I'm not overly musically inclined, but last night I was installing Winamp 3 (highly recommended for reasons I won't go into here) and was testing it out on a few Internet radio stations. I was surprised to find SteelRadio which is devoted to steel guitar music of all sorts.
Now steel guitars are a part of a number of musical genres, but I consider them (particularly the pedal steel guitar) as one of the hallmarks of real country music as opposed to the stuff being purveyed these days in Nashville. Maybe I'm biased - our local radio station has a "Who's the best country artist" contest every Saturday and it's usually a hard fought battle in the male category between Hank Williams Sr. and Tom T. Hall. I doubt there are too many other places on the dial where one can hear Miss Patti Page sing The Tennessee Waltz. But I digress.
My affection for pedal steel guitars and disdain for "modern" country music are shared by many. Larry Cordle and Lonsesome Standard Time made a hit out of Murder on Music Row:
Hit and run, slow strangulation or some other nefarious deed? Whichever, the two chalk lines on stained gray cement spoke of tragedy. A third victim, voice silenced forever, lay sideways on a stretcher, pedals glistening like angry steel fangs in the sunlight.Then, of course, George Strait and Alan Jackson covered it for a mega-hit and swept the TNN & CMT Country Weekly Music Awards in June, 2001.
Pedals? Metal fangs? Whoa! Upon closer examination, it can be seen that one chalky outline is fiddle-shaped. The "victim" sliding into the hearse is a pedal steel guitar. Tears, fears and gut-wrenching emotion will follow this tragedy, though neither flesh nor blood has been torn or spilled. Ears, not eyes, will ultimately record what has happened.
The above scene, depicted on the Murder on Music Row CD cover, amusingly satirizes the loss of the traditional country music sound.
For the steel guitars no longer cryBut I digress again.
And the fiddles barely play
But drums and rock 'n' roll guitars
Are mixed up in your face
Ol' Hank wouldn't have a chance
On today's radio
Since they committed murder
Down on music row
The point I'm ambling up to is that this all sounds very "down home", right? That's why I was amazed by a television documentary on making pedal steel guitars at Mullen Guitars in Flagler, Colorado. In a metal building on the prairie, Del Mullen and his helpers are turning out remarkable instruments. And one key part of the process is a high tech computer controlled milling machine used to produce the metal bodies - follow the factory link at the Mullen site to see it. The real "computer revolution" is taking place all around us and we barely notice. And its keystone is decentralization. It's pushing outward, while the "smart growth" crowd is pushing inward - trying to herd everyone by legal fiat into vertical buildings in large cities. Central planning always tries to make a comeback to everyone's discomfort. We''ll see how that turns out. Meanwhile, try a little SteelRadio.
