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.
That's surely a factor, perhaps the major one, but I think there are perhaps
differing sets of expectations involved, too.
I also have the feeling that a lot more bands would have steel if they could!
By coincidence--this subject came up just last night at that NYC Old 97s
show--because the apparently wealthy start-up band "Sea of Cortez" (they
were also throwing around Martins and Fenders) had a working steel
player--andd (rumor has it) those Buck Diaz boys have just been adding
promising steel player to their band too...But the difficulty of finding
one that you could and might want to work with most places was an issue.
(Those Ghost Rockets, steel and all, should have something to say about
this too.)
Barry
