Hello fellow players,
Well here we are at the fourth of July. It seems like just yesterday it was New Year's Eve. I'm hearing from many of you that you've got your steel guitar in the trunk and you're getting ready to go out and fire up that old amplifier to entertain the folks at rodeos, pool parties and clubs all over the USA and anywhere they know what the fourth of July represents.
I'm not sure all Americans know what it represents, but what it stands for, to most of us is loud live music, barbequing on the grill, ice cream and all of the inexpensive beer you can drink. You know, beer like Falstaff, Rolling Rock, Billy Beer, Bud Light and so on. It's amazing when you're out in the hot sun, even people that don't drink at all can enjoy an extremely cold beer.
You've got your steel guitar all tweeked, new strings, cleaned up perfectly and within a half hour the strings will be getting rusty from the perspiration in your hand, your C6th is already dead from being in contact with your forearms. Oh what memories I have of playing the rodeos in such places as Sidney, Iowa, Chanute, Kansas, San Antonio or Fort Worth, Texas.
Stepping on that cold air-conditioned bus when it's a hundred degrees outside is one of the better parts of being a road musician. Of course, when that air-conditioning goes out, you'll see how hot all those big aluminum tubes can be.
We all do different things for a living. Some are fun and we just go along for the ride and other things you have to work hard at and endure the painful consequences when the air-conditioning goes out in the summer or the heat goes out in the winter. Of course, this could happen in your family sedan when you're just taking a weekender. But life is fun whether you're with your family or on a bus full of idiot musicians who'll keep you laughing all the way to the gig and back.
I will be working here in Nashville at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society show the second Wednesday in July at 2:00 PM. This is a wonderful, laid back show and encompasses many different facets of guitars, guitar building, guitar players of the very highest quality and everything will have to do with any of these topics. It is held at the Sheritan Music City Hotel. If you're time is open then, it will be a fun thing to attend.
Buddy Akers died. Buddy was a good friend of mine and of many other steel players in the United States and Canada. Buddy was an extremely serious steel guitarist and he applied himself to the point of making good money his entire life sitting behind a guitar. He was one of those great old pros who lived his life doing what he wanted to do most.
The George Jones piano player that was being coerced into signing a confidentiality agreement just came by my store to fill me in on what was really going on. His name is Kent Goodson and he is as nice a person as he is a great player. Kent pretty well wants everyone to know what the whole story is in him leaving George after 28 years.
Most country music fans (these are my words) have it in their mind that George Jones is some kind of a god which is about as far from true as anything could be. Many people in the business feel just the opposite is true.
Kent was nice enough when he came by to give us a copy of his side of the story which is posted on his website at www.kentgoodsonmusic.com
After I posted the news tidbit on the steel guitar forum, several people were misled by a forum member that knows very little about anything in Nashville and would have been much better off to keep her typing fingers in her pocket.
For all of you who want to know what happened, you have the link to get it straight from Kent. For more information, you can read the interview with his hometown newspaper in Missouri at www.semissourian.com
Vic Lawson that works here at Steel Guitar Nashville will be playing Eugene, Oregon four days this weekend at the Eugene Rodeo with Justin McBride, two time world champion bull rider and now country music star. If you get a chance to go by, tell Vic to turn his volume down and make you a special deal on your next purchase from Steel Guitar Nashville. If you get a chance to talk to Vic, he'll be glad to answer any steel guitar questions.
Thank you very much for the response that you have been giving us on the purchase of your Tascam Guitar Trainer. It seems as though many of you that have purchased this item are learning a lot of steel guitar because of it. I get many emails a week asking for the fast inside track to learning to play steel guitar. It looks as though we finally found it with this wonderful little unit. If you've just been thinking about buying one but haven't made the move yet, it may be a good time to do so.
Everyone that has bought one is singing its praises. Anything that teaches as fast and as easy as this little machine does deserves to be in your arsenal. We will give you a popular steel guitar CD and rhythm tracks to get you started with this great little Tascam unit. The CD is free with your purchase this week.
See the video here: YouTube
Order it here: Tascam
Check out our monthly specials at www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html and we'll try to save you a lot of money.
The friend to all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
www.myspace.com/bobbeseymour
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123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
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