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For generations of country music fans, the name Sho-Bud is synonymous with the sound of the pedal steel guitar. You’d be hard pressed to name a classic country song that doesn’t feature that slide sound which is so recognizable.
But behind the legendary instruments is a family story that is every bit as Nashville as the music itself.
Dawn and Will Jackson are siblings who grew up around the Sho-Bud factory and store, spending much of their childhood surrounded by the instruments, musicians and craftsmen who helped define the sound of country music. The original Sho-Bud factory was located in a building on 2nd avenue. But the store
That history is something the Jacksons are determined to preserve while taking Sho-Bud into a new era.
“We grew up in the factory of Sho-Bud,” they explained. “The factory was on Second Avenue and the store, of course, was above what is now Robert’s. But back then it was Sho-Bud.”
A Nashville Music History Lesson
The connection between Sho-Bud and the building on Lower Broadway runs deep.
The Jacksons point out that a lot of people don’t know some of the most legendary guitars in music history came out of that location, including Eric Clapton’s “Blackie” and Willie Nelson’s “Trigger,” just to name a couple.
It was also a gathering place for Nashville musicians.
“After a Ryman show, all the players would cut across the alley and hang out there at Sho-Bud and talk about their week on the road and what they were doing,” they recalled.
The Sho-Bud connection continued across the street at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, where the Sho-Bud Showcase radio program was recorded during the 1970s and ’80s. That history is now inspiring a new generation of Sho-Bud programming.
For Dawn and Will, this isn’t simply about resurrecting a brand. It’s about keeping alive a piece of Nashville’s musical DNA.
Growing Up Sho-Bud
The Jacksons didn’t just know about Sho-Bud—they literally grew up around it.
Will remembers starting work at the factory at just eight years old.
“These days they call it forced child labor,” he joked. “Back then it was just what you did.”
His childhood memories include working around drill presses and grinders alongside the craftsmen building the instruments. It was a very different era of manufacturing, long before today’s workplace safety standards.
That early exposure gave the Jacksons an appreciation for the craftsmanship behind the instruments and the people who built them.
Today, Sho-Bud’s manufacturing operation is spread across several locations rather than centered in one large factory. There are shops in Georgia, Texas and Nevada, with craftsmen including Will and Dawn’s father and their brother Joseph involved in building guitars. The company also works with legendary steel guitar builder Johnny Cox in Texas and other experienced luthiers around the country.
“We’re going to them,” Will explained. “They’re living where they want to live. They have the talents and skills that we’re looking for that we need. And so we go to them and we set up small little shops.”
The approach allows Sho-Bud to work with highly skilled craftsmen without the overhead of a traditional large factory.
“They’re happy. We’re happy. The product is phenomenal,” he said.
Sho-Bud Isn’t Just Building Steel Guitars
While Sho-Bud’s heritage is firmly rooted in pedal steel, the company is expanding its lineup.
One of its newer instruments is the LS Slide King, a lap steel featuring two levers designed to give players some of the tonal possibilities associated with a pedal steel guitar without requiring the full pedal steel setup.
The company is also developing a new line of six-string electric guitars—a semi-hollow, single-cutaway instrument with a Tele-style influence.
“We’ve been putting them in the hands of some session guys here in Nashville,” Dawn and Will said. “They’ve been kind of freaking out over them.”
One player told them the guitar “kind of plays itself.”
“That makes me actually sound like I can play,” Jerry joked during the interview.
The Jacksons also hinted at more innovations still to come, including new patents they believe could be significant in the six-string guitar world. They said Slash has already been experimenting with some of the new technology and called it a potential “total game changer.”
Team Sho-Bud
One of the more interesting pieces of the company’s revival is Team Sho-Bud, a community that brings together players ranging from beginners to some of the biggest names in the steel guitar world.
The team includes an impressive collection of steel guitar talent, including Lloyd Green, Dan Dugmore, Robert Randolph, Slash, Noah Needleman, Andrea Witt and Sarah Jory, among others.
For Sho-Bud, it’s about more than selling instruments.
It’s about creating a community around the instrument and making sure the steel guitar remains part of the musical conversation for generations to come.
Sho-Bud Live at the Ryman
That philosophy will come together onstage at the Ryman Auditorium on October 27, when members of Team Sho-Bud come together for a special Sho-Bud event.
The concert grew out of the Jacksons’ desire to revive the spirit of the original Sho-Bud Showcase while honoring the people who built the company’s legacy.
The event will also support several organizations and causes important to members of the Sho-Bud community, including the Sarah Wapawsey Foundation, Friends Life Community, the Peter Frampton Myositis Research Fund and the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network.
The Jacksons have created the Sho-Bud Music Foundation with a mission that goes beyond preserving the brand.
“We want to help preserve the music that these guitars were a part of,” Will explained. The foundation also aims to support causes that are meaningful to members of the Sho-Bud team.
Bringing Back the Sho-Bud Showcase
The Ryman event is also the beginning of another piece of the Sho-Bud revival.
The Jacksons are working on a new Sho-Bud Showcase podcast, inspired by the original radio program that followed the Opry players across the alley to the Ernest Tubb Record Shop.
“We’ve got to bring that back,” Will said.
Interviews with steel guitar legends, including Lloyd Green, have already been recorded, with the podcast expected to launch in the future.
The goal is to tell the stories of the musicians, craftsmen and personalities who helped shape Sho-Bud from the 1950s through the ’70s and beyond.
What’s Your Favorite Steel Guitar Song?
Naturally, no conversation with the people behind Sho-Bud would be complete without talking about the music itself.
When asked to name their favorite steel guitar song, the Jacksons admitted that it was almost an impossible question.
Dawn pointed to Gram Parsons’ version of “Together Again,” noting the pedal steel work and the way the instrument becomes an integral part of the entire recording. She also cited the work of Jimmy Day, Lloyd Green and Dan Dugmore as perennial favorites.
The conversation quickly expanded beyond traditional country, with Jerry Garcia, David Gilmour, Robert Randolph and the sacred steel tradition all entering the discussion.
(My personal favorite was Conway Twitty’s “Lost in the Feeling.”)
That’s perhaps the best thing about the steel guitar: there isn’t one sound, one style or one genre that defines it.
The Future of Sho-Bud
Although Sho-Bud’s history is deeply connected to Nashville, the company today is a more geographically diverse operation, with craftsmen working in Nevada, Georgia and Texas. Dawn noted that the company is technically based in Nevada at the moment, while Nashville remains home in a very important sense.
And that’s fitting.
Sho-Bud may have started on Broadway and 2nd Avenue, but its sound has traveled far beyond Nashville.
Now Dawn and Will Jackson are working to make sure that sound doesn’t become simply a piece of country music history.
They’re building new instruments, developing new technology, bringing together legendary players and newcomers, launching the Sho-Bud Music Foundation and reviving the Sho-Bud Showcase.
Most importantly, they’re keeping the steel guitar in the spotlight.
For a brand that helped create the sound of Nashville, that’s a pretty fitting next chapter.
–Jerry Holthouse
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