>Agreed, though Nashville sports a larger central infrastructure of
>players (and money to pay those players), which bands working in other
>cities don't have access to, regardless of their tastes. I know of
>several bands that would love to play live with a steel player but can't
>afford or find one. Pittsburgh, for example, doesn't have dozens of
>steel players available, nor I would guess do most towns not named
>Nashville or perhaps Austin. This might be the launching point for a
>thread amongst themusicians on the list. Are there instruments you'd
>like to use either live or in the studio that you are unable to use due
>to cost or lack of interested players?
>
It's hard as hell just to find a guitar player with any decent country
chops here in Philadelphia, much less a pedal steel player (though as Barry
mentioned in another post, we've been lucky enough to latch on to one).
>From what I can tell, there are only 2 or 3 guys playing the pedal steel
regularly in bands in the greater Philadelphia area, and maybe a handful
more playing some lap steel. The situation's only moderately better w/
fiddle players. (Add in to the equation the fact that you may actually want
them to play along w/ a guitar with, gasp, distortion, and 2 of the 3 run
out the door to begin with.) So yes, it seems, at least here, more a
question of supply than taste, and I think Carl's probably correct that
it's the same in most other places.
I can't think of an countryish band in town that isn't searching for that
elusive "utility" man, a la Jim (Dave?) Boquist, who can add some
banjo/fiddle/steel into the mix without having to carry an individual
player for each instrument.
(Overheard at a recent show of ours:
Young woman: What is he playing?
Her Date, with confidence: It's called a floor guitar, sweetheart.
Young woman: Oh, I want to learn to play the floor guitar.)
For what it's worth, the inclusion of a pedal steel or a fiddle doesn't
seem, to me, to be a very fruitful point of (qualitative) differentiation
between the HNC and "alt" country crowds. Too much of it on both sides of
the fence to be different except by degree...
