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It's good to meet you Tommy. You must be one
of the top steel guitar players around. How did you come to
take up the steel guitar
"Well let me see. Back when I was 12 or so,
people came by our school and I guess they paid the principle
some money to have a little assembly at the assembly hall
and they gave a demonstration of guitars, steel guitars, fiddles
and stuff. I'd heard a lot of it on the radio and said heck,
let's try it out. So I went and took a few lessons from one
of them and strated from there. Then I started playing on
the old flat bed trucks with people who weren't very good.
I wasn't neither! (laughs)
Then I went down...and Bob Wills had just left
the Ranch House in Dallas, so Dewey Groom had it. He had just
as good a band as Bob Wills did back then, so I hung around
down there every night. I didn't even take any homework home,
I just hung out down there every night. It just went from
there! I'd just go down and listen to them and sit in and
play, which was a lot more fun than doing homework.
I've played around a whole lot...Mostly western
swing, though I've done a few years of Rhythm & Blues, but
mostly it was swing and western swing music. Now I have my
own band the Time Warp Tophands and we book out quite a bit
and play here at the festival tomorrow (Saturday afternoon
and evening).
I also play with the Playboys and also work
with the cowboy singer Don Edwards...he's a good singer...a
good cowboy player. I went over to England with Don in the
80s, when we managed to do a deal. I just job around, mostly
with my band the Time Warp Tophands, the Playboys and Don.
We ain't rich, but we're even." (laughs)
Where about does the work come from?
"Nobody'll hire us back home. (laughs) We do
Riadosa every year. We do the steel convention in Dallas.
That's one of the few things I do in Dallas. Our band plays
with Craig Chambers and we play the Big Balls In Cowtown in
Fort Worth once or trice a month. And we go out and do rodeo's
and western swing festivals ranch parties and stuff like that.
I also play the International Steel Guitar Festival at St
Louis about every two years or so. That's about it!."
Playing the steel guitar conferences and festivals,
you will probably know of a British steel guitar player...Sarah
Jory.
"Yeh. She was coming over quite a bit when I
started doing the steel guitar conventions. She wasn't doing
too much singing back then. I've heard she's doing more singing
now, but she was a heck of a steel player. I mean really top
notch, but I haven't seen in her for some years."
Next time I see her, I'll let her know that
I've met up with you.
"Sure! Do that."
Thanks for spending time with me Tommy.
Graham Lees July 2001
Sadly Tom Morrell died
30 January 2007 of emphysema at home in East Dallas.
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