Bobby Koefer, a revered steel-guitar participant and early proponent of Fender musical devices, died March 16 in Bend, Oregon, following a short sickness. He was 95.

A self-taught musician, Koefer invented an unorthodox taking part in model with an uncommon grip on the bar in his left hand and using solely a thumb choose on his proper hand. His profession started in Dallas within the mid Forties and he labored with Bob Wills at MGM Information and likewise performed Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry with Pee Wee King.

Koefer’s affiliation with Fender devices started early and included a detailed friendship with bandmate Invoice Carson, who had by then performed a key position in creating the Stratocaster.

“I began utilizing Fender amps after they first began making them,” Koefer recalled in Carson’s 1998 biography. “I used to have one which was in a blond, curly maple cupboard and a purple, fuzzy entrance with a few chromium-plated strips down the center. I used to be one of many first gamers in Dallas to get a kind of.”

In 1954, Koefer was given a Fender metal by salesman Don Randall, and he met Carson the next 12 months, when the Billy Grey Band was being organized.

“We made an instrumental album for Decca,” he remembered in ’98, “and lots of people are nonetheless making some good feedback about it, though it was recorded a very long time in the past.”
Koefer later moved to Alaska and labored in building for 25 years. He returned to music when he moved to Oregon in ’89, taking part in Western swing with Eldon Shamblin, Tommy Allsup, Johnny Gimble, and Carson, amongst others. Different notable venues and occasions on his resumé had been the Lincoln Middle in New York and the 2009 presidential inauguration.

This text initially appeared in VG’s July 2024 subject. All copyrights are by the writer and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.