This may sound silly...

I'd love to help out, but I know mighty little about country and bluegrass lap sliding myself. Google up "Brad's Page of Steel" and check out the links there.

well I also would love any links for blues sliding sites also Ricochet. :D I am still at heart a blues player.

Check out: http://bigroadblues.com/forum/ Most everybody there is a blues player, many are long established pros. Nice helpful, friendly bunch. Pretty heavy on bottleneckers as you might expect, but lots of folks there do some lap sliding too.

Watch out for those harp blowers. They'll accuse you of spanking your plank.

Bigroadblues is a great place :D Also check out the OLD school country guys ( Hank Sr.( And Hank 3) , Scruggs and Flatts, And the old time country players. John Lee Hooker is also great , as well as all the old time blues men :D You can add all these influences together--the dog

Definitely check out Rob Anderlik's website, he's a great player and has a lot of good info and instructional material on his site. Good luck! (And beware,- once you're hooked on lap style playing there's no looking back.... :wink: )

Steinar

As I'm sure you know, in all learning is to emerse yourself completely in the thing you want to learn.
Listening is the real key. Listen to as much of it as you can find, and with the internet that's no easy task!
Go to the roots, Bill Monroe, Hank Williams (not jr.), dig deeper at the Library of Congress site.
Play along with the songs being careful not to embelish it with what you already know.
It's the listening that brings it all home.
No amount of tab can bring you that.
These guys just played.

Google "New Grass Revival"

I agree with lanzdona. TABS dont do it. go to the source. the well is very deep.

I am currently involved in country. it is full of blues. it began when I bought a lap steel. I wanted to know how those harmonized notes were made in Hank Williams sr.
Brads Page of Steel helped.

I went out and bought a best of Hank Sr. then I began to hear thing. I asked questions. where did Hank get his stuff from?
well, I discovered Jimmy Rogers.
then moving forward I listened to tons of country swing beginning in the 30's up to when it began to change in the 50's. there Ray Price and an influence.
then I remembered Buck Owens. his sound furthered country to what we tend to think it is.
Junior Brown is an amazing contemporary player.
he lays a hybrid guitar. it is halp lap steel and half tele. killer stuff.

one thing I did that was terrific was to buy a Fake Book. there is one with hundreds of country westrn tunres. also crossover hits from Elvis, Ray Charles, etc.

one can spend hours with that.

I will look for links and visuals to lap style C&W playing.
so get busy and start researching.
the C&W bins all full of CDS.
use the as a refference if you download iPod or itunes.

you must check out this forum. it iss form steel guitar. there are sections for pedal steel and non pedal (that would be lap steel, bottleneck etc).

there are other areas too for sales, songs, tabs, etc.
I have learned so much there.
there is alot of info to download and incredible links.

also, some top notch players post experiences and knowledge; sharing what they have readily.
it would be a terrfc site for you to brouse.
use the search function or just scan the threads.

if you want to, post they ask for five dollars. the best five Ive ever spent.

http://www.steelguitarforum.com

also I found on the Fender site a secion called the Players Club. there is a huge amount of info and lessons to download, sound samples, and featured artists with samples of their licks; TABS aare always offered.
I learned a cool Buck Owens lick.

I lost the link , but google Fender or Fender Players Club and you'll get there.

I went out and bought a best of Hank Sr. then I began to hear thing. I asked questions. where did Hank get his stuff from?
well, I discovered Jimmy Rogers. Well, before that, and during Jimmy's time, Hawaiian music was very popular. I think that's the roots of steel guitar in country and western music.

In the '30s, Dobro and National guitars were sold as "Hawaiian" (squareneck for lap style playing) or "Spanish" (roundneck) guitars. Gibson has continued a similar designation to this day, their famous ES series of guitars being named for "Electro-Spanish." Nowadays, we tend to forget how big Hawaiian music used to be, and what an influence it had on later styles.

Here is some ultra old school stuff :D
http://www.juneberry78s.com/

WOW! This is alot of info to be submersed in! I am just confused as to where to start! I am really excited though. Mainly because I see how versatile a lap steel actually is! It can be used in almost every form of music.

Ok my number one question is. Where is the best place for me to start learning basics (ie. fingering positions, rolls, chord voicings, which tuning to start with)

I am really excited this is the new burst of excitement my playing needed!

go to Brads Page of Steel and tune to open E.
that's how I started.
with open E you have power chords up and down the neck in basically the same position on your
regular guitar.
once you get the feel you can try other tunings.
I like open G.
open D is nice;it has a darker sound.