Hello fellow players,
One of the bigger tragedies in my life, Herby Wallace was one of the closer of my dear friends. Upon writing this newsletter I thought I would check to see what everybody else thought about him. So I checked google, the forum and several folks facebook pages and it has come down to a subject that has been very well covered by everyone.
I am very glad that he was loved and appreciated the way I loved and appreciated him. It’s obvious that everybody agrees he was a professional amongst professionals. I’ve known him ever since his early days in Chattanooga.
Herby also being a dealer meant that we were very close. We traded stock and offered each other help whenever needed. This is a newsletter I didn’t think I would be writing anytime soon, if at all ever.
Herby’s humor was something that I appreciated as much as any of his qualities. Maybe it’s because we were both warped in the same direction. Pretty hard not to love a guy that you have so much in common with.
Most things that I remember about Herby were too funny to be mentioned in this newsletter. He is about the last one I had no way to believe he was this close to saying a permanent goodbye. Herby being a fellow Hall of Fame member makes it hurt even more and we have had many discussions concerning the Hall of Fame and it would make the populous of the steel guitar community roll on the floor and laugh I’m sure.
When it comes to Herby’s playing, he was definitely a master of masters. He was coming to my house one day to do some master tracks on Rob Parker’s album. I said “I think he wants you to do The Window Faces The South. Are you going to play it as fast as he wants it?”
I said, “I’ll have the completed tracks ready for you when you get her. You’ll just have to overdub.”
He said, “Be sure to get the tempo up fast enough for us.”
So I thought and thought, I don’t even know any musicians here in Nashville that can play rhythm on it as fast as he can play. So I get into the studio with my engineer to which I said, “Skippy, I need this song to be as fast as we can get it.”
Skip replied, “Let’s play it as fast as the musicians can go, then we’ll speed it way up by cutting out sections of it and making it even faster.”
I busted out laughing and said, “Yeah, we’ll get him!”
When Herby came in to overdub his parts, we had the song up to about double what he used to play it at his most remarkable top speed. He heard it the first time through, hung his head, started playing it and played it though very well. We were at a loss at to how fast he could play it. The song was unbelievable. The singer, Rob Parker could barely get the words in as fast as we had done it. We ended up having to slow it down. We all laughed and loved it. Herby even saw the humor in it and played it as well as I’ve ever heard it.
When it came to speed, he was an amazing player and about as nice a person as you could ever meet and an astounding person. Herby’s memory will always bring a smile to my lips and a tear to my eyes.
Check out our monthly specials at http://www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html and we’ll try to save you a lot of money.
Your buddy,
Bobbe
Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday