NASHVILLE CATS TO PROWL
COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM
New Programming Series Kicks Off Feb. 18 With Pedal Steel Legend Lloyd Green
On Feb. 18, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum kicks off its new quarterly programming series, Nashville Cats: A Celebration of Music City Session Players, with a salute to revolutionary pedal steel player Lloyd Green. The 2:00 p.m. program, which will be held in the Museum’s Ford Theater, is included with Museum admission, or $5 on its own, and is free to Museum members.
The interactive Nashville Cats programs, the first of which will be hosted by noted artist/songwriter/musician and Museum stringed instrument curator Bill Lloyd, will include in-depth, one-on-one interviews with the players themselves; audio-visual elements, including vintage recordings, photos and film clips; and, in some cases, instrument demonstrations. Visitors will be encouraged to ask questions. Additional Nashville Cats programs will follow in June, August and November.
Green’s innovative pedal steel work has infused more than 25,000 songs – including 117 #1 hits – over the last 40 years. His signature groove graced some of the most famous recordings in the history of popular music, including Freddie Hart’s “Easy Loving,” Gene Watson’s “Farewell Party” and Tammy Wynette’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” and non-Nashville artists from the Byrds to Paul McCartney have sought out Green to play with them.
The Alabama native started playing Hawaiian steel guitar when he was seven years old, and by age 10 Green was playing professionally around Mobile. When Green was 16, Bud Isaacs’ seminal pedal steel work on Webb Pierce’s “Slowly” captivated him, and he immediately modified his own steel guitar, attaching a Model T gas pedal.
In 1956, Green moved to Nashville and quickly landed a job in Faron Young’s band. In the mid-1960s Green began to make his mark as a session player, adding his licks to Johnny Paycheck’s recordings for the Little Darlin’ label. On these records, the steel co-stars with the vocal; in fact, Green’s name was printed on the record sleeves, the lone player credit.
Over the next 20 years, Green added his rich tones to thousands of Nashville’s finest recordings, one three-hour studio session at a time. When asked how he went about crystallizing his parts so efficiently and quickly, making lasting music from scratch and under duress, Green said, “The practice and the constancy were key . . . It never took me more than two or three minutes to figure out what I was going to do. Ideas would kind of pop out. I listened to the tempo, the singer, the ambience of the studio. I just let that be the food.”
Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The Museum’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same educational mission, the Foundation also operates CMF Records, the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, historic RCA Studio B, and Hatch Show Print.
The Ford Division of the Ford Motor Co. is a Founding Partner of the $37 million Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, which opened on May 17, 2001.
More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.com or by calling (615) 416-2001.