Tonight show '94

[Jeff Peterson]

When I found out we were playing 'Like the Rain' it kinda took a little head-scratching to figure out Paul Franklin's approach to the sound. The album cut will be clear, but to replicate..no, approximate..that performance(at the time) took a surprising amount of gear.
First, Clint liked the custom 8-string explorer shaped and blue figured painted Melobar Ted Smith had made me..had to use it. Rack mount effects included 2 Yamaha SPX 1000's, Eventide for delay/time effects, TC choruses, Demeter tube compressor (just great for live), Demeter compressor pedal for front drive.
I worked on the sound but was missing it by quite a lot. Ran 2 delays, added 2 or 3 octaves...got closer. But the kicker was something totally belonging to the Yamaha. I put one SPX on Symphonic and got as close live as I would probably ever get to Paul's wonderful sound on that song. I'm putting it up as I just saw it for the first time since we were on the show..I really had never seen it until now and just reminded me just how tough it can be sometimes to reproduce some sounds live. Anyone on forum ever kinda' had to play way out of their wheelhouse? Probably hundreds of interesting stories out there. Thanks for indulging me. clint black like the rain

[Mike Holder]

With the exception of a few nicely placed harmonics and subtle slides I don’t honestly hear much pedal steel on this track, am I missing something?

[John McClung]

I found that video, Jeff, but for some reason it has almost no audio. All other tracks on that youtube page play fine. Wish I could hear that complicated magic tone!

[Mike Holder]

Personally I was referring to the album cut from greatest hits CD. Very subtle almost invisible playing on the track. ( Not that there’s anything wrong with that!.. lol! )

[Ted Smith]

Hey Bud, they're not nice to me on this forum any more either, kind of pearls before...well, you know, I remember your old friend Bill Lawrence chewing my ass off for being on a forum, said I was a "Stupid __" well can't repeat that LOL but I'm afraid he was right. You try to share things and they just step on you to make themselves bigger. Never saw someone like Buddy Emmons or Roy Clark step on a player and they were top of the class, it's just people I'm afraid.
We remember how great those times were, and that's enough, I share very little with anyone now and keep to myself.

[Dave Mudgett]

Jeff, I assume this is the video you're talking about - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnm0qISnNUE - correct? Sounds great to me, I hear what you're talking about - it is indeed a wonderful sound.

If you're not hearing pedal steel, it's because it's not pedal steel. That Melobar comes through loud and clear for me. It cuts right through exactly right at several places - e.g., at 2:10 - https://youtu.be/Vnm0qISnNUE?t=130. It's atmospheric, not something that is a continuous presence. IMO, just what the song calls for.

I was at the Opry, Alan Jackson was on, this was right around when Midnight in Montgomery came out, so this must be '92 or so. They did that tune, it was great. I can't remember if it was Paul or not. But whoever was playing steel absolutely mesmerized the room. It was pedal steel, but it had that same type of atmospheric electricity.

It's this kind of stuff that brought me to steel guitar in the first place.

[Mike Holder]

Robbie Flint played on that track as well as Summertime Blues.