THOUSANDS OF STEEL guitar players and other music-lovers will head to Irving’s Sheraton Grand Hotel March 11-14 for the Texas Steel Guitar Association’s 26th Annual Steel Guitar Jamboree. Join them!
Each day, participants can attend jam sessions featuring music legends such as JayDee Maness, who has recorded with Eric Clapton and Beck, among others; as well as Buddy Emmons, deemed the “World’s Foremost Steel Guitarist” by stewards of the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Missouri. You can also sit in on steel-guitar clinics (learn flat-picking tips and how performed at last year’s to set up your amp, for example), and check out the latest products from resonator guitars to digital preset tuners.
More than 75 manufacturers will bring their expertise to the jamboree, and music will be playing long into the night-and it isn’t limited to country. “You get different perspectives from players of country, jazz, and rock-and-roll,” says TSGA President Albert Talley. In fact, in recent years, performers such as Vince Gill and Ray Price have performed surprise concerts with band members who were attending the jamboree. “If you have any interest in steel guitars,” continues Talley, “there will be something here that will thrill you, and you will come away having learned something.”
Country star and 2003 Texas Country Hall of Fame inductee Johnny Bush is scheduled to perform a concert Saturday night, followed by a Western Swing dance at midnight. Other events include a Sunday-morning gospel service, when pickers greet the morning with reverence and celebration.
At the event’s finale, the Texas Steel Guitar Association presents two inductees into the Texas Steel Guitar Hall of Fame and honors one recipient of the Texas Steel Guitar Player of the Year award. Who’ll be the lucky winners? The envelope, please. For ticket information and other details, call 817/558-3481; www.texassteelguitar.org.