Name: Lucas Galloway
School/grade level: Senior, Cedar Springs High School
Passion: Country music and pedal steel guitar
Cedar Springs — When Cedar Springs High School senior Lucas Galloway was younger, his father, a musician, played with some big names in the area’s country music circuit.
As a kid, Lucas spent countless hours in the car with his dad, traveling to and from gigs, soaking up music along the way. On one of those tuneful trips, Lucas heard the weeping, gliding notes of a pedal steel guitar and something clicked.
“As soon as I heard it I thought it was the coolest thing. The most unique sounding instrument I’d ever heard,” he said.
He bought his first pedal steel guitar shortly thereafter. Within a year of that purchase he was already performing live, and within two years he was getting paid to do it.
Lucas, who was born in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lived until he was 4, plans to move back to the nation’s country music hub after graduation, with the hope of turning his passion into a profession.
When and how did music become something you were interested in? Lucas grew up surrounded by music, but he was 13 when he had that revelatory moment on the road with his dad, and he got his first pedal steel guitar when he was 14. He poured everything he had into the instrument, practicing daily, sometimes for hours on end. And it paid off pretty quickly.
“It was very challenging, but I knew that I wanted to learn. I wanted to play and I didn’t want to stop playing,” Lucas said. “So I set most of my time aside to do it. I quit football, baseball, everything, to really do it and commit to it. Within the first month of playing, I played my first show.”
The pedal steel guitar is the only instrument Lucas plays. It’s not the most common entryway to music, but it called to him.
“It’s just a lot of fun to play,” he said. “As soon as I think I know everything, a whole other door opens and I realize I knew nothing.”
And he said he saw some practical value in choosing such a unique instrument.
“I’d thought about playing guitar, but everyone else played it,” he said. “It’d probably be pretty hard getting a job, y’know, when everyone else is playing the same instrument.”
A few related accomplishments: Lucas linked up with fellow area musician Tyler Gitchel, and as part of the Tyler Gitchel Band, he’s opened for what he called “some pretty big guys” in the country scene, including Dale Watson, Ben Chapman, John Paycheck, Alex Williams and Whey Jennings, among others.
He’s played on some of the Tyler Gitchel Band’s recordings, which can be found on all streaming platforms. And some of them are being heard nationwide.
“We have four songs out right now, and one of them is being streamed across 7,000 radio stations across the U.S.,” Lucas said.
Is there a teacher who had a big impact on you in this area? Lucas said 10th-grade English teacher Peter Wurm was an inspiration.
“He was in a band when he was younger — actually, he’s still in a band,” Lucas said of Wurm. “It was always just cool talking to him and hearing about his stories and stuff.”
Do you plan to pursue this professionally? “Yep, I do. My plan is to hopefully move down to Nashville … and hopefully gain more recognition there.”
Lucas has a back-up plan, though. He’s going to go to school to learn how to repair and install elevators, just so he has something to fall back on.
‘As soon as I heard (the pedal steel guitar) I thought it was the coolest thing. The most unique sounding instrument I’d ever heard.’
— Cedar Springs senior Lucas Galloway
Envision yourself 10/20 years from now: “Being on the road 24/7, recording songs, and making a full-time living off of music.”
What is it about country music that appeals to you? “I like the way it’s structured — just the classic feeling of the older stuff. … Everything structures around itself, and the chords blend in with each other.
“A lot of the slower songs are very soothing. And a lot of the hard-driving songs, too, are pretty fun. They’ll get you amped up.”
The biggest lesson you have learned from your involvement in music is… “That you’re not as good as you think. There’s always someone better than you, so you want to always keep your head on straight, because there’s always someone ready to take your spot.”
Other hobbies/interests: “I like working on stuff. Just tinkering around with engines and old stuff,” the senior said, noting that he recently rebuilt his grandfather’s Farmall tractor and drove it during the high school’s fall tractor parade.
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