[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 137 (Tuesday, September 27, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 27, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          TRIBUTE TO THE DOBRO

  Mr. SASSER. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a unique 
musical instrument and to honor its contribution to American music, 
most particularly country and bluegrass.
  First, let me explain that many have heard the soulful sound of the 
dobro guitar without, perhaps, knowing exactly what instrument it was 
that made the sound. The dobro is shaped like that of the guitar. On 
its inside, however, is placed a resonator, usually made of aluminum. 
The dobro is placed like the lap or pedal steel guitar, through the use 
of a metal bar against the strings, and is plucked or strummed.
  Mr. President, if I could, I would like to quote from the liner notes 
from a recently released album, ``The Great Dobro Sessions,'' which 
features some of the legends of the dobro guitar.

       The dobro itself has a long, if enigmatic place in country 
     music history. By the turn of the century, Hawaiian music was 
     firmly established in American popular music. In the latter 
     half of the 1920s, the Dopyera brothers, marketed an 
     adaptation of the Hawaiian steel guitar they called the 
     dobro. In fields where players of other instruments grow wild 
     there had been relatively few great dobro players, a fact 
     which makes the present collection all the more remarkable. 
     From the onset of The Depression in 1929, until Buck ``Uncle 
     Josh'' Graves joined Flatt & Scruggs in 1955, only two dobro 
     players--Pete ``Brother Oswald'' Kirby and the late Cliff 
     Carlisle--achieved enduring national prominence. The dobro is 
     the only acoustic instrument this side of oldtime music to be 
     played horizontally, and the only one where noting fingers do 
     not press upon a fingerboard, It is also the only one of 
     today's conventional bluegrass instruments Bill Monroe 
     excluded from his original full-band bluegrass instrumental 
     make up. Thus, the dobro remained something of a musical 
     stepchild through the years--that is, until Jerry Douglas 
     took it to a wide variety of musical genres.

  Mr. President, the dobro is not just linked to country and bluegrass 
music. The metal-bodied resonator guitar was first developed as a way 
for guitarists to develop a louder sound in the days prior to 
electrified guitars. Thus, the blues genre--particularly the Delta 
blues style of guitar--is also closely aligned with the first resonator 
guitars.
  But, it is with country and bluegrass music that the dobro found its 
home. The great legend, Jimmie Rodgers was known to have used the dobro 
in some of his recordings in the 1920's. And, by the mid-1930's, Roy 
Acuff, star of the Grand Ole Opry, was regularly using the dobro 
playing of Brother Oswald Kirby.
  It is a source of great pride to me that many of today's great dobro 
players reside in my home State of Tennessee.
  Dobro players like Tut Taylor, Jerry Douglas, Gene Wooten, Josh 
Graves, Rob Ickes, and Oswald Kirby.
  And though the dobro was invented by a Czechoslovakian immigrant, 
John Dopyera, its sound is all-American.
  I am particularly pleased that the equally famous Gibson Guitar Co. 
has purchased the Original Music Co. (Dobro). The contribution of 
Gibson guitars to American music is a well-known and often-told story. 
I expect this marriage of two music legends will continue in the long 
traditions of their separate pasts.
  Mr. President, I pay homage to the dobro and its relationship to the 
music scene and recognize the contribution of the Dopyera brothers.
  To quote, once again from the liner notes of ``The Great Dobro 
Sessions,'' I would close with remarks from Jerry Douglas, who said:

       Why does anyone play a dobro? Every dobro player tells me 
     the same thing. It's the haunting, lonesome, vocal-like 
     quality of the instrument that drives into your chest, takes 
     your breath and never lets you go.

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