The classic "4 on the floor" shuffle with a back beat, walkin bass, (rosin laden twin fiddles, and steel)so closely associated with Ray Price...is so much a part of classic country music that I never thought to ask before:

What was the FIRST recorded example of this style? What artist/lable/date?

there had to have been, like "Slowly" with pedal steel, a breakthrough recording in this style... what was it? Was it Price?
Did Ray and crew CREATE or did they just CODIFY and CANONIZE?

This should be good for a go-round...

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"I AM ZUMBODY!"

Zumsteel U12 "Loafer" 8&6 :: Fender T-8 Stringmaster :: Fender Tube Amplification
www.voicenet.com/~vanallen/ :: vanallen@voicenet.com :: www.lasttrainhome.com

This is "the real deal" ! Incredible steel guitar just at the transition to pedals, in original not colorized color, LIVE performances

some of the material is on Shanachie, but highly edited.

the rest... well it was available at one time, but whoever has the rights to this stuff has not the sense of the true musicological import of what they have... the first set of 12 videos was great... almost complete, only marginally edited shows. the second set was BOTCHED .
but the PERFORMANCES are still indeed great

here is an example of the image quality:

this is a screenshot from one of the shows. Emmons was NOT playing with Price but with Dickens, was just watching his future emplyer perform; out of camera range was Jack "Curly" Evans playing for Ray...

In the early 80's they used to show the Gannaway shows from the 50's on a Public TV (!)station out of Hagerstown MD- I lived in Gaithersburg MD at the time and the reception sucked and I didn't have a VCR, but I fell in love with the material...always wanted to own some..then

Back around 1996 the Gannaway films were being marketed as "Memories: Grand Ole Opry Stars of the 50's" in sets of 12 videos, each with 4 of the original shows (marginally edited) per tape, as a set called the "Great 48", with hints at another set of 48 making 96 shows available. My wife got me the first set for Christmas around 1997, which were indeed the original shows in almost their entirety, but no chronolgical data.
about this same time, Shanachie video put out three tapes of the Gannaway material, sorted and edited by artist: Jim Reeves/Ray Price on one, Marty Robbins/Ernest Tubb on another, and Webb Pierce/Chet Atkins on the third.
Quality was great, but the context was lost...

A few years later the company my wife bought the first set from called to sell her the next set... in the intervening period, whoever's job it was to keep $hit together at Gannaway legacy productions apparently left. the second set was a bitter disapointment...edited, incomplete shows, intercut with crap from the disco era of Nashville stars... I dunno who or what happenned....

All web sites and phone numbers relating to the mid 90's issue of the "Great 48" are now defunct. Tha Shanachie tapes are still available at the link above.

My Fervent hope is that someone with some sense gets control of this material and archives it in a chronological/musicological fashion, and makes it available again.

I wish I could call up Jimmy and ask him, like I used to do so many, many times about so much stuff of this nature

Re: the Gannaway videos... I agree with Dave VA completely. I have the original 12 and the Shanachie 3, and they are necessary for the libraries of serious 50's C&W collectors. I haven't checked eBay since I own them, but that would be a good place to start. I got mine at Ernest Tubb Record Shop, but that seven years ago. They're no longer in stock.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association