I've been doing some interesting collaborations (with Neil Williams) and soundtrack work this year on lap steel, in a tuning I am just getting comfortable with. It's the classic Celtic tuning of DADGAD (pronounced "dad-gad").
You've heard it before in Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir", any number of fingerpickers playing Turlough O'Carolyn harp tunes, and in the exquisite stylings of French virtuoso Pierre Bensusan. I'm planning on adding some basic DADGAD lessons to my Rockin' Lap Steel course in the near future. Here's a couple of videos we put together using the ambient soundtrack music in the DADGAD tuning. Every single slide sound you hear is made by a lap steel:
BAYOU BLISS
SWAMP DUDE
In addition I just did a live video with my friend Jesse Nester. We were both tuned to open D, dadgad and we capo’ed on the fifth fret to play in G.