Bells of St Mary's - Solo Pedal Steel

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 16 Jan 2002 4:52 pm

Rebel has set up a link for some of my music at the undernoted URL.(Thank you so much Rebel man).
In answer to a request from Bill Nauman a few weeks ago I finished an arrangement of "The Bells of St. Mary's" and it is up there now with "Twangin Fingersteel".
Hope you like it Bill and any one else who cares to listen.
This is Solo Fingerstyle Pedal Steel.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/rebeltm/

his message was edited by Roy Thomson on 16 January 2002 at 04:55 PM.][This message was edited by Roy Thomson on 16 January 2002 at 04:57 PM.]

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 16 Jan 2002 5:21 pm

Excellent Roy, thanks for sharing

TP

Paul Graupp · Post by **Paul Graupp** » 16 Jan 2002 5:23 pm

Nice interpetation, Roy !! Your chimes have that sparkly effect, they seem to glitter. Heck, I'm still trying to get the Kayton Roberts version down on C6th. He did tell me in '69; you'll get it ! Yeah, Right !!

Were you using a standard tuning or a diatonic with pedal changes ??

Regrads, Paul

Ray Montee (RIP) · Post by **Ray Montee (RIP)** » 16 Jan 2002 6:06 pm

Please forgive me, but WHAT in the world is "FINGERSTYLE" Pedal Steel Guitar???

WHO invented it?

When was it invented?

Was it, by chance, the same guy that invented SLIDE STEEL GUITAR?

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 16 Jan 2002 6:16 pm

Many thanks Tony/Paul.
Paul the tuning is a new one I have settled on after a lot of experimentation.
From high to low:
G-E-C-D-B-G-D-B-G-D
Notice strings 4-10 are just the old standard
hawaiian and also bluegrass tuning with the low "D" which works well with the thumbstyle.
The first 3 strings are a "C" major triad.
It all adds up to a G6th chord.
Presently I just have 2 pedals and a Knee lever hooked up as things are still under construction.The Knee lowers my "B"'s so I can get my relative minors with bass on the bottom.

One of the pedals I call the Bud Isaacs sound as it does not "split" like the E9th A & B pedals.
Hope that makes sense and answers your question.

Regards
Roy[This message was edited by Roy Thomson on 16 January 2002 at 06:17 PM.]

Steven Knapper · Post by **Steven Knapper** » 16 Jan 2002 6:19 pm

THAT was very pretty!!!

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 16 Jan 2002 7:47 pm

Roy-I like your style of playing. It is so clean......al

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 16 Jan 2002 7:54 pm

Hi Ray:
Fingerstyle Guitar refers to Merle Travis/Chet Atkins playing technique.
The fingers play melody while the thumb plays an accompaniment simultaneously. Makes the music sound like two guitars are playing when it is really only one.
Bobby Garrett and Bobbe Seymore became very accomplished playing this way on steel guitar many years ago. Bobby Garrett has passed on but Bobbe Seamore who is still very much alive plays this way all the time.
The first Steel player I saw do it was Buddy E. in Toronto in 1985. He played Camptown Races and it blew me away. That's when I took it seriously and have been working on it ever since.
Slide guitar is a different "cat" altogether.
I like a little of that too sometimes.

Roy

Bill Nauman · Post by **Bill Nauman** » 16 Jan 2002 8:28 pm

Well,My good friend Roy Thomson has blown me away once again...Great playing..Wish I had that technic down..somehow my fat fingers get in the way of each other. Kinda like blind bull in a china cabnet. Anyway,nice job and im sure there will be many more additions to this new library you have started. Keep Pickin' Bill in Vegas

Ray Montee (RIP) · Post by **Ray Montee (RIP)** » 16 Jan 2002 9:49 pm

Roy! Thanks for the explanation......
You've done a mighty fine job...crystal clear....easy listening! Let's hear more of this.

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 16 Jan 2002 10:29 pm

Roy, I'm sorry to inform you that I'm not very much alive as you have eluded. However, the rumors of my demise have been blown all out of proportion.I still have enough kick left to crave what you are doing to that poor steel guitar. I truly love it and you are one of my greatest idols. You are extremly underated, under paid,under the wrong flag,(to far north for me to drive and it's to cold up there! But I do love Canada in the summer!)
It is so very wonderful to hear a 96 year old guy play that way!(ha ha!) What a refreshing way to hear steel guitar! You are very much appreciated, by all! Me most!

Peter Piper,Finger Viper III

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 16 Jan 2002 10:34 pm

By the way Roy, I hate to inform you, I recorded "Bells of St.Marys", finger style, on my last Gospel CD.. Yep, I did it on the other neck though.I had to, I couldn't reach over the inside neck, so that's the one I played. (next time I won't drink so much)

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 17 Jan 2002 2:11 am

Many thanks to everyone for the kind remarks!
I have to work very hard to play what I play.It does not come easy. Your comments offer encouragement and help justify the time I spent on this "thing".

Bobbe, your humour "cracks" me up as usual. Seriously!

One of my fondest musical memories was visiting Steel Guitar Nashville in 97 while at the annual Chet Atkins convention. It gave me an opportunity to see and hear your work and for me to play for you and the late Ronnie Hiatt. ( former member of this Forum).
It was all very inspiring.
My son agrees with you on my age Bobbe. He says " Dad your 60 goin' on 96". (He's mad because I quit playing in his band.) My ears just can't take it anymore!! That's one reason I play Fingerstyle ....I control the volume.
It also gives me a lot of enjoyment.

Roy

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 17 Jan 2002 9:32 pm

A finer gentelman there isn't.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 18 Jan 2002 2:55 am

Very creative version. I (attempt) to play it thumb style, but on C6th.

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 18 Jan 2002 1:17 pm

Thanks Jack!
I would like to hear your fingerstyle and also Ed Naylor.
Wow!! It must be great to be in Florida.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 18 Jan 2002 3:32 pm

Roy, that's the prettiest arrangement and the harmonics just sparkle. You have such a nice touch ... you must be channeling Chet's spirt the way you bring out a pretty melody with just the right amount of embellishment.
It sound's easy but it's in fact, very, very difficult. Nice job! As for the Seymournator,
when I first met him about 6 years ago, I was playing a few lame lap steel licks on Sweet Georgia Brown. Bobbe then sat down at a Stringmaster and played a version thumb style complete with slant moves, string pulls, and other amazing moves that are virtually unknown North of New Jersey. I picked my jaw off the floor, put my tail between my legs and left in a huff about 3 hours later

[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 18 January 2002 at 03:33 PM.]

Bill Ford · Post by **Bill Ford** » 18 Jan 2002 4:18 pm

Mr.Roy,
You have done it again,great job
beautiful harminics

Bill Ford

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Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 18 Jan 2002 4:19 pm

Nice work Roy... as always! I've enjoyed all of your creations over the past couple of years. You come up with some awesome sounds on your extended Leavitt tuning and other tunings that you've created.

As far as Bobbe's "Travis picking"... it's phenominal! I heard him playing this thumb style over 20 years ago in a small club in Printer's Alley in Nashville. His use of delay in combination with this was scary! Needless to say, it was back to drawing board for me.

This past July, Bobbe wowed us up here with his great picking at the Mass Steel Bash. Here's an interesting inside story... I hope you don't mind Bobbe... When I went to pick up Bobbe at the hotel, he was practicing on his Emmons D-10 P/P. The guitar was not assembled (the legs were not on it). He had just set the body of the guitar on a chair and he was picking Travis style on C6 like crazy! He was getting lots of chord changes and syncopated bass runs without pedals. Back to the woodshed for me!

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My Site | Doug's Free Tab

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 18 Jan 2002 6:59 pm

Many thanks!
It's so nice to have this Forum and be able to assocciate with others who share a common interest. (Kudos to Quasar)

Several have commented on my harmonics. Actually, if you listen closely on the intro of the Bells tune only half the notes are harmonics. For instance at the 12th fret I play a natural harmonic on the 3rd string followed by an open first string (no harmonic). Then 4th string harmonic open 2nd etc etc. It mixes chimes with harmonics. People like Lenny Breau and Chet did that.
Bobbe are you listening?

Everything you say about Bobbe is soooooo true. He goes at that Emmons with a passion.
I'm surprised it's still standing.I do beleive it will outlast him however.!!!

Roy T.[This message was edited by Roy Thomson on 18 January 2002 at 07:00 PM.]

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 20 Jan 2002 1:16 pm

OOOOH!, you guys,your just sayin' this cuz it's all true! You guys can imagine how much respect I have for Roy and others also that do this style. We can't let the lead guitar players get ahead of us! By the way, Buddy does this style very well also, and always has. Let me tell 'yall 'bout the first time I met Bobby Garrett some time,(walter Haines was playing drums, ). What do you guys say to broadning out the styles that steel guitars play? There is more to steel guitar than A and B pedal E 9th.
Robert S.

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 20 Jan 2002 3:17 pm

Bobbe:
I'd like to hear the Garret story and I am sure others would also.
Did you both start thumb style individually?
Did you two ever jam?
I recall reading where Bobby G. did not use C6th for Thumbstyle but rather a 10 string extended E9th with a low E.
Fill us in.
The time has come.

RT

wayne yakes md · Post by **wayne yakes md** » 29 Jan 2002 4:46 pm

On Bobby Garrett's ISGHOF bronze plaque it plainly states "King of the Thumb Style"!! I also have heard Buddy Emmons, Buddy Charleton, Jeff Nerwman, and Bobbe Seymour play it too. I asked Garrett and he said when he met Emmons in 1956, Emmons was already doing the "thumb style" independent of Garrett. When he was 12 years old, Garrett said he was so impressed with with Merle Travis's "Divorce Me C.O.D." guitar playing, that he instead of buying a candy bar would put that nickle in the juke box to hear the song, then run home and play it on his 6 string Rickenbacker. That's how he 'began' his development of the "Merle Travis Thumb Style" in his early formative years. Can you imagine a 25 year old steel player playing NOTHING but C6th being in the same band as his childhood hero Merle Travis(with Hank thompson)!!! Garrett once told me that when he and Emmons were jamming together, Buddy told him that his hand would get tired after playing that style awhile. Garrett told him that he never got tired playing it. Buddy Charleton said to me that Garrett was so unique in his steel playing and his "Thumb Style" because he started doing at such an early age. Charleton, as well as Bobby White, told me that Garrett also had such a unique way of using his thumb to play the strings, that they both only knew of only one player with a similar way of using his thumb was Bud Isaacs. Next time you hear Bobbe Seymour play "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", he took it straight out of the Bobby Garrett song book!! The album, and Charlie Norris Music in Mesquite,TX still has a few copies left, "Thumbs Up" was something about which a "Thumb Style" album was thought to be recorded and Buddy Emmons, Jeff Newman, etc., were approached and all said that Bobby Garrett should be the one to do it. Garrett did and Buddy Emmons wrote the liner notes!

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 29 Jan 2002 5:22 pm

Thanks Wayne for adding information to this thread. Very interesting reading!
One on my Internet friends Dean Neely of Aiken,SC grew up and chumed arround with Bobby before he started his career at a young age. He also has a lot of stories and fond memories of his departed friend.
I never met Bobby but have an admirable respect for the musical legacy he left behind for us. A true master of the art.

Roy

wayne yakes md · Post by **wayne yakes md** » 31 Jan 2002 10:31 am

Dean Neeley is indeed a great friend of Bobby Garrett. They even had a band together and played radio shows when Garrett was 14 years old!! He and Merv Dawson in Tyler,TX are some of Garrett's oldest friends and all took their first steel lessons from Rollie Siegler. They ALL said that they all could play pretty well, but Garrett was already showing his genius on the instrument. They were astounded that Garrett at that early age could play and sound just like their hero Jerry Byrd, much to their amazement. Garrett cut the first records of Billie Joe Spears and Jim Reeves when he was only 14 years old. Garrett wrote the Jim Reeves song "Jimbo Jenkins". He left for Nashville with this unknown artist by the name of Jim Reeves when he was just 16. He played for George Jones, then Ernest Tubb(he and Buddy Emmons even recorded twin steels on the ET album,"The Ernest Tubb Record Shop"), then played with Merle Travis and Hank Thompson by the time he was 25!! How many steel guitarists had that list of major country acts by age 25? Quite a legacy!