SAN DIEGO — In ancient times, kings ruled local fiefdoms. In the world of pedal steel guitar, it is much the same way. Ted Stern, is San Diego’s king of pedal steel guitar!
My wife Kyra and I caught the Jeff Berkeley Band, playing in East County. Being from Texas, I was thrilled to hear a Pedal Steel Guitar and a player who knew his stuff. He wasn’t just good, but really good. Who is this guy? I didn’t think anyone played pedal steel guitar in California. His name is Ted Stern. How did a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn, New York, become San Diego’s pedal steel king?
Stern told me he knew nothing of country music growing up. He played violin from an early age, and trained on classical composers such as Schubert, Mozart, and Beethoven. Having mastered the classical violin at an early age, Stern felt as a teenager that their music was beautiful and relatively easy to play.
The future pedal steel king, was an advanced student, and at sixteen starting attending Princeton, University. During his first semester, Stern met a friend who introduced him to music of the late sixties and early seventies. Up to then, the only modern music in Stern’s home had been two 45 RPM records, “The Peppermint Twist” and Bobby Vinton’s cover of “Blue Velvet.”
Stern’s friend from Princeton, introduced him to The New Riders of The Purple Sage. The pedal steel king immediately took to it! What is that sound? As a classical violinist, Stern was used to long sustained notes, but this was something new. That’s when Stern fell in love with the instrument.
Buddy Cage, the pedal steel player with The New Riders of the Purple Sage, became his new musical hero. He studied Buddy’s method. He bought an old Fender 400 pedal steel guitar, from Sam Ash Musical Instruments, a very old primitive model from the 50s, beautiful in terms of sound because of its twangy pickup.
Playing in college country and jazz fusion jams, Stern tried to figure out how to use it in different contexts and not just country rock. He picked the licks off the records at half speed. In those days, the record players had a switch so you could slow down the record a full octave, but it stayed in the same key.
He was not quite 19, having just graduated from an an Ivy League school, when he decided to load up his 1973 Dodge Dart and head to Nashville.
Stern auditioned for the Hank Williams Jr Band, but his technique had not developed into the Nashville sound Hank was looking for. Hearing Austin, Texas was nice, he figured he would try that out for a while.
So Stern, living in Austin during the 70s, when Waylon and Willie were at their peak, met some musicians from Arizona and they all wound up being housemates. They formed a country rock band and toured around Texas for a while. His pedal steel playing improved more and more, after playing hundreds of country rock and outlaw country gigs.
Stern continued his education at UC Berkeley. Needing extra money, Stern took to playing pedal steel guitar in local country dive bars and honkey tonks in northern California. Playing five nights a week, for four hours a night, was how he learned a vast catalog of country music, all of the great, gritty road house stuff, the real country music.
Stern joined the union, and played what you would typically see on a jukebox in a seedy country bar back in the 1970’s. Stern discovered a whole new world of country music. He played pedal steel, for 20 hours a week for almost two years. That’s about 2,000 hours of pedal steel guitar playing. By the end of that experience, he’d mastered his instrument. Now, Stern wielded a vast country catalog in his head, and at his fingertips. Music that goes deep into American culture and far back into our collective musical conscience. Country music by far is the most popular kind of American music, from the beginning of American culture to this day. So, as you can imagine, there is a lot of it, some of it great and some of it terrible, but Stern learned it all.
Stern graduated from UC Berkley, then moved to San Diego. He continued playing in local bands, but it was slim pickings in San Diego for Sseel players, so he mainly stuck to violin and bass until recently. Within the last couple of years, we’ve seen a resurgence of singer-songwriters and in particular the Americana and Indie Folk revivalist.
The Americana movement has been growing in recent years, from grass roots America and can be seen as a new form of original folk ,usic. This trend looks back on early instrumental sounds of America. There’s a growing demand for more authentic Americana instruments. The steel guitar is about as Americana and you can find. It, along with the banjo, and the American style fiddle, forms the foundation for Americana music.
However, at the same time live music has become devalued.
Many club owners aren’t interested in paying bands to play live. Playing actual instruments, of any kind, has become a labor of love. Unfortunately, the art of pedal steel guitar is fading. Most of the really great players are getting long in the tooth. Steel players have almost become a novelty here in San Diego.
For Stern that’s been great, because there’s less competition. All the professional musicians left, because it’s too expensive to live here, if music is your life calling. There’s simply no way to make even a modest living. If you’re going to spend thousands of hours to learn pedal steel, you’re either crazy in love with this hobby or you’re doing it because you want to be a professional.
”I’m fortunate now to be able pick and choose who I want to play with and where and when I want to play,” Stern says. “ I’m able to play with some really great singer songwriters, who’ve come through San Diego in the past few years on tour and I feel privileged to be back-lining their music.
Stern is the Director of Integrated Products at Solaero. Technologies, here in San Diego and plays with several talented musicians, such as Shepard Canyon, Clair Walding, Dan Westrick, Jule Stewart, Love Angles, and Jessica Hall. He is also now playing Steel Guitar regularly with prolific San Diego producer, Jeff Berkley and the Jeff Berkley Band. Once a month, he joins fellow congregants at Tifereth Israel Synagogue, playing in the Shir Hadash (New Song) band that leads Friday night services.
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Mark Thomas, who plays guitar himself, is a freelance writer who covers the music scene. He may be contacted via mark.thomas@sdjewishworld.com
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