![]() What follow are what I consider to be the greatest steel guitar solos in the story of country music. Neither approach is wrong, of course, but solos allow instruments to really shine. The sounds blend together to add texture and depth to recordings instead of allowing fiddle and steel and dobro to shine at different moments. Over the years, instrumental breaks and solos have become passé in a way. It’s *country* as can be and provides the listener with an instant sense of authenticity when listening to a record for the first time. And that’s why the steel guitar is such an important player in the story of the genre. Hank’s lyrics and the sound of that steel go together like coffee and a biscuit. ![]() Imagine some of those Hank records without a steel guitar. Perhaps the first artist to fully realize its capabilities in the recording studio was Hank Williams. The steel guitar cut through the noise of the Texas honky-tonks with its whining, sorrowful sound and paired nicely with the electric twang popularized by Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell. Western Swing, however, featured the first electrified steel guitar from Bob Dunn in the 1930s who had been influenced by Sol Ho’opi’i, one of the first Hawaiian steel guitar players. ![]() The steel guitar can find its origins in late 19th Century Hawaii as Joseph Kekuku popularized, and some say, invented the first iteration of the instrument. But we can’t tell the story of country music without that high, lonesome sound of the pedal steel guitar- and vice versa. Of course, we’ll gladly share it after all, we know its importance and significance. Sure, other genres have adopted the steel guitar and Jerry Garcia, the Rolling Stones, and other legends fell in love with it. The steel guitar belongs to country music. The Five Greatest Steel Guitar Solos in Country Music History
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