I dont comment on things about Curly often, but i stumbled upon this while just youtube surfing and felt the need to comment.  Im Lee Chalker. Curlys son. I have to say, you did your homework. Surprised me with a couple of things that i didnt know. When it comes to Curly, theres so many tales out there that have been blown out of proportion, or certain facts were left out, that its quite hard to separate fact from myth. Whats the old saying? When it comes to Legend and myth, always print the myth. But to answer a few things, no Curly didnt almost go to prison. Well leave it at that. There was one time he did get in a fight after a club gig up off upper Broadway that he wound up with a broken thumb on his left hand. The artist on Hee Haw painted his cast blue then added Hee Haw in yellow outlinded in black to match the opening credits Hee Haw logo. Theres a picture or two out there somewhere that bear this out. The Hank Thompson Mills Brothrers tribute album was Curly. I dont remember the studio they recorded at. It was on of the ones downtown.  I think across the alleyway from Porter Wagners old studio. I cant recall the name of the place to save my life though. I do recall they called it a night because Mr. Thompson ask the bass player to use an upright and after an hour or so it had just destryed his fingers. I also was witness to the Paper Roses session. Sonny James produced it. That was a whos who of country music royalty in terms of players and people in the booth that day. But anyway, Curly was a... complicated individual to say the least. And yes, that legendary temper of his wasnt just legend. You just never knew what would set him off. Curly could have had an even longer career in Nashville if he had just taken the time to learn to play the game. His "my way or the highway" attitude, along with his drinking, in my opinion, is what got him basically blackballed from the recording studios.  As the 80's started, point of views started changing and his heavy drinking wasnt really cated for. I recall there was a thing he was involved in around 80/81. Called the Super Pickers. I think that was the name of it. It envolved Curly, Bucky Barrett, Charlie McCoy and im drawing a blank on the other people involved. I want to say either Ralph Land or Kenneth Buttery on drums. But im not sure on either actually.  It wasnt too long after that that Curly saw the writting on the wall and after a heart episode he decided to move back to Vegas. But the Vegas he came back to wasnt what it was. He wound up being a player stuck in an era that wasnt able to understand him or handle him. He eventually moved back to Nashville a few years before he passed. Anyway, good take on Curlys life and career.  If anyone has any questions, ill do my best to answer them as i can.
Lee Jarane Chalker

Harold Lee (Curly) Chalker was my mother’s youngest brother.  I have some non published recordings of personal jam sessions.  My father preached his funeral and my late mother received his US casket flag, which I now possess.   The Chalker family was musically talented.  Besides Curly, Jimmy Chalker played professionally in Las Vegas and played steel for Dick Bills Sandia Mountain Boys with Glenn Campbell.  One of my favorite memories was a Chalker family reunion at Chancellor Alabama, which became a family jam session with Curly, Jimmy, Raymond, Dewitt, and “Chuck” all contributing their musical talents.   Granddaddy Alto Chalker was the happiest I had ever seen him.

Only met Curly a couple times. He was not afraid to speak what he thought, wish I had gotten the chance to know him better.
Best Chalker story I have is he came into the music store I worked at (it was owned by the one and only Little Roy Wiggins so attracted a lot of steel players.) He was looking to buy a thumb pick. The sales person that helped him was a young high school part timer we had. The young guy told Curly he "needed" to buy this certain new thump pick we had gotten in. Little Roy was over in the corner, turning white and quitly saying, over and over, "sell him the pick he wants!" After a few minutes, Curly says "... I've been playing steel before you where born, but if you have that much faith in that pick give me 2 of them."
He was one of my 3 favorite steel players to listen to and watch play. The "More Ways To Play" is one of my favorite steel albums.

Curly Chalker man
...he was amazing. He was a true steel guitar virtuoso.  Some of the stuff he did 60 years ago.still baffles people to this day.

"One of the best" !?!  Maybe the best.

Curly work with Hank Thompsons on both c6th and e 9th was incredible

I had an opportunity to see Curly playing in a club on Broadway, likely Tootsies in 1979 or 80.  I was in Nashville to go through Jeff Newman's pedal steel school and hitting the clubs at night was the thing to do on the nights when Jeff didn't provide an evening concert for the students.  Curly's cantankerous nature was pretty well known in town and pretty openly spoken about, but everyone always praised his incredible playing.  I got to meet both Hal Rugg and Buddy Emmons on my two trips to Jeff's school. They played the in-school concerts that Jeff put together two night out of the week, for the students.  Jeff would be the steel player for one and he would bring in another steel player for the other, along with a full group of other first-rate session player friends to do these private concerts.  What an amazing experience it was.

I finally got to meet curly in 1994.. He was so nice and he got to hear me play and complimented me. I only visited with him for about an hour.. About a year later he passed

Curly Chalker played on some the early Red Foley shows. My father was a Dallas guitarist named Steve Rodriguez Davis, who played on some of the early Red Foley shows with Maurice Anderson. My father also played with Bobby Seymour as one of Ray Price’s Cherokee Cowboy. My father, Leon Rhodes, Tommy Morrell and Ronnie Tutt on drums  used to play in 1952 at the big D jamboree in Dallas.

This series is just amazing.  Thanks so much for putting these together!

On October 9th and 10th of 1979 Hank went into Gusto studios and cut 22 sides and Curly Chalker is the only steel player listed...

The album with Merle Travis and some of the Brazos Valley boys including Keith Coleman on fiddle is classic

Thanks for keeping these steel guitar innovators alive. I sent this to a couple of steel guitar playing friends and they will pass it on too. Really grateful for these videos.

One off the best Hank Thompson and the Brazos Valley Boys albums is the Live at the Texas state fair with Culy Chalker and Bob White on pedal steel at the same time

I used to go to Sclotty,s Steel convention  Curly ,Emmon,s
Reese Anderson ,zane Beck ,Jimmy Day & many more were regulars practically everymy little boys would requesthim to play  Long Black Limosine and he would dedicate to his little buddies

Also, it's Curly Chalker at 17 years old playing that "weird" note intro to "Always Late" by Lefty Frizzell

Curly moved from Vegas to Nashville in late 1965 or early 1966, not 1967.
He was living in Nashville when he cut his first album, in April of 1966.

Saw Curly in ‘78 at the Hall of Fame Motor Inn. Steel , drums and bass   Some amazing chops and music.

Nice documentary on Curly Chalker, but We have a bone to pick about the credits you gave on the Dick Curless live album recorded @ the Capitol Music Hall in Wheeling, WV, you didn’t mention the very talented guitar player Buzz Evans. Buzz also was a great and well known pedal steel guitar player and he was my wife’s step dad. Buzz and his wife Barb Evans (a great singer and bass player) worked for years with Dick Curless and were all a part of the Buck Owens show in Las Vegas. Buzz passed away last year, Barb in 2020.

Back in the early 80’s, I stumbled onto Curly playing a casino lounge in Las Vegas. He was working with a country husband and wife duo, Joanie Waco & Billy Jack. Billy was a champion fiddler and Joanie played a decked out round neck resonator guitar.. we went every night we could. He was astounding.. I finally got the courage to walk up to him and ask if he gave lessons? He looked me over, shook his head and said, “You don’t want to play one of these things…”
The instant you heard him play you knew he was a transformational musician. Glad I got to see him in the wild… never forgot the experience!