Sacred Steel Music and Requests
I went into a popular music and book store near where I'm staying just outside Washington DC the other day and made my way, as I usually do, to the CD section.
I come here regularly to check on what's new on the American folk scene.
I come here regularly to check on what's new on the American folk scene.
I like to find out what new artists are emerging, what old favourites have been remastered from vinyl, what new stuff there might be from established performers like or .
What I did pick up was an Arhoolie CD of Sacred Steel music. Mostly found in the Southern States of the USA, Sacred Steel music uses the pedal steel guitar almost as the equivalent of the human voice in a sort of call and response form of worship.
It really is a remarkable form of music and well worth checking out if you are interested in different musical forms.
I also wanted to mention I'll be doing a request show on my programme in a few weeks time. I have always said that the request shows are some of my favourite shows because we get asked for such a broad range of music.
Please let me know what you'd like to hear and I'll squeeze in as many as I can...
What I did pick up was an Arhoolie CD of Sacred Steel music. Mostly found in the Southern States of the USA, Sacred Steel music uses the pedal steel guitar almost as the equivalent of the human voice in a sort of call and response form of worship.
It really is a remarkable form of music and well worth checking out if you are interested in different musical forms.
I also wanted to mention I'll be doing a request show on my programme in a few weeks time. I have always said that the request shows are some of my favourite shows because we get asked for such a broad range of music.
Please let me know what you'd like to hear and I'll squeeze in as many as I can...
Comment number 1.
At 16th Mar 2010, evansakes wrote:I'd never heard of this type of music before but I was over in Memphis recently for 'Folk Alliance' and they had a Sacred Steel ensemble playing at the Gospel Breakfast on the Sunday morning....I can confirm there was a significant quantity of Holy Rollin' going on and they sounded great. VERY loud for 9am on the Sabbath (conversation was pretty much out of the question while they played) and it wasn't just pedal steels on show either (they had a variety of different lap steels too)
Here's a glimpse of what they were doing at their official showcase (which I didn't get to)
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Comment number 2.
At 16th Mar 2010, evansakes wrote:ps Talking of steel guitar.....a few years ago you played a great track by (I think) Louise Taylor. I remember it featured Kelly Joe Phelps accompanying on acoustic lap steel and I think it may have been called 'Roll Away Car'. The first couple of lines were particularly memorable ('at the lost church in the city on wheels' or something). I've never forgotten it but never been able to track it down. If you can dig that one out, Mike, I'd love to hear it again :-)
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Comment number 3.
At 13th Aug 2010, U14583353 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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