Our DVD of the 2007 Rocky Mountain Steel Show is now here and for sale on the website. Thanks to the many who have ordered so far. Click
to order. Features performances and interviews with the players. The following players are featured: Dick Meis, Lee Gillespie, Casey Prestwood, Margie Mays, Daniel Jones, Glen Taylor, George Sypert, Bob Case, Chuck Lettes, Dewitt (Scotty) Scott, Curt Shoemaker, Kent Davis, Del Mullen, and Buzz Evans. Recorded May 20, 2007 at the Grizzly Rose. Our best steel show recording yet. So order your copy today...we think you'll enjoy it.
OLD NEWS, WINTER 2006-2007: Dick Meis to Hold Texas Steel Seminar: Dick Meis will be holding a PEDAL STEEL seminar on Sunday, December 3 from 10am - 4pm at Norris Family Music. The seminar is sponsored by the Texas Steel Guitar Association.. Cost of the seminar is FREE for TSGA members, $25 for non-members. This will be a paper only seminar, no guitars are necessary. Tape recorders are okay but no video. This is a good reason to join the TSGA, and get a FREE seminar by a master teacher. For further information call (817) 558-3481 or email AlbertTalley@texassteelguitar.org.
Due to popular demand we are now carrying the
Peterson Strobo-Flip Tuner. This is one of the most accurate tuners that money can buy. We are selling them for $275.00 which includes a stand mount that can be attached to your steel. Until our webmaster gets a chance to get these up on the website, please email or call us for purchase details. Thanks!
PAST NEWS...SUMMER/FALL 2006: Dick Meis was featured as the cover story in the premier issue of
"Colorado Country Music Showcase." The following is the text of the article, reprinted by permission.
Dick Meis is Colorado’s Steel Guitar Man
The restaurant is noisy on a Friday night. Dozens of couples chat in the booths, and at the larger tables, whole families, three generations, catch each other up on the week. Abruptly the familiar strains of Steel Guitar Rag ripple across the room and everyone falls silent. Even the clatter of dishes ceases.
This is just the first of several times Dick Meis will render the perennial country music standard on this particular evening. "I get lots of requests for it," he admits. "Oh, and I'd hate to imagine how many times I've played it." As the crowd changes, the new patrons will request their favorite. And Dick always acquiesces because this is what he enjoys doing, this Steel Guitar Man Dick Meis.
"I guess I just like to help out," he remarks, noting that it also just "feels good" when he plays with talented musicians. He should know. He and his pedal steel guitar have played with some of the best: George Hamilton IV, Tex Ritter, Loretta Lynn, Bobby Bare...back in the early '60s when he did his stint in Nashville.
But with two youngsters, Dick and wife, Lois Lane returned to their Colorado roots in about 1968, so "the kids could have a home," Lois explained. She and Dick met in a 4-H Club band in the 7th grade in Fort Morgan; they have played together since and will soon mark 50 years of marriage.
At first, it was the regular guitar for Dick. Then came a lap steel guitar purchase made for Dick's brother who professed little interest in it. For the uninitiated, most modern steel guitars come with pedals that allow great flexibility in the music they play. The lap steel is more basic, but can still be a great addition to any group, while still presenting a music challenge to the player.
Dick obviously enjoys playing in Colorado. A fixture in the state since the last four decades, he can be found most weekends and many week nights performing with various groups, including Lois Lane and Superband, where he shares the stage with Lois. A talent in her own right, she plays bass and does vocals. The pair seem to feed on the crowd reaction and this Friday night is no exception. This evening, he and Lois are part of a quartet furnishing entertainment for the hungry dinner crowd at an east Metro area Mexican restaurant. He has joined Rudy Grant on lead guitar, and Lois playing bass. Completing the ensemble is Denny Maw on drums.
When the band takes a break, Dick and Lois rest in a booth side-by-side and chat freely about their tours around the world, the frantic years in Nashville and Dick's successful school of Steel Guitar.
Dick began his career with a Christmas gift guitar from his father in 1949 and, it wasn't long until he and an an uncle began a radio show on KFTM in Ft. Morgan. "There wasn't any TV in those days," he reminds. From there, he began his affair with the steel guitar which has held his attention since. Along the way, however, he continues to play guitar, often sitting behind the steel with a guitar around his neck. "And he picked up the fiddle a little," Lois chimed in.
It was while the couple was in Nashville, Lois singing on the United Artists label in the early 60s that Dick took up instrument repair, a vocation he continues with son, Greg, giving extended life to band instruments and doing an occasional repair on the steel guitars. “Thought it would be good to have another occupation,” he quipped.
He continues his busy schedule of playing, sometimes with Lois, other times with local fixture Rudy Grant and at other times with the Interstate Cowboy Band based out of Masonville.
Break over, he and Lois saddle up again to take the stage this evening at the restaurant. Second song in this set? Steel Guitar Rag, of course...
Our next Rocky Mountain Steel Guitar Show will be the biggest and best yet... It's on Sunday, July 20, 2008 at the Ramada Plaza & Conference Center in Denver, 10 East 120th Ave. (120th Ave. & I-25), Denver (Northglenn) 80233. We'll have a 12 hour show this time, from 11:00am - 11:00pm. This will allow all of our talented performers to have plenty of time on stage. For Room Reservations, call 303-452-4100. For more information give us a call at: (Local) 303-428-4397 or (Toll-Free) 1-877-380-1010. In coming weeks we will release a list of the performers at this year's show. We'll be excited to have you there, so be sure not to miss it.
