with this list of five, electric slide guitarists that had an impact on me coming up.
Elmore James
Duane Allman
Lowell George
Johnny Winter
Rory Gallagher
No particular order there but, I gleaned different things from listening to records by this group. The middle of the night “Dust My Broom”, by the way, would owe more to Elmo than Robert Johnson. Not that I don’t love Robert Johnson, by any means, I was thinking electric. I’ve often wondered though, what R.J. would have sounded like plugged in. I have to think that he would have embraced electricity.
So, join in here. Who would you add to the slide player list. It doesn’t have to be just electric slide types-it’s a big tent here. I was just thinking electric, that’s all.
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Tags: duane allman, Elmore James, Guitar, Johnny Winter, Lou Whitney, Lowell George, Robert Johnson, Rory Gallagher, Slide Guitar
slide_ur_safe wrote,
Okay, so then you are going with the clown suit, grease paint, and a jar of naval jelly?
Hank Williams or junior… “Why do you treat me as if I am only a friend?”
Leon Russell Back to the island
[but what ever it is don't forget to "drop your drawers and slide on the ice..." thanks to: the psychiatrist in MASH]
Link | March 29th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Pat_sat_nite_date wrote,
okay we, Marinell and I, just called and played like we were producers and looking to have you guys down to College Station… you were doin 5oo miles, to a packed house.
We talked to Scott, Terry, and Jeff… they “had you out to the house for parties eight times..”
so, How much?
Pat_sat_nite_date’s last blog post..Honoring Honey Bees with Yellow and Black
Link | March 29th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
J wrote,
Robert Johnson is the man. Muddy Waters second… BTW, what tunings do you use?
J’s last blog post..Field Trip
Link | March 29th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Pribek wrote,
PD-”Producers” from College Station…heh
The call was the hit of the night, the talk of the Double E.
“How Much?”- expenses and a little “walkin’ around money”
“Why do you treat me as if I am only a friend?”-Ernest Tubb?
“Back to the island”-nice tune, don’t know who played on it though.
J-as far as tunings go, If I’m doing a delta blues type thing by myself I will use G(DGDGBE) or D(DADF#AD) tuning-with a band I will use A or E which are the same intervals up a step. A and E seem to work better with a full band because those are keys that bands play in a lot and the extra tension seems helpful when digging in harder. I also play in standard tuning on stage a lot of times.
Robert Johnson is the man, no doubt about it, I have spent many hours trying to unlock the mysteries.
Muddy-After 500+ posts I sometimes find myself going; “I think I did one about that”.
http://pribek.net/2007/07/11/thoughts-on-muddy-waters/
Link | March 30th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Gary wrote,
I use standard tuning so i don’t need to switch guitars (heck, I only have one!) For me Lowell is top of the list - I would also add Derek Trucks (how does he do that?), Sonny Landreth and Warren Haynes
Gary’s last blog post..Telecaster
Link | March 30th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Veni_vidi_vici wrote,
The last guy we talked to after Scott? said…”oh, you want to know that…? its a packed house, Yeah Roy, I’ve had him out to the house about seven, eight times… Roy and his friend are playin’ right now.”
“Can you hold the phone up for a us for a minute?”
“Yeah, sure.”
bing bam baow wow, accent liks in ‘C?’, caterwaullin’.. acoustic strumms…. “Just like we remember it!”
Then clik. Marinell and I toasted ya with our one shot a year of Grappa. We don’t imbibe anymore either..
And that was our Saturday night date.
l&h, us
Veni_vidi_vici’s last blog post..Tool Shelf with Schmitty and Billy
Link | March 30th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Veni_vidi_vici wrote,
Oh, forgot, we’d like to also present you with the Slide of the Week Fondue Award for letting us all participate in your Winnebago lifestyle. Long live the Bago:
http://www.losanjealous.com/2006/07/28/fondue-party/
Charles Phoenix’s Slide of the Week: Fondue Party, 1968
By Charles Phoenix - Friday July 28th 2006
ps. And we concur with Gary on Lowell, God rest his soul, after all said and done. What he did was no little feat.
Veni_vidi_vici’s last blog post..Tool Shelf with Schmitty and Billy
Link | March 30th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Kenski wrote,
Taj Mahal, anyone?
Kenski’s last blog post..Postcard From Prague
Link | March 31st, 2008 at 2:54 am
Gary wrote,
I’m busy working up Rock ‘n’ Roll Doctor for my new band - some tricky stuff to make that complicated track sound so easy!
Gary’s last blog post..Dirty South Bash in Bish
Link | March 31st, 2008 at 4:55 am
Gary wrote,
Oh, and Ry Cooder too
Gary’s last blog post..Dirty South Bash in Bish
Link | March 31st, 2008 at 4:57 am
Sans Direction wrote,
The first guy I ever saw play slide was George Thorogood. I hear Derek Trucks is good, and I know that Warren Haynes is good. I’ve seen vid of Danny Gatton doing it. But for me, the alpha and omega of rock slide guitar is Duane Allman. And if you asked me what was better, “Layla” or “Elizabeth Reed”, I’d run in circles and fall down dead.
If we go from slide to lap steel, which is a different thing entirely, I’d bring in David Lindley.
Sans Direction’s last blog post..If you keep pickin’ that thing, it’ll never heal
Link | March 31st, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Gary wrote,
Mr. Dave!
Gary’s last blog post..Dirty South Bash in Bish
Link | March 31st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Pribek wrote,
“Rock and Roll Doctor” has more parts than a box of McNuggets-good luck with that one Gary.
Speaking of Lowell, to me he had a different approach after the band expanded. “Feats Don’t Fail Me Know”, the whole album, would be my favorite example of how he used the slide playing as a sectional or orchestral device in a tight, funky, greasy stew of of syncopated symphony.
Kenski, interesting piece of trivia about Taj, as I know you are a fan of ABB; the story I heard was that Duane decided to take up the slide after seeing Jesse Ed Davis playing slide on “Statesboro Blues” with Taj @ the Whisky or Troub, one of those L.A. clubs, in the days before Macon.
Lindley is a force and surely belongs in the conversation, Robert Randolph too-and all those lap steel guys that played with Bob Wills.
Ry-”Lipstick Sunset”
Sonny Landreth-One thing that I’ve been incorporating when I’m feeling my oats is playing notes behind the slide on chords. If you are in a G tuning, play a note on the b string, one fret behind the slide and you get a minor chord, for example. This opens a myriad of possibilities but, is tricky to do-flat neck (no radius) works better. Sonny is the first guy I caught doing this trick.
Link | March 31st, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Sans Direction wrote,
Sonny has great technique, but I’m almost to the point of saying he’s a shredder of the Vai/Satch school with a piece of glass on his finger. He has that tone, that airy, not grounded tone which I’m not enamored. Again, though, he’s got great technique.
Jesse Ed Davis played on this John Trudell cassette I used to have, with a great song called “Baby Boom Che”, which explains Elvis to the post-Pistols generation, and Jesse plays “Love Me Tender” on slide. Just perfect. And, quite possibly, a huge copyright violation that couldn’t be maintained for the Rykodisc version.
Once we count all slide stuffs, we can bring in Jerry Douglas, who plays on almost everything in Nashville that requires a Dobro because he’s just so damn good.
And there is Larry the Legend, Mike Auldridge. Really, the first Dobro player I ever listened to. You need The Seldom Scene Live at the Cellar Door.
Sans Direction’s last blog post..If you keep pickin’ that thing, it’ll never heal
Link | March 31st, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Pribek wrote,
I saw Sonny playing with John Hiatt opening for Robert Cray. This was the tour for the “Slow Turning” record. I think that Sonny’s contribution to that record is the ingredient that made that record stand out, in my mind. He made those songs better. That night at the Opera House in St. Lou, Sonny was smoldering and very tasteful. The best guitar solo of the night, on a night of many solos, was on the one song that Sonny did not play slide on (”Paper Thin”?)-go figure. The tone he was getting and his choices were different than anything I’ve heard him do lately. It seems like there is a push to market virtuosity there.
I don’t recall the Trudell track but I have heard that stuff. Are you saying that Jesse Ed played the melody to “Love Me Tender” and, that it was left of a later release? If I’m not mistaken the melody of “Tender” is the folk song “Aura Lee” which, I think is public domain.
Link | March 31st, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Gary wrote,
Jack said: “Speaking of Lowell, to me he had a different approach after the band expanded. “Feats Don’t Fail Me Know”, the whole album, would be my favorite example of how he used the slide playing as a sectional or orchestral device in a tight, funky, greasy stew of of syncopated symphony.”
Damn, you got it. Whilst it is (usually) great to let slip with a blistering slide solo, I try too to add textures and moods with my slide - at times using volume swells and delay for atmospherics. I still get looks and comments from other players when they see me slip my slide on. “This isn’t a slide song” they say. Every song can be a slide song if it is used creatively.
Gary’s last blog post..Dirty South Bash in Bish
Link | April 1st, 2008 at 5:57 am
Sans Direction wrote,
http://www.johntrudell.com/discography.html
On the original 1986 AKA Grafitti Man, it had “Love Me Tender”. The 1992 Ryko AKA Grafitti Man did not, and it suffered for it.
The only live Hiatt I have is the Hiatt plays Budokan, with someone else playing lead. I’ll give Sonny another shot sometime.
Sans Direction’s last blog post..If you keep pickin’ that thing, it’ll never heal
Link | April 1st, 2008 at 7:05 am
PatrickisnoAprilFool wrote,
Hi Gary, via Pribek:
I happily read your Dirty South… love the pictures. I wish I could hear a little of that. I am, btw, deep south Houston boy. But I have lived elsewhere after growing up there. Went to London in ‘76, stayed near Hyde Park…flew connections through Heathrow.
Sorry guys I cannot get enough slide. From Earl Skruggs to Steely Dan, …I wish there was a slide on my Cannon Ball Adderley Walk Tall album… I say go for the five piece band!
Slide to a person who is not a musician, me,
–is the scoop that the singers can quit doing to fill-in, as many crooners do… truly the “pot liquor” in the song
–is perfect background guitar, as the guitar was meant to fulfill in orchestrations, [T Dorsey, etc].. to be rythm and strummed up beat; predated by violin continuous tones…
–is a technique few have truly mastered, it is the Bo Jangles of finger mind connections, and the cosmic glue of all unspoken tempos
–relaxes me, perfect for ballads [as opposed to say marches]
–can introduce movement in the song,
–and as you say right here: ‘“This isn’t a slide song” they say. Every song can be a slide song if it is used creatively..’ stick to that motto, oh slide maestros,
–as far as I know there is no foot pedal for “slide” you gotta take a chance and play it real, solos can be breathtaking. And putting on the spark plug ratchet requires nerves of steel.
[I attended a Lyle Lovett concert, in 2000, the electric slide sitting in had a bad night; hey and right after the Allman Bros lost their second Bro, Dicky Bettes was inconsolable on stage in Houston, and his slide was noticeable way off... messed up all night, forgiveably he couldn't adjust to the absence]
But then I’m deep south fodder, with knurled fingers from pickin’ cotton all day. I ain’t no April Fool. Love the Union Jack in the photos, at Dirty [Deep] Sou’t bash at Bish…
have we covered it? pat
PatrickisnoAprilFool’s last blog post..MooPig’s: Report from the Middle… Schooler
Link | April 1st, 2008 at 7:35 am
Kenski wrote,
I was lucky enough to see Derek Trucks play with Sonny Landreth in Amsterdam at the “Steelin’ & Slidin’” show.
I first heard of Sonny when “Outward Bound” got a favourible write up in a guitar mag and I picked it up. He’s one of those guy’s who most non-guitarists don’t seem to like, probably because of the whole cajun/creole/zydeco thing mixed into the blues. I was geeky enough to make sure I was playing “South of I-10″ the first time I drove into New Orleans from Houston. The sun was coming down and the air was heavy and the music just ‘made sense’.
If I’m not the No 1 Derek Trucks fan, though, I’ll fight whoever is for the top spot. I couldn’t actually wait for Sonny to get offstage so that Derek’s band could kick it solo. That sounds terrible, but I kinda came to see Sonny play by himself but he was in an ensemble band with Derek et al. It was cool, but not the setting I wanted to see him in.
Kenski’s last blog post..Hungarian Fingers
Link | April 1st, 2008 at 9:47 am