Barry sless and the gold stars background

Barry Sless:  Pedal Steel

When it comes to playing western swing and boogie-woogie pedal steel, Barry Sless is unsurpassed.  The accomplished musician hails from the Baltimore, Maryland area -- an area rich with some of my favorite guitar slingers.  The late Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton come easily to mind, not to forget the twanging rockabilly Telecaster master Billy Kirchen.  Barry can swing with the best of 'em - whether it's soaring on a high pedal steel harmonic or doing some soulful playing on the guitar.

Barry Sless first heard the sound of a steel guitar while listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash's "Teach Your Children." "I didn't even know until later that it was Jerry Garcia," Sless recalled recently.  Obviously Sless fell in love with the steel guitar's passionate weepy sound, and in 1973 he took up playing pedal steel honing his skill while performing around the Chesapeake Bay area playing in various country-rock bands.

Sless credits Rusty Y