I’m not sure that Stevie ever actually played any rhythm guitar onstage. Perhaps she did on the first tour. But what song would that have been? “Blue Letter” and “Sunny Side of Heaven” are the only two possible songs I can imagine her strumming along with. All the others require a level of more advanced coordination.
But Christine’s print interview with
Contemporary Keyboard provides an indirect clue:
Quote:
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She isn’t a great [keyboard] player, but what she plays you can elaborate on. Still, I think she should play onstage. She’s getting better all the time, and if she would play piano on one song, it would be *** great! Then she’d be known as a musician as well as just a singer.
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Lindsey is a master at leaving space and punctuating empty stretches with power chorded downstrokes for rhythmic effect. I don’t think he would have ever wanted Stevie lamely filling in holes with her inorganic strumming.
I think the story that Ray Lindsey told is that he was brought in to back Lindsey on “Go Your Own Way” specifically because Stevie wasn’t doing it correctly in a rehearsal.