he never copied anyone and he did it "his way". I particularly enjoyed the recordings in which he utilized the clarinet and steel.nice combination. He had a style of his own which no one has ever come close to copying and probably never will. Yes, there were many who found his music distasteful, however I was inclined to listen to what he had to "say" musically, and found his music to be fascinating at the very least. How fortunate you were to have met Roy Smeck. I learned on the "Hawaiian" guitar and have some old sheet music with Roy Smeck on the cover. I particularly recommend the pre-electric stuff but again, that’s a matter of taste. Roy was also a fine guitarist, uke and banjo player.Īnyone who hasn’t heard him should give him a listen. Roy used a broken slant to lower the sixth string one fret, thus giving a sixth voicing which he used in the many various ways most of us know of, plus, I am sure, knowing Roy Smeck, many other ways as well.
The tuning he used was what is sometimes known as Kealoha’s A7th,Ī standard ‘A’ high bass with the exception of the sixth string, which is replaced by a third, and tuned to a ‘G’, one step below the ‘A’ third string. Taste has a lot to do with judgments like these.Īnyway, I had what amounted to a lesson with Roy, who was very kind, showing me his wonderful collection of instruments, and explaining many of his ‘special effects’ (all done with the hands, mark you) Whether or not he was just saying that to put me at my ease, I think, at least steel-wise, it was probably true. So I phoned Roy, and the first thing he said was ‘What records of mine have you listened to?’ I said that ‘Limehouse Blues’ (recorded on acoustic steel) was my favourite, and he said ‘That was the best thing I ever recorded. While in N.Y., I mentioned Smeck to the late (Yazoo record’s founder) Nick Perls, who suggested I might call him if I liked. The one that particularly caught my attention (as far as the steel was concerned) was ‘Limehouse Blues’ His rendition of that great old tune seemed to my ears at the time (haven’t listened to it for a good number of years) - while still ‘tricky’ in the vaudevillian sense- to verge on the 'Django-esque'. While my heart has always been with good Hawaiian, western swing, country, blues etc., I have always appreciated Smeck for what he was a Vaudevillian and a very fine musician.Ībout the time of my one and only visit to the U.S., I had been working on a couple of Smeck’s arrangements which I was attempting to copy by ear from the Yazoo release of his 20s-30s recordings. Perhaps my generation (I am 50) didn’t carry the same kind of aesthetic baggage however.
Everything he did, in their book, degraded their instrument to the level of a cheap novelty an area about which they tended to be (understandably) very sensitive. In Australia, the older steelers (meaning Hawaiian player) regarded Smeck with great distaste. The mention of Roy Smeck in the discussion on ‘S.G.Rag’ caused me to recall meeting the man at his home in N.Y. I have found a lot of very useful information here, and it seems the musical taste is generally ‘right up my alley’ – but that rather comes with the territory, I think. I have been following your discussions since Lucky Oceans put me on to the site early in 2002. Your profile | join | preferences | help | searchįrom: Brunswick East, Victoria, Australia Roy Smeck - The Steel Guitar Forum INSTRUCTION
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