Bobby Lee (Robert Paul Lee born 1949, died 2023), was a pedal steel guitar player and active promoter of the instrument, creating several Internetwebsites and most recognized as the founder of the Steel Guitar Forum.
Inspired by the steel guitar styles of Jerry Garcia (with The Grateful Dead) and Don Helms (with Hank Williams), Bobby Lee took up the steel guitar in 1972. He started performing with country bands in Northern California in 1975, and became a common fixture in Sonoma County's country music scene starting in 1979. His country band affiliations included The Cowpokes, The Western Rhythm Gang, The Wheelers, Scott Gerber, The StringBusters and The Country All-Stars, among many others. In 1996, he recorded and produced Quasar Steel Guitar, a CD of his steel guitar music.
In 2001, Bobby Lee joined John Reese and Open Hearts, a band that plays original music in a wide variety of styles. He played on two of their CDs, and left the band in 2008. In 2009, he joined forces with Al Stern (drums), Ehlert Lassen (acoustic guitar) and Dennis Lassen (acoustic bass and piano) to create The Burnside Scramblers, a band fond of playing western swing music and standards.
As "b0b" (his online handle), Bobby became involved in BBSes in the 1980s. He leveraged that experience to start The Steel Guitar Forum in 1997. Over the years that followed, The Steel Guitar Forum has become the online center of the international steel guitar community.
In addition to his musical and internet activities, Bobby Lee was a professional software engineer specializing in consumer graphics applications.
Bobby Lee died on March 7, 2023, surrounded by his family at his home in Cloverdale, California.
A steel guitar is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar in that it is played without using frets; conceptually, it is somewhat akin to playing a guitar with one finger. Known for its portamento capabilities, gliding smoothly over every pitch between notes, the instrument can produce a sinuous crying sound and deep vibrato emulating the human singing voice. Typically, the strings are plucked by the fingers of the dominant hand, while the steel tone bar is pressed lightly against the strings and moved by the opposite hand.
Albert William Lee is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked, both in the studio and on tour, with many famous musicians from a wide range of genres. He has also maintained a solo career and is a noted composer and musical director.
The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play unlimited glissandi and deep vibrati—characteristics it shares with the human voice. Pedal steel is most commonly associated with American country music and Hawaiian music.
The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional acoustic guitar, in which the performer's fingertips press the strings against frets, the pitch of a steel guitar is changed by pressing a polished steel bar against plucked strings. Though the instrument does not have frets, it displays markers that resemble them. Lap steels may differ markedly from one another in external appearance, depending on whether they are acoustic or electric, but in either case, do not have pedals, distinguishing them from pedal steel guitars.
Copedent is a term used to describe the tuning and pedal arrangement on a pedal steel guitar and is unique to that instrument. Typically expressed in the form of a table or chart, the word is a portmanteau of "chord–pedal–arrangement and is pronounced "co-PEE-dent". It was coined in 1969 by Steel Guitar Hall of Fame member Tom Bradshaw and first reached a wide audience in a 1972 article in Guitar Player magazine. A complete copedent includes the order of strings, their tuning, string gauges, and whether a string is plain or wound; it also indicates how any string's pitch is changed by applying a foot pedal or a knee lever. It has become an international standard used by steel guitar players and manufacturers to describe the specifications of these instruments.
Paul V. Franklin is an American multi-instrumentalist, known mainly for his work as a steel guitarist. He began his career in the 1970s as a member of Barbara Mandrell's road band; in addition he toured with Vince Gill, Mel Tillis, Jerry Reed and Dire Straits. He has since become a prolific session musician in Nashville, playing on more than 500 albums. He has been named by the Academy of Country Music as Best Steel Guitarist on several occasions. He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019. With thirty, Franklin is the most nominated person in CMA history and is notable for having been nominated for the Country Music Association Award for Musician of the Year twenty nine times but has yet to win.
John McFee is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist, and long-time member of The Doobie Brothers.
If You See Her is the fifth studio album by American country music duo Brooks & Dunn, released in 1998 on Arista Nashville. The album featured five chart singles: "If You See Him/If You See Her", "How Long Gone", and "Husbands and Wives", all of which reached #1, plus "I Can't Get Over You" and "South of Santa Fe". This last song was the first single of Brooks & Dunn's career to miss Top 40 entirely, and was the last single to feature Kix Brooks on lead vocals instead of Ronnie Dunn. The album is a counterpart to Reba McEntire's album If You See Him, which shared the track "If You See Him/If You See Her". A bonus limited edition EP was made available when consumers bought both If You See Him and If You See Her at the same time. "Born and Raised in Black in White" is a cover of The Highwaymen song off their 1990 album, Highwayman 2.
Lonestar is the debut studio album from the American country music band of the same name. Released in 1995 on BNA Records, it features five singles: "Tequila Talkin'", "No News", "Runnin' Away With My Heart", "Heartbroke Every Day", and "When Cowboys Didn't Dance", of which "No News" was a Number One hit on the Billboard country charts. The album has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping 500,000 copies in the United States.
South 65 was an American country music boy band. The group was composed of vocalists Lance Leslie, Brent Parker, Stephen Parker, Jerimy Koeltzow, and Doug Urie. Between 1997 and its disbanding in 2001, South 65 charted five singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, in addition to recording two albums on Atlantic Records. In 2006, former vocalist Lance Leslie founded another group called Rio Grand.
When It All Goes South is the nineteenth studio album by American country music band Alabama, released in 2001. It produced the singles "When It All Goes South", "Will You Marry Me" and "The Woman He Loves". This became Alabama's final studio album of original materials until 2015's Southern Drawl. It ranked at No. 37 in Billboard Album Charts and No. 4 on Country Album Chart.
Buddy Gene Emmons was an American musician who is widely regarded as the world's foremost pedal steel guitarist of his day. He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1981. Affectionately known by the nickname "Big E", Emmons' primary genre was American country music, but he also performed jazz and Western swing. He recorded with Linda Ronstadt, Gram Parsons, The Everly Brothers, The Carpenters, Jackie DeShannon, Roger Miller, Ernest Tubb, John Hartford, Little Jimmy Dickens, Ray Price, Judy Collins, George Strait, John Sebastian, and Ray Charles and was a widely sought session musician in Nashville and Los Angeles.
Dawn of a New Day is the debut studio album by Canadian country music singer Crystal Shawanda. It was released in Canada on June 24, 2008, and in the United States on August 19. It produced five singles in "You Can Let Go", "What Do I Have to Do", "My Roots Are Showing", the title track and "Try". "You Can Let Go" reached number 21 on the Hot Country Songs charts.
Pass the Chicken & Listen is an album by The Everly Brothers, released in 1972. It was the last studio recording the brothers made for over 10 years.
In the Vicinity of the Heart is the sixth studio album by the American country music band Shenandoah. Their only full studio album for Liberty Records, it was released in November 1994. It is also the final studio album to feature founding members Stan Thorn and Ralph Ezell.
The Band Perry is the debut album by the American country music group of the same name. The album includes five songs from the band's digital EP The Band Perry EP, which was released in April 2010. The album produced five singles: "Hip to My Heart", "If I Die Young", "You Lie", "All Your Life", and "Postcard from Paris". Of these, "If I Die Young" and "All Your Life" were number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Ralph Mooney was an American steel guitar player and was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1983. He was the original steel guitarist in Haggard's band, the Strangers.
Glendale Train is an album by the country rock band the New Riders of the Purple Sage. It was recorded as a live radio broadcast on October 30, 1971 at the Taft Auditorium in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was released on CD and vinyl on November 18, 2013.
Forrest "Bud" Isaacs (1928–2016) was an American steel guitarist who made country music history in 1954 as the first person to play pedal steel guitar on a hit record. He is known for his playing his innovative technique on Webb Pierce's 1954 recording of a song called "Slowly" which became a major hit for Pierce and was one of the most-played country songs of 1954. Isaacs was the first to push a pedal while the strings were still sounding to create a unique bending of notes from below up to join an existing note; this was not possible on older lap steel guitars. The stunning effect he created was embraced by country music fans and many lap steel artists rushed to get pedals to imitate the unique bending chords that he played. Music historians pinpoint the actual dawning of country music's modern era to Isaac's performance on this song. He became a much-favored session player and performed on 11 top country records the year following the release of "Slowly". Even though pedal steel guitars had been available for over a decade before this recording, the instrument emerged as a crucial element in country music after the success of this song.
Thomas Lewis Bradshaw is an American steel guitarist, journalist, music historian and businessman and who is known for his contributions to the pedagogy of steel guitar. He is a member of the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame (2006). Bradshaw is noted for creating what is now an international standard for describing how a steel guitar is configured, and coined the name "copedent" to describe it. NPR music writer Jesse Jarnow called Bradshaw "perhaps the world's leading authority on the instrument". Bradshaw played and repaired steel guitars and sold parts and accessories for the instruments for nearly a half-century. He was editor and publisher of Steel Guitarist magazine and was a columnist and writer for Guitar Player Magazine for many years, interviewing elite players and documenting steel guitar's evolution. His plaque in the Hall of Fame reads in part, " He was steel's foremost journalist of his time"
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