Bluegrass pedal steel.

[Dan Beller-McKenna]

Anyone else play pedal steel in an otherwise acoustic bluegrass band? Not looking for references to BG recordings with steel (hello "Rocky Top"), just for others with direct experience of doing this.

[D Schubert]

Interesting question. Anywhere I've played or jammed in a bluegrass setting (guitar, mandolin, dobro) there is an almost unspoken rule that you have the freedom to drag your instruments to a shade tree, shelter house, motel room, to pick and sing in a circle, au naturel. Maybe a pedabro (brand name, I know) would lend itself to that mentality more than a pedal steel?

[Bobby D. Jones]

I grew up with a blue grass/mountain music family and friends. When I go back to area I grew up in, And play with friends and family, Its blue grass and old fiddle tunes.
If the banjo player plays good smooth rolls, It seems rather easy to play with a blue grass group, If banjo rolls are choppy, It is not fun.
Just Someone I Used To Know, Faded loved, Hickory Wind (Seldom Scene version with 6th minor), Ashakon Farewell.

I have been asked to add Dobro simulator in mix. If cousin Bruce is there, We will trade Dobro and steel.
I use delay and volume pedal sustain, Add fiddle fills and runs.
I have found it best to have amp pointed at one ear and hearing the accustic instruments and singers in the other ear. This allows you to maintain the same volume with the group. Edited to add this section.

[Bob Carlucci]

In my early years, yes, played lots of Bluegrass on pedal steel, in really good bands with good banjo and fiddle players, but it was more along the lines of an Earl Scruggs and Friends type of sound.. Neotraditional-You know, electric bass, drums, but still keeping a traditional bluegrass feel in much of the material..just kind of electrified for a younger club going audience. In those days we didn't worry about getting the pedal steel to sound like a dobro.. We just played it loud and fast... Sometimes very fast.. In those days, I could keep up with the best Scruggs style pickers and the hot fiddlers playing hyper speed.. just used my best Buddy Cage licks played fast...

I played often with more traditional bluegrass ensembles as well, more melodic not as much high speed stuff, more like a combination of bluegrass/ folk/traditional/old timey/classic country, but with a much more acoustic bent including upright bass and mandolin.. It ALL worked, i just had to listen and adjust.. Like any other steel playing, you listen first, then play from the soul, rather than just blow your hottest licks all over everything. Always well received, always appreciated by the musicians I played with and the listeners.. Not rocket science.. Its all music.. play within it, and not over it, and electric pedal steel can work well even in an acoustic bluegrass setting.. Matter of fact, every once in a while, I hear pedal steel in recorded bluegrass music on Bluegrass junction on XM.. always sounds wonderful, even with acoustic bass, mandolin, fiddle, and acoustic guitar.. Play it with taste, and a pedal steel will fit in fine in lots of places where some might say it ""doesn't fit"".

[K Maul]

My models for pedal steel in Bluegrass are Sneaky Pete with Dillard&Clark(“No Longer a Sweetheart of Mine” and others on “Through the morning through the Night”) and Doug Jernigan playing with JD Crowe on the album “My Home aint in the Hall of Fame”.
And let me emphasize that these are models for me-goals that I only touch and do not fully accomplish. A crisp, clean tone, good articulation, and not much volume pedal work is just the start of what is needed.

[Jackie Anderson]

Got a bluegrass connection, Dan?

[Dave Mudgett]

I play in a bluegrass-oriented band we named the Telegrassers because I play a Tele instead of a flat top. What Bob C. said -

... more traditional bluegrass ensembles as well, more melodic not as much high speed stuff, more like a combination of bluegrass/ folk/traditional/old timey/classic country, but with a much more acoustic bent including upright bass and mandolin.

Everyone but me is acoustic. We figured it's 'legal' since I'm playing Tom Brumley's old Tele that I got about 15 years ago. I still get stares from some of the "By God" bluegrass guys even with the Tele. But most people got over that long ago.

It took a while to convince the guys, but a few months ago I started bringing pedal steel to places where it will fit on the stage. Some of the places we play are just too small.

I don't do the insane-tempo breakdowns on steel. Not that I could, LOL. But on more ballad-oriented and medium-tempo bluegrass stuff, it fits well. I think of Hal Rugg with JD Crowe ('73 with Tony Rice) and Doug Jernigan with JD (later, with Keith Whitley) as the center-point of what works here. I play banjo (um, my chops took a hit when I started playing steel, but I do still play), so I try to channel the kinds of Scruggs rolls I would do there. And yes, effective blocking and clean articulation are the keys. It's a challenge. But no pain, no gain. I got a lotta work to do, LOL.

[Pete Burak]

I play with a jamgrass band a few times a year. Many songs are too fast even for my Buddy Cage style, so I resort to an embellishment of the melody line (including rests), which has turned out to be a nice musical juxtaposition of solo styles, compared to the other soloing bluegrass instruments that are basically playing as many notes as possible with little tie to the melody.

[Dave Grafe]

Buddy Emmons recorded some bluegrass songs with the Osborne Brothers. Showed us how it's done...

https://youtu.be/Hf54CVNZQNo?si=ejZ5-6zDLzNLL3zX

[David Wren]

So, as good as the big E is, the Lloyd Green version... back when he did "chicken picken" is the standard. This would be the Lynn Anderson's version.

BTW, in the bio on Emmons, he said he tried to not do bluegrass sessions, "cause they always wanted toe tappers"....

My take, much like Mr. Franklin's, is if what you want is fast staccato notes (fast blocking) why use a PSG, when no other instrument can do the amazing harmonizing blending's it can...... but mandolins, fiddles, banjos... all could fill the bill?

That said, Mr. Emmons could do it all!

[Kenny Davis]

When I joined our band back in 1976, they were coming out of a fairly hardcore acoustic Bluegrass group that was flavored with a young guy named Vince Gill. He played Dobro, guitar, banjo along with vocals. With him, they supplemented traditional Bluegrass with songs like Comin' Into Los Angeles, July You're a Woman, With Care From Someone, and Sally G. When he left in the summer of '76 they hired me to play Pedal Steel. Along with adding me, they added drums, and electric bass. They wanted to continue to do traditional bluegrass, but also "New Grass", Jerry Jeff, NRPS, POCO, NGDB, etc. About the time I came in, they also added a couple of Bluegrass contest-winning players - a banjo player (at the time was Jerry Douglas's brother-in-law) and a kid that won Winfield's first two National Flat-Picking contests plus fiddle and mandolin titles. I had to bring my game up in order to keep up with them as we would usually open with Hot Burrito Breakdown. Through the years we have morphed somewhat, still doing some Bluegrass with classic country, western swing, and a bunch of originals. Since about 2000, I've started playing Dobro on Bluegrass songs such as Blue Night, Big Spike Hammer, Little Maggie, and some originals. I still feel more comfortable playing steel on Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Rocky Top.

Looking at this Sunday's set list, I see we are starting with Big Mamou, so I will have to spend several minutes getting ready for that one! Funny thing, out of 26 songs, only two are close to Bluegrass: Rollin' In My Sweet Bay's Arms, and Here Comes the Sun BG tempo!

[Bobby D. Jones]

I believe the first album, The Osbourne Brothers had with Rocky Top and Tennessee Hound Dog, Speedy West played steel on.

[Kenny Davis]

I believe the first album, The Osbourne Brothers had with Rocky Top and Tennessee Hound Dog, Speedy West played steel on.

If it's the early album of Felice & Boudleaux songs, it sounds more like Buddy Emmons than Speedy. I think Hal Rugg played on the single version.

[Brett Day]

I don't think I've played bluegrass songs on steel, but I do know Doug Jernigan played steel on a few bluegrass records. In 2010, I saw Dierks Bentley performing with a bluegrass band called The Travelin' McCourys, and Tim Sergent played steel, dobro, and banjo. I remember walking into the venue where the show was and seeing Tim's Jackson Pro IV steel sitting onstage, and I thought the show would be acoustic instruments, but it was great seeing the steel. Dierks was playing songs featured on his bluegrass record "Up On The Ridge". I also remember watching the Grand Ole Opry Live show on TNN in 2001 after Chet Atkins died, and saw bluegrass duo Jim & Jesse McReynolds, and they sang a version of Buck Owens' 1959 single, "Under Your Spell Again", featuring Tommy White on steel. I kept wondering before Jim & Jesse came on if they were going to play a few bluegrass songs, but they'd released a country record featuring the song. One of Rhonda Vincent's bluegrass records features Mike Johnson on the pedabro, and Mike also plays steel on the duets record she did with Gene Watson. Rhonda loves the pedal steel too