With his black hat and full, black beard, he resembles a character from a spaghetti western-except for the glasses. Mysterious looking enough to start, he is seated on stage, at what to many people is an equally mysterious instrument-the pedal steel guitar.

No, the sound you hear isn't the wind about to blow a tumbleweed through the club: rather, it's Dave Easley sliding a heavy steel bar along his string? - feet riding the pedals for volume and pitch bending. The sounds he makes range fro...