Curly Chalker

Harold Lee Chalker (October 22, 1931 – April 30, 1998), better known as Curly Chalker, was an American country and jazz musician and pioneering pedal steel guitarist.

Born in Enterprise, Alabama, Chalker began playing the lap steel guitar while still in his teens and made his professional debut in the nightclubs of Cincinnati, Ohio.

As a sideman

In the 1950s, Chalker was touring Texas with Lefty Frizzell, replacing C.B. White, and played on the Frizell cuts, "Always Late (With Your Kisses)" and "Mom and Dad's Waltz" (both in 1951).^[1] Chalker played dobro on these recordings.^[2] Chalker then joined Hank Thompson's Brazos Valley Boys, and was featured on the 1952 cuts, "Cryin' in the Deep Blue Sea" and "The Wild Side of Life".

After two years in the US armed forces, Chalker joined the Springfield, Missouri-based Ozark Jubilee ABC Radio and TV series for several years, backing Red Foley and Porter Wagoner. During this time Chalker switched from the lap steel to the pedal steel guitar.

In 1959, he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where he played behind fiddler Wade Ray, and later joined the band of the long-time Golden Nugget fixture Hank Penny. Roy Clark (of Hee Haw fame) also played with Penny and the two became friends. Chalker relocated to Nashville in 1965, and became successful as a session musician.

Solo work

In 1966, he made an instrumental album for Columbia Records entitled Big Hits on Big Steel. This record was produced by fellow steel guitarist Pete Drake.^[3] The follow-up release was More Ways to Play released in 1975. In 1976 he released an album consisting exclusively of Gordon Lightfoot covers, entitled Nashville Sundown.

Chalker also appeared with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, recording the album, Counterpoint which was shelved for years after its completion.^[4]

Collaborations

A prolific studio musician and sideman, Chalker performed on records and on stage with artists such as Willie Nelson, the Gap Band, Ray Price, Leon Russell, and Bill Haley and the Comets. One of his most notable collaborations was S'Wonderful (Four Giants of Swing) (1976), on which he collaborated with jazz violinist Joe Venuti, guitarist Eldon Shamblin and mandolinist Jethro Burns. On this album, the quartet played classic swing tunes by composers such as George Gershwin and Duke Ellington.^[5]

Chalker also appeared on work that was outside the country and Western and swing genres, including appearances on Simon and Garfunkel's 1969 hit "The Boxer" and Marie Osmond's "Paper Roses".^[3] Proving that he had a mind for the unconventional, Chalker also appeared on Chinga Chavin's 1976 album, Country Porn.^[6]

Chalker was also a member of the house band of the television show Hee Haw for 18 years, with his friend and former bandmate, Roy Clark.^[7]

In 1973, to meet the demands for low-maintenance and lighter amplifiers, Hartley Peavey sought Chalker's guidance, along with that of Buddy Emmons and other steel guitarists in developing the Session 400 amplifier, which went into production in 1974.^[8]

In 1985 he was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame.^[3]

Death and legacy

Chalker died on April 30, 1998 from a cancer-related brain tumor.^[9]

In 2009, he was honored by the Wiregrass Festival of Murals in Dothan, Alabama. His likeness is featured next to 16 other country music performers with ties to the Wiregrass Region on a mural in downtown Dothan.^[10] He is survived by his son Lee Jarane Chalker

Personality

While Chalker earned a reputation both as an innovator and performer, he was also known for his quick temper and strong personality. Sometimes after onstage mistakes, he had a tendency to slam down his fretting bar and yell profanities, a habit that led bandleader Hank Thompson to remark:

I'd say, "If you make a mistake, you're probably the only one who notices it, and also, you don't have to say 'shit' with all the people standing around the bandstand." He was very inconsistent with his playing, but it seemed that when it was really important, he'd come through. On a record session, he'd play you some of the best stuff you ever heard, or some critical concert with a big audience, a lot of people on the show, he'd bear down and play the best you ever saw. Next night, we'd be playin' some club somewhere and hell, every other song he'd mess it up.^[11]

The story on many internet sites that Chalker was nearly arrested or "almost went to prison" for striking a drunken audience member who was leaning on his instrument with the metal leg of his pedal steel guitar^[7] is inaccurate. A young steel player asked Chalker "what can I do to keep people from coming up and leaning on my steel?" and Chalker replied, "I don't know, but I can tell you what NOT to do..." and related a story of a drunk who had been repeatedly approaching and harassing Chalker while he was playing a live show. Chalker finally had enough and removed the leg of his steel guitar and struck the drunk man. Chalker then said, "I should never have done it, I could have really hurt him, and I thought I was going to go to jail".^[12] This story has been warped into "almost went to prison for striking a man who was leaning on his steel".

Discography

Chalker's debut solo album on Columbia Records

Solo albums

• Big Hits on Big Steel (1966) Columbia Records
• More Ways to Play (1975) Mid-Land Records
• Nashville Sundown (1977) GNP Crescendo

With Joe Venuti, Eldon Shamblin, and Jethro Burns

• S'Wonderful (4 Giants Of Swing) (1977) Flying Fish Records

References

External links