Wayne Gailey • An opinion piece from Junior Brown

[Ted Smouse]

Greetings friends! I am posting this opinion piece at the request of Junior Brown. Junior contacted me recently and asked if I would post this opinion piece he wrote about Wayne Gailey to the Forum, as Junior is not on the Forum. I know there have been Forum discussions about Wayne, but Junior has not had access nor has he seen them. I will forward discussion responses to Junior, as he is extremely interested in your responses.
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From Junior Brown:

“Greetings to all my steel guitar playing friends,

Writing an opinion piece like this is something I don't normally do. In fact, I have never submitted anything to this forum or any other. I'm doing so now because I feel the world in general has little or no idea about the greatness and pioneering contributions of my friend, the late, great steel guitar musician, Wayne Gailey.
As a kid in the 1950s, Wayne faced that elusive problem that E9th players had been struggling with since 1954's "Slowly" by Bud Isaacs. That problem being (mostly) the block of 4 treble strings, G#, B, E, G# intonation when two floor pedals are pushed. That harmonic blend of playing in perfect tune seemed to elude everybody until finally the precision of the early 1960's Sho-Bud and Emmons guitars allowed it.

We all remember how Lloyd Green's records of the time had the razor sharp blend of high overtones (no beats ringing) with that cutting tone. Before Lloyd could afford a Sho-Bud, Shot Jackson had sold him an old Bigsby, and here's the secret: Shot made it mechanically a Sho-Bud and therefore TUNABLE. The album, "Big Steel Guitar" was done on that guitar.

Around this same time there was this kid named Wayne Gailey out in California imitating Ralph Mooney, though not exclusively, and coming up with whatever mechanical devices Wayne could in order to give his primitive Fender pedal steel the tunability, tonal blend and ease of playing it lacked from the factory. From what I understand, he basically designed his own changer system. Singer Kenny Vernon told me Wayne had no stops on his pedals! That indeed may have been the case when he played the old Fender. I know he added knee levers.

In the early 1970s, when I met Wayne, he was playing a Baldwin Sho-Bud (with stops) at the Caravan East in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Who knows what success he could have attained, had he moved to Nashville or LA back then.

There is so much more I could say—stories and adventures we shared, etc. Suffice it to say that I was honored to be his friend and so shocked and saddened at his tragic passing from a drug overdose at a young age. Like other virtuosos, he was so vulnerable. Emotionally naked to the world, and like some others—too fast for a slow world—and always destructively attempting to slow himself down with substances.

In the 1960s, when Buck Owens toured Japan and recorded that first famous live album there, every steel guitarist in the country was present. Tom Brumley told them if they ever had the chance, that they needed to hear Wayne Gailey. Sure enough, when Kenny Vernon toured Japan with Wayne some time later, all the steel players heard the instrumental "Flint Hill Special" and proclaimed Wayne the best steel guitarist they had ever heard!

Finally, having mentioned the development of the early 1960s E9th, I offer the album: "Rose Maddox Sings Bluegrass” on Capitol Records, recorded in 1962. It features an all-star bluegrass band of the time: Don Reno, Red Smiley, Donna Stoneman and, on several cuts, Bill Monroe. How Rose Maddox got this electric pedal steel guitarist kid Wayne Gaily on a top flight (live) bluegrass session in 1962, is a story we may never completely understand. But listen to that BLEND on the E9th--that sucker is in tune and you'll hear some truly unique voicings on a pedal or knee lever here and there. After you have listened to this album, compare it to what other steel players were doing in 1962 and draw your own conclusions.

I will gratefully welcome any and all information on the life and music of my friend, Wayne Gailey.

Sincerely,
Junior Brown
Branson, MO 2025

[Jackson Fleder]

This is a beautiful tribute, I could hear Junior's voice reading the whole thing in my head. I really felt that part about being "too fast for a slow world". Such a tragic and familiar story

[Dave Zirbel]

I’ve been interested in hearing Wayne’s music for awhile. Internet searches produce very few results. I’ve heard the Rose Maddox Bluegrass recordings. Can anyone confirm if this is Wayne on Kenny Vernon’s 1969 album?
https://youtu.be/rvCHN8gB8bk?si=gJ_7WglQEA-mDcXi

Also looking for any other available recordings of him.

Thanks
Dave

[Fred Treece]

It’s important that everyone who was on the ground floor of the pedal steel guitar’s development and popularization to be acknowledged publicly, at least in the community of players represented here on the SGF. Thanks to Junior Brown for the respectful message about his friend, and to Ted Smouse for posting it, those of us who didn’t know about Wayne Galley before know now of a great player and innovator worthy of our attention.

[Chris Templeton]

What Fred said.
Thank you Junior for broadening my steel guitar world!.
My best to you and all you have going on-Chris Templeton.

[George Duncan Sypert]

Finallly a great post about my friend Wayne Gailey. I played a gig not too long ago and got onto a conversation with Junior Brown and discovered what a great fan of Wayne Gailey he was. Not too many folks got to hear Wayne in his prime due to the fact he was steeler for Kenny Vernon and they mostly played, Vegas, Albuq & Colo Springs about 2 weeks at a time. I will tell you that no one played pedal steel better than Wayne Gailey before or since. He added the two chromatic strings to his Fender 1000, going to the factory, getting the parts and doing the work himself.

I thank Mr Brown for his post. Wayne & Kenny Vernon were both great friends of mine during Wayne's time here and Kenny still is. We still talk often.

George

[George Duncan Sypert]

I just spoke with Mr Brown and thanked him for this wonderful post about Wayne Gailey.

George

[Bill McCloskey]

Here he is playing on a Rose Maddox recording Reckless and Bold Adventure.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNsq ... BW5Y69Kgqj

[Fred Treece]

Here he is playing on a Rose Maddox recording Reckless and Bold Adventure.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNsq ... BW5Y69Kgqj

”Just give me a fiddle, and ol’ Wayne on pedal steel/I’ll sing the song straight from my soul, cuz that’s the way I feel”
-from “Heart Of A Country Song”

[Kenny Davis]

I’ve been interested in hearing Wayne’s music for awhile. Internet searches produce very few results. I’ve heard the Rose Maddox Bluegrass recordings. Can anyone confirm if this is Wayne on Kenny Vernon’s 1969 album?
https://youtu.be/rvCHN8gB8bk?si=gJ_7WglQEA-mDcXi

Dave - I'm hearing a "hint" of Lloyd there. However, I wouldn't discount Wayne. Recorded on the Chart label makes me lean towards Lloyd.