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Curly Chalker
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This topic was originally posted in this forum: Wanted To Buy |
| Author | Topic: Curly Chalker |
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Gary Walker Member Posts: 1446 |
posted 25 July 2000 08:13 PM
As a young man, I had my heroes on the guitar, Les, Chet, Merle and a few others, then I heard the steel at the hands of Bud on "Slowly". I heard Buddy with Dickens, Jimmy with Ray Price and I kept playing the guitar. One day I heard "TRAVIS" album and who was the masked man playing that steel like nothing I had ever heard? Then I heard "Money Greases the Wheel". I heard the Louvins, then Billboard had an article about Columbia signing a Steel Guitarist by the name of Curly Chalker to do a solo album. About 6 months later I was listening to KUZZ in Bakersfield and I heard this hammond organ playing "The Race Is On" and it was cool until that organ made a slide and I thought, "an organ can't do that" and I was so hooked on this man's style, I was a fanatic. I hear someone once in a while do a lick or phrase that they got from Curly, but I don't hear much credit given to where credit is due. Bethel told me that when Johnny plays the C6th and you close your eyes, you would think it was "him" and I know that Johnny was a great friend of and gives kudos to Curls and I have tried to protect my record collection of some of Curlys studio work and thanks to Tom Bradshaw and Scotty a few others they tried to capture and preserve this one of a kind master works. I never could find Merle Travis' 1970 recording of "World Full of Roses". What a neat sound that was. If anybody has that I would love to get my hands on it. I just had to give honor to a fallen hero of mine. Oh yes, I have others and the list keeps growing, thanks Gary |
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Gary Walker Member Posts: 1446 |
posted 25 July 2000 08:18 PM
I forgot to mention that hearing Curly on the Travis album made me lay my guitar down and take up the steel in 1962 and it never gets old to me. I hear steel music in my mind day and night and it still as beautiful today as it was 39 years ago.G |
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Ricky Davis Moderator Posts: 6522 |
posted 25 July 2000 09:06 PM
Great story Gary. I have a Hank Thompson record from a live broadcast from 1952 that Curly played on. I still dial up that record and listened to it often and it just blows me away listening to Curly play the non-pedal steel. Curly was so far beyond anything played in that style and I still hear things he did waaaay back then; I've never even heard done on the steel today. I think Curly was the all time "King" of the steel guitar. "Tommy Morrell" next  Ricky ------------------ [This message was edited by Ricky Davis on 25 July 2000 at 09:07 PM.] |
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Al Marcus Member Posts: 7471 |
posted 25 July 2000 09:22 PM
I agree with you Ricky, but don't forget to put Reece Anderson up there too....!!...al |
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Al Udeen Member Posts: 1164 |
posted 25 July 2000 09:41 PM
In 1961, I along with Terry Bethel and Jimmy Colvard, " All three of us were playing at the famous Flame Cafe in Mpls at the time" Went to see Curly at a shopping center, called Southdale in Mpls, He was with Hank Penny & Sue Thompson, Playing for a Grand Opening, He was playing through 2 Fender Bassman amps, It was so awesome, especially in those days, At the time he was into a real Bass type tone, What I would give to have a tape of that Masterpiece, Wow! Incredible Band with Horns! Great Memories! *** Al Udeen |
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Gary Walker Member Posts: 1446 |
posted 26 July 2000 01:00 AM
You guys are on track. Some of Lefty's and Hank's early tracks with Curly's non pedal stuff was incredible and then about '62 or '63 Hank did "Stirring Up The Ashes" and a couple more, that about made all other steel playing obsolete for that time frame. I still like to play them once in a while and wonder what happened to the rest of us pickers. I haven't forgotten Reece. That fine Gentleman is in a class all to himself. I first heard him at Tom Bradshaw's Steel show in Napa May 1968 and I still have a tape of that show and it was a mind boggling event and added another hero to my short list. Gary |
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Steelruss unregistered Posts: 1446 |
posted 26 July 2000 04:19 AM
Gary, Couldn't help wonderin' if ya was thinkin' of 'Wolverton Mountain' rather than 'The Race Is On' when referring to 'B-3' - as it was Wolverton Mtn. that he used the Leslie on. Regardless, I, too, was hooked (& still am!) upon hearing 'Big Hits . . . .' - Russ |
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Joan Cox Member Posts: 305 |
posted 26 July 2000 06:06 AM
Gary,I have always been a Curly Chalker fan. The man who taught me to play steel, Bob Delaloye, who lives near Troy, Missouri (where I'm from originally)always had Curly at the top of his play list. So I learned early on what a great player he was. My husband, Johnny Cox, who you spoke of, was very close to Curly for many years, and I love hearing the stories he tells of the two of them playing together. Johnny used to play bass for him sometimes, and there were times when Curly would tell Johnny to sit down and play his steel, and then Curly would play bass!! I don't know too many people who could have done that. And on Curly's guitar too!! Johnny learned alot from him, and loved him very much. I will also agree with you that Curly comes out alot in Johnny's playing. When he works with the western swing band, he's able to "be loose and play". I love to go and listen. There are times (and not all the time because Johnny does have his own style too)when it's absolutely "scary" how much he sounds like Curly. He has the same "attack" and feel that I've heard when Curly plays. Johnny's has one of Curly's old guitars too that he plays on that job sometimes, so I guess that makes it happen even more. It sounds like I'm braggin on Johnny, and I guess I am, but I am speaking first as another steel player who loves Curly's playing. But then I'm also speaking as a wife of a great steel player who has captured Curly's magic, and who I am very proud of. |
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C Dixon Member Posts: 5912 |
posted 26 July 2000 06:28 AM
Curly Chalker played like no other on earth! Truly the chord King of the steel guitar. His tone was like no other also. May our Precious Lord rest is soul, carl |
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David Wright Member Posts: 1863 |
posted 26 July 2000 06:38 AM
Curly was my Dad's favorite steel player, I remember he took me to see Hank Thomason when I was 10 or so, he was playing a Fender 2000 with two Fender Basemen's WOW what a player never will forget that. Later in life while working at M.S.A. we built Curly a guitar and spent some time with him,Curly played with such drive. Even though Curly is gone his playing will be with us forever. |
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Terry Wood Member Posts: 1205 |
posted 26 July 2000 07:27 AM
Hi Guys and Dolls, Curly Chalker, Maurice Anderson, Bob White and my friends Zane Beck and Julian Tharpe were all in a class to themselves. I really dig all good steel players, but these guys each had something so unique in their styles of playing steel guitar. I bought every album that I could get my paws on of Curly, then the tapes when I wore the L.P.s out. All of his solo/instrumental stuff is in my collection. Years ago, (late 1970's) I got to see Curly perform at the SG Convention. Buddy Emmons sat down beside him, and played bass for Curly on his portion of the convention. It was a real treat. I used to watch Hee Haw, just to see Curly play, when they'd let him. A few years later I had the opportunity when I was playing in Branson, MO to pick behind several of the Hee Haw artists. One of those individuals was Gordie Tapp. Mr. Tapp and I talked on numerous occassions about Curly. He said that it was just marvelous to sit and listen to Curly tune his steel and play through some warm up exercises. Futhermore, he stated that everyone around just dropped whatever they were doing and just listened to Curly. Again, as I have stated several times about my friends Julian and Reece, they too need to be honored and included in the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. Curly dug their playin' too. God Bless, Terry J. Wood |
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Gary Walker Member Posts: 1446 |
posted 26 July 2000 08:48 AM
Russ, thanks for correcting my off of the head song choice. You are right, I guess I need to pull out my tapes for this week. I could say I did that on purpose to see if anybody was paying attention and IT WORKED. I am glad to be in this high class crowd that appreciated a giant in this business, Gary |
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Mike Perlowin Member Posts: 6731 |
posted 26 July 2000 12:20 PM
I've said before, Chalker is my all time favorite player. I was privileged to see him in concert in 1986 at the show that forms the first half of the concert video. No opening act, no singers. Just Curly, guitarist Johnny Davis (who, IMHO, is every bit as good as Curly) our fellow forumite Jim Bob Sedgewick on bass, and a drummer, kicking butt for 2 hours. It was the best steel guitar show I've ever seen. Are there any tabs of his recorded material available? [This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 26 July 2000 at 12:21 PM.] |
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Gary Walker Member Posts: 1446 |
posted 26 July 2000 12:58 PM
Joan, it's so nice to hear you talk about one of my all time favorites Curly and it is a joy to hear you talk about Johnny in the same admiration and it is my desire to meet you and Johnny sometime and of course, hear him be himself. It's neat that Johnny has one of Curly's guitars. In 1973 I visited my old Friend, Jack Boles who was working at the Sho-Bud store around the corner from the Ryman, and I wondered upstairs and saw this Sho-Bud changeover model and I recognized it as Curly's return after he switched to MSA and I could have bought it but just didn't have the bread and it needed some serious work as the front was damaged like it had been dropped. I will be on the lookout for more of Johnny and will become a member of his fan following as I possibly can. Thanks, Gary |
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Bob Blair Member Posts: 1002 |
posted 26 July 2000 02:02 PM
In the late 70's I spent three nights in Nashville. I was staying at the Hall of Fame Motor Inn, which in those days was a Best Western. The first night I got off the elevator and heard this SOUND from the lounge. Holy ****, I said, and made a beeline for the place. The sound was Curly, who was jamming there every night with, among others, Jimmy Bryant (curiously, Bryant played fiddle most of the time instead of the guitar for which he was so well known). Well, we never got farther than that hotel lounge for the three nights we were there. Sitting there right in front of the stage while Curly was doing all that stuff he used to do was beyond anything I had ever experienced. The power, the speed and the taste that he brought to everything he played was just unbelievable. Sure made me realize just what a powerful and versatile instrument the psg is. Boy, what a player!! |
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Tele Member Posts: 965 |
posted 26 July 2000 02:58 PM
I never had much interest in the Steel guitar until I heard Curly Chalker on Hank Thompsons "Cryin in the deep blue sea" !! His tone was so incredible, I'll never forget that experience! Next day I bought my 1st Steel, a Guyatone, years later I barely touch my standard guitars!! Andy ------------------ |
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Jeff Evans Member Posts: 554 |
posted 26 July 2000 03:40 PM
Great stories, fellas (and ladies.) Now, please, how about some more album recommendations. Thanks. |
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Al Udeen Member Posts: 1164 |
posted 26 July 2000 04:43 PM
Sorry, but I have to add one more story, Several years ago I heard about Curly picking the brain of a certain piano player, to show him all kinds of chords, I was playing in Mankato,Mn. "in the 70s" and an older gentleman walked up and asked if I had heard of Curly C. I said I sure have, He said he played piano with him for quite some time, I said are you the guy that showed him a bunch of chords? He said I showed him all I knew! Hows that for Small World Al |
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Bill Cunningham Member Posts: 381 |
posted 27 July 2000 03:15 AM
Does anyone know if "Travis" is available on CD? I made a cassette copy of this about 25 years ago and it is now broken. I do not easy access to the original vinyl. Bill ------------------ |
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Gary Walker Member Posts: 1446 |
posted 27 July 2000 07:53 PM
I wanted to add another comment about "Our Man of Steel". We all are acquainted with Curly's tremendous C6 playing. Like David Wright said, "he played with such drive" and so does David, but Curly had the most distinctive E9 style that was so identifiable to him. He played his own licks and phrases. Sometimes it is difficult to separate who is playing the steel because they almost all have a "Nashville" style, but Curly was his own man on the 9th. When he played with Don Gibson through the '70s or with some of the Gospel groups, you knew it was no one but him. Now Jeff asked for some other albums and without them in front of me, he did feature work with Little Jimmy Dickens in the late '60, Hank Thompson's Mills Brothers album, Don Gibson did a great album in '69 on RCA with Chet Atkins producing with songs like, Good Deal Lucille, Bonapart's Retreat, super stuff, of course the double album that Carl Smith in about 1970 with that great Good Deal Lucille and a bunch of others. Jim Murphey also did some great C6 work on it and another that comes to my mind was the live album that Dick Curless did at the truckers jamboree in Wheeling WVA in about 1972 and he blew that away with some super work. The '60s and '70 spotlighted his work the best and I am glad that I have them, Thanks, Gary |
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David Wright Member Posts: 1863 |
posted 28 July 2000 04:07 PM
Gary, Your so right on Curly haveing his own style on the 9th tunning, If I remember right he played on Ray Price's "For the good times" and proubly did much more that we know. ------------------
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Steelruss unregistered Posts: 1863 |
posted 12 August 2000 05:00 PM
Some time ago Mike Douchette had arranged a 'forum interview' with Lloyd Green and invited readers to submit questions - I had asked Lloyd about his association with Curly when Curly was new to the E9th and mew to Nashville - so, to quote Lloyd . . . . . . "When Curly first moved to Nashville he and I had a long conversation at my house one afternoon about the E9th tuning. At the time he didn't play E9th thinking it rather limited in concept and application. But he knew that in order to survive in Nashville he would have to learn it. After listening to all of the 'commercial' E9th players he had decided my approach made the most sense and was the most listenable to his ear. I explained a few of my E9th concepts and showed him some of the ideas I was working on at that time. Now Curly was an exceptionally intelligent man in addition to his musical genius so he readily grasped the concepts and how to play them. Within one year he not only had become one of the best E9th players around but was playing original ideas unlike any I had heard and with the virtuosity of a great artist! He later confided to me that he had underestimated the beauty and complexity of the E9th and that it did indeed require talent, brains and knowledge to play if one intended for the general public to accept it as a legitimate idiom. I nodded in happy agreement. During Curly's first few years in Nashville I hired him to play either electric guitar or rhythm and sometimes dobro on many of the recording sessions on which I was leader and had authority to hire who I wanted. He owed me absolutely no credit although I was flattered that he sometimes chose to credit me with his E9th introduction. What he played and created on our 'commercial' tuning was all his innovative approach and the product of a highly fertile mind. I had great admiration for Curly's musical abilities and his ferocious independent spirit will be greatly missed by me and countless others." Lloyd Green [This message was edited by Steelruss on 12 August 2000 at 05:00 PM.] |
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Herb Steiner Member Posts: 6119 |
posted 12 August 2000 05:52 PM
the "Travis" album was reissued a few years back on a British label called Stetson, but in vinyl only. I have the LP but I haven't seen it on CD. There is a vinyl copy for sale on eBay right now. There is another little known but awesome Chalker performance on an album entitled "Little Jimmy Dickens Greatest Hits" on Decca and/or MCA. Recorded I think in the late 60's, the songs are remakes of Tater's earlier Columbia cuts. Chalker is simply astounding on that record, all C6. ------------------ |
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Richard Sinkler Member Posts: 2896 |
posted 12 August 2000 06:06 PM
Everyone should have a copy of "Big hits on Big Steel" and "'Swonderful" (with Jethro Burns, Eldon Shamblin and Joe Venuti. These are good enough to go to prison for. Well... ------------------ |
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JERRY THURMOND Member Posts: 396 |
posted 13 August 2000 08:59 AM
All i can say about Curly, is WOW, an it will never happen again, just glad an proud i was around to see him. JERRY |
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Gary Walker Member Posts: 1446 |
posted 13 August 2000 09:51 AM
Steelruss, Thanks for that great story from one of the super giants of the E9 players of all times. I had heard Curly tell of Lloyd's generosity in finding him session work when he came to Nashville and the mutual admiration they shared of each other. All of these great stories concerning a unique Maestro of the most mysterious musical instrument ever conceived in the minds of man is a treasure in itself, Thanks, Gary |
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Kenny Dail Member Posts: 2583 |
posted 14 August 2000 04:47 AM
I have been a Curly fan for more years than I care to remember. My 1st introduction to his playing was in the late 40s when he worked for a while with Hank Thompson probably about the time "Crying In The Deep Blue Sea" was recorded. The record in question that got my attention was "Now We're Parted, How Cold Hearted Can You Get." Unknowingly, I enjoyed and admired his work with Lefty Frizzell, Red Foley (Ozark Jubilee) and other artists that other players got the credit for. I truly wish the session players could have been listed on each record because of the proper credit the musicians could have gotten. Curly was unlike any other steeler even when he was tring to be "commercial". What a great musician/artist. He was unique. ------------------ |
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Kenny Dail Member Posts: 2583 |
posted 14 August 2000 04:55 AM
PS: I think Curly's work on HT's tribute to the Mills Brothers was some of his best work. I would like to purchase a copy if anyone knows where it can be bought, please let me know. I have the Hank Thompson box set of his Capital stuff and his pre Capital stuff but his later recordings when he left Capital are hard for me to find. Thanx. ------------------ |
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Darvin Willhoite Member Posts: 2322 |
posted 14 August 2000 09:22 AM
Curley's "Nashville Sundown" album was all E9 and it is great. I think his pedal / lever setup was pretty basic, but some of the things he did still blows me away. I transferred the album to CD and listen to it often. I think he was playing an MSA at this time and his tone was really good. |
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Chuck S. Lettes Member Posts: 658 |
posted 14 August 2000 09:59 AM
I also love Curly's playing. I agree with what Darvin wrote-Curly's "Nashville Sundown," his tribute album to Gordon Lightfoot, was all E9th and beautifully done. I especially liked his version of "Early Morning Rain." Curly was one of a kind, and I miss him. |
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Gary Walker Member Posts: 1446 |
posted 14 August 2000 10:07 AM
I know I'm hashing old news concerning the "Nashville Sundown" album, but originally I think Curly had it arranged in C6 but the producer wanted him to do it in E9 instead and the old Pro delivered, just as we hear it today. I would have loved to had both ways available but am glad we got what we have, Thanks, Gary |
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billy tam Member Posts: 330 |
posted 14 August 2000 03:20 PM
Curly did some work in the mid to late 70's with Charlie McCoy(I believe it was on Flying Fish Records)that was well worth listening to. Especially a c6 ride on Danny Boy that will still bring tears to my eyes. |
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wayne yakes md Member Posts: 650 |
posted 15 August 2000 01:21 PM
Let's NEVER forget that people still say the greatest band to ever play Las Vegas was "The Wade Ray Five"! Curly Chalker, Wade, and Ken "Thumbs" Carllile were the three lead instruments, WOW! Bobby Garrett said that jammin' with Chalker and Emmons was certainly a high point in his career. You certainly hear Curls' influence in Jim"Big Murph"Murphy, Bert Rivera, Buzz Evans, Buddy Emmons,Johnny Cox and so many more. Also don't forget that Curls', altho' was left handed(like Lloyd Green and Chuck Lettes), but played right handed steels! |
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Steelruss unregistered Posts: 650 |
posted 15 August 2000 04:30 PM
and Marty Allred and Bobby Dyson completed the WR Five on bass and drums . . . also CC was quite a guitarist and fluent on bass and trumpet . . . and at his funeral Curlys brotherinlaw gave a 'eulogy' and spoke of Curly, in his youth, 'picking up the fiddle and cuttin' down on a two-step'! ~Russ |
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