Resophonic Rodeo is the result of my years of recording and touring with some of country music’s most respected artists including: Suzy Bogguss, Highway 101, McBride and The Ride,
Ricky Skaggs, Pam Tillis, Dwight Yoakam, Dierks Bentley, and most recently, Brooks & Dunn.
I grew up playing western swing and traditional country music on pedal steel and lap steel guitar. Over the years, I became frustrated with my inability to practice while on tour. It was nearly impossible to travel with an extra steel guitar due to the fact that space was limited and it was difficult to hear without also carrying an amplifier or headphone practice rig. Often, I watched with envy as a guitarist was able to simply take an acoustic guitar out of its case and head to the back lounge of our bus or a backstage dressing room to warm up before a gig.

Being a resophonic (dobro) guitarist as well, I started bringing along one of my six-string squarenecks to practice on but it still wasn’t the same. What I missed most was having the C6 neck of my steel to practice on. Then a thought occurred to me. I could compromise and try tuning the squareneck to G6 and play western swing, only this time with more of a "Steel guitar approach." This seemed to work out well with one exception ... it meant having to give up either a D on top or a G on the bottom due to the limitation of having only six strings. Next I experimented with an 8-string guitar but felt that the resonator cone was"loaded down" by the additional strings, which seemed to take away some of the edge from the overall tone.

Ultimately, it was Paul Beard of Beard Resophonic Guitars who solved my dilemma. He introduced me to his new 7-string squareneck guitar, This allowed me to have what I considered to be a full G6 tuning (with the fourth string tuned to an E), while at the same time putting less of a load on the cone. This was the best of both worlds because it still allowed for playing the more traditional dobro style, in addition to western swing, while also incorporating true minor triads. Additionally, by tuning the E string up to an F, I was suddenly able to play blues licks with lush seventh chords that had been previously unattainable, And best of all ... I could do it all acoustically!

An unexpected surprise was that I began to enjoy playing western swing on the resonator guitar as much as I enjoy playing it on steel. After several backstage jam sessions with fellow players, I was encouraged to record an all-acoustic western swing album. The end result was RESOPHONIC RODEO, with the title cut being the original composition on the project and the remainder consisting of western swing standards. I hope you have as much fun listening to this as I had recording it!
— Gary Morse

Track List	Real Audio	MP3
1. Resophonic Rodeo	Listen	Listen
2. San Antonio Rose
3. Remington Ride	Listen	Listen
4. Faded Love
5. Deep Water
6. Roly Poly	Listen	Listen
7. Jambalaya
8. Crazy Arms
9. Steel Guitar Rag
10. Panhandle Rag