Tony Prior's Steel Guitar Website

Proudly playing a 2004 9+8 Carter D-10 Pedal Steel Guitar and Fender Electric Guitars

Remembering my friend John Fabian, owner, designer, master builder of Carter Steel Guitars.

1945-2010. Rest in Piece John , thanks for your friendship .

All this other stuff seems so insignificant.....

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Telecaster Alert ! Here is a short 3 min YouTube video of some Telecaster music...( me )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wmzUow0ZHk

Kinda' gives an idea of what I have been doing on guitars for a few decades...

Song Track Production and Internet Sessions

Now offering production of full song tracks for vocalists or musicians, mixed, mastered and E-Delivered in Stereo Wave files or MP3. Low cost , high quality . Select the song, select the key and select the meter. Tracks are produced and arranged for artist performance , vocalists perform with track or musicians perform with track. These are NOT computer generated productions but rather full Cakewalk Sonar multi-track productions . Need a male or female vocalist to sing a verse or two on your track ? We can offer that as well. Song tracks are arranged to your requirements.

I am also available to add Steel or Guitar to any track via the Internet, send me the demo or Stereo track, I will add Steel or Guitar and return it time stamped , if you are using Cakewalk Sonar I will return a project track which can be merged with your project.

Please contact me directly for additional details. Contact: mptp@carolina.rr.com

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Latest project, Workin' Man Blues YouTube LINK

Workin' Man Blues CD/Tab project . Project includes 3 Pedal Steel solo's, two performance and rhythm tracks, 96 BPM and 106 BPM, full tab and 3 discussion tracks included. Key of A. Listen here Program uses AB pedals, Bb lever , E Raise, E Lower and 2nd String Lower. 3 Solo's, one traditional right out of the Haggard school of licks and two not so traditional that will keep you on your toes.

Program cost $ 12.50 includes shipping USA. International at quote.

* Licensed, used with permission, written by Merle Haggard

PAYPAL to mptp@carolina.rr.com

REAL Money to T Prior, PO Box 78865 Charlotte NC 28271

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T Prior My Space Link http://www.myspace.com/priortp

I first heard this song played by Buddy Emmons back around 77 or so and it has stuck with me for the past 30 years. This is a track I did maybe 3 years ago but have just re-recorded the Steel in March 08. One of my all time favorite Steel Guitar Instrumentals.

This was a "Post Office" session. My longtime friend Gary from Ct called me and asked me to play a Steel track on a song a young gal named Amy wrote. Gary uses a Yamaha AW workstation and I have one as as well, so he mailed me the 16 track file, I layed down three different takes for Gary and mailed it back. He mixed it , uploaded it to garageband .com and low and behold the song did pretty well for Amy. I have never met or even spoken with Amy. http://www.garageband.com/artist/amy7

This is the Merle Haggard tune done on E9th in the key of F ,one of my favorites. Uses AB pedals, E raise, E lower, X Lever ( lowers B) , 9th string lower, first string raise, 2nd string full tone lower and does have a Franklin pedal phrase which is optional. I especially like this song as it really gives the player the opportunity to work around the melody without loosing the song. The second Steel Guitar solo offers a nice example of the power of strings 5 and 8 once again. The project covers multiple elements of this popular song. Project includes Full tab, Performance track, backing track and discussion track. License fees paid, song used with permission.

The famous Bill Doggett 50's rock classic that made us all run out and buy a guitar ! This one stays very close to what we play on the 6 string with a few variations as well as a contemporary Steel Guitar solo following the Lead Guitar solo. Played in E , this project includes full tab, performance track, backing track and discussion track. Don't let those guitar players steal the show, they are not the only ones with the power ! License fees paid, song used with permission.

Both of these songs are an introduction to the use of the Modern Pulls, The Franklin Pedal,( lower 10,6 and 5 , the 9th lower, the 1 Raise , the 2nd full tone lower and the X lever ( Bb) and show them used in a traditional song setting. Both songs also use the E Raise and E lower levers extensively.

My feeling has always been that using phrases with the modern pulls in a SONG environment is way better than talking about them or learning a few licks here and there.

Both projects will offer full tab, CD with performance and backup track as well as a talking session discussing the songs and the changes. note: License fees paid, songs used with permission.

You can't get more traditional than Hank Sr. songs, but you can add a few modern twists to them.

My teaching format has always been start basic and simple , play the melody first, get comfortable with the basic verse, then expand from there. With the addition of discussion tracks on the latest projects I have changed my CD/TAB format into a Steel guitar lesson. Each Project is specifically arranged for the Steel Guitar , the Drum track, the Bass lines, the rhythm parts, all specifically arranged with the Steel Guitar Melody and Solo's in mind.

Both Hank Sr. projects offered at $12.50 each which includes shipping USA and Canada.

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Rocky Top; Wonderful Tonight; Lower Ten Blues (C6); Pickin' on E's ; Together Again

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I use a two hour format and it is jam packed, and teaches the Steel Guitar and how to put things together , I don't teach

licks. Generally students come back maybe a month or two later for a follow up lesson. Give me a call. I am in

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After playing Steel for a few decades , and not really establishing my own identity. I thought it was time to jump out of the LOCK BOX I placed myself into years back. Around Oct/ Nov of 2004 I had this bug...Do something different, get out of the same old same old that I have been in for probably my entire time sittin' behind the Steel. How was I gonna do this ? Not sure...I sat down and listened to some things that really made me take a hard listen. Just what the heck were those guys playin' ? Probably one of the first in your face influences was the great player Joe Wright...I saw him play at Saluda.. he blew me away.. .he made it look so simple...Also I started really listening to PF with the AJ tunes...working thru positions...all of a sudden, HEY, I know where some of this stuff comes from...and that's how it started. The above program was my initial little ditty that I worked on for endless hours. .then it grew into other phrases and then more phrase and then I was hearing stuff on records that sounded incredibly familiar. I stuck with it. I went to a few local Steel shows and really flubbed what I was playing , played sloppy, missed phrases etc.. you know the drill. That was then...today is different....

Here is where I am today, and keep in mind this really grew from the Speed Pickin' for Hacks phrases and the total understanding of where the phrases come from. The track is Workin Man Blues which is one of our bands showcase tunes in the clubs. These phrases can be used with almost any tune that is at meter and is played over similar progressions. This is NOT a LOCK BOX.

the phrases used on this MP3 are a mish mosh of things that I have been working on lately, phrases with the Bb lever, the 2nd string 1/2 step lower, the 7th raise and the 3 notes on the 8th string, lower, natural and raise. I have been seeking redundancy , meaning similar or the same phrases from different positions. It gets wacky after awhile...

FREE Practice track ( click on link ) Here is one of the practice tracks that I use fairly often to work out bugs and phrases...It's a very famous Hag tune which sounds suspiciously like Ramblin Fever. Guitar intro, 3 verses for Steel, Guitar Solo, and then another 3 verses for Steel then out... In G...Following is the last take I remember playing on this one, it uses some diminished scales in the last segment. I also use the full sweep with the 1st string full step raise .You cannot do this with the 6 string lower on the same lever. I personally raise 7 instead of lower 6 .

Track with Steel I have always felt that many of the tracks and packages we play across do not offer enough time to work things out., so 6 solo's should do the trick.. maybe..

Side note, I play over one of these tracks almost everyday, certainly every practice session. AT least one time, sometimes more.

David is part of the Jo De Messina Band now and Paul, well, he sorta speaks for himself..

All programs include full TAB and CD with performance tracks and back-up tracks

I returned to Steel around Sept , 2001 from a 12 or 13 year lay-off. My current main axe is a 2004 D10 Carter, 9+8 , BCT I have just got to say this, this is the finest Steel I have ever owned... My favorite gig amp is a 78 Session 400 but I also use a mid 80's Nashville 400 and a Fender Hot Rod Deville 2x12.

Years back I played a D10 Sho-Bud Pro III , 8+4 and a Fender Twin with a D130/ 15" JBL. My Tele was a Blonde 69 with a rosewood neck. I had that one right up to around 91 or so. I did Steel play regularly from the early 70's thru the end of the 80's then for whatever reason stopped playing Steel, sold it and just played Guitar and Bass from that point on. What was I thinking .

The first time around I did not spend as much time playing melody lines as I should have, I pretty much always played around the melody, that turned into just playing around and pretty soon I wasn't even playing the "song". Back then I was pretty much playing with two knee levers almost exclusively. The other two were just being carried around 'cause they happened to be on the guitar . I guess in retrospect , being a band leader, getting the gigs, setting up the sound system and co-fronting the band with my wife fronting the band maybe I'm lucky to have reached the point that I did. Especially because we worked full time day gigs as well. Still do...Same place !

It is also equally important to reflect back on my Guitar playing and the influences that I have brought forward. I have always been a big fan of the Blues and the LA Fusion scene mixed in which brings me to Robben Ford , I think that even now I play from a place I have learned from listening to Robben, thanks Robben wherever you are. And of course listening to the two Erics, Clapton and Johnson, Larry Carlton, Brent Mason, and Bass players Roscoe Beck, Nathan East, Abe Laboriel, Leeland Sklar as well as Michael Rhodes. These are all very melodic players and can influence any genre of musician. Thanks to all of them.

I am currently playing with a local band which requires that I play lots of stuff at meter. My practice schedule is very disciplined, I spend countless practice sessions working out the kinks on phrases at METER, which is where the Speed Pickin for Hacks was developed. This band does not really demand too much of the early styles of Steel, although it is an obvious requirement. What it does demand is a more 80's into 2000's style of playing. You really can't fake those mid 80's Ricky Skaggs tunes, you either know them and play them or you don't , not much room for in-between. I've spent a lot of time working my way out of the "In-Between" mode. I may not be completely there but I am closer than I was a year back...

There's me back around '85 or so on the Sho-Bud and then there's my wife Bonnie (the good looking one) and I somewhere around '85 or '86. She still looks exactly the same, I don't.