Sacred Steel

The Sacred Steel Summit: A Visionary Tale

By John Leopold

What happens when you mix a nearly 100-year-old sacred music tradition, add talent from across the region and up the eastern seaboard, and mix in guests from Florida, Tennessee, and Georgia with the nation’s oldest state-sponsored folk festival? The 2024 Scared Steel Summit at the Florida Folklife Festival! 

Conceived by Alvin Lee, a founding member of the Lee Boys, an internationally recognized tradition-bearing sacred steel group out of Kissimmee Florida, the Sacred Steel Summit brings together musicians to share techniques and enthrall new audiences and aficionados. “We have assembled the greatest tradition bearers of pedal steel and lap steel guitars from within the Sacred Steel tradition,” says Alvin Lee, “People will be educated and entertained by this unique American gospel tradition.”

The Sacred Steel Summit is part of the Florida Folklife program. It will present three days of presentations about the history of the musical tradition, workshops with innovators of the sacred steel tradition, performance workshops showcasing the styles with the major houses of worship, and evening concert performances with the Living Legends of the genre and the brightest emerging talent.

History

The House of God (Keith Dominion) and the Church of the Living God, (Jewel Dominion) are African American Holiness Pentecostal churches that share a common founder. Both are national organizations with a strong presence in Florida, and both are homes to sacred steel guitar music.

In the House of God, members of the congregation began playing sacred music on the electric steel guitar in the late 1930s. The foundations for the sacred steel guitar tradition were laid by Willie Eason, Rev. Henry Nelson, and Lorenzo Harrison. Eason had a direct influence on Nelson, who was Eason's brother-in-law, and Lorenzo Harrison. Nelson became the most influential guitarist in Keith Dominion churches. Harrison was the most influential steel player in Jewel Dominion churches. Electric steel guitar music quickly became an integral part of the services, conventions, and revivals of these two sects.

The steel guitar allows the player to vary the pitch of notes at will because the steel guitarist is not limited by notes determined by frets. Pitches on the steel guitar are determined by a metal bar that the guitarist places on the strings to "stop" the strings and make musical notes. An accomplished player can use unrestricted vibrato, execute sustained notes of increasing or decreasing pitch, and color notes by other techniques not available to the player of a standard fretted guitar. The properties of the instrument make it well-suited for African American sacred music.

Today, with more than twenty congregations throughout the state, Florida is a stronghold for the House of God and Church of the Living God, where musicians have passed down the unique musical tradition known as "sacred steel" for generations. After over eighty years of evolution, the sacred steel guitar tradition has become a unique musical form characterized by distinctive guitar styles and repertoire.

Powering The Sacred Steel Summit

Building on the history of Sacred Steel Conventions that began nearly 25 years ago, Alvin Lee and Sacred Music Traditions have rejuvenated the convening of Sacred Steel artists from Florida and beyond. They have invited the living innovators of the tradition along with steel guitarists who have emerged from the church and are successfully playing for secular audiences. The roster of artists will include guitarists who are in the Sacred Steel Hall of Fame.

Combining educational workshops with extraordinary performances, the Summit showcases the rich musical tradition with contemporary interpretations of the music. Florida folklorist Bob Stone, who has written extensively about the tradition and produced several albums of the music with Arhoolie Records, will share his treasure trove of photographs taken over 30 years documenting the tradition. Del Ray Grace will share information about the new Sacred Steel Museum and the growing Hall of Fame. Aubrey Ghent will demonstrate how he makes the guitar “sing” along with services.

“We want to bring musical guests from outside the Sacred Steel tradition to participate to show the broad impact that this music has had outside the four walls of a church.” says founder Alvin Lee. 

Florida blues phenome Selwyn Birchwood will join this year’s Summit to share the impact Sacred Steel has had on his guitar playing. Last year Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi shared the stage with the Living Legends in honor of the role Sacred Steel has played in shaping their musical careers.

The Sacred Steel Summit is in the southeast corner of the Florida Folklife Festival. Admission to the festival includes access to all the workshops and concerts at the Summit. Don’t miss this rare chance to see some of the most powerful and soulful interpreters of the Sacred Steel tradition. Join us at the Sacred Steel Summit and enjoy getting swept away with music that will lift your spirits and cause you to dance and sing.

The Sacred Steel Summit will provide a rare opportunity for the tradition bearers to play together and for festival attendees to participate in workshops to learn about the history of Sacred Steel from the artists who defined the sound. They will participate in technical workshops that will help decipher the tuning, use of the steel bar, and effects that contribute to the unique sound. and finally, they will play with younger musicians to help teach and mentor the next generation of tradition bearers. 
 

Aubrey Ghent remains one of the most respected sacred steel guitar players. Born in Ft. Pierce in 1959, he began playing in Keith Dominion churches regularly at age nine and is recognized as a mature master of the tradition. Ghent's sense of pitch, even in the upper registers, use of vibrato and ability to manipulate the guitar's volume and tone control knobs while picking are highly developed, enabling him to imitate the human voice. He often strives to make his guitar sound "like a female opera singer." 

Calvin Cooke as a resident of Georgia, is one of the most influential musicians in the House of God. Only the best are selected to play at the church's annual National Assembly and he played for over 40 years as a regular steel guitarist there. Cooke was born in 1944 in Cleveland, OH into a musical Jewell Dominion family and brought the influence of Jewell musicians to the Keith Dominion when he joined around 1958. He is one of the few sacred steelers who regularly combine singing with their guitar work.

Chuck Campbell is the musician responsible for introducing the pedal-steel guitar to House of God services in the early 1970s. While many steel guitarists in the church still prefer the older lap steel, the pedal guitar has become the choice of younger musicians, and Chuck is their greatest influence. Not only did Chuck introduce a new instrument and its expanded musical capabilities to House of God services, but he also brought musical influences from secular sources and used electronic effects extensively. 

Maurice "Ted" Beard, a retired postal worker from a suburb of Detroit, served as the chief musician at the House of God's annual General Assembly, held at the 2,500-seat auditorium of the mother church in Nashville, Tennessee. Among musicians and congregations, Beard is respected as a senior steel guitarist and valued as a patient teacher. He grew up in the Jewell Dominion and brought influences from that sect's music, which is generally slower and more melodic than the Keith Dominion's, to House of God services. 

Sacred Steel Summit performers for 2025 will be announced in April.