posted 03 March 2001 10:32 PM         

I originally wrote:
I'm curious to whether anyone has any suggestions as to when pedal or non pedal steel started appearing in Las Vegas, the clubs, Casinos.. whatever.

In 1961 Wynn Stewart was at the Nashville Nevada Club with Ralph Mooney. Ralph later worked a series of clubs with Bobby Austin, Bobby Wayne and others before he split for Texas in 1968.

Gene O'Neil who played with Judy Lynn's group, they worked the Golden Nugget and others, and Judy also recorded with Gene in her group in Vegas.

Curly Chalker. What can I say, he hit town around 1959, played with Wade Ray, then with Hank Penny and eventually had his own outfit in Vegas.

Any others of note, I know country acts in Vegas took off in the early 1970s, but any suggestions?

Janice Brooks added:
Lest we forget that Hank Thompson did the first live country music album at the Golden Nugget.

Tim Rowley added:
According to Bob Wills' authorized biographer, Charles R. Townsend, in his magnificent book "San Antonio Rose - The Life and Music of Bob Wills", Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys played many dates in Las Vegas, beginning in 1959 at the Showboat. The steeler (non-pedal) was of course Gene Crownover, who was with Wills from the late 1950's until very early in 1965. Wills and the TPB also played the Golden Nugget in 1959, with subsequent dates in Lake Tahoe. Following his reunion with Wills in late 1959, Tommy Duncan appeared as vocalist on some of these shows, such as at the Golden Nugget in 1961. Bob Wills and the band continued playing extended engagements in Las Vegas through at least August 1962. As a matter of fact, Wills used Las Vegas as his base of operations from 1959 to 1961 and bought a home there where he, Betty, and the children lived until Betty's second surgery in 1961. It appears that Gene Crownover played his trusty Stringmaster on all of Bob Wills' Las Vegas appearances 1959 - 1962 and an extremely fine steeler he was!
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Anyone else with thoughts or suggestions on early Vegas steel players, the 1950s perhaps?
I know that Neil Flanz, Leon McAuliffe and others played there in the 1960s on tours, but is there anyone else we can think of.

posted 05 March 2001 05:35 AM         

Curly had a brother that played steel in Vegas...Jimmy Chalker???

John Paul Jones

[This message was edited by John Paul Jones on 05 March 2001 at 05:36 AM.]

posted 07 March 2001 07:18 AM         

Judy Lynn had Gene O'Neal on steel from as early as 1964 to the late 1960s, I think Gene later went with Charlie Pride. I forgot about him actually..

John Paul Jones, I think that's the right name for Curly's brother and now you mention it I do believe that he worked in Curly's band for a time.

[This message was edited by Jason Odd on 07 March 2001 at 02:45 PM.]

posted 08 March 2001 05:51 AM         

They got another drummer, then Wynn split ..Haggard was gone, and Bobby Austin took over the group at the Lariat. Then Bobby left and Johnny Leggett fronted. Then Roy Nichols quit, they hired another lead player, but the only ones left from Wynn's original Vegas band was Pierce and Ralph Mooney.
The owner of the Lariat Club bought the Nashville Nevada Club and had both of them running at the same time. Bobby Wayne was the leader of that band.

In the end Pierce formed a group with Norm Owens, they both later worked with Judy Lynn's band (at different times) in Vegas.
Most of them as Bob stated, moved on to Haggard's band, it seems that one of the Hags early employment requirements was that a picker should have worked with Wynn, although his two longest running sidemen Norm Hamlett (1967-2001) and Biff Adams (1969-1999), never worked in Wynn Stewart's band.

I hadn't heard of Bobby's working at "The Barn," but I never really heard much from him on his career, and it seems most likely that you are right. I did interview Peaches Price, Jim Pierce, the late Hap Arnold (temp bass player), Jackie Burns (Wynn's only female singer), Roy Nichols, Frank Arnett and Norm Owens widow Betty, a lovely bunch of people really.
I assume that after working with Haggard ol' Ralph Mooney returned to Vegas again, as Hap Arnold found him there in 1969 at a club residency, and hired him away to join Wynn's roadband in Texas , where Moon joined Waylon in 1970.

posted 09 March 2001 03:07 PM         

In the early 1970s Don led his own band in Vegas, it was at the silver Dollar with Bob McCormick on pedal steel.

posted 10 March 2001 09:40 AM         

South Carolina natives Larry Orr and Melvin Isabel also played with Judy Lynn in Las Vegas in the early sixties. Larry is a great steel player and Melvin is a terriffic bass player and singer. If you like I could give you Melvin's phone # he has hundreds of stories from those days.Good stuff.

Mike

[This message was edited by Mike Bagwell on 10 March 2001 at 09:41 AM.]

posted 10 March 2001 09:53 AM         

Last I heard, Judy Lynn was ranching in southeast Oklahoma (Broken Bow area).

The Judy Lynn Show was very popular here in Reno in the '60s and '70s.

Always had great musicians. Not only sounded good but always dressed "professional" (looked like a band!).

Among the members of her band were the late Gene O'Neil on steel (later with Charlie Pride) and Bobby Hicks on fiddle (currently with Ricky Skaggs).

posted 10 March 2001 10:10 AM         

quote:

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What has become of Roy Nichols? Last I heard he was recovering from a stroke. Does anybody have an address for him?

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Here are a couple of links to get you started
http://hometown.aol.com/rockenroyn/Page1.index.html
http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/Opry/1294/roy.html

I think that Rockenroyn@aol.com is his daughter Diane, and you can probably reach hime there.

posted 19 March 2001 12:34 AM         

quote:

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a great indication of how talented Curly was

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posted 19 March 2001 08:49 PM         

BTW, I remember Frank Arnett playing steel for Glen Garrison at a club called "The Cave" somewhere around the LA area in the early '60s.

posted 22 March 2001 08:06 PM         

Bob Carlson

posted 22 March 2001 08:08 PM         

Bob Carlson

posted 28 March 2001 05:16 PM         

Vegas is like rock central, they have the guitar, car and rockabilly shows, etc.
Last year the awesome Starliners (Australian hillbilly Bop combo, stand-up steel 1955 sound), were there, I wanted to be heir roadie or something, but I don't know them well enough and had a foot injury which prevented me from doing much at that time anyway.

Lucky seems to do a bit of everything, I think he lives outside of Perth, but I'm not sure. He did gigs with a cajun/zydeco influenced group at a festival a couple of years ago, very awesome and versatile picker.
If he's playing with Kev I wouldn't be too suprised, but I'm not a big fan of Kev having grown up at a school where kids would play his stuff over their boom boxes instaed of music.
(for those who don't know, Kev is a pretty rude comedian who does sketches and stand-up, but also songs..this is an aquired taste, but like I wrote, I O'D on Mr. Wilson at a young age).
Melbourne as they say, is where you make art, but Sydney is where you buy or sell it.
There is a bar band scene here that is fantastic.

posted 31 March 2001 11:16 AM         

Stolen from the out-of-print AVI CD (The Challenge Masters). No single CD of classic early Wynn anymore? There ought to be a law against that!