Artist Info: Joel Katz

I was drawn to the steel guitar by its versatility in articulation, pitch, and tonal color—second only to the human voice. Hawaiian-style steel guitar makes use of the instrument’s full, expressive range. The picking touch on the strings affects the tone and harmonics, while the motion of the metal bar mimics a singers’ vibrato and the subtle pitch fluctuations of everyday speech. No other instrument can do this with whole chords.

The steel guitar evolved in Hawaii in the late 1800s. [read more...]