Ep. 163 - Rob Ickes | Dobro, Bluegrass & Modern Acoustic Sessions
Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve DawsonShow Notes
Dobro master Rob Ickes joins me on the show this week. Rob was kind enough to drop in to the Henhouse to hang for a while, talk and even play a little bit. Rob is one of those players that is so good on one particular instrument that he’s managed to carve out a really impressive career being dedicated to just one thing. And that one thing is the dobro, which is kind of a specific instrument - It’s somewhat married to bluegrass music, but a very few players, and that list includes Rob and Jerry Douglas (and maybe one or two others), have managed to bring it to wider audiences through sessions and performances outside of that genre, while maintaining their standing at the highest level within it. Rob grew up in California, but moved to Nashville in the early 90’s and really established himself as a pre-eminent player with a long stint in the acclaimed bluegrass band Blue Highway. He left the band in 2015 to focus on his duo with the incredible singer and guitarist Trey Hensley, who was on this show a couple of years ago. Rob’s impressive session history includes working with artists like Merle Haggard, Taj Mahal, Willie Nelson, Peter Rowan, Tony Rice, Charlie Haden, Dolly Parton, Allison Krauss, Little Feat, Patty Loveless and many more. And while the session world keeps calling, Rob has never wanted to solely become a studio player, so he keeps busy on the road as much as he can, and the duo with Trey is incredibly busy now. Their latest release as Rob and Trey is called “Living In A Song”. On top of all that, Rob continues to teach and run his successful “Resosummit” each year here in Nashville. You can get info on all of Rob’s activities as well as his tour dates with Trey Hensley over at robickes.com - Enjoy my conversation with Rob Ickes!
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More from Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve Dawson
Season 9 comes to a close and I wanted to wrap it up with a short episode and what’s to come, and take care of our incredible end-of-season giveaways.
Guitarist Andy Reiss joins me on the show today, the last full episode of Season 9! When I first moved to Nashville, I started going to see the Time Jumpers. They are an incredible band that plays western swing and classic country every Monday at 3rd & Lindsley. For quite a few years there, the band included Vince Gill, Paul Franklin, Ranger Doug, 3 incredible fiddle players, Dawn Sears on vocals, and Andy Reiss was always there, just calmly tackling every song, no matter how fast and crazy or slow and soulful. Usually playing elegant jazz/blues/bop licks on a Les Paul, or sometimes a 335. And while it was mind-bending to see everyone doing what they do, Andy was always a high point of any show for me. He’s still doing that gig, as he has for over 20 years now. Andy started out in San Francisco, and made his way to Nashville around 1980, where he got to watch and work with a number of the original Nashville A-Team. Folks like Pete Drake, Harold Bradley, Bob Moore, Ray Edenton, and Pig Robbins. People that I know of as legends - Andy was around them from day 1 after moving here. He spent a good deal of time on the road with artists like Reba McIntyre and Slim Whitman, and has played on hundreds of records for artists like Miranda Lambert, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers and Leon Russell. He is truly one of the great guitar players in town, and has a deep knowledge of music, guitars and history. I also get to enjoy him up close and personal, since he now plays in my band The Volcano Brothers as well! Be sure to go and see Andy any time you’re in Nashville.
Following the passing of blues legend John Hammond, we’re revisiting this conversation with him from the first season of Music Makers and Soul Shakers, with the addition of a later conversation in which John recounts meeting Bo Diddley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
British pedal steel guitar legend BJ Cole joins me on the show today. BJ is a masterful steel player - very inventive and textural but with incredible chops and skills as well. He’s amassed an incredible body of solo work over the years, but has also been the top call steel session player in the UK for decades. He had a very solitary musical start, but got into country bands in England and eventually started gigging and playing sessions. Things changed for BJ when he got called to play steel on Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” in 1971. He laid down some very tasty and memorable steel parts on that hit, and the phone started ringing big time. BJ has played on records and toured with an incredible array of artists like Joan Armatrading, Marc Bolan, KD Lang, Beck, Bjork, Sting, John Cale, Brian Eno and many more. He’s also always written and recorded his own music and collaborations, which have been all over the place musically and are a great way to delve into his musical brain. There’s a new collab with cellist Emily Burridge - cello and steel duets that’s really cool, and his solo albums like Transparent Music, The New Hovering Dog, Trouble in Paradise - all great albums well worth checking out. We get into all it, plus some seriously nerdy pedal steel talk. You can keep up to date on BJ’s latest projects and tours at bjcole.co.uk Enjoy my conversation with BJ Cole!
This is Part 2 of my conversation with Brent Maher - have a listen to Part 1 from last week first and then dig in!