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.
Son Volt an interesting case in point - they've been touring lately without Eric,
resulting in some songs being dropped from the set list (notably "Left a Slide".
Damn shame). On others, Dave Boquist has been forced to do some interesting,
inventive things on his six string to cover for the