Taking it Back to the Roots!: The ringing sounds of Cindy Cashdollar

Taking it Back to the Roots!: The ringing sounds of Cindy Cashdollar

"The next time [steel guitarist Cindy] Cashdollar saw [Van] Morrison in concert, she was behind him, seated at her nonpedal steel guitar. Having seen her in Asleep at the Wheel, Morrison hired Cashdollar in 2006 to tour in support of 'Pay the Devil,' his country departure album. 'That tour was great,' she says, 'very challenging.' For starters, Morrison wanted Cashdollar, who is used to well-timed fills, to play constantly. Then, when Morrison canned the horn section in mid-tour, Cashdollar and fiddler Jason Roberts (another Wheelster) had only four days to learn how to cover for the missing horns." (Using stringed instruments to substitute for horns goes back at least as far as Bob Wills' post-WWII band, which used horn voicings for fiddle, guitar, steel, and mandolin to great effect.)