Slide & Steel Guitars at Centrum

Cashdollar and the Holy Ghost

[Worshop service led by the Campbell brothers]

(Look for the start of the Campbell brothers' sacred steel stylings at 1:28 in the above video.) If you're a steel player, you owe it to yourself to join Darick Campbell and Cindy Cashdollar (for Cindy, check out the video below!) at the October 2-5 Lap Steel Intensive.

Cindy and Darick will be joining their lap steel energies in what promises to be one of the most rockin' Centrum intensives of the year. Darick Campbell will be on hand to teach steel and sacred steel, and he'll be joined by Cindy Cashdollar, one of the finest lap steel players in the world, period.

Sacred steel is a genre of rocking Pentecostal music in which with the dobro or pedal steel takes the role of both the organ and the singer. The steel player sits front and center and drives the service. Many times the only two musicians onstage will be the steel player and the drummer. It's a vital American steel tradition just now emerging from the House of God church, a church started by a black woman in the early 1900s with her two sons.

Congregations are all over the South and Midwest. House of God services, like those of many Pentecostal services, are marked by an eagerness to receive the Holy Spirit. Dancers knock over chairs, wave their arms, and praise the Lord in dance. They are guided by the Biblical verse Psalm 149:3a—“let them praise His name in dance.”

It’s all about people working hard in their lives. Most people in the House of God are working people, and they go there to go to another place. but you don't need to attend church to enjoy sacred steel. As pedabro player Dan Tyack notes, "All are welcome, from saint to sinner, from Buddhist to Baptist, from born again Christian to backsliding Unitarian. All you need to enter here is the willingness to get funky with the Holy Ghost.”

Cashdollar and Campbell will also give a public performance and lead a dance on Saturday, October 4, at Fort Worden's JFK Building.

Cindy Cashdollar & Darick Campbell Lead Lap Steel Intensive

Some rather excellent news to report.

Two of the universe's finest lap steel players, Cindy Cashdollar, and Darick Campbell, have signed-on to lead a lap steel intensive here at Centrum, October 2-5, 2008.

This will be an exclusive opportunity that we'll limit to 20 participants. The focus of the intensive will be on beginning to beginning-intermediate players.

Cindy will focus on western swing music, Darick will cover everything from sacred steel to blues, to things we haven't even thought of yet! Both will cover the nuts and bolts of lap steel playing, techniques and method, as well as songs and repertoire.

At the end of the workshop, Cindy and Darick will lead a concert and swing dance--with a full band--in the newly-refurbished JFK Building at Fort Worden.

We hope you can join us. For complete information, and to reserve one of those 20 spaces, visit our Lap Steel Intensive page.

While we're on the subject...

This isn't entirely slide-related, but I hope you'll pardon the indulgence!

As Orville mentioned recently, there's been a bit of "conjurin'" happening around here. In that spirit, I want you all to know that the great Wanda Jackson will be here in a few days for a Rock-n-Roll intensive called "The Roots of Rock."

Wanda is a legendary figure in the history of rock and rockabilly, and we feel as if some lucky conjurin' brought her to us. Workshop participants will get to be her backing band for a rockabilly dance taking place on Tuesday, August 5. Either as a player or a dancer/listener...it's an event not to be missed.

Brad Bechtel's Photos from Dobro Intensive

Brad Bechtel runs one of the finest websites devoted to slide and steel guitars, Brad's Page of Steel.  We were fortunate to have Brad as a participant at our recent Dobro Intensive with Orville Johnson, Mike Witcher, Don Rooke, and Mike Neer. In addition to his skills as a player, Brad is also a fine photographer, and he's shared his photos from the gathering.

View his photos from the weekend at his flickr page.

Orville Johnson: Dobro Mojo Conjured!

A note from Orville Johnson...

"The dobro intensive workshop is now history and also had a brush WITH history to cap it off.

The teachers and students were fantastic and the week ended with a concert, open to the public, at the Wheeler Theater. We had a nice house and I, as emcee of the show, started off by telling the audience how fitting it was to have the Slide & Steel Workshop in Port Townsend since Chris Knutsun, the creator of an iconic type of slide guitar commonly known as the Weissenborn guitar, lived in Port Townsend at the time he came up with his invention. Little did I know that more historical connections were to come this evening!

We had a wonderful show, everyone played mightily, and the crowd was well pleased. Afterwards, as we lounged backstage, a fellow came back to compliment us on the evening. He said he was in town on vacation with his wife and had seen a sign that said Dobro Concert Tonight at Fort Worden. He said they had a special interest in dobros and felt they should come and check it out. I asked his name. Emil Dopyera, he replied. WOW!

The Dopyera Brothers invented the freakin' DOBRO! This man was a direct descendant of the inventors! Who happened to be in Port Townsend on vacation the night we had our public concert! And saw the sign and came! Powerful dobro mojo had been conjured and ancestral figures appeared to the acolytes!

I hesitate to consider what might happen at future Slide & Steel events. You'll have to come to find out, I guess. BTW, this is a true story."

Dobro Demons at the Wheeler

Dobro players from all over the country are arriving today for a long weekend of workshops and jamming. To cap off the intensive, we've got a special dobro show happening at 7:30 pm, on July 12 at the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater that will include some of the best players on the planet--including Mike Witcher, Mike Neer, and Centrum's Artistic Director for Slide and Steel, Orville Johnson.

General Admission Seats are $16; 18 & under can attend for free with prior reservations. You can follow this link to purchase tickets or, call Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117.

The name “dobro” originated in 1928 when the Dopyera brothers formed the Dobro Manufacturing Company. “Dobro” is both a contraction of “Dopyera brothers” and a word meaning “good” in their native Slovak.

The sounds that the instrument produces is known as the closest sound to being able to approximate the human voice.

The show will feature each musician will playing a set; the show culminates with everyone playing together.

“This will be the first time in Centrum’s history that we have presented an all-dobro concert,” says program manager Peter McCracken. “These are top-drawer, first-tier players who will have been brought to a fever pitch after an intensive weekend-long dobro workshop for avid students. These guys are soaked in the music and the stories of the dobro.” 

Orville Johnson says "Hello"

Hey from your Slide & Steel Artistic Director...

This is Orville Johnson and I'm stopping by the blog to remind you what an exciting program we've got coming up in the Slide & Steel arena. I'm psyched about the fine group of instructors coming to the Dobro Intensive on July 10-13. I tried to gather great players who are also great teachers and who can illustrate the diversity of styles and genres that the dobro can slide between.

A lot of folks think bluegrass when they think dobro and we have a master to cover that subject in Michael Witcher. Michael comes from a family of fine bluegrass musicians and he carries on that tradition while, at the same time, breaking new ground with his group Missy Raines and the New Hip. They have a new EP just released. Check it out!   Stop by Michael's website for info about his music AND his beautiful photography.

Mike Neer will be giving us a taste of 30s style swing-jazz-Hawaiian slide reminiscent of Sol Hoopii, King Benny Nawahi, and Bob Dunn. He's a master of this slide guitar style, having played with New York City's premier 30s swing band the Moonlighters. I'll let him give you more details about what he'll be teaching on his MySpace page.

The format will be similar to the Bottleneck Slide Intensive in January with opportunities to take classes from all the instructors and get some one-on-one time as well. I'll be there all weekend and, while I'm not teaching a formal class, I'll be available to help out people on the more beginnerish (is that a word?) side of slide. Space is limited so if you're thinking about coming, stop thinking and sign up!