Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that reflect characteristics of the human singing voice. It typically involves playing the guitar in the traditional position with the use of a slide fitted on one of the guitarist's fingers. The slide may be a metal or glass tube, such as the neck of a bottle. The term bottleneck was historically used to describe this type of playing. The strings are typically plucked while the slide is moved over the strings to change the pitch. The guitar may also be placed on the player's lap and played with a hand-held bar.
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 does not use 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.
Adrian Belew is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, Belew is noted for his unusual, impressionistic approach to guitar playing, which, rather than relying on standard instrumental tones, often resembles sound effects or noises made by animals and machines.
Sol Hoʻopiʻi was born Solomon Hoʻopiʻi Kaʻaiʻai in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was a Native Hawaiian guitarist, claimed by many as the all-time best lap steel guitar virtuoso, and he is one of the most famous original Hawaiian steel guitarists, along with Joseph Kekuku, Frank Ferera, Sam Ku West and "King" Bennie Nawahi.
Pure Prairie League is an American country rock band whose origins go back to 1965 and Waverly, Ohio, with singer and guitarist Craig Fuller, drummer Tom McGrail, guitarist and drummer Jim Caughlan and steel guitarist John David Call. Fuller started the band in 1970 and McGrail named it after a fictional 19th century temperance union featured in the 1939 Errol Flynn cowboy film Dodge City. Pure Prairie League scored five consecutive Top 40 LPs in the 1970s and added a sixth in the 1980s. The band has had a long run, active from the early 1970s through the late 1980s. The band was revived in 1998 and again in 2004 and as of 2019 continues to perform over 100 concerts a year in venues across the US.
Robert Trujillo is an American musician and songwriter, best known for being the bassist of heavy metal band Metallica since 2003. He was a member of crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies, funk metal supergroup Infectious Grooves, and heavy metal band Black Label Society, and has worked with Jerry Cantrell and Ozzy Osbourne.
Jon Brion is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and composer. He performed with The Excerpts, The Bats, and The Grays before becoming an established producer and film score composer. Brion has produced music for artists like Frank Ocean, Fiona Apple, Kanye West, Mac Miller, Aimee Mann, Brad Mehldau, of Montreal, Rufus Wainwright, Robyn Hitchcock, and Sky Ferreira. His film scores include Hard Eight (1996), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and I Heart Huckabees, Synecdoche, New York (2008), ParaNorman (2012), Lady Bird (2017), and Christopher Robin (2018). He released his debut solo album, Meaningless, in 2001.
Larry Campbell is an American multi-instrumentalist, who plays many stringed instruments in genres including country, folk, blues, and rock. He is perhaps most widely known for his time as part of Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour band from 1997 to 2004.
Peter E. "Sneaky Pete" Kleinow was an American country-rock musician, songwriter, and motion picture special effects artist. He is best known as a member of the band the Flying Burrito Brothers and as a session musician for such artists as Neil Young, Joan Baez, Jackson Browne, The Byrds, Joe Cocker, Rita Coolidge, Eagles, The Everly Brothers, George Harrison, The Steve Miller Band, Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones, Ringo Starr, Stevie Wonder, Spencer Davis, Little Richard, Linda Ronstadt and many others.
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 and was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019. In addition to the pedal steel guitar and lap steel guitar, Franklin plays Dobro, fiddle, and drums, as well as three custom-built instruments called the Pedabro, The Box, and the baritone steel guitar.
Roddis Franklin Drake, professionally known as Pete Drake, was a Nashville-based American record producer and pedal steel guitar player.
David A. Immerglück is an American multi-instrumentalist who is best known as a guitarist in the alternative rock bands Counting Crows, Camper Van Beethoven and the Monks of Doom, as well as for his tenure with American singer songwriter John Hiatt. A versatile musician, Immerglück plays mandolin, pedal steel guitar, bass, slide guitar, electric sitar, keyboards, and sings.
Alvin McBurney, known by his stage name Alvino Rey, was an American jazz guitarist and bandleader.
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, 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.
Lloyd Green is an American steel guitarist. Green is most notable for his session work, having played on records with artists such as The Byrds, Johnny Cash, David Allan Coe, Alan Jackson, The Monkees, Jean Stafford, Lynn Anderson, Don Williams, Paul McCartney, Charley Pride, Bob Dylan, Johnny Paycheck, George Hamilton IV and many others.
John Hughey was an American musician. He was known for his work as a session pedal steel guitar player for various country music acts, most notably Vince Gill and Conway Twitty. A member of the Pedal Steel Guitar Hall of Fame, Hughey was known for a distinctive playing style called "crying steel", which focused primarily on the higher range of the guitar.
Neil Flanz is a Canadian pedal steel guitar player living in Austin, Texas. He has played and toured for over 30 years with artists including Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Charlie Louvin and Joe Sun. Neil was inducted into the International Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame on June 12, 2016.
Gerry Leonard is an Irish lead guitarist and solo artist, known for his harmonic and ambient guitar style and for his work with David Bowie. He has lived and worked in Dublin, Copenhagen, and Manhattan.
Shawn Michael Patterson is an American composer and songwriter. He has been working in the field of music for over 20 years. His most notable work to date is as the songwriter/composer for the song "Everything Is Awesome", written for the Warner Brothers feature film The Lego Movie (2014).
Jonathan Gregg is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Based in New York City, he is a founding member of ambient country pioneers SUSS; he also led Jonathan Gregg & the Lonesome Debonaires and The Combine, and, with Kevin Johnson, co-led alt-country band The Linemen.
