Pedal steel

@dodgealum: Tell your guitar-playing friend to give a listen to Danny Gatton (mentioned by another poster above). In-cre-di-ble! Vince Gill---a mighty fine player himself---nicknamed him The Humbler ;-) . A guitarist’s guitarist. Jerry Garcia has his fans, but few of them are other great guitarists. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger!

I favour Telecaster players myself---Gatton played the Tele, as did his sometimes-bandmate Evan Johns (three albums on Rykodisc, a bunch on other Indi’s, including the one I did with him entitled Moontan). So do Albert Lee (The Everly Brothers, Emmylou Harris), James Burton (Ricky Nelson, Elvis, Emmylou Harris---she gets all the best musicians ;-), Steve Cropper (Booker T & The MG’s), Don Rich (Buck Owens’ Buckaroos), John Jorgenson (The Desert Rose Band, The Hellecasters), Al Anderson (NRBQ, solo), Dave Edmunds (though he played Gibson ES335’s for years), Albert Collins, so many others.

The Strat has it’s adherents too: Ry Cooder, Richard Thompson, Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), both the Vaughan brothers. But the guitar played most often with a pedal steel player---by far---is the Telecaster.

Sneaky Pete was the pedal steel player in The Flying Burrito Brothers.

The guy playing the great ps part in Commander Cody’s "Hot Rod Lincoln" was The West Virginia Creeper, whose drinking got in the way of his career (Cody fired him, replacing him with Bobby Black). I played one gig with The Creeper in the mid-70’s, and never saw him again.

The already-mentioned Buddy Emmons was indeed a ps master, as was Pete Drake (he plays on George Harrison’s ALL Things Must Pass, as well as Ringo’s Beaucoups Of Blues album, which he produced. Dylan employed his talents as well.).

Speedy West was an INCREDIBLE player, heard on many 50’s and 60’s albums recorded in L.A. He also made some great duet albums with guitarist Jimmy Bryant, a studio player himself.

Lloyd Green is heard on a lot of 60’s and 70’s Country albums, and he made solo albums as well.

Ralph Mooney is the ps player heard on many Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and Waylon Jennings albums.

Leon McAuliffe was a pioneer of playing the instrument in the Jazz-influenced Western Swing bands, and wrote the classic/standard "Steel Guitar Rag".

Don Helms is the ps player heard on all the Hank Williams recordings, ps playing as classic as it comes.

Jaydee Maness was the ps steel player in The Desert Rose Band, as well as a 1st-call player in the L.A. studios. He is the ps player on Clapton’s "Tears In Heaven".

Ben Keith is the ps player heard on Patsy Cline’s "I Fall To Pieces", Neil Young’s Harvest album, and many other recordings. He died in 2010.

Rusty Young---who recently passed away---was the ps player in Poco.

The current in demand ps player is Greg Leisz, who has played with just about everyone currently making good music. Look up his resume’ on Wikipedia, it’s absolutely insane!

Don't bother listening to Jerry Garcia playing pedal steel. Much as he loved the instruments, he was not a very good player of it. Or of banjo. Or a singer. But I digress ;-) .