Bobby Lee (musician)
Encyclopedia
Bobby Lee is a pedal steel guitar
player and active promotor of the instrument, including founding and participating on a number of Internet
website
s and discussion forums.
Inspired by the steel guitar styles of Jerry Garcia
(with The Grateful Dead) and Don Helms
(with Hank Williams), Bobby Lee took up the steel guitar
in 1972. He started performing with country bands in Northern California in 1975, and became a common fixture in Sonoma County's country music scene starting in 1979. His country band affiliations included The Cowpokes, The Western Rhythm Gang, The Wheelers, Scott Gerber, The StringBusters and The Country All-Stars, among many others. In 1996, he recorded and produced Quasar Steel Guitar, a CD of his steel guitar music.
In 2001, Bobby Lee joined John Reese and Open Hearts, a band that plays original music in a wide variety of styles. He played on two of their CDs, and left the band in 2008. In 2009, he joined forces with Al Stern (drums), Ehlert Lassen (acoustic guitar) and Dennis Lassen (acoustic bass and piano) to create The Burnside Scramblers, a band fond of playing western swing music and standards.
As "b0b" (his online handle), Bobby Lee became involved in BBSes in the 1980s. He leveraged that experience to start The Steel Guitar Forum in 1997. Over the years that followed, The Steel Guitar Forum has become the online center of the international steel guitar community.
In addition to his musical and internet activities, Bobby Lee is a professional software engineer specializing in consumer graphics applications.
Pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
player and active promotor of the instrument, including founding and participating on a number of Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s and discussion forums.
Inspired by the steel guitar styles of Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
(with The Grateful Dead) and Don Helms
Don Helms
Don Helms was a steel guitarist best known as the steel guitar player of Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys group....
(with Hank Williams), Bobby Lee took up the steel guitar
Steel guitar
Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
in 1972. He started performing with country bands in Northern California in 1975, and became a common fixture in Sonoma County's country music scene starting in 1979. His country band affiliations included The Cowpokes, The Western Rhythm Gang, The Wheelers, Scott Gerber, The StringBusters and The Country All-Stars, among many others. In 1996, he recorded and produced Quasar Steel Guitar, a CD of his steel guitar music.
In 2001, Bobby Lee joined John Reese and Open Hearts, a band that plays original music in a wide variety of styles. He played on two of their CDs, and left the band in 2008. In 2009, he joined forces with Al Stern (drums), Ehlert Lassen (acoustic guitar) and Dennis Lassen (acoustic bass and piano) to create The Burnside Scramblers, a band fond of playing western swing music and standards.
As "b0b" (his online handle), Bobby Lee became involved in BBSes in the 1980s. He leveraged that experience to start The Steel Guitar Forum in 1997. Over the years that followed, The Steel Guitar Forum has become the online center of the international steel guitar community.
In addition to his musical and internet activities, Bobby Lee is a professional software engineer specializing in consumer graphics applications.
External links
- The Pedal Steel Pages.
- The Steel Guitar Forum.
- Open Hearts Music.
- The Technical Academy Plays -b0b- an album of computer-generated music programmed by Bobby Lee in 1991.
- b0badel a variant of Citadel BBS software created by Bobby Lee in the early 1990s.
- BBS Documentary Interview
- The Burnside Scramblers.