Interview: Lloyd Maines, Producer/Lap Steel Wizard: “Crafting An Inspired Sound”

By: Arlene Weiss

In July 2000, I was honored to interview Texas pedal steel guitar virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Lloyd Maines. Though not a household name, Maines is renowned in artist and industry circles for his journeyman talents and facility performing and producing with arttists such as Wilco, Robert Earl Keen, Joe Ely, Willie Nelson, Hank Thompson, Roger Creager and Terry Allen. Lloyd also has earned the esteemed distinction of appearing on and playing and performing live with several dozen artists on numerous episodes of Austin City Limits, PBS’s prestigious, nationally televised live music showcase.

Music runs in the rich musical heritage and family of Maines, whose father and uncles formed the Original Maines Brothers Band. Lloyd grew up listening to his father’s band jamming in his grandmother’s kitchen, influencing him to form the 2nd generation Maines Brothers Band with his brothers. Over the years, Lloyd taught himself to play acoustic and electric guitar, Dobro, papoose, mandolin, lap steel, banjo, and more.

Lloyd became fascinated and enthralled with the beautiful expressiveness of the pedal steel guitar when the pedal steel guitar player of his father’s band, Frank Carter, left a homemade pedal steel guitar at his house one day. From there, Maines developed a vast creative affection for the stunning emotional tones which emanate from the pedal steel, teaching himself to play, craft, and develop many innovative musical textures and sonic colors. And so Maines continues to this day as one of the pedal steel’s most honored and distinguished craftsman and virtuosos.

Lloyd’s first love though, is producing, mentoring, and developing budding and veteran artists from The Flatlanders to Terri Hendrix to their fullest artistic potential. In 2003, Lloyd won the Grammy Award® for producing The Dixie Chicks’ album, Home, on which Lloyd also played. Working with The Dixie Chicks on all of their multi-platinum records has always been a particularly meaningful creative experience and labor of love for Lloyd, since lead singer Natalie is Lloyd’s talented daughter.

Here’s a fond look back with Lloyd Maines, who at the time of our interview, was taking a short break from touring with his latest protégé, singer-songwriter Terri Hendrix, whose acclaimed 2000 album, Places In Between was produced by Maines.

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Arlene: You’re a native of Lubbock, Texas, the birthplace of Buddy Holly and a continuously flourishing music scene, and you come from a family rich in its musical heritage. Can you tell me about your first musical experiences growing up in Lubbock, and especially being around the Original Maines Brothers Band?

Lloyd Maines: Well, actually my early musical experiences were sitting around in my grandmother’s kitchen listening to my dad and uncles and their friends who would come over and have jam sessions in her kitchen. My brothers and I were just little kids and we would watch what was going on. This was long before we started playing or singing at all, and we were really taking it all in. I remember watching some of the old fiddle players and steel players that would come over and jam with my dad and uncles. So that was really the early influence.

Then, after that when I was in the sixth grade, about eleven years old, watching them, my brothers and I started singing. We had some records by The Louvin Brothers. They may have been from Nashville, two brothers, Charlie and Ira Louvin. These guys set the standard for country harmony. They’ve been emulated by Ricky Scaggs, Emmylou Harris…They’re very popular. Charlie Louvin is still alive. [Author’s Note: Charlie Louvin passed this year, 2011]. Ira is no longer with us. We’d listen to these guys when we were kids and learn a lot of those songs, just singing before any of us played instruments. I started playing acoustic guitar when I was in about the eighth grade.

Arlene: You were about thirteen at the time?

Lloyd Maines: Yes. I started off playing my dad’s acoustic guitar. He had a Gibson J45.

Arlene: What was your initial impetus for deciding to take up music? I ask because while many people grow up around music, that’s not necessarily the path that they choose.

Lloyd Maines: I think a lot of it was just the fact that we were around it a lot when we were kids. We heard our family doing it, so I guess just by osmosis… Plus in West Texas, there’s nothing but flat desert out there. Flatlands, horizons, and cotton farms. So you have to create your own form of entertainment. There’s no mountains, no water, no activities to speak of except for sports and music, and we did both growing up. We all played football, and we all played music.

Arlene: What made you choose the acoustic guitar as your first instrument to play?

Lloyd Maines: Basically, it just seemed like a logical thing to be able to accompany us, while we were singing. I learned it first and then I taught it to my brothers. Along the way, one of my brothers learned to play bass, another one of my brothers learned to play drums, and my third brother learned to play acoustic guitar.

Arlene: What initially inspired you and drew you to the pedal steel guitar, and why has it become your favorite instrument of choice?

Lloyd Maines: After acoustic guitar, I got an electric guitar and learned some electric stuff, started playing some leads when The Maines Brothers formed our band. Then this band that my dad had, The Original Maines Brothers Band, there was a pedal steel guitar player there named Frank Carter, and he had an old, homemade pedal steel called a Sahara. It was custom built by a gentleman named Bob Stuffelbeme. In fact, Bob is still alive and is an older gentleman, but he’s no longer building guitars.

So anyway, Frank Carter, when I was about seventeen, brought that pedal steel over to my house, set it up and left it. I was actually at football practice. But he brought it over and left it because he had bought a new steel, and he just gave it to me. It was in decent playing condition. So I started learning some stuff on it. I found that I could apply some of what I knew on electric guitar to the steel guitar, because the steel is tuned in the E9. So that made sense to me just from knowing guitar chords. I started playing it, and I eventually bought a volume pedal, where you work with your right foot so you can play louder and softer. Once I got a volume pedal, I actually started playing some gigs with it. I really didn’t know enough about it to make it sound like a pedal steel, so I just did a few gigs with it. I started getting interested and really enthralled with all of the sounds that you can get from a pedal steel, from country to rock to swing….pretty much anything you wanted to play could be done on a pedal steel.

Arlene R. Weiss: Creatively speaking, how did you successfully and artistically learn and make the transition from playing acoustic and electric guitars, which are fairly simple and straightforward to learn, to the pedal steel, which is a very complex instrument? It requires immense concentration, skill, and a lot of physical dexterity, with all of the pedals and so forth.

Lloyd Maines: Hey! I’m glad you recognized that! [Laughing] Can I get some respect here?

I played guitar first, so in theory, it all made sense to me. I would look at the steel as an extension of the guitar. The foot pedals enable you to get different positions, different voicings from the chords without having to use the actual fingerings. I would figure out where to put the bar, which pedals to press. The pedals are actually an extension of your fingers, of your left hand fingers. You can do various voicings, bends, and pulloffs that you could attempt with your fingers. The pedals give everything a lot of different coloration and feel. But the reason that I started playing it is at the time, my brothers and I had started a band, and we felt that the steel needed to be there to give it a different dimension. I took it upon myself to learn to do it.

One interesting thing… Back when I was learning steel in 1968, there were no instructional videos in those days. The only way that I had to learn was self taught. Some of my dad’s friends, like Frank Carter and Bob Stuffelbeme gave me some basics. I would sit there and watch those guys play.

Arlene: Do you still have that Sahara steel?

Lloyd Maines: I know where it is and how I can get it back, but I don’t still have it.

Arlene: What year was it made?

Lloyd Maines: It was probably made around 1965.

Arlene: What model pedal steel guitar do you most prefer using in the studio?

Lloyd Maines: Well, right now I’ve got a Mullen. It’s well made. It’s made in Colorado. I play a single G2 SD10 Mullen that has three floor pedals with five knee levers.

Arlene: What model do you prefer using when playing live?

Lloyd Maines: The same one, the Mullen.

Arlene: You’re also renowned as an innovator in how you have pushed the expressiveness of steel guitar playing, taking it from its more typical, sad, mournful, lamenting melodies, to rapid-fire, exuberant rock and country. What sparked you to break the typical manner of playing, proving the flexibility within the pedal steel guitar instrument itself, and how have you explored the instrument to develop, create, and tap its musical potential?

Lloyd Maines: When I was playing with my brothers, we were primarily a straight ahead country band. We knew every Merle Haggard and Buck Owens song there was. But I was listening to some of the pioneer, country-rock bands like Poco, and they had a steel guitar player named Rusty Young who was a great steel player. He ran his steel through a Leslie Cabinet which gave it something like an organ sound. I used to listen to those guys and just loved it!

Before I started playing with Joe Ely, I bought myself a distortion box called a Boss Tone. I’d run my steel through that, I learned by listening to the Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and any slide guitarists, and then I would apply that approach to my steel. It just seemed to work. When I started playing with Joe Ely in 1973, he was a real country rocker and he still rocks today, but he maintains his country roots. I started using that approach more and more. Now, when I play with Ely, I probably use the rock and roll setting about 70% of the time. It’s really done well for me I guess you’d say.

Yes, I feel like somewhat of an innovator. And the people that had an early influence on me, like every time that Willie Nelson would come to Lubbock, he always brought a steel player named Jimmy Day. I would always go out and hear him play and I would concentrate on every move that he made on that steel. There was another steel player named Lloyd Green from Nashville. I really liked his playing. There’s a lot of great players out there, and I feel I was influenced by so many players, that I just kind of threw it in the stew. That’s what I do now, plus along the way, I come up with stuff of my own.

Arlene: With the Internet, MTV, new musical trends, and technology all shaping which instruments are popular and available to today’s musicians, are you personally encountering any difficulties in finding these specialized instruments and the services to maintain them?

Lloyd Maines: Not at all. In fact, I also own a 1976 Lloyd Green model Sho-Bud pedal steel. It’s in mint condition, and I’m keeping it in storage. Here in Austin, there’s three really good vintage guitar shops and they all have repair people who do various work. People who work on pedal steel are few and far between, but luckily, there are a couple here in Austin. Now, if someone was say in Montana, and had problems with their pedal steel, they’d probably have to send it back to Mullen or some of the other steel companies that have qualified technicians who can set it up and fix whatever is wrong with it.

Arlene: You were mentioning steel players Jimmy Day and Lloyd Green as influences. What other steel guitar players influenced you?

Lloyd Maines: Of course, Rusty Young from Poco. J.D. Maness, who is a West Coast steel player. I would like to say some of the old timers, but I’ve never really cared for the old time straight non-pedal steel players.

Arlene: Is that because the sound was so different and melodramatic?

Lloyd Maines: Exactly. That’s a good description!

Arlene: I remember, because I used to hear that style and it was so…. sad!

Lloyd Maines: Right. And pedal steel has a much more expressive sound. Although in the last few years, I’ve come to appreciate the musicians who play the non-pedal steel. In fact, I’ve got a Fender Doubleneck eight string from 1951, the year I was born. It sits on three legs and is a predecessor to the pedal steel, but there are no pedals. It’s a Fender Tonemaster. If you ever see any of the pictures or footage of Hank Williams,Hank Snow, or Bob Wills, their steel players are playing non-pedal steels like that.

Arlene: How and when did you find yourself playing such a diverse array of so many instruments, including Dobro, mandolin, electric guitar, and Papoose?

Lloyd Maines: Most of those I learned to play in self defense. When I started producing records in the 1970’s, a lot of times I might record a song, and either myself or the artist would say, “Wouldn’t Dobro sound great right there!” I would say, “Yes.” So they would say, “Is there a Dobro player in Lubbock?” and I’d say, “Well no, but I could find a Dobro and try to do it.”

So just out of necessity, I learned to play some utility things like Dobro. I don’t really consider myself a mandolin player, when I think about people like Sam Bush, musicians like those are mandolin players. But I can play it well enough to put mandolin texture on a song. Most of those instruments I just learned. I really consider myself an acoustic guitar player and a pedal steel player, and Dobro somewhat.

Arlene: Are you self taught on all of those instruments?

Lloyd Maines: Oh yes. When I was learning to play, there were no teachers around. Now, you can get great instructional videos on all of the above.

Arlene: I understand that you very much enjoy playing the Papoose in the studio.

Lloyd Maines: Yes. A Papoose, they’re made by Tacoma Guitars in Tacoma, Washington. It’s a little, miniature guitar. It’s got six strings, but it’s small, probably smaller than half size. It’s bigger than a mandolin, but much smaller than a regular guitar. It’s made completely of wood and it’s designed to be tuned a fourth up. With a regular guitar, your first string and your sixth string are tuned to E’s. The Papoose is designed to where your first and your sixth string are to be tuned to A. Basically, it’s designed to be tuned as if you had a capo on the fifth fret. So consequently, it gives almost a tenor guitar sound, although the Tacoma Papoose design uses very little bracing in the top, so it’s an extremely loud little instrument. It sounds a little bit like a cross between a Dobro and a banjo.

Arlene: Can you elaborate on when you first started playing lap steel?

Lloyd Maines: There again, I sort of did that out of necessity in the studio, because a lap steel has a different tone than a pedal steel. A pedal steel, the strings are skinnier. They’re lighter gauge because they have to be light and stretchable, because every time that you push on a pedal, it actually pulls the tension of the string. So the lap steel has a different tone. Some of the better sounding lap steels are the older, cheaper ones. I’ve got one that came out of a Sears or a Montgomery Ward catalog back in the 1940’s or 50’s. Pickups on lap steels are all designed differently and wound differently, so they all sound different. I have about four or five lap steels and they all sound different.

Arlene: How does the pitch, range, and the chromatic chord structure of a lap steel compare to a pedal steel?

Lloyd Maines: With a lap steel, you can pretty much use whatever tuning that you want. What I basically use and what most people apply for say, blues playing and slide guitar….you can pretty much tune those anyway that you want to. Most musicians use either an open E, an open G, or an open A, which means that you can strum all six strings and you have a chord without having to put your fingers or the bar down at all. On the pedal steel, it’s in an E9th chromatic or a C6th, so you have to pick and choose your notes, whereas on a lap steel, if you wanted to, you could actually do a solo just by striking all the strings and moving your bar up and down the neck. The reason I started using lap steel was because it just has a different tone. On recordings, I like to vary the tones and textures so that every song doesn’t sound the same.

Arlene: You were saying that lap steels are very easy to find in Austin!

Lloyd Maines: Yes! There’s a place called One World Vintage Guitars, and another called Guitar Resurrection.

Arlene: Are these Vintage shops?

Lloyd Maines: Yes! There’s another one called Workhorse Guitars. Then, there’s also a place in Lubbock called The Guitar Garage, which is where I bought two or three of my lap steels.

Arlene: What are some of the models and the years of your lap steel guitars?

Lloyd Maines: I have a Supro singleneck six string. It’s about a 1956. Then, I have a Supro doubleneck six string which is really nice and about a 1953. I just traded for one called an Airline lap steel guitar. It’s a little six string. I’m not sure what year it was made, but it’s pretty nice. Then, one of the funkiest ones I’ve got is….Actually a friend of mine paid five dollars for it at a garage sale. It’s a six string lap, and the brand name is actually called Aloha, just like “Aloha” from Hawaii, believe it or not! But for five dollars! And I’ve used it on tons of recordings. It has a nice little sound of its own.

Arlene: What about your Hound Dog Dobro?

Lloyd Maines: Years ago, the Dobro company made a model of the Dobro called the Hound Dog, and then they stopped making it. Then they started reissuing the Hound Dogs and so mine is about a 1984 model. It’s a wonderful instrument. I’ve flown it all over the world playing with Terri Hendrix. It really holds up well. I approach Dobro playing like steel guitar. Traditional Dobro players like Jerry Douglas, he’s the best! That’s why I don’t really claim to be a Dobro player, because I actually approach it like the steel guitar. I attack it like a steel. I don’t really approach it like a Bluegrass player, although I love the Bluegrass style. I just never learned that style. The sound still sounds like Dobro, but most of the licks that I play are just licks that I dream up out of my head, that I can apply to steel guitar.

Arlene: You have continuously played with three of the most influential artists ever to come out of Texas, with your brothers in the second generation Maines Brothers Band, with Terry Allen, and with your longtime musical collaborator, Joe Ely. Can you elaborate on your creative experiences with all three of these groundbreaking artists?

Lloyd Maines: Yes. Of course, The Maines Brothers Band. We started playing clubs when I was fourteen years old. We played all through high school and then once we graduated, we all went off to college and we stopped playing as The Maines Brothers for awhile. During that time is when I started playing with Joe Ely in 1973. I played with Joe Ely on all of his records. I did all of his touring. I

toured with him through 1980, through The Clash tour. We toured with The Clash, and we had both an American tour and a European tour with them, opening their shows. I played with Joe all through that time period, through 1980 and 1981.

Then the roadwork just got to be more than I wanted to handle. I had the family back in Lubbock. So, at that time, The Maines Brothers started resurfacing.

We reformed during the 1980’s, we did nine albums, and we traveled a lot. In 1985 and 1986 we did two records for Mercury/Polygram, but the rest of them were on our own label called Texas Soul.

Arlene: What about Terry Allen?

Lloyd Maines: I met Terry in 1977 and he wanted to do the record Lubbock On Everything, so that’s when I started working with him. He’s just a fun artist. In fact, I just got back three weeks ago. We went to Colorado and did a couple of dates. He’s still musically active. I’ve done all of his records for him since 1977. He’s just a tremendously creative artist. His music is country flavored, but the subject matter is extremely thought provoking. It’s spiritually based, a bit abstract. They’re all reissued on Sugar Hill Records, and there’s about eight albums. Terry makes music for the ages.

Arlene: You and Joe Ely have enjoyed an especially creative, enduring relationship. Tell me about your current album with Joe, Live At Antones, which is a wonderful delicious mix. It’s like a Jambalaya of Southern Rock, Zydeco, Tex-Mex and Country.

Lloyd Maines: Joe’s another musician who has been influenced by so many different types of music. He was raised in Lubbock just like I was. We started playing together in 1973, and we did three albums in the 1970’s and several during the 1980’s. Even though a lot of the time I’m not able to travel with him, Joe’s got such a great attitude about it. He understands my situation knowing that I’ve got projects going on in the studio. He just leaves me an open door to play whatever gigs I can play with him. Joe and I have worked together so much, that we can pretty much read each other’s minds on stage. A lot of times, I’ll know what song he’s going to call next. Joe will follow the set list from time to time and a lot of times, he will go on his own.

Arlene: How did you both decide to do Live at Antones?

Lloyd Maines: We had already done a live album in London back in 1980 or ’81. It’s the album that says “Lubbock Calling” on the front of the record, on MCA Records. Anyhow, Joe thought it was a good time to do a new record, and so he thought, “I’m going to do a live record on my own and see who wants to pick it up.” So Rounder Records picked it up. It was cut in January of 1999 and just released this June of 2000 after getting it mixed and everything.

Arlene: I could hear the crowd in the background on the record. They sound like they really enjoyed it too!

Lloyd Maines: Oh yes! It was a huge crowd. It was really nice. If you’ve ever seen Joe live, he puts on a phenomenal show. Joe has country influenced roots, but he’s always been too country for rock radio and too rock for country radio. He’s got that gray area going there. Joe’s live shows, out of all the years that I’ve worked with Joe, I’ve never done a show that he didn’t tear the place down. He totally puts eveything he’s got into every show and that’s something that I’m proud of, that I’ve been a part of that.

Arlene: Joe’s guitarist, Jesse Taylor and you also both seem to enjoy an especially good relationship, where you seem to creatively push one another. You’ve done some amazing guitar solo duels and perhaps your most famous solo with Jesse is on the song, “Boxcars.” Can you elaborate on that particular solo and your creative relationship with Jesse?

Lloyd Maines: I’ve known Jesse Taylor since the early 1970’s, since around 1970 or 1971. Jesse didn’t really start playing with Joe until about 1974 or 1975. Jesse is just one of the best blues guitarists that I’ve ever heard. He plays different than anyone else. He’s got a different approach, a different picking pattern.

Arlene: The two of you seem to bring out the best in one another, sparring off one another.

Lloyd Maines: Yes! One thing that I think has something to do with it, is that Joe Ely is sort of like Bob Wills, in that Joe is very musician friendly. Joe enjoys hearing good guitar solos and he enjoys them as much as the musicians that are playing them. He has always given Jesse and I total leeway. A lot of times, if a song is really cooking, he will throw you three solos back to back and let you take it to the limits. Joe’s very gracious in that way, and so consequently, Jesse and I, we’ve played live side by side, he and I over the years, where we were able to really stretch out and play off of one another. We’ve been side by side on stage for so long, that it’s second nature. We’ve never rehearsed what we’re going to do. We learn a song, Jesse and I, and we’ll get into some riffs together and actually turn it into a real item.

Arlene: You’ve also appeared on Austin City Limits performing with nearly two dozen artists over the years. When and how did you first become involved with Austin City Limits, and how did this decades-long artistic collaboration develop?

Lloyd Maines: The first time that I was on the show was with Joe Ely. But even before that, a lot of the same crew and approach was done on a local show that was shot down in Luckenbach, Texas. It was sponsored by Lone Star Beer, and that was actually the first TV show that I did with Joe. There was also a country artist named Gary Stewart. It was before Austin City Limits, and it’s sort of what spawned that show. I had already met some of the production crew. Then, when Austin City Limits started on The University of Texas Campus, I did a couple of tapings with Joe Ely, so that was my first two ACL shows.

Arlene: I know that you’ve also performed on ACL with your daughter Natalie.

Lloyd Maines: Oh yes! In fact, I’m doing another show with The Dixie Chicks on August 15th. But, ACL is the pinnacle of live music shows, and I really credit producer Terry Lickona and the entire staff for that.

Arlene: Your first love is actually producing. When and how did you venture down this particular creative path?

Lloyd Maines: The first record that I truly feel that I produced or helped to produce, was the Terry Allen album, Lubbock On Everything in 1979. It was the first thing that I worked on. When it was done, I thought, “We’ve sort of made history here.”

Arlene: How did you initially get into producing?

Lloyd Maines: I started working about 1972 in a local studio in Lubbock. I was doing radio commercials, playing steel guitar on local albums, gospel albums, custom country albums. Someone wanted to come in and do a record. We would pull together the musicians to do it. So I started getting a taste of it then. By the time Terry Allen came in, I felt that I had, by trial and error, not figured out everything about how to produce, but I had honed my craft a bit just from doing local records.

Arlene: Why do you find producing the most satisfying, over playing?

Lloyd Maines: I think that it’s because when you make a record, it’s something that can be enjoyed….

Arlene: Permanently.

Lloyd Maines: Absolutely. It can be enjoyed fifty years from now whereas when you play live… I still enjoy playing live with those select musicians that you mentioned. But when you play live, it’s gone, unless it’s a live record or unless someone is getting it down on tape. There’s just something about making music that’s going to be preserved forever that really appeals to me. Plus, I enjoy taking an artist, a songwriter, and helping them to get the most and the very best out of their songs, as opposed to these artists maybe getting hooked up with someone that is just going to take their money and not help them to create a work of integrity.

Arlene: Right. You can be their mentor and their creative guidepost that they can spar ideas off of as well. That brings up singer-songwriter Terri Hendrix, who I know you’ve become something of a mentor to. You’ve played on and produced her last two albums. But on Places In Between, you also co-wrote five of the tracks and your playing heavily concentrates on some elaborate and ornate melodic chord structures on both Dobro and acoustic guitar. What spurred your writing and playing in this creative direction?

Lloyd Maines: The writing end of it, Terri would come up with an idea, just a basic subject matter for a song, and she would say, “I’ve got some of the lyrics, but I really don’t have a groove or chords for it yet.” So I listened to what she had started and then I would either start a groove on the Dobro or the acoustic guitar and then she would say, “Hey, I like that!” So then I would elaborate on that.

Arlene: Did you write both the music and lyrics?

Lloyd Maines: I wrote mostly the music. I contributed very little to the lyrics. I can maybe come up with a cool couple of lines here and there, but not so much as far as getting the subject matter. But I do value myself as someone who can come up with good chord formations and who can put together a good track to write to.

Arlene: Is this the first time that you have written music, or have you been writing music for awhile?

Lloyd Maines: I have written a couple songs with Terry Allen. I wrote a few with The Maines Brothers. But, yes, this is the first time that I’ve ever been credited with writing five songs. Terri and I have been working together for three or four years, since about 1997. We’re doing a lot of gigs. We’ve really had to rehearse, try to work on it to make two musicians sound like four.

Arlene: Who are you currently producing?

Lloyd Maines: Today, I’m working with a singer-songwriter named Roger Creager. He’s kind of country influenced, Lyle Lovett oriented. This past April, I produced and recorded an album with Hank Thompson that was just released. He’s a country music legend. He had tons of hit songs back in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Hank is about 76 years old now, and he lives in Fort Worth. He’s on High Tone Records.

I just finished his new record and also a record for another group called The Hot Club of Cow Town. They live in Texas, but one member is from New York, one is from Boston, and one is from Kansas City. It’s a trio, a girl playing fiddle, a guy playing guitar, and another guy playing upright bass. It’s some of the most amazing acoustic swing that you have ever heard. It’s like Bob Wills meets Django Reinhardt. It’s great material. Right now, I’m also working with Gary P. Nunn, who wrote the theme song for Austin City Limits, “London Homesick Blues.”

Arlene: Can you elaborate on some of your gear, amplifiers, equipment, and strings that you use for the many instruments that you play, especially for pedal steel and lap steel guitars?

Lloyd Maines: I use GHS strings, Super Steels ST-E9. Of course my pedal steel guitar is a Mullen. For my steel amp, I use a Peavey Nashville 400. Everything else I just run direct. I don’t carry any special rack gear with me. It’s just too much trouble to carry on the road. I usually just plug straight into a Countryman DI Box for that. If you have an acoustic instrument that has a pickup on it, you plug it into the house direct box, for them to actually get it into their house system. I play Tacoma Guitars. My main road guitar is a JK50 Jumbo with a Fishman Prefix pickup. I also have a DR16 Cutaway, which is really nice in the studio. My main studio guitar is a parlor size Tacoma PR18 LTD. I also have a Tacoma Roadking.

Arlene: What advice would you give to young musicians wanting to play and carry on the great tradition and unique heritage of both the pedal steel and and the lap steel guitars?

Lloyd Maines: I think it’s important to go out and hear as many musicians as you can live, because you can get the instructional videos, which by the way, there are a lot of good ones out there. Go out and get the instructional videos. But there’s nothing that can take the place of watching as many live players as you can watch. You will learn more about the application of the instrument by watching a player, live.

Everybody always talks about practice; well, it’s true. Really learn to play your instrument and try not to take shortcuts. Don’t worry about playing fast. I think a lot of musicians, they want to learn the instrument and then just try to learn every fast lick that they can. But, I think it’s more important to learn it slow, then speed it up. Your precision will actually improve that way. One thing that I have learned over the years, I was the same way when I was younger. I would try to play all of the fast, flashy licks. I could still do them, but they don’t inspire me as much as when…

Arlene: You’re crafting a particular sound.

Lloyd Maines: Right. What I’ve learned over the years is that a lot of musicians can do more with three notes than somebody trying to be flashy can do with a hundred notes.

Arlene: Especially Blues players. It’s not the amount of notes that they play, it’s what they do with those notes, how they craft them and the emotion that they create that comes through in their playing.

Lloyd Maines: That’s exactly right, crafting an inspired sound!