Female Slide Guitarists?

[Alan]

[MM]

Sarah Jory is a wonderful pedal steel guitar player. She plays regularly at Gerry Hogan's pedal steel guitar festival, which is a great event. Pedal steel guitars.....that's a whole other world!!!!

Shine On,

[Richard]

Aka the picture of Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

I saw her in the late 60's at a sort of club (?) - she was playing, as I remember, a Gibson electric which was taller than she was and she was wearing a sequined dress and since she was forever jumping up and down looked quite amazing

The music was pretty good too, in fact I went out and bought an LP of her, later to be followed up by a couple of her earlier 78s.

[MM]

Sister Rosetta;

Hi Richard, there's a great film of Sister Rosetta Tharpe from the period you mention - she is wearing a white sequin evening dress, playing a white Gibson SG special and girating on stage like Bo Diddley!

I think the resophonic guitar in the photo is probably a Replicon, but that joke has been a little over-used of late

Shine On,

[Richard]

Yes indeed, I do beieive the guitar was white.

But, her dress was blue.. not that I have ever had much of an eye for frocks

[Michael Messer]

She was an amazing performer. The film I have is black & white, so she may be wearing a blue dress.

Shine On,

[Mick]

I see the name Sarah Jory has been put forward . She is an awesome instrumentalist and quality singer as well. Though her live performances and albums are very much in the Country and western style, this lady can blow you away with her hi-octane foot stompin blues/rock. She and her band are all english and her dad is her manager. I witnessed the Blues/rock side of her at a Harley Davidson rally in Spain. Got back home to blighty and went to see her at a local fund raising concert and got a real shock. Her dad said she concentraits mainly on c&w as its what she`s famous for, but the lady likes to boogie , amen to that.

[Deleted]

I have always loved Dave Kelly's slide playing.First saw him playing solo at Southampton University in 1969. A few weeks later, when he was touring with John Dummer's Blues Band , we met again at a radio station in Paris after they had just done an interview. Dave told us they were playing at Rock n Roll Circus that night and suggested we came along. Being poor students, the admission charge was an obstacle, but Dave solved the problem by appointing me and my mate Keith Miller, "roadies" for the evening.

I remember Dave grumbling about the pay for that gig: all they got was a bottle of malt whisky and some publicity!

[Mr Doodah]

As usual, everyone missed the Queen of all female slide players, the one and only Ellen Mcllwaine. Bonnie Rait's favourite all time slide player, puts most guys to shame, also amazing voice. (Canadian)

[MM]

Absolutely... Bonnie & Ellen fit into the worldwide picture, but I think this thread started as a question about UK based female slide players, both professional and non-professional. Emily Druce, Sonya Ward, Angelina Grimshaw, Jo Ann Kelly & Sarah Jory are the only UK names we have managed to list so far. Once we start listing North American players, certainly Bonnie & Ellen are right in there at the top.

Mr Doodah.......I only know one person that would use the words Doodah & McIlwaine is the same sentence!

I hope you recent event was a success?

Take care,
Shine On,
Michael

[Ronald Vaughan]

Of course, there are VERY few female
steel guitarists of ANY kind in the whole
world!

Hawaii's OWANA SALAZAR comes to mind,
but yes, the UK boasts an open secret:
SARAH JORY!

However, SJ only recently, in a 20-year career,
has ever played regular concerts here in the
States (the other gigs she came to the States
for were not open to the public, they were only
for the trade)

Thanks for opening up this discussion!