BENTON - Steel yourselves, steel guitar enthusiasts.

For as much esteem as you hold for your beloved instrument, not everyone is so enamored. In fact, some people have no idea what a steel guitar is.

Or do they?

"It's what puts the cry in country," said Wayne Aultman, who traveled to Benton from Wisconsin for the sixth annual Steel Guitar Show which starts this morning and continues through Saturday.

More specifically?

"Originally, the steel guitar was called a Hawaiian guitar. It was later incorporated into country music and called a lap steel. That was before they put legs on it," said Joe Arview, one of the organizers of this weekend's event. "It can have multiple necks with 10 strings on each - a double-10 string. It also has pedals. You push a pedal and change a string. An enormous

amount of music can come from this one instrument."

So … sort of like the spawn of a table, a guitar and an organ then?

Well, not really, said Vern Mandrell of Mulkeytown, who will play his steel guitar this weekend, and who also mentioned several "knee levers" located on the underside of the steel guitar.

"It is, well, just a steel guitar. It is one of the most versatile and challenging instruments I've ever played," Mandrell said. "I play six other instruments and the steel guitar is harder to play than all of them combined."

Arview, of West Frankfort, said the instrument takes years to master, if ever. "You really have to have a desire to play this instrument," he said. "It's a long road from the first time you sit down to play one to mastering it. I'm not sure anyone has ever completely mastered it yet. It is so complex. You have to use both hands and both feet at the same time and they have to coincide for it to sound right."

And speaking of sound … not everyone has heard a steel guitar.

Or have they?

"Everyone has heard a steel guitar at one time or another," Arview said. "They just don't realize what they are hearing."

The steel guitar has a pure sound, Aultman said, "There are lots of clarified notes, but lots of sliding from one note to another."

That sliding, or slurring from one note to another, Mandrell said, is one of the unique sounds created by a steel guitar. "I'm liable to hit a note and hold on to it for awhile," he said. "It's total reaction, pure feeling."

That may be why the steel guitar lends itself so well to all forms of music, Mandrell said, including country, jazz and rock.

Astute listeners can pick out the steel guitar in any number of songs, from the collected works of Hank Williams Sr. to newer artists like Josh Turner, whose latest hit, "Your Man" begins with a crying steel guitar.

One of the headliners at the show in the Benton Civic Center will be Don Helms, the last surviving member of Williams' original band, Arview said. Others include Randy Beavers, Don Curtis, Ron Elliot, Joe Wright, Russ and Laney Hicks and Lynn Owsley. Many local and regional artists will also be featured.

The event strumming into town today is a (potentially) nonstop, three-day dream-come-true for fans, Mandrell said. Although doors open at 9 a.m. today and Friday and at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, don't expect these musicians to call it an early night, any of those nights.

"As long as there are musicians here, there will be music," he said.

And as long as there are fans - hundreds are already on their way from all across the country, Mandrell said - there will be appreciation for that music.

Tickets for the show are $8 today, $12 Friday and $17 Saturday.

Three-day passes are available at the door for $25. Concessions will be offered by Martin's Catering all three days.

beckym@onecliq.net

(618) 927-5633