I saw Xandy Chelmis recently perform on pedal steel guitar for both MJ Lenderman and Wednesday. Once you’re sitting down and up front in a band, you can’t indulge in any theatrics, so you’re there for what you play, pure and simple. His contribution was essential for both bands. Maybe some enterprising individual will invent the equivalent of a keytar, so the pedal steel player can roam the stage. That’s a niche opportunity, however.
It must be a tough decision to dedicate yourself to the pedal steel. Not many bands need them, it’s expensive to buy and it’s hard to master. Not only that, you have to use both hands, both legs and both knees. Speaking as someone who finds coordinating four limbs too hard when drumming, it sounds monstrously difficult.
Pedal steel was originally a Hawaiian instrument and then found its way into country music. Probably the most high-profile performer who’s not strictly country to have made use of the instrument is Neil Young. His pedal steel guitarist was Ben Keith, who also performed over the years with Todd Rundgren, the other members of CSN&Y, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Ringo Starr, if more orthodox country is your thing.
It's good though to hear some more alternative bands experiment with a pedal steel. Some clearly love country music anyway, such as the Lemonheads, but others like Mogwai and Kara Jackson, to take two very different examples, flirted with the instrument to great effect on tracks like ‘Acid Food’ and ‘Brain’. It’s harder to find pacier songs with a pedal steel for fairly obvious reasons, but I have included the Hot Rod Circuit song which shows it can be done.
Look out for the lovely Loveless cover at the end.
Tracklist:
Memory of lunch, North Americans
Just be simple, Songs: Ohia
Be my angel, Mazzy Star
Father to a sister of thought, Pavement
TLC Cagematch, M J Lenderman
Stateside, Hot Rod Circuit
We’re going to make it in a man’s world, Camera Obscura
Right side of my neck, Faye Webster
Hannah and Gabi, Lemonheads
Country song, Joy Again
How can you live if you can’t love, how can you if you do, Wednesday
Heart of darkness, Sparklehorse
Brain, Kara Jackson
Patience wearing thin, Ducks Ltd
Acid food, Mogwai
When you sleep, Japancakes