State's notable role in steel guitar history

Painter: State's notable role in steel guitar history

By Bryan Painter
Columnist

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — I've seen a lot in the Show Me State from one location — the Millennium Hotel in St. Louis, where I've stayed three times.

From the lobby — I've marveled at the Arch and the Mississippi River.

From my hotel rooms — the old and now new Busch Stadiums, home of the St. Louis Cardinals.

I knew anywhere from a little to a lot about each.

But just outside the conference room of our Mid-America Press Institute journalism workshop is a wall that interested me the previous two times I'd been there and really drew me in on my trip this month as I started thinking about its ties to Oklahoma history.

Along that wall is the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame.

In the family I was raised in, steel guitars far outweighed electric guitars in the music Dad listened to on his eight-track tapes. That was the first hook for me.

The second was the number of times I saw Oklahoma listed as birth state for the inductees.

There are five people born in Oklahoma who have been inducted into The Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame: Noel Boggs, born in Oklahoma City and inducted in 1981; Ralph Mooney, born in Duncan and inducted in 1983; Bob Dunn, born in the Fort Gibson-Braggs area and inducted in 1992; "Pee Wee” Whitewing, born in Reichert near a community called Conser and inducted in 2002; and Tom Bradshaw, born in Skiatook and inducted in 2006.

Steel guitar players are like football's offensive lineman — what they contribute to is appreciated but their identities often go unnoticed. But music has played a big role in our state's history, and so I thought during this centennial year, it was a good time to look at how some of these talented Oklahomans influenced so many different facets of life.

I contacted DeWitt "Scotty” Scott of St. Louis, president of the International Steel Guitar Convention and on the board of the hall of fame. I asked him about Oklahomans' influence.

"We owe a debt of gratitude to many steel guitar players that were native to Oklahoma,” he said. "Names like Noel Boggs, Ralph Mooney, Bob Dunn and Pee Wee Whitewing were innovators in the pioneering of the western swing style of music.

"And they were also active in the pop and country and western music, as well. Many of the local bands in the 1940s had steel players from other states, but they also made an impact in both Oklahoma City and Tulsa.”

Scott listed players such as Herb Remington, Leon McAuliffe and Speedy West as three examples. He said it wasn't unusual to attend a dance to hear Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys or Johnny Lee Wills or Merle Lindsey and the Oklahoma Night Riders and hear one of the above players.

"All in all, Oklahoma musicians have been a great inspiration to many of us steel players, and the state of Oklahoma can be proud,” he said.

Noel Boggs

Boggs learned to play the steel guitar while a junior high student in Oklahoma. He worked at a few Oklahoma City radio stations, left, and then returned to the area to work at WKY radio as a performer. Starting in 1941, he started a band, and they played in the Oklahoma City area for the next three years.

In the mid-1940s, he joined Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, where he recorded the instrumental "Texas Playboy Rag” and others, according to The Comprehensive Country Music Encyclopedia. His Hall of Fame plaque states: "Pop and Western swing band recording artist who stylized the ‘Mellow tone' using multiple, non-pedal tunings for his patented ‘neck-hopping' technique.”

Ralph Mooney

As I mentioned before, eight-tracks with traditional and then-current country music were easily found in our house, in dad's pickup, in the car and so on. Mooney, along with Chuck Seals, helped write one of the songs I remember well, Ray Price's classic "Crazy Arms.”

But that's writing and Mooney is known more for his playing. For instance, he can be heard playing on the recordings of many including Merle Haggard's "Swinging Doors” "The Bottle Let Me Down” and "(All My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers.” And yet others know Mooney for his days, many years actually, playing with Waylon Jennings. His plaque includes the statement "So uniquely original that he remains unduplicated.”

Bob Dunn

Before Bo Diddley or Stevie Ray Vaughn or any of the electric guitar's well-known names, there was Bob Dunn.

Dunn took a standard guitar and built up the bridge and magnetized the strings, according to a 1982 story in The Oklahoman. That story also noted that his song, "Taking Off,” was the first amplified guitar solo on record. It was recorded in January 1935. But, he was known as a premier western swing musician.

Dunn played and recorded more than 90 songs with Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies before Brown died in the mid-1930s. Plus, Dunn's plaque credits him as being "The first steel guitarist to introduce jazz licks into country and western music.”

‘Pee Wee' Whitewing

Whitewing toured with those such as Ray Price and Lefty Frizzell. In the 1950s, Whitewing's work was a huge part of Hank Thompson's Brazos Valley Boys. And this came from a young man who arrived in California in the early 1940s and by 12 was beginning his career as a professional. By age 17, he was a premier player touring with various artists.

Whitewing retired from music in 1971 to join his sons in the oil business. But he came back to the steel guitar in the 1990s, appearing with another steel guitar great Bobby White at steel guitar conventions. Whitewing's plaque in St. Louis ends by praising him as "A true western pioneer who distinguished the instrument.”

Tom Bradshaw

Bradshaw became a member of the hall last year.

Bradshaw is more famous for his Steel Guitar Products and 40-plus years of promoting and contributing to the general public's recognition and appreciation of the instrument.

Scott said of Bradshaw: "He helped many people, including yours truly.” And while others were spreading the steel guitar through their music, Bradshaw was spreading word of their music as a concert promoter, writer, record producer and steel historian. According to his Hall of Fame plaque, Bradshaw "was steel's foremost journalist of his time.”

He was the editor/publisher of Steel Guitar Magazine and served as a steel columnist and writer for Guitar Player for many years.