Excerpts from internet.listserv.postcard2: 31-Jan-99 RE: HNC by "Jon
Weisberger"@fuse.ne
> the absence of the instrument, or of the fiddle,
> is not a reliable marker for HNC, and especially ought not to be used as a
> point of derision by alt.country fans.
Fair enough, and I for one wouldn't call'em on that. (Hell, Johnny Cash
has cut too many records without fiddle or steel for that to be a
reasonable call in my book.) I would say though, that steel and fiddle
(off the top of my head, Dina, this includes the Jayhawks, Geraldine
Fibbers, Freakwater, Blood Oranges, etc) have been prevalent in
alt.country bands' music.
Excerpts from internet.listserv.postcard2: 31-Jan-99 RE: HNC by "Jon
Weisberger"@fuse.ne
> And yes, Paul Franklin gets a lot of studio work, but 1) so do a decent
> number of other folks - Sonny Garrish, Bruce Bouton, Robbie Turner, to name
> a few - 2) virtually every album coming out of Nashville's got steel guitar
> and/or fiddle on it (the most notable exceptions being the band acts like
> Diamond Rio) and 3) most importantly, behind the A-list of studio guys
> there's a whole bunch of B-list guys who go out on the road to play behind
> the mainstream acts, and there isn't in the alt.country field.
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?
Carl Z.
