Steel Guitar Profile / Mr. Gene Fields

Reprinted from Steel Guitar World Magazine. Volume #5, Issue #29, October 1996. Used with permission.

I started playing steel guitar in 1943. My brother, who was in the army at the time, wrote home and asked my dad to trade his accordion for a six string Rickenbacker and matching metal case amplifier. When my brother got out of the army, I could play his steel and he couldn't, so he gave it to me.

My first professional job was with a band called the Cripple Creek Boys run by "Uncle Billy Woods". This was at W.H.O.P. radio station in Hopkinsville, Ky. We had a big tent and a crew to move it to a new location every night within range of the radio station. We were also the front band for Nashville groups such as Eddy Arnold, Ernest Tubb, Paul Howard and others. One of the shows was at the ball park in Hopkinsville, KY with Eddy Arnold as the main attraction. My steel guitar was always plugged direct into the P. A. system with a screw on mike type jack. As I had no amplifier for the show Roy Wiggins over heard and offered to let me use his. As my whole history of playing at this time was based on trying to copy Roy Wiggins, I was very uncomfortable playing his style and knowing he would play the following show and do it right. It was also my first time to use a real amplifier.

In 1947 working the clubs in St. Louis. (with a fake birth certificate) Ferlin Husky, known as Tex Terry, gave me my first job, we worked at the Music Box Bar, Alto's Cafe, and others, We also had a radio show in Kirkwood, MO for a while. After that we both moved to Farmington, MO and joined Johnny Ryan on K.F.M.O. radio station.

While in Farmington, Ferlin decided to organize another group and go to the West Coast. As I had a wife and baby at the time I did not want to take the chance with my fake birth certificate. My replacement was another kid, taking his first job, also too young to be in the clubs. He was none other then Kenny Carlisle, later to be know as "Thumbs".

At one point I joined the Dick Slack show at K.M.O.X. St. Louis, working with Billy Starr, Kenny Roberts, Banjo Murphy, The Range Riders, Naomi Craw ford and others. I was now in "The Big Times" until I was asked to play a diminished cord in a certain spot. When I informed them that a diminished chord required three notes and could not be done with an E Major tuning, Banjo Murphy retuned my steel and handed it back saying now you can play a diminished chord. My reply was "that's great but what the hell else can I do with it"? One week later I was told that they changed their minds about having a steel guitar on the show. It wasn't said but I assumed they did not need an 18 year old "smart ass" on the show.

I also did shows with the Shady Valley group. The only names I can recall from this group in Dave Landers and Miron Floren who later joined Lawrence Welk.

In 1949 I joined Ambrose Haley at K. H. M. O. Hannibal, MO. We had two radio shows daily and did shows at schools and auditoriums within the range of the station. We brought in recording stars about once a month to the auditorium in Hannibal, Lefty Frizzell, Cowboy Copas, George Morgan and many lesser names.

From Hannibal I moved to Chicago, working clubs and some recording , including Art Gibson and Ricky Riddle. At one time there was Tiny Murphy, Dan Johnson, also known as Jay or Buzz Summers, Save Beck, Chubby Howard, Steve Thompson, Basil Smith, Curt Delaney, (that's all the names I can think of) and myself all working within a couple of miles of each other. I left before Russ Hicks joined the scene. At the same time Ray Norm was working across town in Calumet City, IN.

In 1952 I moved to Lansing, Michigan and joined Chuck Woods. We played three nights a week at the Bill Woods Inn, a club that would seat over 400 people. This job paid $85.00 per week for the 3 nights. This was big money for that time. We also had a TV show on channel 6 for a while.

In early 1956 the Oldsmobile plant shut down for a while. When Olds shut down in Lansing, the town shut down, including the clubs where I worked.

I moved to Los Angeles only to find a one year waiting period required by Musician's Union Local #47. I found a day job to see me through, within a month after arriving there I was approached by Gene Davis to work a club job with a nightly radio show from the club. He got special permission from the union to use me. Shortly after joining them we started doing TV shows on Sunday afternoon. Within another month we had a Friday night TV show. For awhile I was working a day job five days, a club job five nights and two TV shows. Friday was a long day. I lived in Montebello, worked the day job in Los Angeles, played a 6:00 o'clock show in Hollywood and back to the club in Norwalk from 9:00 o'clock to 2:00 AM. The Sunday afternoon show at that time consisted of five bands. Two of the other groups were Wynn Stewart and Wade Ray.

I left Gene Davis to join Joe Maphis as he was only working two or three nights per week and my load was getting heavy. Joe also got me into recording but I would not give up my day job. After turning down a few sessions they quit calling me.

The main vocalist with Joe was Dale Warren of the Sons Of The Pioneers. They were not traveling much at the time and Joe would only book jobs when Dale was in town.

After Joe left town I took a weekend job in Lancaster, CA. The club where I worked brought in guest stars on a regular basis. Some of them were out of the past but I had grown up with their music and was happy to get to know them. None of them had a band any more so we were their band. Among the many guest stars was Floyd Tillman, Johnny Lou Carson, Johnny Bond, Eddie Dean, Rose Maddox, Fred Maddox, Tex Williams, Skeets McDonald, Lefty Frizzell, and some up and coming stars, Wynn Stewart, Freddie Hart, and Billy Mize later to become MC for Gene Autry's Melody Ranch Show.

After a year and a half of driving back and forth to Lancaster, 90 miles with no freeways, I left and started with a Saturday night show in Duarte, CA., with Wynn Stewart, Freddie Hart and Harlen and Jan Howard. This show was a test run in a new area and never did get off the ground. After this show folded I joined Gordon Terry at the Foothill Club in Long Beach , CA., followed by Johnny Western at the same club. Billy Mize eventually took over the band and I stayed on with him. This was one of the best bands I ever worked with, consisting of Billy Mize, (vocal, guitar, horn), Rod Gail (from Porter Wagoner band) on bass, Jim Pierce on piano, Roy Nichols on guitar, I don't know the drummers name and me.

We also had guest stars quite often. One Monday night we had Don Gibson as a scheduled guest star. Most of Nashville must have been on the West Coast that weekend. We counted 21 named guests, including: Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, Leroy Van Dyke, Jan Howard, June Carter, The Jordoneers, Lonzo and Oscar with Don Helms. That's all the names I can remember.

While I was at the Foothill club I was called in for an interview with Leo Fender. After accepting a position at Fender Research & Development, (1961) I cut way back on the night work. In 1964 I organized my own group. We had a steady job every Tuesday and Thursday from 8:00 to 11:30 which fit good with a day job. We had an agent booking us on military bases throughout the area. We also worked a lot of special jobs as the back up band for Billy Mize. One of them was at Disneyland with guest stars, Biff Collie and Glen Campbell, another was at Camp Pendelton with guest stars being Tommy Collins and Freddy Hart.

Freddy asked me and my band to go on the road with him as his band had just left him to join Wynn Stewart. He was close to the top of the charts at the time with "Easy Lovin" and others. Each member of my band was making more on a day job than he offered. That was the second time I had turned down Nashville groups for the same reason.

In 1969 I was asked to develop a new pedal steel guitar, I dropped out of music as I was working up to 80 hours on this instrument. The end result was the PS 210 keyless pedal guitar. This was followed by the thin line hollow body electric which would later be named the Starcaster.

After completing the PS 210 project, I started playing again. The prototype was made available to me to play. I had the pleasure of working with "Thumbs" Carlile again and was fascinated all over again by his style of playing as well as his ability. I got up one Saturday morning after working with "Thumbs" one Friday night, I cut me a board and installed frets in it and taped it down on the outside neck, as I only used one neck for steel work and this is more comfortable to me on the inside.

I knew at the time, that if I was going to learn this fretted neck, I would have to spend the first three months practicing nothing but scales before trying to play any tune. After about a year I started sitting in with bands free in order to get the practice on all the different songs. I still haven't mastered the fretted neck but I have a lot of fun with it.

Some of the highs of the West Coast days were working a few celebration type shows with Rex Allen Sr. in the late 1950's. He was second only to Red Foley and my favorite of all singers at that time, and having the pleasure of working for Jimmy Bryant in his group for a few months. A frequent guest star on Saturday nights after hours was Les Paul.

I don't have much time to play since starting GFI Musical Products. I have spent 40+ years designing and trouble shooting guitars and pedal guitars for other companies, now my goal is to have the best pedal steel guitar for the buck on the market. I think we're about there but we'll talk about that later.