Pedal Steel / Keyboards / Vocals

Matt Rhodes, the pedal steel guitarist, took an interest in music at the age of eight, when his uncle gave him his first six-string guitar for Christmas. After a few years of learning chord changes to songs by the Beatles, Paul McCartney & Wings, and Bob Seger, he realized that there was the unexplored world of lead guitar soloing as well. Throughout junior high and high school, he played and sang in several cover rock bands.

It wasn't until Rhodes was enrolled at the University of North Texas that he would receive any formal training in music theory, harmony, or "proper" jazz/classical guitar technique. This was when he discovered the pedal steel guitar in a local pawn shop. He says, "One of my six-string guitar heroes at the time was Allan Holdsworth. I read an interview with him where he said that he was always intrigued by it and that its tone killed him. I knew I had to give it a try at that point."

Within a few years after college, Rhodes discovered a master pedal steel player in the Houston area named Susan Alcorn. "She taught me everything about technique and voicing for that instrument that I could never have gotten anywhere else. She's one of a very small handful who has taken it to a level above and beyond the traditional country/swing realm." At that point, he realized that the pedal steel demands so much in terms of time, discipline, and dedication that he had to give up the six-string guitar altogether. He jokes, "A typical practice session lasts 5 to 7 hours daily. I don't even give my poor wife that much attention!"

It was in October, 2000, that Arthur Yoria discovered the flyer at Rockin' Robin Guitars advertising Matt's services. "He (Arthur) called me one night at home while he was finishing recording his EP and asked if I'd be interested in recording a few steel tracks. We got together and worked out some material and it's taken off ever since. I hope to do the same with the steel guitar that Susan Alcorn has; and this is the perfect band in which to do it."