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Brad's Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars

Very cool video!

Steinar

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"Play to express, not to impress"
www.gregertsen.com
Southern Moon Northern Lights

[This message was edited by Steinar Gregertsen on 09 May 2006 at 10:38 AM.]

First of all, the semi-gracious part: Herman, Steinar--glad you enjoyed this, too. It was sent to me with the kind of buildup that raises my skeptic's hackles. It lived up to all the buzz and much more.

Now the vitriolic, outraged and affronted rant. I am royally pistov (pardon my Russian) about The No Peddler Czar exiling this thread to the topical boondocks [better: gulag] of Music--the cerebrally arid home of Big & Rich rants, am-I-an-old-fart-or-do-these-kids-play-too-loud-onstage-nowadays and CMT program alerts.

To me, Hannes Coetzee (again, thanks, Steinar) is a modern-day echo of Joseph Kekuku, Gabriel Davion (or your steel guitar inventor of choice) and the primitive yet inventive spirit that led to...

LAP STEEL GUITAR, Brad.

(And even to pedal steel guitar...) Too bad very few Forumites will share our excitement in this comparative intellectual backwater.

[This message was edited by Ben Elder on 09 May 2006 at 09:27 PM.]

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quote:

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Steel players do it without fretting

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The treatment of this footage by this forum was disgusting; the reactions of other forums however were amazing. That is why I posted more background information to the other forum members and not to this forum.

I wish Hannes had recorded more songs, but I only have footage of the same song played in a theatre. I might post it on the other forum later.

I see nothing wrong with it being moved to the music section.

OK.

I also do not think it is THAT important. It is certainly not worth an argument. Discussions are OK of course.

I just thought this clip would be fun and the happy vibe of the music certainly came across to a lot of people.
Unfortunately, not on this forum.
Hence my reaction.

Please let's not fight about music?

My point? I consider clips like these to be important because they prove that after all is said and done, and all the noise about high tech gadgets and "proper this or that" has settled, what really matters is the heart and soul we manage to put into our playing.
A very simple truth that is easily forgotten...

Steinar

PS - the clip with the blues player, Watermelon Slim, can be viewed here, for those interested.

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"Play to express, not to impress"
www.gregertsen.com
Southern Moon Northern Lights

I have only seen one decision as dead wrong as not letting non-pedal players have easy, logical access to this video. Fortunately, I'll concede, the Exile of Mr. Coetzee isn't costing the American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

Peter, I'm sorry you felt slighted by the original response back in April. But your post then was an off-topic post buried in a post on another subject that had few participants. This current thread has a cryptic title, and may also not get much attention. I think if bottleneck blues on round-neck guitars belongs in the No Pedals section, then Hannes clip belongs there as well. However, it is no slight of any kind to put it in the Music section. Like many others on the Forum, I don't go to the individual sections, and don't pay much attention to what section a post is in. I just skim the thread titles in the "current daily" format. As it is, there is certainly nothing "disgusting" about the response - it simply hasn't been noticed by many people yet. If you present it with an informational title and with the background material, I'm sure it will get a big response. Hannes is very accomplished with his unique and original technique. I especially like the way at one point he holds the slide on a high note for a whole verse, with the chords changing underneath. This is a common device in South African music that he adapts very nicely with his unique mouth-slide technique.

I think this is another examplt that, while the public associates steel guitar stereotypically with certain genres, such as Hawaiian or country, those stereotypes derive entirely from the players, not the instrument itself. When someone from another tradition, like Hannes, chooses to play steel guitar, what comes out is completely different, and completely styled according to their own tradition. The Delta blues sliders, and Indian slide players are other examples of this.

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Student of the Steel: Zum uni, Fender tube amps, squareneck and roundneck resos, tenor sax, keyboards