I was moved to create a playlist of some of my favourite slide guitar tracks/players. After the great input to my Great Guitar Instrumentals list last year, which still gives me pleasure, please feel free to suggest additions/changes!
BTW, lap steel and dobro are allowed, pedal steel not. That will be a playlist in the future. My list/rules etc!
Jerry Douglas is my man, when it comes to lap steel players.
@Twang – why did you pick The Rover instead of In My Time of Dying??
Could have been either TBH but I love The Rover and the lyrics in IMTOD are the usual generic pilfered rubbish so TR swung it. IMTOD probably does have more fun slide playing though. Maybe I’ll change it.
Interesting – IMTOD is a definitive slide tune; TR isn’t really…is it? I played it with a cover band a few times, regular tuning and no slide…🤔
I can’t hear any slide in The Rover. Lots of big bends on the main riff but nothing that needs a slide.
Exactly.
Really? The main riff is obviously slide to my ears.
I don’t think so. It sounds like bends to me. You can hear hammer ons etc later in the riff. Page was far too sloppy a slide player for the perfect intonation on that.
Edit. Here you go.
His bends aren’t that in tune either to be fair.
I think you mean that his playing is “tight but loose” ©…
I do love Jimmy but his lead playing fluctuates wildly between perfectly played and structured (Whole Lotta Love, Stairway etc) and Bit of a Mess (wherever he’s just blowing). But he’s allowed because he’s Jimmy Page.
Perhaps better to “go for it” and risk a “Bit of a Mess”, than not “go for it” at all?
EBI go for it and not make a mess.
Emerging Bacterial Infection?
Electrical Bio-Impedance??
Earnings Before Interest???
In fact, my favourite Page slide playing is on When The Levee Breaks. That searing solo in the breakdown is perfect.
Edit: And no Stones! I’d have both No Expectations and All Down the Line.
Yes, indeed!
Levee added!
No I couldn’t think of a Stones one but there obviously must be some. You’ve Got To Move, though it’s a bit of a throw away. ADTL is a brilliant track.
The solo is pure Mick Taylor slide.
MT is a really good slide player.
What about Brian Jones?
Procol Harum – Poor Mohammed
Robin Trower invents the tone that Pagey uses later, on In My Time of Dying…
Compare and contrast:
You have pretty much everyone I thought of, although maybe not the tracks I would have picked.
The one omission is George Harrison, who was a fantastic slide player. His solo on Handle With Care is a thing of beauty.
Apparently Mike Campbell was hanging with the Wilburys when they recoded Handle With Care, and George suggested he have a go at a solo. To which Campbell, naturally, replied ‘but you’ve got George Harrison’.
2 more suggestions:
Duane Allman on the coda of Layla?
Freebird?
FREEBIRD.
Of course.
Mac Gayden is always the forgotten man in this kind of list.
Let me add the name of PJ Wright, one of this country’s (UK) greatest slide exponents. Stating off in Tulane era Steve Gibbons Band, latterly he has veered to the folkie side:
Brian Jones
Elmore James
Muddy Waters
For Muddy Waters, it has to be Feel Like Going Home off the so-called ‘Folk Singer’ album. That’s about as deep as blues can get.
Elmore, it could be The Sky is Crying. The combo of his emotion-wracked delivery and the slide is just killer. Actually anything by him is like that.
Yes , searing was the sound of his guitar. Saw him first time around 19 and that slide guitar has stuck with me ever since.
Dust My Broom is of course Elmore’s signature tune.
Good list, thanks. For Ry, I would have chosen his solo on Lipstick Sunset. The perfect solo.
How about Manny Charlton?
Woke Up This Morning or This Flight Tonight
And I know there’s not much love for TTB on here, but jeez, Derek Trucks is shirley worthy of consideration?
Only in some parts , others love em. And I think everyone loves Dereks playing.
Good suggestions Nick. I’ve changed the Ry as I love em both and you’re right, great solo.
Kelly Joe Phelps: thanks for including him. Tomorrow marks two years since his untimely passing. There’s an excellent group on Facebook called “Kelly Joe Phelps Fans” which gathers together terrific audio and video material as well as sharing memories, should anyone wish to indulge in more.
I loved the Cindy Cashdollar clip – I don’t think I ever saw her play solo before. What a player!
I have a VHS instruction tape on square neck dobro by Cindy which is excellent.
I’ve thought of some more which I think would be worthy additions to your lovely playlist, @Twang
I saw Kevin Brown playing brilliant slide at the Brum Breedon Bar early ’80s and bought his “Road Dreams” LP. I think this is him:
Dave Kelly, of course:
. . . and his sister:
And also:
Johnny Dickinson – tremendous live performer:
Harry Manx – brilliant:
. . . and here with Greg Leisz. Double brilliant:
Martin Simpson – occasionally overlooked and under-rated:
And . . . finally (maybe) Robert Randolph:
PS. Not forgetting Roosevelt Collier kicking in at around 2.20 on this superb Bokanté track:
Brilliant thanks Peanuts. Will dig in.
A lot of these YouTube clips are not necessarily their best . . . they’re just to get the name on the board really! A bit of Spotify / Googling will, of course, reveal far more.
For example, I should have posted this for Harry Manx, (or his “Crazy Love” on Spotify) . . .
That’s really fab
@Twang. Late night listening to one of my Spotify playlists, on shuffle, and this came up. Harry Manx is soooo good:
Greg Leisz, making it all look easy:
The wonderful Breedon Bar! Did you see, @peanuts-molloy, that someone posted on Twitter/x, a whole lot of fliers, with the gig listings for there, in the late 80s and early 90s. God, I loved that place!
Not seen that @retropath2 and can’t find it.
I also loved the Breedon despite its T shaped room. Trying to recall who I saw there all those years ago . . . Oyster Band, Kathryn Tickell with Chris Newman and Danny Thompson, Kevin Brown, Philip Walker, Rodney Crowell with Steuart Smith (what a night), Steve Gibbons (obvs) and many others where my aged memory has failed me.
Steve Gibbons Band were virtually the house band, but it was all the americana (before it was americana) they put on: Joe Ely, Flaco Jiminez, Darden Smith, Butch Hancock with Jimmie Dale Gilmore. (So, in two shows I saw the Flatlanders, just not together.)
How about George Thorogood / Bad To The Bone….
The always excellent Ry C
And the criminally under-rated David B
@Jaygee I reckon Ry got that song from here.
Cheers for that, J.
Not heard it before. Wouldn’t surprise me if Ry knew the recording as he seems to be able to call on a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of all kinds of roots music
Ben Harper is the man.
Check out Swiss slide master Hank Shizzoe – he made a fantastic live album with Sonny Landreth (their version of »She Belongs To Me« is ace).
My personal fave (and our Wedding song) is »One Fine Day« BTW.
Clip?
Big skies, decent dreams, apple pie and peace:
I know Sonny Landreth is already listed, and mentioned, but this is ace and worth anyone’s time who likes slide guitar…
Not on Spotify !
This list kicks ASS.
A great riff from Beck –
Megan Lovell of Larkin Poe. The band are probably lacking in “signature” songs but there’s no denying she is a superb player.
Blind Willie Johnson, Dark Was The Night Cold Was The Ground… one of the earliest recordings of slide, and probably unsurpassed. You can see Heaven, and feel the pull of Hell. This video brings a little tear to the eye.
…but be sure to listen to the full recording, this is just an excerpt.
👍👍👍
One last entry from me. Come on in my Kitchen, by Robert Johnson. Might be my favourite song.
The slide guitar on this, about halfway through, is absolutely gorgeous.
Agree and Ry is like David Lindley, the whole playlist could be him! Added on the basis that DL has 2.
Now just over 3 slidetastic hours! I knew I could count on you!
What a fabulous playlist. Couple more for ya:
‘Elmore James got nothing on this baby’ – The Sky is Crying
Bonnie Raitt – Made Up Mind
Some more Jerry Douglas, spotting him on the playlist,
And some more
As an aside I was listening to Andrew Hickey’s podcast on Satisfaction. On Brian Jones and Little Red Rooster, such was the alienation that they gave him a different date for the session and Mick left a note for him on where to put the slide solos on Little Red Rooster.
Rainer Ptacek
One of the first people to fret behind the slide to get minor chords, Sonny Landreth does this as well.
If you’ve not heard of him before. He originally was in Giant Sand before leaving the band as he preferred to stay in Tuscon with his family rather than move to New York withe band. Had already gained some recognition (including playing with Robert Plant) before being diagnosed with a brain tumour. He had to relearn how to play guitar but astonishingly if anything became an even better player than before. Sadly although he was in remission for a while his tumour returned and he eventually died in 1997 aged just 46.
Big fan.
Tragic story.
Don’t play his stuff that often but a wonderful wonderful talent
Just remembered this gem. I’m pretty sure the solo is pedal steel but it’s got nice dobro plus Mrs. T loves it so it’s in.
And this…Beck, as ever, redefining what you can do with a slide.
(I’ll just leave this here…)
Ry Cooder plays great slide guitar on Memo From Turner with Jagger and Sister Morphine with The Stones. Keith plays some slide on Let It Bleed, the album. He basically plays practically all the guitars on that record. Keith Let It Bleed slide is Love In Vain, Let It Bleed, You Got The Silver, Midnight Rambler, according to Wiki. Mick Taylor Live With Me and Country Honk.
Just remembered this little gem from the days before R&B turned to Rock ‘n Roll. Recorded April 1947. Carl Hogan is listed as guitarist on the session. Presumably he switched to pedal steel on this one. Carl hogan created the riff (On Jordan’s “Ain’t That Just Like A Woman”) that Chuck Berry copied, virtually note-for-note, as the intro to “Johnny Be Good”.
Louis Jordan – Barnyard Boogie.