Slash, Marty Stuart, Marcus King Lead Sho-Bud Steel Guitar Show at Ryman
Well this is pretty damn cool. If you don’t have any plans on October 27th and the means to get to Nashville—or even if you do and can wiggle out of them—you should boogie down to the Ryman Auditorium where a massive steel guitar showcase will be going down featuring both heavyweight guitar names, and some of the greatest steelers on the planet.
Called “Sho-Bud Showcase Live,” the lineup includes Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, Lloyd Green, Marty Stuart, Skunk Baxter, Dan Dugmore, Don Felder from The Eagles, Marcus King, Rocco DeLuca, Eddy Dunlap, Sarah Jory, Andrea Whitt, Hatfield Rain, Ed Williams, Johnny Cox, Cody Parks, and more to be announced. And before you get all animated about how guys like Slash and Marcus King are monster guitar players but not really steel guitarists, hold your tongue. Both those dudes have been cited sitting behind Sho-Buds in the past.
The point of the event is to celebrate the legacy of Sho-Bud guitars by featuring the artists, songs, and recordings that went into creating the Nashville sound, and made the steel guitar synonymous with country music. The showcase feels very similar to one that featured the Telecaster on its 75th Anniversary at the Ryman in May.
In 1955, steel guitarist Buddy Emmons joined with Shot Jackson to develop the now legendary “Sho-Bud” pedal steel guitar, and the two men set up a company to sell the instruments to the world, starting in a garage in Madison, Tennessee. The company later relocated to Nashville in 1963 when Emmons left to start the Emmons Guitar Company. But Shot and his sons David and Harry continued on.
Many of country music’s most legendary steel guitar players such as Lloyd Green, Jerry Byrd, Ralph Mooney, and Pete Drake were all Sho-Bud loyalists, with Lloyd Green receiving his own signature model called the LDG. For years, the current location of traditional country honky tonk Robert’s Western World on Lower Broadway in Nashville was the Sho-Bud showroom and production warehouse. That is why the balcony of Robert’s is named the “Sho-Bud balcony bar.”
Grestsch purchased Sho-Bud in 1979, and eventually ceased production of the guitars. But the family officially reacquired the name in December of 2024, and the grandson and granddaughter of Shot Jackson—Will and Dawn Jackson—officially restarted the company in 2025 with their father David and uncle Harry who’ve continued to make steel guitars.
Presale for the event is live now, with the pre-purchase password SHOBUD26. Tickets officially go on sale on Friday, August 14th at 10am Central via axs.com and at ryman.com.
August 11, 2026 @ 6:36 pm
Heres a fun fact. Skunk Baxter himself was getting the deluxe Rick Beato interview when he dropped the bomb that he personally encouraged Slash to try pedal steel. First off, very few folks realized it but Skunk is a HUGE fan of the instrument and he’s been playing it for YEARS. Most of us mainly think of him as a Strat wielding, shredding former Doobie Brother and Steely Dan Emeritus. But he’s also quite the player. Anyhow, he put the challenge to Slash and even loaned one of his pedal steels to him for a good year while Slash learned.
This thing sounds to be awesome. Might need to go.
August 11, 2026 @ 6:47 pm
This post is full of really cool info.
Thanks, Kev.
August 12, 2026 @ 7:40 am
There are live videos of the Eagles and Don Felder had no problem playing the steel parts. Dude is freakin’ talented.
August 12, 2026 @ 8:23 am
I believe Skunk played steel on Steely Dan’s first single, Dallas. Actually a twangy song by them.
August 12, 2026 @ 8:49 am
and several songs on the first 3 SD albums:
Fire in the Hole
Brooklyn
Razor Boy
Pearl of the Quarter
Barrytown
Charlie Freak
in concert, they featured Skunk’s steel on 2 more:
Dirty Work
Any Major Dude
August 12, 2026 @ 11:33 am
Interesting. I didn’t realize they used a steel live.
I mentioned Dallas because it is twangier than anything else I’ve heard from them. First time I listened to Dallas I did not recognize it was Steely Dan.
August 12, 2026 @ 12:19 pm
Never heard Dallas till now. A song Fagen and Becker hated and their label hated. They scrapped it and it never made any of their albums. Interesting stuff. Fits in with the country rock of the era like Poco, Pure Prairie League etc.
August 18, 2026 @ 6:06 pm
I, too, had never heard of “Dallas” by Steely Dan, until I came across a compilation of Steely Dan Covers at this site:
https://halfhearteddude.com/2017/09/any-major-steely-dan-covers/
The cover of “Dallas” is by Poco!
August 11, 2026 @ 7:06 pm
Darn.Slash playing pedal steel.Guess you learn every day.
August 11, 2026 @ 9:51 pm
There are videos of Slash playing steel with Shooter Jennings on YouTube from the last couple of years, some with Robert Randolph. It looks like he’s been playing for a while now.
August 12, 2026 @ 6:16 am
He also played banjo on Breakdown, and there was video from a long time ago where I saw him playing banjo on another song.
August 27, 2026 @ 4:31 am
Enormous, absolutely brilliant song. They were so good. I think with Izzy Stradlin on command, and if they were normal people, they should have made a strong country rock album, in the vein of Sweet Virginia and Let it bleed by the Stones. Love Guns N’ Roses. Band of my life.
August 12, 2026 @ 9:49 am
I still suck at it, but Robert Randolph was the dude who really exposed me to the pedal steel. He’s kind of gone quiet after he alienated a bunch of people, but dude is a freak and puts on an amazing show.
August 12, 2026 @ 12:01 pm
He won a Grammy this year for his album Preacher’s Kids. Shooter produced it.
August 16, 2026 @ 6:20 am
True
August 12, 2026 @ 2:09 am
Sho-Bud also made Dobro resophonic guitars for a while. Naturally, they called it the “Sho-Bro”.
August 12, 2026 @ 4:44 am
Great article Trigger!, you sure do your homework! I own one of Dan Dugmore’s Red Single 10 Shobuds, its a beauty! Can’t really play it but someday soon, hopefully.
August 12, 2026 @ 6:06 am
Trigger,
I’m sure you saw that Ben Jones died. He used to comment regularly here.
August 12, 2026 @ 7:31 am
I did not know this. I was a massive Dukes of Hazzard fan growing up. That show is what first got me interested in classic Country music and planted that seed that eventually led me to learn steel guitar in my 30’s.
August 12, 2026 @ 7:48 am
Yes, I saw that and might have something on it at some point.
August 12, 2026 @ 12:03 pm
I met him on the Dukes set in 1981 and he was a really nice guy. My Christmas card that year was me sitting on the hood of the General with Ben and John.
August 12, 2026 @ 8:02 am
GNR has been covering “Wichita Lineman” in concert for years now, and Slash does indeed play pedal steel on it.
August 12, 2026 @ 1:13 pm
Pretty ironic that a hard rock band plays a traditional country version of a song originally produced with a pop country/Nashville Sound flavor.
August 12, 2026 @ 3:12 pm
Wichita Lineman, one of the best songs ever written, by Jimmy Webb and popularized by Glen, one of the first records I heard on my parents old console record player in the late 60’s still brings tears to my eyes when I hear it, sorry, I’m getting old. Totally cool that GNR and Slash are doing that, my childhood buddies are going to see them at Met Life in Jersey, hopefully they play that.
Good songs are just good song no matter the genre!
August 13, 2026 @ 4:50 am
Agreed on Wichita Lineman. Its a song that still resonates with people, even younger generations are discovering it. GNR aint the only ones who’ve covered it. Stone Temple Pilots invited Campbell in the studio a decade back and did a version. Cody Johnson did a version. Its a universal song. Main reason I think, is the melody is phenomenal, lyrics are killer. Its one of the best written love songs and it’s clever all the way around. I haven’t talked to a musician that doesn’t appreciate Wichita Lineman.
August 18, 2026 @ 6:08 pm
Jimmy Webb turned 80 last weekend. He started VERY young. What a great songwriter and musician.
August 13, 2026 @ 4:04 am
Skunk on a pedal would be epic bring it on darlin 💙 ✌️ 😎
August 13, 2026 @ 6:57 am
Re. Dan Dugmore: For much of the 1970’s, he was an integral part of both Linda Ronstadt’s studio and road bands, both on lead electric and of course on pedal steel. And he could be quite innovative as to how he handled the steel, as one can witness on his solo part on Linda’s live version of Little Feat’s “All That You Dream”, where he gets it to sound like a space-age synthesizer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q7yOsSDVRM&list=LL&index=302&pp=iAQB8AUBsAgC
August 13, 2026 @ 2:25 pm
Dan also was with James Taylor for 10 years, check out Dad Loves his work , ‘Her town Too’ with JD Souther on vocals with James. Soooo good. . Dan was big on Karla Bonnoff records back in the day and then once he moved to Gnashburg, he was totally prolific. He even played quite a bit for Livingston Taylor and Steve Forbert, for some of you youngun’s check them out.
August 13, 2026 @ 10:46 am
Unrelated but elated: the Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast has a fantastic series on the “Nashville Sound” and Owen Bradley. I learned so much and it cleared up a lot of misinfo I too.