I wrote:
> BTW, "Bending The Strings" is the title of a wonderful - and well-known -
> Allen Shelton instrumental that makes extensive use of Scruggs tuners;
> Shelton originally recorded it with Jim Eanes back in 1957. Shelton was -
> is - a master of using tuners to get licks that specifically and
> consciously emulated the pedal steel...
and it wasn't until a short while ago, when I was reading an interview with
Craig Smith (fabulous, under-rated banjo man) that I recalled - since Smith
mentions it <g> - that when Shelton first went to record with Eanes back in
1956 that he had a different type of lever that he used for some of those
effects. Eanes: "When he started out with me, he had some kind of lever on
his banjo, he operated it to where he could push it and change the tone to
it. It fell right in with my country songs. It had a similar effect that
the steel guitar had." These recordings were made for Starday, and were
pretty widely distributed.
Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
