Personnel: Billy Joe Walker, Jr., Sock Underwood, Ernest Tubb, Arthur Duhon, Bob Nawahine, Hank Penny, Hank Williams, Dave Kaleipua Munson, Johnny Bond, Little Jimmy Dickens, Onie Wheeler, Rose Maddox, Terry Fell, Charlie Feathers (vocals, guitar); Mike Hanapi, Les Anderson, Tau Moe, Billy Briggs (vocals, steel guitar); Al Dexter (vocals, mandolin); William Kalama (vocals, ukulele); Jimmy Hall & the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Collective, Dusty Rhodes , Clarence Bailey, Horace Barnett, Shelly Lee Alley (vocals, fiddle); Moon Mullican (vocals, piano); Kenneth VanFleet, Faron Young, George Morgan, Dottie Rhodes Moore, Marvin Rainwater, Melvin Endsley, Tommy Duncan, Webb Pierce (vocals); Speedy West (guitar, steel guitar); Joe Maphis (guitar, mandolin); Stan Ellison (guitar, accordion); Leon Payne, Herman Arnspiger, Sleepy Johnson, George Weldon Allard, Doye O'Dell, Jess Williams, Cousin Herb Henson, James Kohono, John Paaluhi, Benny Garcia , Hamlet Booker, Earl Brown Singers, Lucky Carlisle, Luther Roundtree, Jack Rivers, Floyd Robinson, Dickie McBride, Buddy Buller, Gus Plant, Cal Maddox, Chuck Keeshan, Spider Wilson, Jim Boyd , Grady Martin, John Weiss, James Holstein, Ernest Manase, Red Greenhaw, Tommy Bishop, Tex Swaim, J.B. Brinkley, Billy Stranger, Joseph Edwards, Franny Beecher, Lani McIntire, Jerry Irby, Jimmy Heap, Quinton Claunch, Ray Edenton, Rose Lee Maphis, Slim Rhodes, Wesley Tuttle, Bill Boyd, Merle Travis, Billy Strange, Stan Walker , Buster Ferguson, Brad Suggs, Buddy Attaway (guitar); Chet Atkins, Tom Pickens, Jimmie Short, Benny Jr. Garcia, Hank Garland, Kenny Smith & The Loveliters, Sheldon Bennett, Jabbo Arrington, Cameron Hill, Jimmy Wyble (electric guitar); Bud Isaacs, Don Helms, Segis Luvaun, Marianne Hall, Sam Ku West, Tommy Sargent, Frank Ferera, Andrew Schroeder, Cecil "Butterball" Harris, Gerald "Buster" Magness, Gene Crownover, Robert Pauole, Herb Remington, Frank Beaty Wilson, Leodie Jackson, Ralph "Lefty" Nason, Joaquin Murphy, Jerry Byrd, Jimmy Day, King Bennie Nawahi, King Nawahi Hawaiians, Leon McAuliffe, Noel Boggs, Andy Sannella, Roy Smeck, Shot Jackson, Sol Hoopii, Stan Kesler, Billy Williamson, Ted Daffan, John Hughey, Bob Dunn, Buddy Emmons, Cecil Campbell (steel guitar); Elmer Scarborough (tenor guitar); Johnnie Lee Wills, Ocie Stockard (banjo); Johnny Thames, Walter Kirkes, Vince Incardona, Jesse "Slick" Robertson, Marvin Montgomery (tenor banjo); Spike Featherstone (harp); Darrell Kirkpatrick (mandolin, fiddle); Dick Reinhart, Morris Booker, Leo Raley (mandolin); Leslie Greenwood, Glenwood Leslie (ukulele); Billy Hill (fiddle, viola); Cliff Bruner, Dale Potter, Tony Sepolio, Dickie Jones, Red Heron, Jimmy Hally, Henry Hunt, Bill Edwards , Henry Hill , Red Taylor, Pat Trotter, Clyde Brewer, Leon Selph, Gordon Terry, Andrew Soldi, Kenneth Pitts, Buck Buchanan, Joe Holley, Woody Carter, Bill Cantrell, Jesse Ashlock, Spade Cooley, Tim Hunt , Tommy Jackson, Billy Wright, Bob Wills, Cecil Brower (fiddle); Jerry Adler (harmonica); Paul Sells, George Bambi, Pedro DePaul, Harry Sorenson, Frank Buckley (accordion); Ray DeGeer, Bob Herrick (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Anthony "Tony" Scanlin (clarinet, piano); George Ogg, Holly Horton, Hymie Gunkler (clarinet); Robert D. Reidel, Wallace Aaron Ruth, Harold Hugh Ehrmann, Zeb McNally (saxophone); Rudy Martin, Frank Scott (tenor saxophone); Andy Secrest, Jim Hewlett, Jim Milan, Everett Stover, Bobby Grove, Alex Brashear (trumpet); Eddie Bennett, Bill Wardle, Landon Beaver, Jimmy Pruett, Floyd Cramer, Johnny Grande, Fred "Papa" Calhoun, Loren Mitchell, Arvin Shanks, Millard Kelso, John F. Freddie Haynes, Mike Hugo, Bob Armstrong , Lonnie Austin, Jo Ella Wright, Morris Billington, Knocky Parker, Al Stricklin, Les Taylor, Marvin Hughes, Mitch Miller, Roy Newman, Arlie Carter, Ralph Smith, Billy Liebert (piano); John M. Mountjoy, Marion Z. "Pee Wee" Adams, Sonny Rogers, Monte Mountjoy, Ralph Jones Band, Muddy Berry, Farris Coursey, Roy Harte, Buddy Harman (drums); Don Law (washboard).
Liner Note Author: Adam Komorowski.
Recording information: 706 Union, Memphis, TN; ACA Studio, Houston, TX; Berlin, Germany; Bradley Film & Recording Studio, Nashville, TN; Brunswick Warehouse, Dallas, TX; Capital Studio, Hollywood, CA; Castle Studio, Nashville, TN; Chicago, IL; Columbia Studio, Hollywood, CA; Courtney Studio, Los Angeles, CA; Cpenhagen, Denmark; Dallas, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Jefferson Hotel, Dallas, TX; KWKH, Shreveport, LA; Los Angeles, CA; Music City Recording, Nashville, TN; New York, NY; Paris, France; Playmor Ballroom, Tulsa, OK; Pythian Temple, New York, NY; Radio KXLA, Hollywood, CA; Radio Recorders Annex Studio, Hollywood, CA; Radio Recorders, Hollywood, CA; RCA Studio, Nashville, TN; RCA Victor Studio, Nashville, TN; Rice Hotel, Houston, TX; Saginaw, TX; San Antonio, TX; Universal Studio, Chicago, IL; University Of Tulsa Radio Station, Tulsa, OK; Warner Bros Studio, Chicago, IL.
Steelin' It is Proper's four-CD anthology devoted to the rise of the steel guitar in popular music. More than 40 different steel guitarists are heard on 100 historic recordings dating from the years 1925-1957. Rather than attempting a full multi-genre retrospective which would have to include the instrument's evolution as a prominent voice in African-American blues music, the producers confined the focus to Hawaiian steel guitarists and the Caucasian country & western swing players who in many cases drew inspiration directly from the Polynesians. This compilation was designed for casual listening, with heaps of data provided for the curious or historically inclined. Although Adam Komorowski's liner notes are copious and informative, those who wish to examine the documentary evidence may find it somewhat challenging to coordinate the chronologically calibrated discography with the selections which are laid out on a time line that jumps all over the place. Proper has assembled an enjoyable procession of recording artists that ranges from Sol Hoopii playing lap steel guitar with an old-fashioned Hawaiian trio to Billy Williamson manhandling pedal steel with Bill Haley & His Comets. Between those two extremes are packed enough toe-tapping tunes to fix up anybody's morning, afternoon, or evening.
The first disc is dedicated to the early Hawaiian masters of steel guitar and to those who adopted their style and technique. A Hawaiian named Joseph Kekuku is said to have been the first to vary the pitch of a guitar in this manner, back in 1889. For a slide he at first used a discarded steel bolt, then the blade of a knife. Kekuku brought his technique to California in 1904 and spent years teaching others how to handle guitars Hawaiian style, touring extensively on both sides of the Atlantic. This type of music became popular during the '20s through the efforts of Sol Hoopii, Andy Sannella, Frank Ferera, and King Bennie Nawahi. The attractive sounds of steel guitar mingled nicely with the broadening currents of jazz, as demonstrated with choice cuts by Sam Ku West and multi-instrumentalist Roy Smeck, as well as Bluebird duets by Robert Pauole and James Holstein, who were billed as the Genial Hawaiians. This collection also contains evidence of Kekuku's influence in Europe, for Segis Luvaun's records were cut in Berlin, David S. Kanui's in Paris, and Tau Moe's in Copenhagen. For a more extensive and thoroughly Hawaiian selection of music from this period, go directly to Proper's amazing box set With My Little Ukulele in My Hand. Steel guitarists of the late `30s who should have been represented on Steelin' It but aren't include Ceele Burke, who recorded with Fats Waller in December 1937, and Casey Bill Weldon, an African-American whose legacy appears to be permanently trapped between genres as his tendency to sound like a western swing player has caused him to be marginalized as a bluesman.
Disc two focuses upon four steel guitarists who helped to establish the instrument as a staple in country music and western swing. Bob Dunn, who named jazz trombonist Jack Teagarden as a primary influence, is designated as the first steel guitarist to have introduced jazz licks into this genre of music. He was also one of the first to electrically amplify his instrument; the idea took hold of him after he encountered an African-American guitarist who employed a rudimentary amplifier while performing at Coney Island. Noel Boggs, the first person to record with a Fender steel guitar, used ideas and techniques borrowed from his friend, jazz guitar virtuoso Charlie Christian. Leon McAuliffe, one of several western swing steel guitarists who studied Hawaiian guitar as a boy, is best known for his work with Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. McAuliffe is credited as the composer of "Steel Guitar Rag" even though Kentuckian Sylvester Weaver recorded the root melody as "Guitar Rag" in 1923 and again in 1927. (Weaver, incidentally, was the first African-American musician to make a blues record.) McAuliffe probably snatched the tune from a 1930 cover recording by a Caucasian duo billed as Harvey & Johnson; garnished with a bit of "On the Beach at Waikiki," it became "Steel Guitar Rag," a lucrative staple of the western swing repertoire. Oddly (and infuriatingly), Komorowski ignores all forensic evidence and quotes a flimsy statement by McAuliffe's manager to substantiate the claim that McAuliffe invented the tune out of thin air in 1936, thirteen years after Weaver made his first recording of it.
Disc two closes with a cluster of titles by Theron Eugene "Ted" Daffan, a Louisiana-born Texas bandleader and steel guitarist with a knack for the blues. The rest of this encyclopedic anthology is crammed with entertaining performances featuring quite a posse of steel guitarists in a variety of settings. Billy Briggs, heard on "Panhandle Shuffle" and the hit record "Sally's Got a Wooden Leg," maintained good working relationships with African-American musicians. Like Big Joe Williams, Briggs used a nine-string guitar. Don Helms accompanies Hank Williams during "Settin' the Woods on Fire"; Speedy West does the "Stratosphere Boogie," and Shot Jackson backs Webb Pierce on "I Need You like I Need a Hole in the Head." Coincidentally, it was Bud Isaacs who introduced the pedal steel guitar to country music on a Webb Pierce recording session in 1953. Isaacs is heard on this set backing Little Jimmy Dickens, and resurfaces alongside Chet Atkins on Terry Fell's "Wham! Bam! Hot Ziggity Zam." ~ arwulf arwulf
