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Nu sitter jag här igen, mitt i natten och
lyssnar på Grand Ole Opry. Det är en otrolig härlig känsla att kunna njuta
av wsm650 i direktsändning. Marty Stuart är värd för den första
avdelningen och han öppnade med Hillbilly Rock och presenterade sedan en
rad med artister. Om ni är vakna klockan 02.00 så kan ni själva lyssna.
Skriv
www.wsm650 och ”live”. Oftast bra artister och alltid kanonsound.
Petter Törnqvist var här för ett par
timmars lektioner. Han har bara spelat steel i någon månad men visade på
den korta tiden att här finns det en talang. Det ska bli kul att följa
Petters vidare utveckling.
Johan Lindström kom på eftermiddagen och
hämtade sin sprillans nya GFI Expo D-10. Ja, här kan man också tala om
talang. Johan demonstrerade en massa fina Jerry Byrd-ackord som han
hittade direkt på sin nya steel. I morgon åker han till Tyskland och dagen
efter till Ungern för jobb med sin grupp. Tänk er att få äta en riktig
tysk bratwurst, i Tyskland!!
Uffe Edefuhr i Ängelholm har blivit stadens
första citycowboy då han nyligen skaffat både boots, hatt och belt-buckle!
Jag tror han blivit religiös också?
Sommarnumret av CountryPost ligger nu ute i
solen för allmän beskådning.
www.countrypost.se Ha en bra sommarsurf. Björne i Smedjebacken.=
Hello fellow players,
This week in Nashville we have suffered the tragic loss of one of the
greatest musicians, composers and writers the town has ever known. The
great Fred Carter, Jr. born in 1933, came to Nashville from the Louisiana
Hayride in 1959, has left us after having a brilliant career in Nashville
that could only be rivaled by Chet Atkins himself.
Fred was the owner of Nugget Recording Studios and produced many legendary
artists himself in this studio along with many other studios in
Nashville. Much has been written about Fred so I will only relate my
personal stories which I had while in contact with him myself.
I remember one afternoon in 1972 that I was outside working on my 911
Porsche, preparing it for a Gymkhana race when the phone rang and a
Nashville promoter, Joe Wright, said I have a recording session for you at
Nugget Studios with Fred Carter, Jr.
He said, “Have your steel guitar in perfect working order, get plenty of
rest the night before because Fred can be a real bear if things don’t go
exactly right.” He said, “The artist is from Bakersfield, California and
Fred’s gonna be producing the whole album on her.”
I said, “Great. This will be a lot of money for me.”
I remember driving out to Nugget Studios the following week, walking in
the studio and seeing some of my good friends that were going to be on the
session. After setting up, Fred walks in the studio and everybody got
totally quiet like we were all about to be executed.
He came over and sat down beside me and pulled out his paisley Telecaster,
pulled it in and chomped on it a few times trying to get the reverb to
work in the amp and I thought “Well, I’m gonna use a different approach on
him than most new people do.”
I thought I would start off being sarcastic to try to put him off his game
a little bit. I looked at him and said, “Boy that’s good tone! Where did
you get it? World War II?”
He said, “Well hey chief, if you hear anything you don’t like, just come
right out with it.”
I busted out laughing and said, “You can count on that.” I had no idea
what I would have to put up with for the rest of the session so I laid
back and was polite from that point on.
He glared over at me with his Telecaster in his lap and said, “Ok chief.
You and I are both on the same track and I don’t want to redo something
because you screwed up. So not only are you gonna play tasteful and great
licks, but you’re not gonna mess up anything.”
I looked at him and said, “I’ve never made a mistake yet. I won’t mess up
if you don’t.” And we didn’t thank goodness, because I may not have lived
through it.
When the first song started, Fred listened intently through the earphones
for about half the song, then jumped up, ran into the control room, has us
play the song again without him being in the room, punched the button on
the talkback and yelled, “Bass man and drummer, pack up and go home.”
He came back into the control room, apologized to the rest of us and said,
“Sorry but we just can’t cut a master session with a rhythm section like
this.” He said, “Everybody be back in four hours and we’ll try it again.”
I thought, “Oh-oh. This is what I’ve heard about.”
To make this long story short, the artist was Suzy Arden and the song was
“LA International Airport” which went up to number ten on the
international charts. Anyway, Fred and I got along wonderfully and used
either me or Stu Basore on everything he did after this.
He was a real character, but a wonderful player. If you don’t believe
me, listen to the guitar work on Simon & Garfunkel’s Mrs. Robinson or
Jack and Misty Blanchard’s Tennessee Birdwalk or thousands of other hits
that have come out of Nashville in the past forty years.
By the way, did I say that he was the father of Deena Carter of country
music singing fame? Remember he hit? Did I Shave My Legs For This.
For more information, Google Fred Carter, Jr.
Nu har jag fått in
GHS strängar till steel och dobro. Jag har också fått in FENDER Volume
Pedal 60´s styling och FENDER VolumeTon Pedal.
Se prislistan! Jag skickar en bild på begäran.
Mr Music Country har
kommit med utgåva nr. 7 med Alan Jackson som första spår med ”True Love
Is A Golden Ring” ´. En blandplatta av bästa sort. Prenumerera nu!
Av bästa sort ja!
Prova Thai-restauranten i Högdalen (Harpsundsv. 138).
Deras lunchmeny är förträfflig, säkert en av de bästa i Stockholm.
Hello fellow players,
One of the most tragic things to get hit with this week was the news of
our great friend Ben Keith dying in California. I had been looking for
Ben for a couple days after hearing his house had burned to the ground in
Gallatin, Tennessee, a few miles from my store, Steel Guitar Nashville.
His death has emotionally upset all who knew him. It seems to have hit me
especially hard because of our enduring friendship from the late fifties
when he was playing the little double neck Sho-Bud eight string with the
Faron Young band.
Ben had the personality that is described today as cool. He was a pretty
quiet guy with a quick smile, good sense of humor and a laid back playing
style.
When I first moved to Nashville, Ben was wandering around town playing
bass on a few sessions and I remember hiring him on a session that I was
session leader on at Faron Young’s Queen of Sound Studio.
A few days after the session when we got paid, I was distributing the
money amongst the musicians via the US Postal Service, but soon found out
that Ben had moved to California to work with Neil Young.
It was eight years before I saw Ben again. He came back to town for a
visit and called me to say hello and I immediately yelled, “Where have you
been?”
I said, “I owe you $35.00 for a demo you did in 1969.”
He said, “Are you sure? I’d forgotten all about that.”
He went back to California before I had a chance to meet with him and pay
him and it was twenty years before I could track him down again and get
the money to him. Then about ten years ago, I found a highly beat up
double neck eight string Sho-Bud steel guitar in a pawn shop in the
neighboring town of Madison, Tennessee.
Upon checking it out, I found it was the same one that Ben had in the late
fifties. I bought it and was in the process of restoring it when we
scheduled a large steel guitar party at the store. I thought it would
really be cool to have Ben come to the party so I made several calls to
Louisiana and California, finally got his daughter’s address in Gallatin,
Tennessee, contacted her and she said, “Well Ben’s right here in town.
I’ll have him call you.”
Twenty minutes later, the phone rang and it was Ben. I invited him to the
party and he came and we reminisced over old times and he informed me that
he wasn’t doing bass sessions anymore for $35.
I laughed and said, “Well union scale has gone up a lot since then.”
He had averaged $100,000 a year playing with Neil Young and produced
introductory album on rock star Jewel. He was very successful on many
other sessions and productions throughout the last many years in
California.
Overall, Big Ben Keith was a very successful musician, producer and good
will ambassador for steel guitar. Here’s a link to the party we had at
Steel Guitar Nashville which was the last time I saw Ben, a dear friend
over many years and I can’t believe he’s gone like to many others that our
little industry has lost in the last two years.
www.steelguitar.net/friends4.html
shows Big Ben Keith, Ron Elliott, Lloyd Green, Danny Bentley, John Hughey
and Little Buddy.
One of the biggest loves of Ben’s life that I picked up from talking to
him was his 44’ sail boat that he lived on in the Caribbean. From what he
said, it was as luxurious as the world’s finest hotel or house, totally
self-contained, even having a Perkins diesel engine for power and
electricity.
I’m sorry I never got to take him up on his offer to spend time with him
on this magnificent ship.
He did do one steel guitar instrumental album but I don’t believe it was
ever pressed.
Your buddy,
Bobbe
Så
mycket mer har jag inte att säga! Sköt om er därute!
Janne Lindgren
Lyssna på
www.obcmusic.se
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