Back in the early days, we had to play with 8 strings instead of ten. I had a 6 pedal Gibson Electra-Harp, rare Pre WWII model, with 8 strings, and played all the pop and standard tunes of the times. But I always wished I had 9 or 10 strings to complete my tuning.
Reece introduced me to Curly in Dallas when I was picking up my D12 aruound 1970 and Curly was picking up his 2 D10's. He was very secretive about his tunings as many of us were in those days.

Curly was a very special, one of a kind Steel player and Musician....al

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My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

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I have a question, What would this guitar bring on E-BAY???

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Hard to say. Though Curley was much admired by a few steelers (and a few singers as well) for his playing, most of them didn't care for his playing (at the time). He was decidedly "non-commercial" when everything else absolutely reeked of "whiney E9th" stuff.

Too bad he couldn't be plucked out of the '60s, and dropped into the '90s...I think he would be all the rage, nowadays. I've heard it from several players that he could be decidedly...uhh, how can I put this diplomatically...rather smug and outspoken, at times?

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  ©¿©  It don't mean a thang,   
  mm   if it ain't got that twang.

If my memory isn't mistaken, the album Nashville Sundown previously mentioned, was Curly's first attempt at recording (or playing seriously) the E9th neck. He was all prepared to play the songs on C6 and the producer told him at the session to play it on E9th so Curly just winged it and that album is the result. Of course he kept using E9 and played it beautifully, although still mainly known for his C6 style. Curly was never too happy with any of his albums, and he got fedup with the Nashville clique and games and didn't play along, if he had and had done more session work there, he'd be a much more well-known name now.

About Curly's personality, he was cockier in his younger days but who wasn't? He wasn't shy that's for sure but he had a real sharp wit, a great sense of humor and a lot of people just weren't too sure how to take him... he told me that story about someone asking who his favorite steel player was and him responding "me!" and laughed about it. He told me one time a guy came in to where he was playing and kept looking at him, finally came up and said, "hey, you play kinda like Curly Chalker." Curly said, "yeah?". After a while the guy comes back up and says, "you look sorta like him too!" Curly says, "how 'bout that!" Finally the guy comes up and says, "what's your name, anyway?" Curls says, "Curly Chalker". The guy says, "Naaaaahhh!" Curly says, "OK". Then the guy freaked. But Curly never made a point of telling him "hey, I'm Curly Chalker, the world-famous steel player...!"

He was very outspoken, if someone sucked or was full of BS, he usually said so. That may seem a little rude but he was honest and there wasn't a phony bone in his body. He told me, he had no tolerance for BS. If someone came up and BSed him, he'd excuse himself and be gone. He never made a rude or unkind comment to me.

There have been many great and special steel players and we all know who they are so I won't name them and I love and respect them all, but for me Curly was the most special, not just for his musicianship but because I was fortunate enough to get to know him as a close friend and gig around Vegas with him, and I think it's true if he could be alive and picking now he'd be the rage, if he wanted to be. He was extremely intelligent and stubborn, knew what he liked and didn't like.

We also talked about some other players and he said the same regarding Buddy Emmons to me. He said something like "people always think that Buddy and I are enemies or something but we're not. Buddy's a great musician and a great guy.... I guess people just expect us to be feuding for some reason..." paraphrased but that's the gist of it.

I'm sure there are some people from Curly's old days who still hate his guts. That's sad, I hope they get over that. We all did and said things in our younger days that we regret... the Chalker I knew was pretty mellow.

Sorry if I've bored too many people with this. I know a lot of you knew Curls better than I did, but I wrote this because there's a lot of forumites who didn't get to know him and thought they might be interested.

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He was decidedly "non-commercial" when everything else absolutely reeked of "whiney E9th" stuff.

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Though Curley was much admired by a few steelers (and a few singers as well) for his playing, most of them didn't care for his playing (at the time).

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Whitney Single 12 8FL & 5 KN,keyless, dual changers Extended C6th, Webb Amp, Peavey Nashville 112 amp, Fender Steel King Amp, Carvin Rack Systems Line6 PodXT, Goodrich Curly Chalker Volume Pedal, Goodrich LDR2,Match Bro, BJS Bars, Boyette Glass Bar, Boss Effects,Ebow,Carvin Guitars, & Amplification, and other neat stuff, and a 165 Pound Great Pyrenees..
I was keyless, when keyless wasn't cool...

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Before any one hired you they ddn't ask if you could play,but what kind of steel you played.

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I've had people call me for a gig and before they ask what styles I play or anything about music, they ask "what kind of guitar you got?".. I consider it just about the stupidest question, especially before asking anything about music.... I take it back, "Are you good?" is the stupidest, but "what kind of guitar you got?" is runner-up.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 29 August 2006 at 08:42 PM.]

Lee, you don't know what a Fender 1000 looks like? This looks just like all the rest. However, I will post pictures if you need them to buy the guitar.

Bobbe

[This message was edited by BobbeSeymour on 30 August 2006 at 09:32 PM.]

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I think the steel on the cover of BHOBS is an MSA.

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I have a question, What would this guitar bring on E-BAY???

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