“Smoked Fish” From Freddie Roulette’s 1973 *Sweet Funky Steel*

“Smoked Fish” is the opening track from Freddie Roulette’s 1973 debut solo album Sweet Funky Steel, released on Janus Records. The track was written by Victor Conte Jr., who also played bass and acoustic guitar on the album.

Roulette was unusual among blues musicians for making the lap steel guitar his primary instrument. He had learned the instrument while growing up near Chicago, then adapted a sound more commonly associated with country and western music to Chicago blues. Before recording his own album, he had already played with Earl Hooker and Charlie Musselwhite.

Sweet Funky Steel was produced by guitarist Harvey Mandel and brought Roulette’s steel guitar into a broader mixture of blues, funk, soul, jazz, and rock influences. The eight-song album also featured musicians including Victor Conte, Paul Lagos, Coleman Head, Randy Resnick, and Don “Sugarcane” Harris.

Roulette continued performing and recording for decades, but Sweet Funky Steel remained a particularly early example of the lap steel being used as a lead voice in funkier forms of electric blues rather than primarily in country music.

Footnotes

1. NAMM, Freddie Roulette Oral History, recorded June 12, 2016
2. Ward Meeker, Freddie Roulette, Vintage Guitar, 2023
3. Apple Music, Sweet Funky Steel by Freddie Roulette, 1973
4. Freddie Roulette, Smoked Fish, YouTube