I glanced through the program and felt as if I'd stepped into the Wayback Machine. Bad hair. Bad clothes. Really bad advertising copy. The Fender steel ad alone made me laugh so hard my sides hurt.

But what a show it must have been. Check out the lineup:

• Maurice Anderson
  
• Les Paul
  
• Curly Chalker
  
• Herb Ellis
  
• Some guy named Buddy
  
• Tal Farlow
  
• Bucky Pizzarelli
  
• Doug Jernigan
  
• Julian Tharpe
  
• Johnny Gore on tenor
  
• Slam Stewart on bass
  
• Louis Bellson on drums

Ouch. So much for jazzers showing no respect for steel guitar.

Unfortunately, there was neither date nor location given for this concert. Perhaps it was a traveling show. One of the ads displays a 1976 copyright so it was at least that long ago. Maybe some of you were fortunate enough to attend and can relate more details.

Meanwhile, I thought everyone might enjoy getting a look at the actual program, so I've made it available online. Be patient, the index page may take a while to load in your browser if you're on a dialup connection.

email me if you get time. Fred

It was held at a large club in Dallas called "The Longhorn Ranch", which was originally built by Bob Wills in the 50's and called "The Bob Wills Ranch House".

Relatively few people realize how much Dave Burley done to promote steel guitar back in the 70's. Thats certainly not the only show he put together. Curley Chalker, Doug Jernigan, Buddy Emmons, Julian Tharpe and myself traveled some together doing steel guitar shows which Dave booked.

In case some of you are not aware, Jeff is a marvelous steel player who played steel in the US Navy band called "The Country Current" for years!

In September of 1977 I visited Zane Beck at his home,in Arkansas. Zane told me that Dave Burley's/Cavalcade of Guitars Show was recorded. Is there perhaps some legal reason that the recordings were never released?

Is the "Longhorn Ranch" the same venue as the "Longhorn Ballroom"? I know the LB was the 'country' bar that the Sex Pistols played at (Jan. 1978), and I used to go to punk shows in the 80's, and what a scene, with the 'urban cowboy' bouncers laughing at everyone that walked through the door...(we laughed too, but only after they had 'accepted' our "ID's"...) What a great venue though, with that huge dance pit, and all.....

Its hard to express in words the musical magic that took place that night, an evening which I believe will never again be duplicated.

And, ironically, I just met Dave in Grand Rapids last year at the HOF Show. Great guy and steel guitar supporter.

There was a record with a very similar cast of characters called "It's the First Time" or something like that. I had a bad cassette copy in the 70s and never could find it although people told me they got it from Scotty. Most recently, I was recording a jingle for a local producer a couple of years ago and the engineer started asking me if I'd heard of Reece, Jimmy Day, Curly Chalker, Julian Tharpe . . . right on down the line. So I asked why he mentioned those guys and he played me a few snippets of the original studio tapes (I believe they were multitrack -- possibly 8 track -- b4 mastering) and it was the real deal. I haven't heard from him in several years, but suspect nothing ever came of it. The economics distributing only to steel afficianados seriously limits the payback and the number of projects that get released. It's a shame.

This is an exerpt of a 'Guitar Player' Magazine article highlighting Jimmy Bryant:

quote:

---

On March 3, 1976, he organized an historic jam session LP in Nashville with nine legendary pedal steel players: Speedy West, Julian Tharpe, Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day, Hal Rugg, Lloyd Green, Maurice Anderson, Curly Chalker, and Doug Jernigan. With backing from Bryant, bassist Henry Strzlecki, saxophonist John Gore, and jazz drummer Louis Bellson, It's The First Time consisted of three extended jam sessions two Bryant compositions and a 20-minute jam on the old standard "Lonesome Road."

---