Trebling Developments

If you like a lot of music and a lot of musicians, making a Top 10 list is hard.  But it can also be fun.  But then hard.  But then kind of fun again.  But then you remember the things you left out and think "oh man, I should've put that in...but then what would I take off to make room for it?"  As with many of life's tasks - fun or not - you must, at some point, cut yourself off and say, "ummmm...good enough (?)" and move on. This sentiment deserves some context.  For the last few years, The Current (89.3 FM) , a Twin Cities-based public radio station (Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A., for any international readers), has done "The 893 Essential [something-something]" lists as defined by its listeners.  Listeners go to the website and submit their own Top 10 list.  After station personnel tally the votes, the list is broadcast in the order of votes received for each entry.  They air the selected songs during their periodic fund drives. 

Image from Wikimedia Commons This is a pedal steel guitar.  It's a strange looking and wondrous instrument.  It is mainly associated with country music or country-ish folk.  If you're not familiar with its sound, I think it could best be described as the love child of a guitar and a theremin. I don't know how to play it.  But I like it. This little essay isn't about the steel guitar itself, however, but rather how one man used it in a unique and brilliant way.  That man is Pee Wee Charles (and he's on LinkedIn ).  His real name is Ed Ringwald, but his stage name is way funnier, so I'm going with it. Pee Wee Charles played pedal steel guitar for Gordon Lightfoot from 1975-1989.  Yes, that Gordon Lightfoot.  He's done quite a few other things before and since then, but I'm focusing on the Lightfoot period of his career.  This period interests me because Charles didn't use the pedal steel in a traditional country manner, but rather more like