|
Gary A
Lokahi
USA
169 Posts |
 Posted - 03/20/2005 : 08:03:29 AM
|
Lap Steel Guitar by Andy Volk is a book devoted to lap steels and lap steel players. If you're interested in lap steel guitar it is really fun reading.
The majority of the book consists of interviews by the author with contemporary lap steel players, both acoustic and electric. For the players who are no longer around there are short biographical sketches or transcriptions of older interviews. It spans a huge variety of styles - Hawaiian, country, rock, world music, etc. It has information about the tunings used by the players.
About 1/4 of the book is devoted to pictures and information about vintage and modern lap steels.
The book is well illustrated. It's mostly black and white with a 40 page section containing color photos on glossy papers.
If you're strictly into Hawaiian steel this book may have limited appeal. Of the 296 pages, only 45 pages are devoted to Hawaiian steel players. There are some nice interviews with Hawaiian steelers Jerry Byrd, Greg Sardinia, Ralph Kolsiana and Bob Brozman.
I found the book utterly fascinating. I thought I knew a fair amount about lap steel history, but while reading the book I came across lots of interesting facts that I did not know (for example, I did not know that Andy Iona did not have a right thumb). The other thing that I enjoyed about the book it that it exposed me to a lot of players that I was not aware of. It was interesting reading about peoples' approach to lap steel and thoughts on where it fits in the world of music.
The author is a real lap steel enthusiast and it shows.
Here's a link to the book's webpage. It lists the book's contents and has some sample pages.
http://www.volkmedia.com/book1.htm
You can order it from the author or get it from the usual places. It's published by Centerstream. They've also put out a couple of steel-oriented books - Lorene Ruymar's "Hawaiian Steel Guitar" and Bob Brozman's "National Guitar".
|
Gary |
Edited by - Gary A on 03/20/2005 8:13:23 PM |
|
Topic Locked
