JayDee Maness (born January 4, 1945) is an American

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

ist who is a veteran

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

in Los Angeles. He is known for his work with

Gram Parsons Ingram Cecil Connor III (November 5, 1946 – September 19, 1973), known professionally as Gram Parsons, was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist. He recorded with the International Submarine Band, the Byrds, and the Flying Bu ...

the Byrds The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the so ...

Buck Owens Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was the frontman for The Buckaroos, which had 21 No. 1 hits on the ''Billboard'' country music chart. He pioneered what came ...

and

the Buckaroos The Buckaroos were an American music band led by Buck Owens in the 1960s and early 1970s, who, along with Merle Haggard's The Strangers, were involved in the development and presentation of the " Bakersfield sound". Their peak of success was f ...

Ray Stevens Harold Ray Ragsdale (born January 24, 1939), known professionally as Ray Stevens, is an American country music, country and pop singer-songwriter and comedian. He is best known for his Grammy-winning recordings "Everything Is Beautiful" and "M ...

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...

the Desert Rose Band The Desert Rose Band was an American country rock band from Los Angeles, California, founded in 1985 by Chris Hillman (formerly of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers), with Herb Pedersen and John Jorgenson. The original lineup included Bi ...

and

Vince Gill Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He played in a number of local bluegrass music, bluegrass bands in the 1970s, and from 1978 to 1982, he achieved his first mainstream attention after ta ...

. Maness received The Academy of Country Music's "Steel Guitarist of the Year" award 18 times and was inducted into the

Steel Guitar Hall of Fame The Steel Guitar Hall of Fame is an organization established in the United States in 1978 to recognize achievement in the art of playing the steel guitar. The organization's stated purpose is: In 1984, the organization was incorporated as a nonprofi ...

in 2003.

Early life

Maness was born in

Loma Linda, California Loma Linda ( Spanish for "Beautiful Hill") is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States, that was incorporated in 1970. The population was 24,791 at the 2020 census, up from 23,261 at the 2010 census. The central area of the ...

, in 1945 and grew up in nearby Riverside. His father wanted him to play steel guitar and bought him a six-string

Magnetone Magnetone was a brand of Maton Guitars under which their first electric guitars and guitar amplifiers were sold. The brand was discontinued in the 1960s, and all subsequent Maton instruments were simply branded ''Maton''. See also *List of ...

electric steel guitar with amplifier at a price of $30. He began playing at age 10. At first, he did not know how to tune the instrument properly and used an E chord like a traditional guitar. He did not have finger picks and played for a year just using his fingers. He later took some lessons and emerged with a working knowledge of the instrument. His father played rhythm guitar and, with two more musicians, got a job playing with thirteen year-old Jay Dee at an

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is an Voluntary association, organization of United States, U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It comprises U.S. state, state, Territories of the United States, U.S. terr ...

Hall. After high school, he married and began working at a pest control firm in the citrus orchards of

San Bernardino County San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of th ...

. After four years he decided to pursue a career in music and made the switch from

lap steel The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar or lap slide guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of play ...

pedal steel The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

. His experimentation with the knee levers on the pedal instrument resulted in positioning them contrary to accepted practice. He received his first break into recording session work after

Cliffie Stone Clifford Gilpin Snyder (March 1, 1917 – January 17, 1998), professionally Cliffie Stone, was an American country singer, musician, record producer, music publisher, and radio and TV personality who was pivotal in the development of Californi ...

heard him play and asked him to come to a demo session. Maness was introduced to

Jimmy Bryant Ivy John Bryant Jr. (March 5, 1925 – September 22, 1980), known as Jimmy Bryant, was an American country music guitarist. He is best known for his collaborations with steel guitarist Speedy West and his session work. Biography Bryant w ...

whom he credits for instructing him "when ''not'' to play, when ''to'' play and in general how to record". He later moved to Los Angeles, was employed as a musician at the Palomino Club. His skills were recognized, and he entered into the inner circle of elite session musicians in Los Angeles.

1960s session work

On the California folk and country scene of the early 1960s, he played with a number of local acts, including Eddy Drake, Gene Davis and Norm Forrest, and found work as an in-demand session musician in the Los Angeles area. In the summer and autumn of 1967, he was one of the three session musicians that recorded with

' short-lived

International Submarine Band The International Submarine Band (ISB) was a country-rock band formed by Gram Parsons in 1965, while a theology (?) student at Harvard University and John Nuese, a guitar player for local rock group, The Trolls. Nuese is credited with having pe ...

. He first recorded with the band on a pair of singles ("Luxury Liner" and "Blue Eyes") before contributing to the group's sole album, '' Safe at Home''. According to music writer Mark Deming, this album was one of the first rock albums to have a distinct county influence. After the demise of the International Submarine Band, Maness joined

in the studio in early 1968 and played on their seminal ''

Sweetheart of the Rodeo ''Sweetheart of the Rodeo'' is the sixth studio album by the American rock band the Byrds, released in August 1968 by Columbia Records. Recorded with the addition of country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, it became the first album widely recognized ...

'' album, contributing

on four of the album's 11 tracks: "The Christian Life", "You Don’t Miss Your Water", "You're Still on My Mind", and "Life in Prison" (session musician

Lloyd Green Lloyd Lamar Green (born October 4, 1937) is an American steel guitarist noted for his extensive country music recording session career in Nashville performing on 116 Chart Hit, No.1 Country music, country hits including Tammy Wynette's “D-I-V-O- ...

played pedal steel on four other tracks that were recorded in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

). Maness toured with the Byrds in California while the album was in post-production but with the departure of Parsons in August, 1968, Maness' tenure with the Byrds ended. Maness next played with

, for about 18 months. During this time the band had two No. 1 songs on the ''Billboard'' country music charts in 1969 (" Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass" and " Tall Dark Stranger") and recorded two live albums (''Buck Owens in London "Live"'' and ''Buck Owens "Live" in Scandinavia'').

The 1970s and 1980s

In 1970 Maness joined Tony Booth, who was then leading the house band at L.A.'s Palomino Club. He recorded with Booth on several of his early '70s

Capitol Capitol, capitols or The Capitol may refer to: Places and buildings Legislative building * United States Capitol, in Washington, D.C. * National Capitol of Colombia, in Bogotá * Palacio Federal Legislativo, in Caracas, Venezuela * National Ca ...

albums, including ''The Key's in the Mailbox'' and ''Lonesome 7-7203''. Manness' reputation as a session player led to recording or touring with

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand ( ; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being the ...

Michael Nesmith Robert Michael Nesmith (December 30, 1942 – December 10, 2021) was an American musician, songwriter, and actor. He was best known as a member of the Monkees and co-star of their The Monkees (TV series), TV series of the same name (1966–1968) ...

Ray Price Noble Ray Price (January 12, 1926 – December 16, 2013) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone is regarded as among the best male voices of country music, and his innovations, such as prope ...

and others. According to musician

, one of Maness's most recognizable pedal steel solos occurred during a 1975 recording of

Erroll Garner Erroll Louis Garner (June 15, 1921 – January 2, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His instrumental ballad "Misty", his best-known composition, has become a jazz standard. It was first re ...

and Johnny Burke's "

Misty In cryptography, MISTY1 (or MISTY-1) is a block cipher designed in 1995 by Mitsuru Matsui and others for Mitsubishi Electric. MISTY1 is one of the selected algorithms in the European NESSIE project, and has been among the cryptographic tech ...

", while jamming in the studio with fellow musicians, which Stevens describes as "an accident ... one of life's little bonuses." The track, which was recorded in two takes, and featured Maness's 20-second solo, won a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

for best arrangement of 1975 and became the title track of Stevens' ''

'' album of the same year.

The Desert Rose Band, Eric Clapton, and other work

In 1985, Maness became one of the founding members of the

Desert Rose Band The Desert Rose Band was an American country rock band from Los Angeles, California, founded in 1985 by Chris Hillman (formerly of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers), with Herb Pedersen and John Jorgenson. The original lineup included Bi ...

, a country-rock group, with fellow ex-Byrd

Chris Hillman Christopher Hillman (born December 4, 1944) is an American musician. He was the original bassist of the Byrds. With frequent collaborator Gram Parsons, Hillman was a key figure in the development of country rock, defining the genre through his w ...

John Jorgenson John Richard Jorgenson (born July 6, 1956) is an American musician. Although best known for his guitar work with bands such as the Desert Rose Band and The Hellecasters, he is also proficient on the mandolin, mandocello, Dobro, pedal steel g ...

Herb Pedersen Herbert Joseph Pedersen (born April 27, 1944, in Berkeley, California) is an American musician, guitarist, banjo player, singer-songwriter, and actor who has played a variety of musical styles over the past fifty years including country, blueg ...

, Steve Duncan and Bill Bryson. He left the band in 1990, but returned to it in 1998 and has remained part of the line-up since then. Maness's acclaimed bridge solo on Eric Clapton's 1992 hit "

Tears in Heaven "Tears in Heaven" is a song by English guitarist, singer, and songwriter Eric Clapton and Will Jennings, written about the death of Clapton's four-year-old son, Conor. It appeared on the 1991 ''Rush'' film soundtrack. In January 1992, Clapto ...

" was, according to the musician, another piece of recording luck that came out of the blue for him:

"Eric Clapton is another long story. I went to the studio
n 1991 N, or n, is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...
got all my stuff loaded in, got inside and somebody told me 'Eric isn't feeling well and isn't going to show up today. Can you come back tomorrow?' So tomorrow comes, and Eric is there, feeling better. We took all day to do that one song. When he finally got the take that he wanted, I thought I was finished - I was unloading and putting stuff away. Eric says 'Wait, wait, I want you to do the solo on this record,' and we stayed, just the two of us, and finished. And the rest is history! It really became a good record for him. And I got a platinum record of that one on my wall, Eric signed it and gave it to me."

In 2018, Maness reunited with Lloyd Green on the 50th anniversary of ''Sweetheart of the Rodeo'' to record ''Journey to the Beginning: A Steel Guitar Tribute to the Byrds'' at Cinderella Sound in Nashville for Coastal Bend Music. The album is an instrumental tribute to ''Sweetheart of the Rodeo'', and features a vocal of "

You Ain't Goin' Nowhere "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" is a song written by the American musician Bob Dylan in 1967 in Woodstock, New York, during the self-imposed exile from public appearances that followed his July 29, 1966 motorcycle accident. A recording of Dylan perf ...

" featuring guest vocalists

Jeff Hanna Jeffrey R. Hanna (born July 11, 1947) is an American singer-songwriter and performance musician, best known for his association with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. His professional music career has spanned six decades. Early life Hanna was born in ...

Richie Furay Paul Richard Furay (born May 9, 1944) is an American musician and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member (with Buffalo Springfield). He is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey ...

, and

Jim Lauderdale James Russell Lauderdale (born April 11, 1957) is an American country, bluegrass, and Americana singer-songwriter. Since 1986, he has released 31 studio albums, including collaborations with artists such as Dr. Ralph Stanley, Buddy Miller, ...

Awards

Maness has won the

ACM ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * IATA airport code for Arica Airport in Amazonas Department, Colombia Computing ...

award for steel guitar on 18 occasions (1970, 1971, 1974–76, 1980 (tied with

Buddy Emmons Buddy Gene Emmons (January 27, 1937 – July 21, 2015) was an American musician who is widely regarded as the world's foremost pedal steel guitarist of his day. He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1981. Affectionately known ...

), 1982, 1983, 1986–90, 1992, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2002).

References

External links

Website of JayDee ManessBend Music - current label featuring JayDee ManessWebsite of The Desert Rose Band within the website of Chris Hillman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maness, JayDee 1945 births Living people American country guitarists American male guitarists Steel guitarists Pedal steel guitarists American country rock musicians American rock musicians American pop musicians Rock musicians from California Country musicians from California People from Loma Linda, California The Byrds members 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians International Submarine Band members