A certain kind of joy permeated the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville last week — a specific, cultish, even nerdy joy — as thousands of steel guitar enthusiasts gathered for a celebration of the instrument dubbed the “Sho-Bud Showcase Live.” (And I, myself a pedal steel player, was one of them.)
Presented by Sho-Bud, the pedal steel manufacturer synonymous with country music and Nashville, the evening assembled expert steel players from across genres to show just what the 10-stringed contraption can do. Now, as the “Mother Church of Country Music,” the Ryman has seen its fair share of pedal-steel guitars in its storied history, but nothing like the galaxy of steels that graced the stage on this night.
But first, a little back story for the uninitiated. Sho-Bud steel guitars were the brainchild of two legends of the instrument, Shot Jackson and Buddy Emmons (see what they did there?), and became the marquee brand during the 1960s and Seventies. In fact, the Sho-Bud shop occupied what is now Robert’s Western World, Nashville’s revered honky-tonk, on Broadway decades ago. But when guitar manufacturer Gretsch acquired the brand in 1979, production trailed off. Enter Dawn and Will Jackson, grandchildren of Shot, who re-acquired Sho-Bud in 2024 and restarted production. A steel guitar comeback was underway.
Which brings us to “Sho-Bud Showcase Live,” a four-hour long representation of the brand’s revival. Billed as a benefit for causes including the Peter Frampton Myotosis Foundation and the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, the event was as shiny with stars as the namesake steel. Guitar heroes like Slash loomed in the wings, Don Felder materialized to play the Eagles’ “Take It Easy,” and Marcus King shredded some bluesy rock solos.
But this was a night for steel players, and that meant headliner Lloyd Green (over 30,000 studio recordings to his credit, including the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo) had to be in the house. Junior Brown picked at his Guit-Steel too, and Dan Dugmore (who’s played for Linda Ronstadt and literally everyone) and Grammy winner Robert Randolph also brought the steel power. There were droves of the instrument’s hottest pickers in the audience as well: Travis Toy (Luke Bryan), Mike Daly (Hank Williams Jr.), and Read Connolly (Zach Bryan), just to name a few.
Yet even with dozens of steel guitars inside the Ryman, the sound didn’t remain the same — steel guitar is not a one-note instrument. Green and Andrea Whitt especially proved that by delivering a beautiful instrumental performance of Elliott Smith’s “Waltz #2.” King highlighted the steel’s use in Southern rock, and his own pedal steel prowess, by re-creating Marshall Tucker Band’s “Fire on the Mountain.” And Randolph, introduced as “The Jimi Hendrix of Pedal Steel,” showed off the steel’s rock edge, roaring through a wah-wah-heavy ”Voodoo Chile” that included his signature stage move: tilting the steel on its side.
Robert Randolph performs at a celebration of the Sho-Bud steel guitar at the Ryman in Nashville. Photo: Michael Weintrob*
But the night belonged to Green — or perhaps should have. The 89-year-old “Mr. Nashville Sound” appeared onstage and took a seat behind the very first Lloyd Green model Sho-Bud. Opposite him was Slash, sitting behind the very first new Lloyd Green model. The Guns N’ Roses guitarist picked out the intro to that old steel guitar chestnut, “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” and the audience dutifully began filming the moment on their phones. Green added his own parts here and there, but both he and Slash were in danger of being drowned out by the backing band’s rhythm guitar.
It was a metaphor: The pedal steel has often taken a backseat to the electric guitar. But at least on this evening, Sho-Bud gave the most country instrument of all its due.
