Mike Perlowin ....West Side Story

Doug Seymour · Post by **Doug Seymour** » 14 Mar 2002 2:42 pm

Hi fellow pedal pushers.... Mike was kind enough to share his new CD with me....and the other one, too! We got to e-mailing back and forth after he mentioned becoming interested in C6th. I started lap steel in the fall of 1946 on a 6 string "slab" of, I think sort of a soft wood, from Montgomery-Ward. Eventaully (that looks like Bobbe's spelling. is it?) I evolved to the point where I realized Jerry Byrd was playing C6th
and not E6th as I had supposed. Or D6th which I also had to try. He was playing notes that were lower than my strings were tuned to??!! I found him after a steel player
a year or more older than I had asked me who my favorite steel player was. I said, "Slim Idaho!" He was at that time the featured steel player (triple-neck Rickenbacher) on
Sunshine Sue's Old Dominion Barn Dance from WRVA Richmond VA. The other steel player asked me if I'd ever heard Jerry Byrd? I asked if he was a steel player. The next week
he was back with a stack of home-made 78s he'd recorded while Jerry was broadcasting over WJR Detroit MI. I didn't know you could do those things with a steel guitar? I guess
54 years later I still haven't heard it all?
Mike does things with his MSA pedal steels that most of us wouldn't think of. I mentioned to Mike that I hadn't heard the Firebird Suite, even though everyone has talked about it ever since he did it. Mike played the PSGA show in CT in 1997. My youngest son, Rich, was a freshman @ Columbia
that fall & so I went to NYC with Phil Griffin (a steel buddy) & we picked up Rich
@ his dorm & found our way to the show & heard Mike play along with others that were featured that year. Rich plays guitar & is fascinated by the steel but hasn't really ever had the chance to get hooked like the rest of us! (This is getting to be a Jody length story!) Mike interweaves many different parts in a different way than most of us think of doing. It's not a steel solo with rhythm section. It's an orchestral arrangement done with many different guitar, steel and other fretted string parts. I enjoyed a different look at what can be done
with a PSG. Nice "Labor of Love", Mike!

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 15 Mar 2002 9:30 am

Thanks Doug. I'm glad you like the CD. I will have 25 copies available in Dallas. Maurice Anderson has consented to let me place them in his booth.

The CD is still in legal limbo. I'm still under contract to the company that released Firebird Suite, which going out of business. So I'm free to do what I want with it. I will be pressing and selling limited quantities until I can land another contract with a different company. Hopefully it won't take too long.

Al Vescovo · Post by **Al Vescovo** » 15 Mar 2002 3:40 pm

Mike Perlowin's FIREBIRD SUITE and his WEST SIDE STORY are true works of art. His medium being the steel guitar,brings to life both of those wonderful and dramatic pieces of music. I take off my hat to him for all the effort and dedicated work he put forth to make this steel guitar music a reality.
I strongly advise young and beginning steel players to buy this CD and to listen intently to what the steel guitar is capable of producing. It will open your ears and mind to the idea of not being limited to only one kind or style of music. If you have the talent " which is a gift" to play the steel guitar, take advantage of all the beautiful music thats availabile today.MIKE PERLOWIN'S music is beautiful, exciting and is also a challange.
I hope I don,t sound like I'm standing on a soap box, but that's what I think.

Al Vescovo

Don Walters · Post by **Don Walters** » 15 Mar 2002 8:49 pm

<SMALL>Mike Perlowin's FIREBIRD SUITE and his WEST SIDE STORY are true works of art.</SMALL>

that pretty much says it all! Anyone who loves music should own both of these CDs. I bought the first one to hear what classical music sounded like on a steel guitar. I bought the new one because I knew it would be musically excellent and happened to feature the steel guitar. If you love music, highly recommended!
BTW Mike plays several instruments on both albums.

Allen · Post by **Allen** » 19 Mar 2002 9:17 am

Mike's CD arrived yesterday. If you haven't got your copy, do so. It's wonderful!!
When you take music as great West Side Story and turn a virtuoso like Mike loose on it, you are going to get some extrodinary pedal steel guitar work.
Now I know that this album is not Country, but when a talent like Mike puts his efforts into great music, you get a wonderful experience.
See him in Dallas or contact him via email, but get this album.

------------------
Allen Harry
Mullen D-10, 8 & 6
Nashville 1000

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 20 Mar 2002 12:24 am

Thanks fellas. I truly appreciate the kind words. I have to say that I'm really not a virtuoso. I'm an adaquet player (by professional standards), but hardly a great one. What I am is a great recording engineer, and using studio trickery, I can create sounds on tape that I can't play in real life.

However, unlike my first CD, this one contains several songs that I and anybody else can play. In fact some of these songs work so well on the steel it's almost as if they were written with the instrument in mind.

I've already tabbed out 3 of them, and plan to do 4 or 5 more. (Even though generally speaking I don't like tab.) I would not be at all surprised if some of these songs became steel guitar standards in a few years.