The great Herb Remington joined up with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys his first day out of the armed Services in 1946. He auditioned in a hotel room in Los Angeles and immediately started a four-year stint with the Playboys during one one of their most productive periods. It’s no easy feat to walk into a job once held by Leon McAuliffe, but Remington brought his own style to the gig and made it his own with numbers like “Boot Heel Drag” and the tune featured here, “Remington Ride.” Listen to Remington’s classic track from Pure Remington Steel, call number FC-16229, recorded in Houston, Texas for the Stoneway label in 1973. We love the “wah” effect on Remington’s steel at the end of the track.
Even better, Texas legends Bob White and Clyde Brewer twin fiddle on this track. Get more steel guitar this weekend at the Southern Folklife Collection Steel Guitar Concert and Symposium. More info here.
Month: March 2013
Steel Guitar Symposium and Concert: Saturday, 23 March 2013
Tickets are still available for the last symposium and concert in the Southern Folklife Collection Instrument Series. The symposium is free to the public. The concert is $15 in advance or $19 at the door. More information below. We hope to see you Saturday. 
Southern Folklife Collection Presents “The Steel Guitar”
March 23, 2013
The ArtsCenter
300-G East Main Street, Carrboro
Ticket information: (919) 929-2787, ext. 201
Steel guitar music will be the focus of a concert and symposium at The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, N.C. The Southern Folklife Collection in UNC’s Wilson Special Collections Library will sponsor the event on Saturday, March 23.
The symposium will begin at 2 p.m. with lectures by music scholars John Troutman, assistant professor of history and geography at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Tim Miller, a Ph.D. student in musicology at UNC. At 3 p.m., steel guitar artists Allyn Love and Cindy Cashdollar will demonstrate playing styles and techniques.
That evening, a concert at 8 p.m. will feature Chris Scruggs and His Steel Guitar, followed by Cindy Cashdollar with Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun.
The symposium is free and open to the public. Concert tickets are required for the evening performances. Admission is $8 for ArtsCenter Friends and UNC students and employees, and $15 for others ($19 day of show).
The event is the third and final symposium/concert in the Southern Folklife Collection’s Instrument Series, which also featured tributes to the banjo and the fiddle. To learn more about the series, contact Liza Terll, liza_terll@unc.edu, (919) 548-1203.
Steel Guitar Serials in the Southern Folklife Collection
*Special guest post by Laura McPherson, UNC-SILS graduate student and SFC assistant*
As we wait with baited breath for the Southern Folklife Collection’s Steel Guitar Symposium and Concert [symposium is free to the public, tickets to the concert are available to purchase] to begin on Saturday, March 23, we’ve scoured our serials holdings to bring y’all some interesting items on the steel guitar, its history, and the musicians who love it.
Jerry Byrd and his steel guitar grace this cover of this 1963 issue of Fretts. The Southern Folklife Collection holds a number of Byrd’s recordings, including Admirable Byrd: The Steel Guitar Music of Jerry Byrd.
Inside the magazine, an article penned by Byrd sets himself as the defendant in a courtroom drama where the prosecutor represents his fans, whose questions run the gamut from “amusing” to “accusing, and abusing.” Later in the article, Byrd claims that the steel guitar is the most controversial instrument and reacts to attempts to standardize the instrument, relegate its use to the genre of country music, and elevate technique above the musicians’s emotional expression.
The SFC also holds Volumes 1-3 of Steel Guitar World Magazine, whose tagline, “Just for the love of steel’en” (or steelin’, depending on the issue), can be seen below on this creative cover from the November 1992 issue.
So whether you call it the pedal steel, slide steel, lap steel, dobro, or just plain steel guitar, swing by the Southern Folklife Collection to check out some of these marvelous magazines and join us on Saturday, March 23, at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro for the final event in the Southern Folklife Collection’s Instrument Series!
Visualizing American Roots Music: BINKLEY BROTHERS' DIXIE CLODHOPPERS
Binkley Brothers’ Dixie Clodhoppers, 1928, Bijou Theatre, Nashville, TN
(Tom Andrews, Gale Binkley, Jack Jackson, and Amos Binkley)
P218. John Edwards Memorial Collection (#20001)
The photo above appears as part of Visualizing American Roots Music, an exhibit presented by the Southern Folklife Collection of twenty rare and unique photographs of iconic musicians. On view in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room of the Wilson Special Collections Library through Dec. 31, 2013.
Visualizing American Roots Music: LYNN DAVIS AND HIS FORTY-NINERS
Lynn Davis and His Forty-Niners, 1942, Birmingham, AL
(Zeke Phillips, Jimmie Barker, Clint Blackley, Molly O’Day, Lynn Davis, Cap Johnson)
P1236. John Edwards Memorial Collection (#20001)
The photo above appears as part of Visualizing American Roots Music, an exhibit presented by the Southern Folklife Collection of twenty rare and unique photographs of iconic musicians. On view in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room of the Wilson Special Collections Library through Dec. 31, 2013.
SFC record catalog of the week: Columbia folk music 1952/53
Found this brilliantly colored and designed Columbia folk music catalog from 1952 in the Southern Folklife Collection Discographical Files (collection #30014) while doing some searching for a patron. The catalog is not what I was looking for, but you can probably tell why it caught my eye.
Don’t forget, the Southern Folklife Collection Steel Guitar Symposium and Concert is coming up this Saturday, March 23 at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC. Tickets are available now. More information below. Check in tomorrow to Field Trip South for some steel driving tunes from the SFC.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Earl Wynn Theater
The ArtsCenter
300-G East Main St
Carrboro, NC 27510
Sponsored by the Southern Folklife Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill.
Symposium:
2pm: Lectures by scholars John Troutman and Tim Miller
3:30pm: Musical conversation with Allyn Love and Cindy Cashdollar
Symposium is free and open to the public.
Concert:
8:00pm: Chris Scruggs and His Steel Guitar
9:00pm: Cindy Cashdollar with Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun
Concert tickets are required for admission.
Single: $15
ArtsCenter Friends and UNC Students, Staff & Faculty: $8
Day of Show: $19
For tickets call: 919.929.2787 ext. 201
Visualizing American Roots Music: GENE AUTRY
Gene Autry
P154. John Edwards Memorial Collection (#20001)
The photo above appears as part of Visualizing American Roots Music, an exhibit presented by the Southern Folklife Collection of twenty rare and unique photographs of iconic musicians. On view in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room of the Wilson Special Collections Library through Dec. 31, 2013.
Visualizing American Roots Music: PATSY MONTANA
Patsy Montana, 1931
P984. John Edwards Memorial Collection (#20001)
The photo above appears as part of Visualizing American Roots Music, an exhibit presented by the Southern Folklife Collection of twenty rare and unique photographs of iconic musicians. On view in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room of the Wilson Special Collections Library through Dec. 31, 2013.
Visualizing American Roots Music: JOHNNY CASH
Johnny Cash, last performance, July 5, 2003, Carter Family Fold, Hiltons, VA
Photo by Daniel Coston
Daniel Coston Collection (#20399)
The photo above appears as part of Visualizing American Roots Music, an exhibit presented by the Southern Folklife Collection of twenty rare and unique photographs of iconic musicians. On view in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room of the Wilson Special Collections Library through Dec. 31, 2013.
Visualizing American Roots Music: ALAN LOMAX WITH FRIENDS
Alan Lomax with friends, 1979, Mississippi Delta Blues Festival, Greenville, MS
Photo by William Ferris
MBFP_5-79-9_879_0002. William R. Ferris Collection (#20367)
The photo above appears as part of Visualizing American Roots Music, an exhibit presented by the Southern Folklife Collection of twenty rare and unique photographs of iconic musicians. On view in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room of the Wilson Special Collections Library through Dec. 31, 2013.