Western Swing Steel players

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 3 Jul 2000 5:31 pm

Speaking of Roy Honeycutt, besides the Bob Wills 'Tiffany Transcriptions' he also apeared on a Big Jim DeNoon 45/78 single for 4-Star 'Wild String', does anyone know when this was cut, he apparently cut some 4-star transcriptions for Big Jim as well, I assume this was after the Texas Playboys?

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 3 Jul 2000 7:31 pm

jason

the info i have is that "wild strings" was cut in 1953 at kvsm radio in san mateo ca, with the unsung travis smith on steel.

one of the all time steel guitar rides ever done in my opinion. the tone!!

i thought it might be honeycutt or bobby black. bobby says he used to do the tune with denoone, but that he was not on the session. honeycutt is presumed to be on at least some of the denoone 4 star recordings because one of them is titled "honeycutt stomp", but i have never seen any formal personnel listing.

Smiley Roberts · Post by **Smiley Roberts** » 4 Jul 2000 3:05 pm

I have some cuts on some 4 Star,10" LP's,by "Big" Jim DeNoone:

"Wild Strings"
"Big Jim Boogie"
"Wednesday Night Swing"
"Old Blue"*
"I Believed In You"*

*vocals by Martha Lou Gaches

BTW,I recall meeting "Big" Jim's son in Las Vegas,while I was working there,back in the '70's, w/ Tommy Ovrestreet. As I recall,he was a "pretty fair guit-picker",himself.
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©¿© ars longa,
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[This message was edited by Smiley Roberts on 04 July 2000 at 04:11 PM.]

Jason Odd · Post by **Jason Odd** » 4 Jul 2000 5:11 pm

Thanks guys, that's a help.

The Black Brothers did of course work with Big Jim, among their many other gigs from about 1953 to 1955, although I imagine they'd still make an appearence on Cottonseed Clark's show when ever they could.
Does anyone know if any of this stuffhas been compiled for an LP or CD, there's Bobby Black playing with Shorty Joe and Blackie Crawford as well..anyone know if there's compilations on them?

P.s I read somewhere that Shorty Joe is still doing gigs in Northern California with the likes of Bobby guesting as late as 1999.
Now that is cool...keep on swinging!

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The future ain't what it used to be

David Biagini · Post by **David Biagini** » 4 Jul 2000 6:23 pm

Hey Ricky, what tunings did Tommy Morrell use? Thanks.

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 4 Jul 2000 7:55 pm

Hey David, Tommy will vary his tunings somewhat for recording but mainly here are the two he uses.
<pre>
(E6/9)
1.G#
2.F#
3.E
4.C#
5.B
6.G#
7.F#
8.E
9.D
10.E
(C6th or Am7 or FM9 or whatever you call it)
1.G
2.E
3.C
4.A
5.G
6.E
7.C
8.A
9.F
10.C
</pre>
Ricky

David Biagini · Post by **David Biagini** » 4 Jul 2000 8:13 pm

Ricky, thanks for those tunings.

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 4 Jul 2000 10:49 pm

Your quite welcome David.
These days Tommy is playing is Carson single-10 non-pedal steel made out of Texas Mesquite wood and he tunes it to the C6th/Am7 tuning. But Tommy has I think 4 or 5 locking levers that raises or lowers certain strings; to change or alter that tuning. I talked with Tommy quite a bit the last time I saw him, but I didn't remember or logged in my brain exactly what he is doing with those levers. He was mainly interested in the SS HAWAIIAN and how and what we did to build it; and will probably use alot of ideas Archie and I did on this guitar; for his next one. Of course Tommy was also speaking of Titanium for bridge and nut>WOW>ain't he sumpin'?
Ricky