Lap steel guitar resurgence?

Diesel Therapy — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 08:41:11 +0000

If the recent ukulele craze has abated a little we could ask what is next? Twelve-string guitars? Double-necks? Nah! They are too heavy, too hard to play or too expensive. I think what is attractive to those wanting to try an instrument is size, cost and relative ease of producing something like music out of the thing. Let’s face it guitars are hard to play, keep in tune and they can be expensive for a beginner.

But a ukulele: small, cheap, only four soft-touch strings to negotiate! No wonder people like them. It’s a bit like the mandolin craze of the early part of the last century. Mandolin orchestras were everywhere, mandolins in all shapes and sizes. Some are now worth a fortune.

One instrument that could be in for resurgence is the lap steel guitar or Hawaiian guitar. Essentially it is a piece of wood with strings on, tuned to an open chord, with the 4 and 5 chords at the 5th and 7th frets respectively. The left hand frets notes with a bar or slide while the right hand picks out clusters or individual notes from the chords. Easy? Well not really! Pitching is tricky as the fret markings are just a guide and the player looks at the left hand from an angle. There is nothing worse than a badly played slide instrument!

The lap steel guitar features in a wide variety of music styles such as Blues, Country and Bluegrass. It even shows up in Dave Gilmour’s music from time to time. We love Western Swing and the whole Bob Wills and Hank Williams style of playing, coloured very heavily by the lap steel guitars of players like Leon McAuliffe (“take it away Leon”), Noel Boggs and Jerry Byrd.

“The Salter’s Road”, the new CD from Diesel Therapy has some nice examples of slide playing in its various forms. Danny’s instrumental “Web Of White Stones” has Jim playing Dobro, taking over the melody from Danny’s fine acoustic playing. “Catch Your Death” has Al Perkins on lap steel guitar. Check out his growling, slightly distorted solo and perfect fills used sparingly to underpin the lyrics. The title track features Jim on Weissenborn and Danny on Danelectro baritone guitar; a combination that is irresistible! “Memphis Moon” lets us hear Al Perkins at his best, playing lap steel guitar in an almost ‘50s style, Santo and Johnny’s “Sleepwalk” springs to mind. There is much more on the CD than just slide and lap steel guitar of course, but if you are a fan or just curious it would be a good place to start.

Al Perkins records with Diesel Therapy

Diesel Therapy — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:55:10 +0000

Al Perkins, he of the “Flying Burrito Brothers” and many more seminal Country Rock bands, has given us the ultimate compliment by playing on four of our tracks destined for the new Diesel Therapy CD.

Shortly before an appearance at Porters in Tynemouth, Danny approached Al about the possibility of playing on some of our new songs currently being recorded at Dave Maughan’s studio in Newcastle. Luckily for us Al agreed to listen to the songs and on Friday morning we picked him up from Colin and Celia’s house in Tynemouth and took him along with his pedal steel, lap steel and amp to the studio. What was to follow was one of the best musical experiences we have ever had.

After setting up and tuning everything he started the session by playing lap steel on “Memphis Moon”. This was done in the style of Santo and Johnny’s “Sleepwalk”, using harmonics and delay/reverb with astonishing taste and awareness. There is a line in the song “Check out some old slide guitar in a darkened room”. When Jim wrote that line he didn’t imagine that the slide would be played by one of our favourite session guitarists. What can we say?

Next up was “The Heel” a new guitar tune by Danny and named after a mountain in Scotland. Al played pedal steel on this up-tempo number and had us rolling around laughing at the sheer skill, tone and humour in his playing. Al plays with a lot of soul, not wasting notes, just complementing, underlining the songs. He can rip it up with the best of them though; witness his solo in “The Heel”.

We had finished the song “Rules of Life” some time ago. Adding pedal steel to the mix gave it an authenticity we love.

Finally Al added some delicious lap steel to “Catch Your Death” including a growling solo section. Watching him work was an education. For three and a half hours he sat in Dave’s tiny live room at his pedal steel, listening intently to everything. Not just to himself but also to our own guitar tracks, using the lyrics as markers for licks and fills.

Al Perkins is a Southern Gentleman, a man of God and a consummate musician. We thank him with all our hearts for playing on our tunes. We will never forget the day “Nashville” came to Newcastle. Special thanks to Colin and Celia, Ian and Carol at Smart Choice Music, Dave Maughan and his partner Gillian.

Diesel Therapy » Lap Steel Guitar

Lap steel guitar resurgence?

Al Perkins records with Diesel Therapy