Several high profile deaths in the past week have overshadowed the passing of other influential, but lesser-known, individuals who have contributed to the American Experience. Ralph Mooney was one of them. As a master of the pedal steel guitar, he helped shape country music's Bakersfield sound in the '50s and early '60s. Mooney's style influenced bands from the Beatles to the Byrds, in addition to the Flying Burrito Brothers and later iterations of the sound of Cosmic American Music.
As a boy, OTR remembered that wailing, bluesy pedal steel guitar while listening to several small daytime AM radio stations during his summers in the mountains in West Virginia's panhandle. He didn't need a radio at dusk when the wind was right--the family could enjoy the same sound from scores of speakers at a nearby drive-in theater. The distant sound would drift in through open windows and doors providing background music for reading or quiet evening conversations at the cottage. Unforgettable.
Several memorial tributes to Mooney have been posted on Youtube in the last week. Here are two two of them. The first illustrates the Bakersfield sound. Be sure to expand the biography posted above the comments. The second features Mooney playing his composition, Crazy Arms (1956), ranked #4 on country music's list of all time hits.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment