| The Orville J. "Red" Rhodes Story |
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| Orville J. "Red" Rhodes was born on December 30, 1930 in East Alston, Illinois. He was trained on guitar beginning at the early age of five, when his mother taught him how to play the dobro using A-major tuning. He switched to a lap steel at the age of 15, and soon after was playing clubs with his stepfather, who would play guitar and sing. Red's first booking with his stepfather was at the Bill Jones Bar in Illinois. In 1960, Red moved out of small-town East Alston to play with the big boys in L.A. and hopefully make it as a session musician. His first assignment was appearing on Curt Boetcher's "The Goldbriars" album. Red was soon signed to a record deal with Crown Records around 1963-1964. He released four LPs on Crown, with some of the albums crediting "Red Rhodes and the Roadrunners" (though there was no such actual group...the other guys on the albums were simply session men). The albums showcased his unique playing style, so much that the Academy of Country Musicians named him steel guitar player of the year in 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1968 (note: '66 & '67 awards were shared with fellow steeler Tom Brumley). Unfortunately for Red's fans, Crown was a low-budget label using inferioir quality cardboard and vinyl for the album jackets and records themselves....thus, even finding a mint copy today will still result in poor-quality sound and a very fragile jacket to be delicately hadled, indeed! Worse, they used generic photos for the covers (no Red...just shadows of guitar players, or perhaps a pretty girl), and the back covers were simply ads for other Crown LPs!) Red's popularity had soared by 1968, and he had quickly become an in-demand session musician, while at the same time being the headliner (with his band The Detours) at L.A.'s popular Troubador. In fact, an album of one of his performances made it's way onto vinyl around this time. Within a year's time, though, Red had started to grow weary of the nightly Troubador sets, and jumped at the chance to join buddy John Ware's new band (which happened to feature another friend of Red's....soon to be ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith). By Spring of 1970, Red was a full-time member of the First National Band, as the prominent soloist of the group. During his involvement with Nesmith, Red still found time to do session work for other artists, and even managed to find time to make another solo album. "Velvet Hammer In A Cowboy Band" was produced by Nez and released on his Countryside label (an Elektra-subsidiary). The album is by far considered Red's best solo work ever, and the ACM felt so too, granting Red his fifth and final Steel Guitar Player of the Year award. (For more info on Red's association with Nez and Countryside, click here!) By the late 1970's, Red found himself spending more and more time at his amplifier repair shop in California, "Red's Royal Amp Repair", as opposed to the studio. He was well known among guitar and amplifier aficionados for his expertise in amplifier modifications and pickup rewiring. Red worked on many inventions in the shop, including his Velvet Hammer pickups for Fender. Another invention was a pickup for the steel guitar which amplified the alternating strings (1,3,5,7,9,11) as the volume pedal was raised, while quieting the remaining strings....and vice versa. Red was also a wizard at making amplifiers (especially Fenders) sound like no other through special modifications. Many comments praising his electronics work can be seen on this page. Another factor for his increased interest in his shop was the fact that arthritis had begun to take over his hands, making it increasingly difficult for him to play. In fact, he only played on two albums in the late '70s, including his own "Steel Guitar Favorites" LP and two tunes on the "Pacific Steel" LP. His playing on "Pacific Steel" was considered weak (a very bad review in Steel Guitarist magazine was not very forgiving), and Red ceased to record for over 15 years. He did make a few appearances at the annual International Steel Guitar Convention in the mid-'80s, but otherwise kept himself confined to the amp shop he loved. In 1995, Nez coaxed Red into playing on his comeback album, "...tropical campfires...", which included a tour across the U.S. In fact, two stops on the tour were videotaped....one for the VHS/DVD release "Live At The Britt Festival" and the other for the PBS show "Austin City Limits". However, while Red's playing was tasteful and flawless, it was certainly not indicative of the speedy, slick & inventive patterns of the same man of 25 years past. The reason was most likely due to his illness...rheumathoid arthritis. He had been quite sick prior to Nesmith's asking him to play again. While Red was able to complete the tour, he fell ill soon after it's completion. He had interstital lung fibrosis as a result of the rheumathoid arthritis. He passed away August 5, 1995. |