That 70s gig - Dave Burley/Cavalcade of Guitars

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 20 Jan 2003 8:23 am

My good friend, fiddle player extraordinaire and Light Crust Doughboy Jim Baker,
loaned me a yellowed, wrinkled program from a concert held many years ago.

I glanced through the program and felt as if I'd stepped into the Wayback Machine. Bad hair. Bad clothes. Really bad advertising copy. The Fender steel ad alone made me laugh so hard my sides hurt.

But what a show it must have been. Check out the lineup:
<ul>[*]Maurice Anderson
[*]Les Paul
[*]Curly Chalker
[*]Herb Ellis
[*]Some guy named Buddy
[*]Tal Farlow
[*]Bucky Pizzarelli
[*]Doug Jernigan
[*]Julian Tharpe
[*]Johnny Gore on tenor
[*]Slam Stewart on bass
[*]Louis Bellson on drums[/list]

Ouch. So much for jazzers showing no respect for steel guitar.

Unfortunately, there was neither date nor location given for this concert. Perhaps it was a traveling show. One of the ads displays a 1976 copyright so it was at least that long ago. Maybe some of you were fortunate enough to attend and can relate more details.

Meanwhile, I thought everyone might enjoy getting a look at the actual program, so I've made it available online. Be patient, the index page may take a while to load in your browser if you're on a dialup connection.

PS - Groovy leisure suit, Reece.

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 20 Jan 2003 8:34 am

Too cool! Thanks for posting that Jeff.

Fred Shannon · Post by **Fred Shannon** » 20 Jan 2003 10:47 am

Jeff, havent heard from you in a long time. Visited with Pauline some time back. Thanks for the post....Believe Reece was ever that skinny? LOL.

email me if you get time. Fred

------------------
The spirit be with you!
If it aint got a steel, it aint real

Reece Anderson · Post by **Reece Anderson** » 20 Jan 2003 2:51 pm

Wow Jeff, thanks for the great trip back in time. I still have the program for that particular show. Musicians around here still talk about it.

It was held at a large club in Dallas called "The Longhorn Ranch", which was originally built by Bob Wills in the 50's and called "The Bob Wills Ranch House".

Relatively few people realize how much Dave Burley done to promote steel guitar back in the 70's. Thats certainly not the only show he put together. Curley Chalker, Doug Jernigan, Buddy Emmons, Julian Tharpe and myself traveled some together doing steel guitar shows which Dave booked.

In case some of you are not aware, Jeff is a marvelous steel player who played steel in the US Navy band called "The Country Current" for years!

Thanks again Jeff............

Roger Shackelton · Post by **Roger Shackelton** » 20 Jan 2003 4:06 pm

HI REESE,

In September of 1977 I visited Zane Beck at his home,in Arkansas. Zane told me that Dave Burley's/Cavalcade of Guitars Show was recorded. Is there perhaps some legal reason that the recordings were never released?

Roger

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 20 Jan 2003 4:48 pm

Dave was posting here about a year ago.

------------------
My best,
Ernie

The Official Buddy Emmons Website
www.buddyemmons.com

Carter York · Post by **Carter York** » 20 Jan 2003 5:43 pm

Hi Reece,

Is the "Longhorn Ranch" the same venue as the "Longhorn Ballroom"? I know the LB was the 'country' bar that the Sex Pistols played at (Jan. 1978), and I used to go to punk shows in the 80's, and what a scene, with the 'urban cowboy' bouncers laughing at everyone that walked through the door...(we laughed too, but only after they had 'accepted' our "ID's"...) What a great venue though, with that huge dance pit, and all.....

Carter

Reece Anderson · Post by **Reece Anderson** » 20 Jan 2003 5:46 pm

Roger S....In answer to your questions, yes the entire concert was recorded. I was never aware of any legal reason why the recordings were never released.

Its hard to express in words the musical magic that took place that night, an evening which I believe will never again be duplicated.

It was a sincere honor and a pleasure for me to take part in something so unique and musically significant.

Reece Anderson · Post by **Reece Anderson** » 20 Jan 2003 5:59 pm

Carter Y....Bob Wills Ranch House, Longhorn Ranch, Longhorn Ballroom all the same and located at Corinth and Industrial in Dallas.

As you said, it was a great venue, and it has a rich musical history. I played there with Dewey Grooms band when I was 18 years old. My dear friend Johnny Gimble was playing fiddle and he introduced me to swing music.....and I'm still having fun playing it.

Evelyn Whitney · Post by **Evelyn Whitney** » 21 Jan 2003 8:15 pm

For a long and pretty exciting story on how all of that occured, Email Dave Burley at dab7875159@aol.com
He brought a good portion of those guys here to Muskegon, Mi when we had our music store and they came into the store and jammed for hours. Let me tell you "STANDING ROOM ONLY"
What wonderful memories. Julian and Jimmy were able to play with some snowballs and let me take a picture of them outside the store throwing them. AH.......the past.

Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 22 Jan 2003 7:20 am

Yes, I was at that show -- the Shoe Lounge in Muskegon, as I recall

And, ironically, I just met Dave in Grand Rapids last year at the HOF Show. Great guy and steel guitar supporter.

There was a record with a very similar cast of characters called "It's the First Time" or something like that. I had a bad cassette copy in the 70s and never could find it although people told me they got it from Scotty. Most recently, I was recording a jingle for a local producer a couple of years ago and the engineer started asking me if I'd heard of Reece, Jimmy Day, Curly Chalker, Julian Tharpe . . . right on down the line. So I asked why he mentioned those guys and he played me a few snippets of the original studio tapes (I believe they were multitrack -- possibly 8 track -- b4 mastering) and it was the real deal. I haven't heard from him in several years, but suspect nothing ever came of it. The economics distributing only to steel afficianados seriously limits the payback and the number of projects that get released. It's a shame.

This is an exerpt of a 'Guitar Player' Magazine article highlighting Jimmy Bryant:

On March 3, 1976, he organized an historic jam session LP in Nashville with nine legendary pedal steel players: Speedy West, Julian Tharpe, Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day, Hal Rugg, Lloyd Green, Maurice Anderson, Curly Chalker, and Doug Jernigan. With backing from Bryant, bassist Henry Strzlecki, saxophonist John Gore, and jazz drummer Louis Bellson, It's The First Time consisted of three extended jam sessions two Bryant compositions and a 20-minute jam on the old standard "Lonesome Road."

------------------
Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro[This message was edited by Larry Bell on 22 January 2003 at 08:17 AM.]

Ken Byng · Post by **Ken Byng** » 22 Jan 2003 11:53 am

I have a copy of The First Time on vinyl. I talked to Reece about it not long after it was released - he said it was semi-chaotic in the studio. There is some interesting playing from all of the steel players, but I have to say that Jimmy Bryant's lead playing is very creditable.
Ken Byng

Evelyn Whitney · Post by **Evelyn Whitney** » 24 Jan 2003 6:41 pm

First time that I had checked out the Forum in several months and right on the top was my name.
The Cavalcade Of Guitars was an effort that took me over a year to put together.
I had no money, only a dream of putting some of the top steel guitarists and top jazz guitarists on the same stage at the same time.
The story of what happened during that year would make a book.
Many hardships, many times no gas money to promote the concert throughout Texas and via the media.
The only media I could afford was Guitar Player magazine by way of a freebee.
United Artists contracted to record the album and release it nationwide as a 'top drawer' album.
It was recorded live in November of 1976 at Dewey's Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas.
What a night. Shoulder to shoulder with some of the greatest musicians ever in the world.
The concert was six hours long and featured two segments where I put all the musicians on the stage at the same time for a jam session.
Between the jam sessions, each musician did a 15 minute individual show.
I will never forget it as the promotion probably took ten years off of my life.
Like I said, the promotion would make a good book.
All of these great musicians there and no money to pay them.
Curly Chalker was kind enough to loan me several valiums to get through the night.
Some day, I might write a book about that concert.
All of the participants fondly remember it as I guess that it was sort of a happening at the time, especially for the steel guitarists.
The album was never released by United Artists because Les Paul, after the fact, refused to sign a release unless he recieved 12% of the retail sales.
My contract called for my royalties to be only 7% of the retail sales.
The album is still in the can in California.
United Artists did release most of the money to me, but, after paying each of the musicians for their personal appearance fees and repaying a loan for motels and etc., attorney fees for fighting Les Paul....Soon there was no money left to pay the musicians for the actual recording.
The only musician out of all of them that really caused me lot's of problems was Les Paul. He wanted his recording fee even though he would not sign the release.
Les had agreed, as all the rest of the artists, to charge a nominal recording fee of $750.00 plus their personal appearance fee.
After the album was mixed in Nashville and after I had gotten all of the releases from the other artists is when Les decided he wanted more than he had agreed for.
That is just a very small part of the story.
Lord....What a trying year but what a great concert.
By the way....I still have everyone of the tapes from that six hours......The individual concerts and the two jam sessions.
What am I going to do with them? Probably bootleg them just as soon as I find a good studion that will modernize them so that I can release the concert as a CD.
They say that I will probably be sued by LEs Paul and United Artists, but, at this point, after twenty six years of holding onto something that most steel guitar players would like to hear, I really don't care.
Anyway, they say the best way to get promotion for a project is to have a lawsuit filed against you. <G>
Thanks,
Dave Burley

Evelyn Whitney · Post by **Evelyn Whitney** » 24 Jan 2003 6:46 pm

Dave
I finally got to put this on the forum and now we see that you have already replied in another post.
Oh well, I guess we have the story now.
Lots of love to you, Dave from your friends in Michigan. Evelyn