FRANK RECKARD of Emmylou's Hot Band - Ask Zac 82

well hello friends and welcome to
0:43
another Ask Zac today we are going to
0:45
talk about frank Reckard
0:46
we're going to give a little history a
0:48
little bit of a lesson
0:50
I'm going to show you how to play that
0:51
intro uh to the song
0:53
restless the old carl Perkins tune that
0:56
Amy recorded on her uh live album called
0:59
last
1:00
date and really cool lick and what a
1:03
great player
1:05
even though frank played in Emmy's hot
1:08
band for 12
1:09
years from 78 to 90. he's somewhat
1:12
forgotten
1:14
because well part of it is that you know
1:16
it's it's tough
1:17
following James burton and albert lee it
1:20
just is let's just let's just put it out
1:22
there
1:22
and then also he left the music business
1:24
in 1990
1:26
went back to school and became a lawyer
1:27
and has been practicing law in
1:30
the Santa fe new Mexico area since the
1:32
mid-90s
1:33
and he still plays and at times he'll
1:36
still
1:37
get out and you know play with Emmy
1:41
whenever she comes through town he'll
1:43
sit in some and such
1:44
and uh yeah great player uh great tone
1:48
uh and yeah i just wanted to spotlight
1:51
him
1:52
all right so while you're thinking about
1:53
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1:55
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1:57
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2:09
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2:12
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2:22
super appreciative of the guys that have
2:24
uh that have done that
2:26
so thank you all right frank Reckard
2:29
uh so born in
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southern California uh
2:36
you know was not of large stature
2:40
uh and and i say that only because uh in
2:44
in an interview
2:45
he stated that the fact that he did not
2:47
have big
2:48
hands kind of helped his technique in
2:51
that
2:52
he didn't have that bad habit of
2:54
wrapping his
2:55
thumb over the top of the neck and uh
2:58
you know so he always had his thumb
3:00
behind the neck and used all his fingers
3:02
you know a lot of us guitar players
3:03
don't use the pinky much well
3:05
he had to and he was uh
3:08
you know learned classical guitar and
3:10
jazz guitar and also
3:12
you know was kind of uh playing country
3:14
music and just
3:15
kind of became more and more versed and
3:18
well known
3:19
gigging in that area to the point of
3:21
getting an audition with bob Dylan
3:23
and this was going to be his kind of
3:25
Vegas show
3:27
band i think that was around 78 or so
3:30
and uh he ended up not getting the gig
3:34
but then he ended up auditioning for
3:37
Emilylou
3:37
 and got the gig in the hot band
3:42
and just to give you a little bit of
3:43
background of course the first guitar
3:45
player in the hot band was james burton
3:47
and james burton was there because he
3:49
had played on the graham parsons stuff
3:51
that where emmy
3:52
was the duet vocalist with graham
3:55
then when amy got her deal with warner
3:58
reprise
4:00
she used some of those same guys that
4:02
played on the gram
4:04
sessions and then when she went out on
4:07
the road she wanted to have a
4:09
hot band and she took out a loan
4:13
so that she could pay james burton to a
4:15
tour with her
4:17
of course james's main gig was playing
4:20
with elvis
4:21
and they would book emmy's tour
4:24
around elvis's schedule so that she
4:26
could have james burton that's how
4:28
important
4:29
having james now also glenn d harden uh
4:32
was also
4:32
in elvis's band at the time so i guess
4:34
it was around his schedule too and emery
4:36
gordy
4:37
who was a bass player he had played with
4:40
elvis but wasn't with elvis at the time
4:43
so that all went fine until elvis added
4:47
some dates
4:48
that conflicted with emmylou dates and
4:52
bob warford filled in some uh
4:55
of course bob warford was the second you
4:58
know i guess the second b bender guy
5:00
he was one of clarence white's buddies
5:02
and uh if you want to find out about him
5:04
and his guitar there's an article on
5:06
assassin.com including the blueprints
5:08
to his uh b bender guitar which is like
5:11
the second guitar with a b bender
5:14
but then uh and albert lee filled in
5:18
some
5:19
and then james said he couldn't couldn't
5:21
come back he had to leave
5:23
emmylou and so that's when albert came
5:26
in
5:26
and albert was just kind of supposed to
5:29
be a temporary thing
5:30
because albert had a solo deal
5:34
with a m records and was supposed to be
5:36
making a solo album
5:38
well of course he stopped making the
5:40
solo record and
5:41
was working with emmylou for a while and
5:43
then a m kind of said
5:44
hey you need to finish this record you
5:46
need to turn it in so he finished the
5:48
record with the hot band
5:50
and the album was called hiding and it's
5:52
a fantastic album
5:53
some of the tracks were recorded pre-hot
5:56
band and then some of them are with the
5:57
hot band with the of course the standout
6:00
track
6:01
is his version of country boy which is
6:03
of course he had recorded it with head
6:05
hands and feet
6:06
but then this version with the hot band
6:08
was just ridiculously good and it's kind
6:10
of the blueprint by which ricky skaggs
6:13
went by when he recorded his version and
6:16
it's a ridiculously good
6:19
uh version of country boy all right so
6:23
there you have albert lee leaving the
6:24
hot band
6:26
supposedly to uh to you know support a
6:29
solo record but then not long after that
6:31
he gets offered the gig with
6:33
with eric clapton and instead of riding
6:36
in a van
6:37
trying to uh you know break out as a
6:39
solo artist he
6:40
continues to be a side man you know with
6:42
uh clapton
6:44
um and he has featured some he's not
6:46
just playing rhythm guitar for eric but
6:49
anyway so that's kind of what was
6:51
happening and then frank
6:52
uh auditions and gets the gig uh with
6:55
the hot band
6:56
and kind of unenviable in that
6:59
uh it's it's tough following
7:02
uh james burton and albert lee uh
7:05
though i think frank did an amazing job
7:08
i think also amy's career had changed
7:12
some too
7:12
and some of her you know she wasn't
7:16
uh she wasn't new anymore so uh
7:20
yeah so he played with her all through
7:23
uh the uh the nine the sorry the late
7:26
70s and
7:27
80s also did some other sessions like
7:29
for rodney crowl and roseanne cash
7:32
and just played great guitar i one of
7:35
the
7:36
unique things about him was he didn't
7:38
play a telecaster
7:40
he played a double cutaway les paul tv
7:44
and it had a b bender on it his b bender
7:47
was was
7:48
a sully steel and so it was this you
7:51
know
7:52
system of cranks and such that were on
7:54
the back of the guitar and of course it
7:56
had
7:56
a hub behind the wrap around tail piece
8:00
and and that's that's what he used with
8:03
emmy lou
8:04
uh and and he sounded phenomenal
8:07
uh that that les paul tv guitar with a b
8:10
bender on it and a single p90
8:12
just sounded so so fat also he used much
8:15
bigger strings than albert
8:16
and james burton you know they were
8:18
using kind of eights or nines and he
8:20
used tins
8:21
and in fact the tens that he used were
8:24
diaderio half wound so the the low
8:26
strings were kind of
8:28
halfway in between flat rounds and and
8:30
and round wounds
8:31
and yeah he just got a big
8:34
big fat sound so uh let me uh
8:38
kind of pull some of the uh albums
8:42
so this is evangeline
8:45
and uh this is a kind of an odd album
8:47
it's uh it's a bunch of uh like leftover
8:50
tracks
8:51
from the failed trio album the emmy and
8:54
linda ronstadt and dolly tried to cut a
8:56
trio album
8:58
in the 70s and they uh they weren't
9:01
happy with it and so they shelved it
9:03
and the tracks all ended up being
9:05
released on
9:07
their their different solo records and
9:09
so evangeline
9:11
has some of that it has uh has mr
9:14
sandman
9:15
and it has them doing evangeline and
9:17
such but as far as frank ricard
9:19
uh he does a really good job on i don't
9:21
have to crawl
9:23
and then also on bad moon rising
9:28
then you have cimarron which frank is
9:31
all over this one
9:32
and his kind of showcase you know tune
9:35
off this would
9:36
be born to run and uh paul kennerly tune
9:39
and he and steve fishel uh trade off
9:43
steve officials playing weisenborn and
9:45
frank's of course
9:46
playing the les paul tv
9:50
this is the this is the album for frank
9:52
uh
9:53
this is last date which is emmy lou's
9:56
live album that she
9:57
released in 82 and uh
10:02
it's fantastic uh you know this was kind
10:05
of the hot band mark
10:06
ii uh all the original guys were gone
10:09
except for frank
10:10
except for john ware the drummer but uh
10:13
this was a a great band
10:16
and uh and restless which i played of
10:19
course the intro
10:21
uh at the beginning of the tune that's
10:23
kind of frank's
10:24
tune just like uh you know james burton
10:27
had ooh las vegas
10:29
that was his kind of signature tune with
10:30
emmy and albert lee had luxury liner
10:33
well frank had restless and he really
10:35
did a fantastic job on that and this is
10:37
the one
10:38
to hear of course i'm going to create a
10:40
spotify playlist and the
10:42
it'll you know the link will be in the
10:43
description so
10:45
this this is fantastic this is and and
10:47
one of the funny things i guess we'll
10:49
talk a little bit about gear
10:51
so on the back of the album you can see
10:54
his pedal board which was quite
10:56
sizable and uh and how that happened was
11:01
that uh you know frank would add a piece
11:04
as it was needed as it was used by
11:06
either he or
11:07
james or albert on some track he would
11:10
keep
11:10
and so stuff kept getting added to his
11:12
board not out of ha wanting to have a
11:14
big pedal board but he was just trying
11:15
to be
11:16
to faithfully reproduce the sounds that
11:18
were on the album so he
11:20
ended up with let's see here
11:23
he ended up with an edwards volume pedal
11:25
that had a
11:26
the light beam volume pedal he had a
11:30
mxr phase 90 he had an ibanez analog
11:33
delay
11:34
a mutron bi-phase which was because of
11:38
the the track i
11:39
i don't have to uh yeah i don't have to
11:42
crawl
11:43
uh which is a rodney crowltune and
11:45
that's on the evangeline album
11:46
and if you hear that track you can hear
11:48
the the heavy phase on there
11:50
and then a mutron octave divider because
11:53
of rose of cimarron which sounds like
11:55
it's
11:56
electric guitar and fender basics
11:58
playing together but he would use that
12:00
to
12:00
reproduce it live and he used a silver
12:03
face
12:04
twin with jbl's and again he's those
12:07
10 through 46 half wound diaderios and
12:10
used a herco
12:12
heavy pick and that was kind of his gear
12:16
his uh les paul with the bender got
12:19
stolen
12:19
and then much later i think it got
12:21
returned he ended up
12:23
uh playing an ernie ball silhouette
12:25
later on
12:26
that had a a glazer b bender on it
12:30
and then of course you know in 90
12:33
uh emilu disbanded the hot band
12:36
it had kind of run its course and she
12:39
was kind of being ignored by country
12:41
radio by that point
12:43
so uh she disbanded the group i think
12:46
she was also having vocal trouble and
12:48
having a hard time uh overcoming the uh
12:51
the loud hot band which they were a
12:54
pretty
12:54
loud uh forceful unit that always was
12:58
and then she ended up forming the nash
13:00
ramblers which was kind of her
13:02
bluegrass group that had sam bush and al
13:04
perkins and
13:06
john randall and others in it that was a
13:08
great great band roy husky jr
13:11
so frank was kind of left with
13:17
do i go find a gig with somebody else
13:20
it's like who's he going to go play with
13:22
i mean he's already played with emilio
13:23
harris
13:24
and he's kind of you know shut down the
13:26
hot bands like what are you going to do
13:28
so he decided to go back to school and
13:30
first he got his degree
13:31
and then he went to law school and he
13:34
started practicing law
13:35
so by the mid 90s he was practicing law
13:38
in santa fe new mexico
13:40
and i've heard various stories whether
13:43
it was
13:43
water rights or native american i'm
13:48
not exactly sure but he's been
13:50
practicing law in the santa fe area
13:52
since the uh the mid 90s and like i said
13:54
before he'll
13:56
still go out and sit in with emmy lou
13:58
when she's in town
14:00
and then of course he's still done some
14:02
other playing and some custom projects
14:05
uh yeah what a great player i think one
14:08
of the things about
14:09
him and this was told to me by
14:12
mike bowden who was the bass player in
14:14
the hot band throughout the 80s
14:16
he replaced emory gordy he told me just
14:18
how versatile
14:20
frank was and is just how he was
14:24
more versatile than albert lee or james
14:25
burton that those guys were kind of
14:27
stylists but
14:29
you know frank was more of an all-around
14:31
guitar player being able to play
14:32
classical or blues
14:34
or jazz standards and such and then
14:37
steve fishel
14:38
who was the steel player in the hotband
14:39
also you know echoed
14:41
that frank was a great player i did get
14:44
to see frank
14:44
play with the hot band in
14:48
in the 90s they did a kind of a reunion
14:51
show for for the for the mangler so uh
14:58
yeah the mangler was uh
15:02
was emmylou's road manager and
15:05
uh he got uh he had cancer and they did
15:08
a benefit show for him
15:10
and it was called bangladesh and it was
15:13
held at the ryman and i i went and saw
15:15
the show and
15:16
and so they had steve fishel and some of
15:18
the kind of
15:19
70s and a mixture of 70s and 80s hot
15:22
band guys
15:23
came out and played and frank was there
15:26
and he had his
15:28
music man silhouette guitar blue one
15:30
with the with the glazer bender and he
15:31
played fantastic guitar and steve fishel
15:33
kind of joked about it afterwards and
15:35
that
15:36
he felt like frank had to you know prove
15:38
that he could still play and he
15:40
certainly could he played
15:41
fantastic and it was it was a great show
15:46
all right let's uh let's do a little a
15:50
little lesson
15:51
on the what i played at the beginning
15:52
which was of course the tune
15:54
restless which is a carl perkins song
15:57
and uh
15:58
i love that the way they did the intro
16:00
because the way they did it
16:03
was the song's in the key of e
16:06
but the intro starts in a
16:09
and then it goes to the e chord
16:13
and then it goes to f sharp major which
16:15
is the two
16:16
and then it goes to the five which is b
16:19
and then back to the one
16:21
e and so when you first when you hear
16:24
the song
16:25
you're you're kind of left wondering
16:27
okay what key is this song
16:28
in and it isn't until you get the two
16:31
five
16:32
one that you kind of realize oh we're in
16:34
the key of e
16:36
and frank plays a really cool you know
16:38
part
16:39
and i really like what he played over
16:41
the e
16:42
over the e chord because he starts off
16:44
in a doing this
16:52
you know normal kind of uh you know
16:54
sixth thing
16:56
then he plays this
17:00
which is like is basically it's an e7
17:03
chord
17:05
[Music]
17:17
then he plays this hard to play
17:19
sixteenth note thing
17:21
where he's playing over the two five
17:24
and getting getting back to the one and
17:26
so you have this f
17:30
sharp
17:33
[Music]
17:41
[Music]
17:42
then you go back to the back to e and
17:44
you get this really cool decindulic
18:04
and again slower
18:19
it's a really neat uh you know
18:20
descending like a really great intro
18:22
a really great arrangement uh again you
18:25
know starting on the
18:26
on the four chord you know going back to
18:28
the one and the two the five
18:30
and uh and that sixteenth note thing's
18:32
hard to play
18:33
so yeah yeah so yeah please listen to
18:36
the uh you know the spotify playlist and
18:38
really kind of get a uh
18:39
uh a real you know
18:42
you know kind of take in what what frank
18:44
ricard uh
18:46
was doing and uh you know he played on
18:49
uh
18:49
you know like driving wheel off the
18:51
white shoes album and
18:52
there's mystery train off 13. he played
18:56
you know all sorts of great you know
18:57
guitar solos and uh
18:59
yeah such a great player so just a
19:01
little spotlight on him and i hope
19:03
you've
19:04
enjoyed it our mini lesson and again i
19:07
want to thank everyone that has
19:08
supported me
19:10
through friends of ask zach through the
19:12
tip jar through buying merch
19:14
i'm really appreciative alright guys
19:17
we'll see you next time