Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic

Discoveries of a Pop Music Archaeologist

Category: Steel +/- slide guitar

Autoharp +/- harp
Zeroto180

Cecil Null & His “Gun-tar” Of 1968

I recently stumbled upon Ray Brack‘s “lost” piece of reporting — “New Gun-Tar Takes Aim At Non-Shooting Market” — about Cecil Null‘s handcrafted musical long gun (i.e., gun guitar – or is it guitar gun?) for Billboard ‘s June 22, 1968 edition: MADISON, Tenn. — An explosive new concept in

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Cincinnati (OH-KY-IN tri-state area)
Zeroto180

The “Pre-Nashville A Team” at Cincinnati’s Herzog Studios

The Pleasant Valley Boys were considered country music’s first “A Team” of session players, whose services were highly sought by two of the top country artists in Nashville between 1947 and 1948 at the very dawn of that city’s ascendance as one of the world’s great recording capitals. When you

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45 sides +/- obscure tracks
Zeroto180

Curly Chalker’s Dutch-Only 45: Party Game for Steel Guitar Fanatics

Zero to 180’s summertime celebration breezes right along with this parlor game for music nerds: First, launch a new web browser and point it at 45Cat — www.45cat.com(go ahead, I’ll wait) Next, type the name of ace steel guitarist, Curly Chalker, in the search window(and press Enter) Curly Chalker  (c.

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"Wild Blue Yonder"
Zeroto180

Lloyd Green Stumps for Cincinnati’s Baldwin

Check out the Clavinet-like sounds coming from Jerry Whitehurst‘s electric harpsichord on “Wild Blue Yonder,” side one’s closing track from Lloyd Green‘s third solo LP Day of Decision, an album that was recorded (like Stones Jazz) in one day — in this case, on June 18, 1966 at RCA Studios in Nashville: “Wild

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"(Baby You Can) Scratch My Egg"
Zeroto180

Rusty York’s Cincinnati Indie Label

Billboard, in their January 8, 1972 edition, reported this quirky news item in the Cincinnati division of their “From the Music Capitals Around the World” column: Rusty York, who heads up the Jewel Recording Studio[s] here, learned last week that the new ‘Smash-Up Derby’ commercial [for Cincinnati-based Kenner Products], which he

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"Hi-Ballin' Daddy"
Zeroto180

Ann Jones & Her “All-Girl” Band

Is it really true, as Country Music Archive asserts, that Ann Jones And Her Western Sweethearts “was probably the first all-girl band in C & W music”?  Bill Sachs, in his “Folk Talent and Tunes” column for Billboard, reported in the November 13, 1960 edition — Ann Jones, King recording

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"Sweet Georgia Brown"
Zeroto180

Joaquin = Jazz + Steel Guitar

Earl ‘Joaquin‘ Murphey (who co-wrote yesterday’s featured song “Steel Guitar Jubilee“) is held in very high esteem among steel guitarists, with one performance in particular — “Oklahoma Stomp” by Spade Cooley’s Orchestra — almost single-handedly cementing his reputation (Bob Dunn, notwithstanding) as the first “sophisticated jazz steel guitar player,” as

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"Steel Guitar Jubilee"
Zeroto180

“Steel Guitar Jubilee”: Jubilant Kick Drum

I can’t get over how relaxed and appealing the kick drum sounds on this recording – almost threatens to steal the show:  “Steel Guitar Jubilee” Lloyd Green (1964) I admit, it’s hard to completely tune out the immaculate musicianship of the others who are supporting Lloyd Green on his 1964

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"Corn Pickin'"
Zeroto180

Burton & Mooney’s Diesel Classic

I once played a sweet little instrumental by James Burton and Ralph Mooney on an all-truck-driving radio show, even though it’s not actually a “trucker tune” — and yet nobody called me out on it, because the song – “Corn Pickin‘ – fit like a glove.  Later when I “back-announced”

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"Steel Guitar Rag"
Zeroto180

(Please Not) “Steel Guitar Rag”

Just when you thought you couldn’t take another version of “Steel Guitar Rag” — a song that is widely attributed to Leon McAuliffe but is actually an adaptation of Sylvester Weaver‘s “Guitar Rag” from 1927 [as noted by Deke Dickerson in his Merle Travis biography, Sixteen Tons] — this 1959

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