Sacred Steel of the Sunshine State Lee Boys Bring Gospel-Flavored Rock to MerleFest By Jeff Eason The steel guitar, with its uniquely electric sliding tone, has been closely associated with country and western music for over a half a century. It was the Hawaiian music fad of the 1930s, however, that introduced most Americans to its sound. The Lee Boys. Photo courtesy of The Lee Boys Thousands of guitarists around the country heard the steel guitar sound on the radio and on 78-rpm records and said to themselves, “I’ve got to learn how to play that.” Some of those players were Gospel musicians on the east coast who brought the instrument into their houses of worship to add to the “Hallelujah” chorus. One branch of African American churches, the “House of God” and its related “Church of the Living God” continues to utilize the steel guitar in its Gospel music. The music is called “Sacred Steel” and it is currently enjoying a revival in popularity thanks to several young bands that are taking the music out of the church and into music halls and festivals. One such band is The Lee Boys from Florida, the hotbed state of sacred steel activity. They learned the music at the House of God Church in Perrine from their fathers and grandfathers and are now playing around the country. The Lee Boys will be performing locally at The Orange Peel in Asheville on Saturday, February 25th; at Rubber Soul in Winston-Salem on Wednesday, March 1st; and at the Merle Watson Festival in Wilkesboro on Saturday, April 29th. “We’re off this week,” said Alvin Lee of The Lee Boys in a telephone interview last week. “We’re spending some time in our home in Kissimmee, Florida. Next week we play the Orange Peel and then it’s off on another weeklong tour through Atlanta, Macon and South Carolina.” Alvin is the co-founder and bandleader of The Lee Boys and is its charismatic lead guitar player. He is joined in the band by his singer brothers Keith and Derrick Lee. The band also includes cousins Roosevelt “Velt” Collier on 12-string pedal steel guitar, Earl Walker on drums, and Alvin Cordy on bass. “In the early days of sacred steel, the music was gospel music that was influenced by the blues players of the day,” said Alvin Lee. “That remains true, as our music is influenced by electric players like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton.” Along with Robert Randolph and the Family Band, The Lee Boys are one of the primary sacred steel bands to take the music to a larger audience in the past few years. This past year they participated in several “jamband” tours including the prestigious Jam Cruise, a musical cruise ship tour where they performed with bassist Victor Wooten of the Flecktones. The concert featured a gospel tour de force encore based on the rhythm and chords of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” with altered lyrics, of course. Despite the recent success of this new rock hybrid of sacred steel, the band continues to pay homage to its past and many of its songs are distinctly religious in nature. “It always comes back to the church,” said Alvin Lee. “The steel guitar is the focal instrument in our church. We’ve got four or five groups going in our church at any one time. The older players teach the younger players just like they have since the early days of sacred steel. Willie Eason’s gone on, but he got it started back in the old days with his brother Troman Eason. Troman was really the one responsible for bringing the steel guitar into the church.” Willie and Troman Eason were steel guitar players who brought the new musical instrument into their House of God Pentecostal Church in Jacksonville back in the 1930s. Troman had taken steel guitar lessons from a Hawaiian-style player in Philadelphia and then taught the instrument to his younger brother, who developed his own unique style on the instrument and brought it down south. The Arhoolie record label has become a champion of the genre and has released several recordings by the Eason Brothers and others a few years ago including Sacred Steel, an album of vintage field recordings from Florida, and Sacred Steel Live!, an album of new material from 1998 and 1999 church gatherings. The Lee Boys have two studio albums of their own including It Is No Secret and Steeling Home. Both albums feature The Lee Boys’ distinctive blend of the sacred and the secular—all wrapped around a bluesy electric steel sound that makes one think of Jimi Hendrix smiling down from Heaven. “The inspiration and the feeling that comes along with our music is the reason that people feel good,” said Alvin Lee. “It is like the new music on the block and it’s just getting ready to explode!” THE CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS>>