Acoustic Guitar 267.pdf

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III / JULIAN LAGE & CHRIS ELDRIDGE

3 SONGS

FLEET FOXES Sim Sala Bim TOWNES VAN ZANDT Pancho and Lefty TRADITIONAL Go Tell It on the Mountain

MARCH 2015 | ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM

ACOUSTIC

TEXAS THE LONE STAR STATE UNPLUGGED! FEATURING

TOWNES VAN ZANDT WILLIE NELSON BILLIE JOE SHAVER NANCI GRIFFITH GUY CLARK RUTHIE FOSTER RYAN BINGHAM & OTHERS

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THOMPSON OM BRAZILIAN GRETSCH HONEY DIPPER WEBER MANDOLIN

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CONTENTS

Kacy Crowley performs at Saxon Pub in Austin, Texas

Features

Special Focus Acoustic Texas

23 ‘Glory’ Days An exclusive excerpt from a new memoir, Rumours of Glory By Bruce Cockburn

33 Lone Star—Unplugged! Just in time for SXSW: AG’s guide to the players, the clubs, the makers & more

44 Praise the Lloyd From pedal steel to production, Maines is the Man By Richard Skanse

28 Prodigal Sons Guitarists Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge traverse the landscape of American music By Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

34 For the Sake of the Song 20 essential Texas singer-songwriters By Richard Skanse

46 Live Music Capital of the World 20 music hotspots around the Lone Star state By Peter Blackstock

41 Young Guns El Paso’s Dirty River Boys find their own path to glory By Marc Greilsamer 42 5 Texas Troubadours A handful of gifted newcomers By Richard Skanse

WINKER WITHANEYE PHOTO

Miscellany 10 From the Home Office 14 Opening Act 105 Ad Index 106 Final Note

March 2015 Volume 25, No. 8, Issue 267

52 Hotbed 5 great Texas guitar builders you should know By Adam Perlmutter

On the Cover Townes Van Zandt Photographer Brigitte Engl/Getty Images

AcousticGuitar.com 5

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CONTENTS

83

California Dreamin’: Bruce Sexauer

NEWS 15 The Beat Music is a never-ending dream for the women of First Aid Kit; Del McCoury does Woody Guthrie; & more 20 News Spotlight Earls of Leicester: Jerry Douglas’ tribute to a Dobro pioneer PLAY 56 Songcraft Loudon Wainwright III can be serious or funny, but he’s always compelling 60 Take It Easy Helpful hints for opening acts 62 Here’s How Keep your guitar in tip-top shape 64 Basics Use jazz language to improvise in any style 66 Weekly Workout Two ways to get fluent on the fretboard Songs to Play 72 Sim Sala Bim by Fleet Foxes 78 Pancho and Lefty by Townes Van Zandt 80 Go Tell It on the Mountain arranged by Steve Baughman AG TRADE 83 Shop Talk Luthier extraordinaire Bruce Sexauer on pearwood and other exotic tonewoods

86 Makers & Shakers Can Ren Ferguson revitalize the Guild Guitars brand? 88 Guitar Guru Brazilian rosewood has never been more in demand—or rare 90 Review: Thompson OM Brazilian An heirloom-quality instrument that’s a worthy investment 92 Review: Gretsch G9201 Honey Dipper A modern resonator guitar with that authentic Delta sound 94 Review: Recording King RP1-16C The old-style 0-size wonder packs a punch 96 Pickin’ Weber’s Two-Point Bitterroot octave mandolin sounds like a tiny string orchestra 98 Great Acoustics Collings’ collectible “cowboy stencil” guitars MIXED MEDIA 100 Playlist Laura Marling’s tough and tender fifth album, Short Movie; plus Classic African American Songwriters and new releases by Eric Bibb, Jim White vs. the Packway Handle Band, and Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley AcousticGuitar.com 7

JOEY LUSTERMAN PHOTO

AG ONLINE

Be Inspired.

Bruce Cockburn

Watch ‘Acoustic Guitar Sessions’ Online If you love AG’s print stories, don’t miss our online interview and performance series Acoustic Guitar Sessions. Go to AcousticGuitar.com/Sessions and watch Bruce Cockburn’s solo performances of “Waiting for a Miracle” and “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” both played on his vintage Dobro. While you’re at the AG Sessions page, check out appearances from other artists including Seth Avett, Ani DiFranco, Peter Rowan, Richard Thompson, Valerie June, and others. READ MORE ‘ACOUSTIC TEXAS’ ONLINE—CHECK OUT AG’S SELECT GUIDE TO TEXAS MUSIC FESTIVALS Blues, bluegrass, conjunto, folk, gospel, rock— the great state of Texas has embraced a seemingly unlimited range of roots music fests. South by Southwest is the big one, but the Old Settler’s Music Festival and other events draw fans from around the globe. Read about AG’s faves at AcousticGuitar.com/News.

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CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

One World Theatre in Austin

Waltz Across Texas n the early ’90s, the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, was like summer camp for the music industry—a relatively small affair with lively panel discussions among musicians, journalists, and others on topics ranging from touring on a budget to writing about such emerging genres as trip-hop, grunge, and alt-country. Back then, it seemed, everybody at SXSW knew each other, and if you didn’t, you would by week’s end. In 1993, I hosted a bizarre panel featuring an unknown singer who called himself Marilyn Manson and an oddball road manager, Phil Kaufman, who was notorious for carrying out the late country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons’ last wish: stealing Parsons’ body and burning it in the desert. That year, SXSW attendance was at a record 3,800 registrants, with more than 400 musical acts showcasing in clubs all across Austin. Over the next decade, those numbers would more than double. Last year, nearly 8,000 registrants from 82 different countries scurried about the city’s crowded downtown streets, checking out a whopping 2,371 musical acts. Today, Austin truly lives up to its self-proclaimed reputation: live-music capital of the world. In of honor of the monumental success of South by Southwest—which runs this year from March 17-22—AG tapped a pair of Texas music writers, Peter Blackstock and Richard Skanse,

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to steer our special “Acoustic Texas” section on page 33. Skanse writes about 20 legendary Lone Star singer-songwriters (as well as a handful of newcomers), and Blackstock introduces 20 essential live-music venues from Austin to Dallas to San Antonio and beyond. You’ll also find contributing editor Adam Perlmutter’s look at five innovative Lone Star luthiers (including Bill Collings) and one capo maker (Milton Kyser). Elsewhere in this issue, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist Bruce Cockburn offers up an excerpt from his new memoir Rumours of Glory; editor-at-large Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers chats with Loudon Wainwright III about songwriting; and legendary Gibson luthier Ren Ferguson talks about his move to Guild. Also on tap are reviews of Thompson’s new OM Brazilian guitar, Gretsch’s Honey Dipper resonator, and Recording King’s RP1-16C for folks looking for an affordable guitar with an aged-wood look and feel. This issue also marks the first full cycle for AG’s new managing editor Blair Jackson, who comes to the magazine with decades of experience: editor at the music magazines BAM and Mix, not to mention one of the world’s foremost experts on all things Grateful Dead, whose numerous books include Garcia: An American Life, Grateful Dead Gear, and the forthcoming This is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead. We’re super excited to have Blair on the AG team. Meanwhile, back in Texas, one of the four songs you’ll learn in the Play section of this issue is a Lone Star classic: Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty.” Why are we offering such a rich musical gift? Out of kindness, I suppose.  —Mark Segal Kemp

DISTRIBUTED to the music trade by Hal Leonard Corporation (800-554-0626, [email protected]) GOT A QUESTION or comment for Acoustic Guitar’s editors? Send e-mail to [email protected]

Editorial Director Greg Cahill Editor Mark Segal Kemp Editor at Large Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers Managing Editor Blair Jackson Senior Editor Marc Greilsamer Associate Editor Whitney Phaneuf Senior Designer Brad Amorosino Production Manager Hugh O’Connor Contributing Editors Kenny Berkowitz, Andrew DuBrock, Teja Gerken, David Hamburger, Steve James, Orville Johnson, Richard Johnston, Sean McGowan, Jane Miller, Greg Olwell, Adam Perlmutter, Rick Turner, Doug Young

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10 March 2015

Except where otherwise noted, all contents ©2015 Stringletter, David A. Lusterman, Publisher.

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THE STORY BEHIND

THE SOUND For the better part of a century, D’Addario has been creating the finest acoustic guitar strings in the world. Innovated to extremes, crafted with conviction, and perfected to sound true, these are the strings that set the standard.

EARLY INNOVATORS In the 1930’s, working with legendary guitar maker John

This alloy, and the hex-shaped core, gave acoustic

D’Angelico, John D’Addario Sr. was determined that the

guitars more volume, sustain, punch, and brightness.

future of the modern guitar was in steel strings. John spent his days working alongside his father Carmen

Guitar makers began stringing all their instruments with

out of their humble shop in Queens. His evenings were

D’Addario’s 80/20 bronze. The bar was set. For four

devoted to experimenting with wire material samples, a

decades, the crisp, deep, bright-sounding tone was the

practice that was his passion for fifty years.

standard for any musician with an acoustic guitar.

Eventually, John would sample a hexagonal-shaped mandolin wire for his core, theorizing that a geometric

FORGING NEW POSSIBILITIES

core would hold the string wrap tighter and better,

In 1974, 80/20 strings were used in the world’s most

creating a more consistent sound. He was right.

influential acoustic guitar music. But John’s son, Jim, wasn’t satisfied.

The masterpiece was complete when the Hudson Wire Company of New York sent him 80/20 brass wire. John

Reading a Mechanical Engineers Handbook, a single

had been experimenting with different wire for years,

passage caught Jim’s attention, “Phosphor bronze,”

but here was the breakthrough he’d been hoping for.

the passage informed, “is used for situations where

1930’s

1970’s

Working with John D’Angelico,

John’s son Jim invents a string

John D’Addario perfects the

prototype using a Phosphor

formula for the first iconic acoustic

Bronze wrap material. The set is

string set: a hexagonally shaped

immediately warmer sounding,

core coupled with an 80% copper

but the true revelation is that the

and 20% tin wrap wire.

strings last longer—sounding fresh weeks later.

D’Angelico is a registered trademark of D’Angelico Guitars of America, New York, NY.

resistance to fatigue, wear, and chemical corrosion

INTRODUCING NY STEEL

are required.” Jim thought that a material with these

From 2010 to 2013, the company focused on re-

properties might be the perfect alloy for acoustic

engineering high-carbon steel wire for music strings.

guitar strings.

The result is a material with unprecedented pitch stability

He immediately crafted a prototype and strung up his

and strength. This proprietary wire is called NY Steel.

prized D35 and D12-35 Martins. Within a few chords, he

NY Steel was first introduced in early 2014 in NYXL

was blown away.

electric guitar strings. The feedback from players was extraordinary. The five-star reviews continue to roll in.

What he heard was a whole new tone that was more

People all over the world are raving about the sound,

even, warm, and bright. A week later, the strings still

strength, and ability to stay in tune–no matter how long

sounded fresh. And a week after that. Phosphor Bronze

the set, song, or solo.

didn’t just sound great, they held their tone better than their 80/20 counterparts. This would set a precedent for

And now, this same technology is available in D’Addario’s

all future “extended life” innovations.

EXP acoustic guitar sets. Given the long-lasting protection that EXP provides for wound strings, the addition of NY Steel in the cores and plain steel strings

NEVER SATISFIED

ensures artists can string up and worry about one thing,

Over the next three decades, D’Addario not only

and one thing only: their music.

redefined instrument strings, but also perfected the process and materials used to create them. In time, Jackson Browne, Crosby, Stills and Nash, George Harrison, and hundreds of the world’s most critical luthiers all preferred the 80/20 and Phosphor Bronze

With a consistent quality of tone and a now-unrivaled ability to last longer and stay in tune better, these strings, the sound, and ultimately the songs they help create, will surely endure.

iconic acoustic sound. In

2001,

D’Addario

introduced

EXP

coating

ALWAYS TRUE

to

their acoustic sets. This coating was engineered to create a longer-lasting string without sacrificing the quintessential sound and feel. While this innovation was game changing, D’Addario was determined to do more than improve the lifespan of their strings, but also improve their stability.

1990’s — 2000’s

TODAY

D’Addario perfects EXP coating,

NY Steel, a proprietary high-

which quadruples string life

carbon steel wire, is introduced

without compromising the

to EXP acoustic sets. The material

comfortable feel and legendary

is not only stronger, but exhibits

sound of D’Addario strings.

unprecedented pitch stability.

daddario.com/alwaystrue

OPENING ACT

Neil Young & Florence Welch SHORELINE AMPHITHEATRE MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA OCTOBER 2014

14 March 2015

JAY BLAKESBERG PHOTO

JOEY LUSTERMAN PHOTO

NEWS

THE BEAT

Klara Söderberg of First Aid Kit at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California

Spun Gold

Music is a never-ending dream for the women of First Aid Kit BY MARC GREILSAMER

ot every guitarist gets an email out of the blue from someone offering to build a customized, handcrafted, high-quality acoustic guitar. Then again, when you’re Klara Söderberg of First Aid Kit, things don’t seem to unfold in the usual fashion. “Joel [Stehr] wrote me an email four years ago, and he said, ‘Hey, I want to build you a guitar—whatever you want, ’cause I love your music,’” Söderberg recalls. The luthier, whose shop, Stehr Guitars, is based in Washington state, had seen a YouTube video of the duo playing a Fleet Foxes cover and was, he says, “hooked immediately. I’m a sucker for vocal harmonies, and these two ladies have voices that are like butter melted over a warm cinnamon roll.” Such is life for Söderberg and her older sister, Johanna. It wasn’t too long ago that the Swedish siblings—the daughters of “punks” who loved bands like Television and the Velvet Underground—were just normal teenagers in suburban Stockholm, posting homemade music videos on the Internet. Today, First Aid Kit is an internationally celebrated duo beloved for their remarkably silky vocal harmonies and stark, emotionally powerful songwriting. Mixing elements of American country and folk music with a keen indie-pop sensibility, First Aid Kit has

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won legions of fans, famous and not, who have fallen for their dreamy, enchanting sound. The duo’s most recent full-length album, Stay Gold, presents the women in full glory, featuring lush, elaborate arrangements that only enhance the acoustic fingerpicking and lustrous harmonies that are the duo’s essence. Sitting in the bowels of Oakland’s Fox Theater before yet another sold-out show, Johanna, 24, and Klara, 22, reflect on a musical existence that has already surpassed their wildest fantasies. “On one hand,” Klara says, “you’re just doing it every day, and it’s your life, but then I definitely have moments onstage where I’m thinking, ‘Wait, hold on. This is my life? This is what I do? I can call this my job? I get to play music?’ It’s pretty ridiculous.” “We’re scared to say anything,” adds Johanna, “because all our wishes have come true so far. All the artists we wanted to work with have liked us back.” One such artist is Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes fame. About a decade ago, a friend introduced the sisters to Oberst’s indie-folk music, which set in motion the girls’ exploration of Americana that still continues. Working backwards, they discovered people like Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, and Leonard Cohen, and eventually, they made it to Bill Monroe and the Carter Family. Today, Oberst is one of the duo’s

biggest champions; Mike Mogis, his Bright Eyes bandmate, has taken the production reins on First Aid Kit’s past two albums, and is largely responsible for their meticulous yet unobtrusive soundscapes. “I remember seeing [Bright Eyes in 2007] and thinking, ‘OK, this is what I want to do,’” says Klara. “I think we both always wanted to make music, but we really didn’t know what kind of music; we just wanted to sing, first and foremost. Then we found this kind of music.” The Söderbergs have been singing together for as long as they can remember—Spice Girls, musicals, “whatever was on the radio,” says Johanna—so their ability to create radiant harmonies comes as no surprise. Their impeccable songwriting, however, is another story. Reflective, even nostalgic, and filled with fear and uncertainty about the future, their lyrics may seem a bit incongruous for young, successful artists with such a bright future. “For us, songwriting is a way to try to understand things and it’s also a way to try to connect with other people,” Klara explains. “When we’re singing our songs onstage and we see people sing along to them, there’s a connection there that’s really incredible. We’ve never met, never talked to each other—that’s what makes it beautiful.” AcousticGuitar.com 15

with a vintage look. With the moderate to sometimes heavy strumming I’ve seen her do, along with fingerpicking, I knew right away that a good stiff spruce top would be best suited for her. She didn’t want it to be too flashy, so I kept it clean and simple aesthetically.” Today, Charlie and Ira are key elements of First Aid Kit, ready to accompany this promising duo as their amazing journey moves forward. “I just think it’s all very surreal,” Johanna says, “and you wake up sometimes and you wonder, ‘Is this all a dream? Is it gonna end?’” AG THE TENNESSEAN ARCHIVES

Besides, adds Johanna, “What should we sing about otherwise—going to the club? That’s not what we do.” As for Klara’s instruments, Stehr ended up building two 00-12 guitars, which she decided to name after the Louvin Brothers. “Charlie” has an Adirondack spruce top, while “Ira” has a top of Carpathian spruce; both feature Indian rosewood back and sides. “After some dialog about what she wants in a guitar,” Stehr explains, “it became clear fairly quickly that she wanted something small, and

START WRITING SONGS Take a course on songwriting with Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, founding editor of Acoustic Guitar and John Lennon Songwriting Contest grand prize winner.

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16 March 2015

DYLAN, CASH & THE NASHVILLE CATS FOCUS OF NEW EXHIBIT Like many music movements of the late 20th century, the mid-’60s trend of rock, pop, and folk musicians recording in Nashville started with Bob Dylan. It was August 1965, and Dylan was wrapping up Highway 61 Revisited when his producer, Bob Johnston, suggested that Nashville musician Charlie McCoy, who happened to be in New York City at the time, play acoustic guitar on “Desolation Row.” McCoy’s style cast an eerie Americana spell in the 11-minute ballad, and impressed Dylan so much that he trekked to Nashville to record the majority of his next album, Blonde on Blonde. The rest, as they say, is history—and now the focus of a new Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit called “Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City.” Between 1966 and 1974, other rock and folk-rock musicians including Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Leonard Cohen, Simon &

Paul and Linda McCartney and their girls in Nashville, with Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner

Garfunkel, Ringo Starr, the Byrds, Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt, Leon Russell, Moby Grape, Peter, Paul and Mary, and others recorded seminal albums in Music City, backed by the Nashville Cats, a group of A-list studio musicians that included McCoy. Johnny Cash—who contributed to Dylan’s third Nashville-based album, Nashville Skyline—is also credited with bringing together rock, folk, and country on his TV series The Johnny Cash Show. Filmed at the Ryman Auditorium, then home of the Grand Ole Opry, the show hosted artists such as James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Derek & the Dominos alongside traditional country acts like Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner (above). Performances, instrument demonstrations, panel discussions, films, and more will accompany the new exhibit, which runs March 27 through December 31, 2016. —Whitney Phaneuf

PRS Acoustics A Culture of Quality

© 2014 PRS Guitars / Photos by Marc Quigley

Born in our Maryland shop, PRS acoustics are heirloom instruments with remarkable tone and exquisite playability. A small team of experienced luthiers handcraft all of our Maryland-made acoustic instruments with passion and attention to detail.

The PRS Guitars’ Acoustic Team.

THE HARMONY OF LONGEVITY AND STABILITY INTRODUCING EXP-COATED SETS WITH NY STEEL D’Addario created EXP-coated acoustic strings so that the quintessential tone of our 80/20 or Phosphor Bronze sets could last longer, yet still maintain the sound musicians love. Today, we’re introducing NY Steel to our EXP sets, a proprietary material engineered for unprecedented strength and pitch stability. Coated to last longer. Engineered strong to stay in tune better.

ALWAYS TRUE

daddario.com/alwaystrue

Developed over three years of engineering and innovating, NY Steel is a proprietary alloy with unprecedented pitch stability and remarkable strength. First presented to the public in D’Addario NYXL electric guitar strings, this technology has now been added to our coated acoustic sets for the ultimate in tone, strength, and reliability.

PITCH STABILITY

Del & Woody

A bluegrass legend gives new life to Guthrie’s lyrics

NY STEEL

BY WHITNEY PHANEUF STANDARD

o hear Del McCoury explain it, he admired Woody Guthrie’s songs long before he knew the folk legend had written them. “Growing up, I heard songs like ‘Oklahoma Hills’—that was a popular song on the radio when I was a kid,” says McCoury, from his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee. “And one called ‘Philadelphia Lawyer.’ Great songs, you know, and I had no idea who wrote them. Of course, it was Woody.” Fast forward to 2015, when McCoury’s high, lonesome vocals become the next to breathe life into Guthrie’s poetic lyrics. Tentatively titled Del & Woody, the new 16-song album is the most significant collection of Guthrie’s unpublished work since Billy Bragg and Wilco released Mermaid Avenue in 1998. In the vein of that album, the bluegrass king also penned the music. McCoury says that when Nora Guthrie approached him in 2012 about the project, she said, “My dad, if he could’ve afforded a band, he would have loved to have a band like you’ve got.” “Nora said they just found this stuff,” McCoury recalls. “She said they could be poems or songs, we don’t know, or he may have had music written for them and it got lost.” McCoury admits he had his doubts in the beginning. “I kind of hesitated. I didn’t want to mess up something Woody wrote. But then I thought, “If there’s no music and they need music, well, I can do that.’” The lyrics—written between 1935 and 1949, some in Guthrie’s own handwriting and

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others typed—arrived by mail. “I thought, ‘Well, she’ll probably send two or three.’ And here she sent me 26 songs!” McCoury says he started by writing melodies for 16 songs, which range from “funny” to “sad” and are all based on Guthrie’s first-hand experiences and observations. “Wimmen’s Hats” and “New York Trains” are about his early days in New York City; “California Gold” laments an ex-wife who ran off with his cash; “Cheap Mike” is about a mechanic in California. “When I would read the lyrics, I could kind of tell—or I thought I could—what he had in mind for a melody. The trickiest thing for me was figuring out if he would have done this in a regular time, three-quarter time, four-four time, or whatever. But it was kind of easy to do, too. Some of them are really uptempo, and I think he meant them to be that way.” McCoury recorded Del & Woody in about five days with his Del McCoury Band, which includes sons Ronnie and Rob. “We didn’t do any rehearsing beforehand,” McCoury says. “I took the songs to the studio and I’d sing the melodies, and my son Ronnie would work out the instrumental arrangements. We didn’t overdub much. For the most part, it was live.” The remaining ten songs should be finished shortly, and McCoury says he hopes to release those on a second album or as part of a complete set. AG

STRENGTH

ALWAYS TRUE daddario.com/alwaystrue AcousticGuitar.com 19

NEWS SPOTLIGHT

Following in Josh’s Fingersteps

Jerry Douglas’ latest project pays tribute to Dobro pioneer BY MARC GREILSAMER

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HOMESPUN HERO Douglas’ Dobro epiphany happened in 1963, when he was just seven years old; he saw the Foggy Mountain Boys for the first time, at Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown, Ohio, part of an Opry package show featuring, among others, Roy Acuff and Ray Price. “I had heard the records before then,” Douglas says , “but seeing it played right there in front of me, seeing the instrument… I didn’t put the visual part with the musical part until I saw them play that night. And then it was like, wow, that’s the coolest-looking thing I’ve ever 20 March 2015

Flatt & Scruggs The Foggy Mountain Boys with ‘Uncle Josh’ Graves, far right ANTHONY SCARLATI PHOTO

n the Tennessee headstone of one Burkett Howard “Uncle Josh” Graves, the inscription refers to a “legendary Dobro player” who “was a viable part of bluegrass and American music history. The way he lived his life should be a roadmap for all who follow in his fingersteps.” Questionable diction aside, the inscription celebrates a musician whose influence still, er, resonates throughout the bluegrass community. And perhaps no one has followed in those fingersteps quite as admirably as Jerry Douglas, the world’s first-chair Dobro player. In tribute to his first musical hero, Douglas has assembled a bluegrass supergroup dubbed the Earls of Leicester, and while the band’s name nods toward Earl (Scruggs) and Lester (Flatt), there’s no doubt about the true inspiration behind the project. As a member of Flatt & Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys, Uncle Josh brought the bluessoaked resonator guitar to prominence as a bluegrass instrument—capable of fiery runs as well as tender, soulful inflections. Once Scruggs helped him learn his patented three-finger banjo roll and modify it for the resonator, the result was a thrilling, hard-driving sound that captivated audiences and distinguished the band from other bluegrass acts of the time. “It was the whole attitude that he played with,” Douglas says of Graves. “It was a blues attitude. Bluegrass wouldn’t be the first thing you’d think of if you heard his solos out of context.”

Earls of Leicester Douglas, far right, leads the band

seen. What [Graves] did with it just solidified in my mind that I needed to get a little closer to this and learn how to play it.” At the time, Douglas didn’t have a Dobro, but that didn’t stop him.“I talked my father into raising the strings up on my Silvertone guitar. It couldn’t take the pressure, and it folded up in a matter of months. And I think we cut up a toothbrush to make the nut, to raise the strings up, and I used a piece of copper tubing for my bar.” When Douglas was 13, he had a chance to meet his hero at a festival campground. Douglas had already figured out a lot of Graves’ solos and was able to spit them back at him. Graves loved it, offering the youngster nothing but praise and encouragement. “I came out from behind a tree—I was really bashful—and then played a tune for him,” Douglas remembers. “Then, he got his Dobro out and handed me his Dobro, which to me was like giving me the Holy Grail. I played that and

he played mine, and we played a couple of tunes, and he said, ‘I’m gonna see you again, kid.’ And when I got to Nashville, the next time I saw him, he remembered me.” The key to playing like Uncle Josh was in mastering that three-finger roll. It gave him a propulsive sound that no other Dobro player could match. “Nobody could keep that drive,” says Douglas. “They could get up a roll for a few seconds, but they couldn’t keep it going. Josh could just power right through the whole thing and connect the dots, never stop the roll. He’d go from one chord to another and had a way of finding his way, weaving his way through the chord changes without stopping or sliding into the next chord. No one else did that. “When I figured that out, how to get from one chord to another without stopping—what the grace notes are that can lead you from one chord to another—that was so huge to me.”

INTERCONNECTED By the end of Graves’ life, he and Douglas were best friends. (“I knew him about as well as anybody,” Douglas says.) Yet, the idea of a band inspired by Flatt & Scruggs didn’t come to fruition until Douglas was asked to play on an album with fiddler Johnny Warren—son of Foggy Mountain Boys stalwart Paul Warren— and banjoist Charlie Cushman. Douglas notes that Cushman and the younger Warren are “just like Earl and Paul,” so when the three of them got together, with Douglas in Graves’ role, the core of Earls of Leicester was formed. “I’ve always wanted to do a band that could really find the essence of it and really come close to that drive,” says Douglas. “When Earl would play, it felt like hydroplaning, it felt like when you’d get a car out on ice. It’s just a feeling—it doesn’t happen that often in music.” Douglas pressed the issue.

‘ We’re not trying to be them, we’re trying to channel them.’

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“If we’re ever gonna do this,” he told his mates, “this is the time to do it, because it’s disappearing from the bluegrass landscape. People think they know these songs, but they don’t really play ’em. . . . They don’t attack them the same way.” Douglas added bassist Barry Bales, singerguitarist Shawn Camp, and singer-mandolinist Tim O’Brien to the mix and rolled the dice. “I called a meeting over at my house up in my studio,” he says, “and we all got together and played, and it gave me cold chills, man. It was so close to the real thing.” They took the new band for a spin at Nashville’s Station Inn; before the year was out, they’d made it to the Ryman Auditorium. A debut album for Rounder soon followed. All of the players in Earls of Leicester play vintage instruments, including Douglas. He’d tried using his modern, hybrid-style resonators, but they just didn’t sound right, so he turned to his original mid-1930s Regal Model 37 Dobro to complete the picture—and to help capture the elusive Flatt & Scruggs sound. “We’re not trying to be them, but we’re trying to channel them and re-introduce what they did back into music,” Douglas says. “What I want to come out of this is for people to start using these ideas, where everything is interconnected—listening to each other, basically, and making the whole thing work as a band, rather than just a bunch of hot-rod musicians.” AG AcousticGuitar.com 21

F O S R R U MOU CK B U R N Y B R U CE CO A M E M OIR B U CKB R N BY B R UCE CO

BORED WITH PSYCHEDELIA AND THE TORONTO ROCK SCENE, A CANADIAN FOLKIE FINDS HIS VOICE IN FINGERSTYLE GUITAR PLAYING

B

ruce Cockburn rose to prominence in the turbulent 1980s with such politically charged folk-rock songs as “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” his heated response to the CIA-backed campaign against the leftist rebels of El Salvador. Cockburn is also known for songs informed by his Christian beliefs, his other social and political activism, and his unflagging proenvironmental stance. But underlying his music is a powerful command of a variety of guitar techniques, including fingerstyle.

JOEY LUSTERMAN PHOTO

In the following excerpt from his new autobiography, Rumours of Glory: A Memoir, Cockburn recounts his transition from frustrated band player to solo artist. At 23, he’d grown bored with playing psychedlia. So, he grabbed his Martin 00-18 and went in pursuit of his dreams. “My ears were tired,” he writes. “It was time to move on. There was beauty to be coaxed from the guitar that is unique to the instrument.” A new nine-CD companion box set, packed with studio songs and previously unreleased material, chronicles his solo work.

AcousticGuitar.com 23

T

hrough it all, Toronto remained cold and unwelcoming, musicians ever more aggressively hustling for gigs and desperate. There was some authenticity, some exceptional music, and some promising artists, but as these things often go, the shysters and wannabes, phonies, and petty criminals seemed to take over the scene and make it oppressive. I had a few friends, but mostly I felt detached from humanity in the crazy city. I hovered in my own thoughts and songwriting, and isolation, and stepped further toward a solo career. My flight from the band scene was delayed by another offer to join an ensemble, one that was difficult to refuse. The invitation was from 3’s a Crowd, a Toronto folk-rock band that had relocated from out west. They blazed bright for a few 24 March 2015

minutes and then collapsed. The original outfit was an entertaining folk trio consisting of Donna Warner, Trevor Veitch, and Brent Titcomb. Those three had performed together for a few years before getting a record deal and expanding into a six-piece that included my former bandmates Richard Patterson and David Wiffen. I knew them from their regular visits to Le Hibou’s stage. Brent’s house in Yorkville provided a kind of refuge during my lonely sojourn in Toronto. He and his then-wife Maureen had a mysterious tolerance for my silent presence. Sometimes I’d be handed a guitar and invited to play something. The band had recorded a couple of my songs (as well as some by Bill Hawkins) on an album called Christopher’s Movie Matinee, produced by Cass Elliot of the Mamas and Papas, whose music I did not care for. My 3’s a Crowd

The best thing I got out of that tour was meeting Fox Watson. Fox was an accomplished guitar player, a lovely fingerpicker who introduced me to the magic of open tunings.

DOUG GRIFFIN/TORONTO STAR PHOTO

Above Bruce Cockburn,1969 Right Cockburn performs in the AG studio

friends weren’t happy when I told them how little I liked their rendition of my stuff, which I thought sounded mechanistic and passionless. I felt bad about making them feel bad, but I didn’t know how to fake enthusiasm for what they had done. Just before the founding members decided to disband, they’d landed a good-paying contract to be the “house” band for a mainly musical variety show that would run nationwide on Canadian TV. As the summer of 1968 approached, Richard and David, as the two most recent members, asked me to join them in a resurrected version of the group (which would also include Colleen Peterson, Sandy Crawley, and Dennis Pendrith). They had been left in the lurch by the sudden parting of the original three singers. They hoped to capitalize on the deal for the show. It was to be called One More Time. It would be taped over the summer at the CTV studios in Montreal. I was skeptical of the offer for a few reasons, not least of which was that I had experienced the unhinged side of the show’s producer, Sid Banks, during the Flying Circus’s misadventure at the Wilson Pickett concert. [Editor’s note: while opening for the soul legend, the band’s equipment had fizzled on stage.] Mostly, though, my hesitation hinged on a desire, a need, to get out of bands and go it alone. But Patterson and Wiffen dangled before me the promised $13,000 for a summer of work, which sounded like decent pay in those days and would provide a stake for my future solo flight. So I told them, “OK, I’ll do the show, but that’s it, then I’m done.” We spent the summer taping 26 half-hour episodes, which ranged in quality from laughable to embarrassing to execrable. My $2,166 share, which dribbled in over an eight- or ten-week period, did not constitute much of a grubstake. I agreed to go with them to New York for a meat-market audition to try to score a U.S. college tour, which we got. We spent much of that fall playing through the Carolinas. It actually went well. The best thing I got out of that tour was meeting Fox Watson. Fox was an accomplished guitar player, a lovely fingerpicker who introduced me to the magic of open tunings. We hung out for a while on tour, and then he came up to Toronto for a couple of months. I was sort of disdainful of open tunings back then because I didn’t like most of what people did with them—playing the same four chord formations in different tunings, trying for a specious variety in their sound without going to the trouble of actually learning their instrument—but when Fox played in any of several tunings he used, what came out was fluid as a mountain creek and agile as a gull. My first attempts at instrumental pieces, “Sunwheel Dance” and “Foxglove” (which is named after him), reflect his important and timely influence on my playing. At his

suggestion, I replaced the relatively small-bodied 00-18 with a fuller-sounding, dreadnoughtshaped Martin D-18. After the Carolina tour and one or two other gigs with 3’s a Crowd, I was done with bands and remained so until the mid-’70s. In early 1969, an excitingly original singer-songwriter named Murray McLauchlan, who had befriended me over the course of several visits to Le Hibou, took me around the Toronto folkmusic scene that had somehow escaped me, for the most part, while I was a band member there. Most favorably, Murray introduced me to Estelle Klein, who ran the Mariposa Folk Festival. Mariposa was the biggest music festival in Canada, and that year would be the most successful in the event’s history, featuring performances by Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger, Vera Johnson, Bessie Jones, Joan Baez, and others. Estelle booked me for a side stage at the festival, but when Neil Young bowed out of his main stage slot to join Crosby, Stills & Nash at Woodstock three weeks later (I guess they needed to rehearse), I was moved onto the main stage. I wasn’t looking for a “big break,” but this was one for sure. Thirty thousand people attended the festival that year, and finally, fitfully, in front of them all, I got to be me, and I sang my songs. AG

Cockburn tells his story in a new memoir.

Excerpted from Rumours of Glory by Bruce Cockburn, published November 2014 by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Book Publishers, hardcover, $28.99.

AcousticGuitar.com 25

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28 March 2015

PRODIGAL SONS JULIAN LAGE & CHRIS ELDRIDGE COME FROM WILDLY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES TO CREATE A WHOLLY UNIFIED SOUND BY JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS

t a fall concert in an elegant ballroom in Oswego, New York, the stage is nearly empty. There are no amps, no pedals, no monitors, no forest of mic stands or tangle of cables. At center stage is just a single large-diaphragm microphone, around which two lean young men in suits play old Martin guitars, listening intently to each other as they blend their voices and steel strings. While the stage setup is austere, this duo’s music is anything but. Chris “Critter” Eldridge picks a 1937 D-18 and, with an affectingly unvarnished vocal style, dips into the repertoires of everyone from Norman Blake (“Ginseng Sullivan”) to Sam Cooke (“I’ll Come Running Back to You”) to George and Ira Gershwin (“Someone to Watch Over Me”). On the other side of the mic, Julian Lage adds soft vocal harmonies and coaxes gorgeous, liquid tones from a 1939 000-18, recalling at times the melodicism of Pat Metheny or the quicksilver lines of Django Reinhardt. Lage and Eldridge are celebrating the release of their first full-length album, Avalon, a snapshot of what they do onstage: traverse the landscape of American music, from bluegrass and traditional country to blues, gospel, Tin Pan Alley, jazz, David Grisman–style dawg music, and eclectic original instrumentals Eldridge refers to during the show as art songs. Whatever the genre, the duets are a guitar lover’s dream, as two of today’s best young players strip away all other musical adornments to explore the expressive possibilities of their instruments. In the words of Kenneth Pattengale of the Milk Carton Kids, who produced Avalon, the record is “a sonic love letter to the acoustic guitar.”

A

JUSTIN CAMERER PHOTO

KINDRED SPIRITS On the afternoon before the show in Oswego, Lage and Eldridge meet at an airy café to talk about how they came together. On the face of it, the two guitarists are not an obvious pair. Eldridge is steeped in bluegrass. Both his parents are banjo pickers and his dad, Ben Eldridge, is an original member of the Seldom Scene; the younger Eldridge first played onstage with his father’s band at age 15 and, after college, founded the Infamous Stringdusters before joining forces with mandolinist Chris Thile to form Punch Brothers. Lage, by contrast, was a jazz prodigy. He picked up the guitar at five, and his passion and prowess quickly led to extraordinary opportunities: At eight, he jammed onstage with Carlos Santana (and was profiled in the documentary Jules at Eight); at nine, he started meeting up with David Grisman and Martin Taylor to play standards; at 12, following a performance on the Grammy telecast, he played the first of many gigs alongside vibes legend Gary Burton, with Herbie Hancock sitting in. Lage’s father, Mario, recalls that, especially in his son’s early years, “We spent more time trying to keep him out of the limelight than letting him go in.” Despite the stylistic differences in their backgrounds, Lage and Eldridge, now 27 and 32, respectively, see a lot of commonalities. “At the core, Critter and I both got into guitar music in a similar way, and that’s by being fascinated by it and asking a lot of questions,” Lage says. “My questions led me first into the blues world and then to David Grisman’s scene a little bit, and then very quickly into jazz. All my questions seemed to lead to jazz. It was like, ‘Oh, you want to get better at interacting and improvising? Study jazz.’” AcousticGuitar.com 29

Eldridge’s guitar journey started with electric players—Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, Robben Ford—and a solid-body guitar. But eventually he got hooked on the bluegrass that filled his childhood home, and in particular the flatpicking of Tony Rice, who became Eldridge’s mentor when he was studying at Oberlin College in Ohio. Ben Eldridge recalls how Chris, as a teenager, started picking the brains of the players in the Seldom Scene, listening intently, and jamming along. “He always had the drive to get better,” the elder Eldridge says. “He told me once that he wanted to get so good that when the two of us got out of the car at a bluegrass festival, people would say, ‘See that old guy over there? That’s Chris Eldridge’s dad.’ That is now my proud claim to fame.” Chris Eldridge reflects on his and Lage’s shared obsession with exploring the instrument. “You don’t meet a lot of people who have committed their life to that. So I think we saw each other as kindred spirits when we met,” he says. That first meeting happened at a 2008 Punch Brothers show in Boston, where Lage and Eldridge jammed offstage; neither recalls exactly what they played, but probably a fiddle tune like “Big Sciota” or “Whiskey Before Breakfast.” “I definitely remember that we immediately took it someplace fun, and it got deconstructed pretty quickly,” Eldridge says. “It was more of a conversation than, like, rhythm guitar, take a solo. There was a musical dialogue happening.” In performance, the two guitarists’ roles are so fluid that it’s often hard to discern their individual parts. And in some tunes they solo at the same time, creating counterpoint on the fly— “all skate” is Eldridge’s term for those thrilling improvisational passages. At the end of “Whiskey Before Breakfast,” on Avalon, the bouncy fiddle tune takes on the layered complexity of a Bach harpsichord piece.

MODELS AND HEROES When Lage and Eldridge began to scheme about performing as an acoustic duo, they discovered another point of connection: Both loved River Suite for Two Guitars, the 1995 album by Tony Rice and John Carlini, which spanned songs by Miles Davis and Stephen Sondheim, as well as originals. “That was always in the back of our heads: Hey, we have a model for what this could look like, the bridging of the two worlds,” Lage says. The two found inspiration in other great guitar duos as well, including the early jazz pioneers Carl Kress and Dick McDonough and the ragtime fingerpickers Eric Schoenberg and David Laibman. As a kid, Lage made weekly visits with his dad to Schoenberg’s guitar shop in Tiburon, California, where he’d check out instruments, ask Schoenberg questions about fingerstyle technique, and jam. In the folk/ Americana realm, Lage and Eldridge consider Gillian Welch and David Rawlings to be, in Lage’s words, “superheroes for how they manage the nature of two guitars and their voices and songs, and having this robust kind of aesthetic, sonically and otherwise.” Another musical hero for both players is the late jazz master Jim Hall, who Lage describes as “the overarching figure in our world.” After hearing Hall’s music through his longtime guitar teacher Randy Vincent, Lage became such an obsessed fan that he wanted a pair of gray New Balance sneakers like Hall’s. At 11, Lage met his hero at a concert at the Bay Area jazz venue Yoshi’s. Hall stunned the young guitarist by striding into the audience and introducing himself. Lage wound up performing with Hall numerous times until Hall’s death in 2013. Eldridge didn’t know Hall personally but first heard him in college, on the Sonny Rollins record The Bridge. “The first track, ‘Without a Song,’ really blew my mind,” Eldridge recalls. “The playing was so spare, elegant, and beautiful. I’d never heard jazz guitar like that.” For Eldridge, the spirit of Hall’s music made as deep an impression as the notes themselves. “He played with such musicality and lack of pretention, and pure commitment to beauty and honesty. I think those are attributes that we all as musicians should strive towards. So I’ve always had Jim as a beacon, as a guitar player, but even more as a musician.”

Avalon is ‘a sonic love letter to the acoustic guitar.’ KENNETH PATTENGALE OF THE MILK CARTON KIDS

30 March 2015

THE VINTAGE SOUND Eldridge and Lage both play mahogany Martins built just two years apart in the 1930s. In a stripped-down setting, the instruments’ similarities give a special quality to their combined sound. That matching of guitars was pure serendipity. Eldridge has played D-28s for years and only recently got his D-18; around the same time, Lage happened to get the 000-18. “We’re lucky that we have these two really complementary instruments,” Lage says. “Even if they are stomping all over each other, it sounds coherent in a weird way, which is honestly just, thank you, universe, for giving us these two guitars. Thank you, Mr. Martin.” Avalon beautifully captures the nuances of the two guitars, thanks to Kenneth Pattengale’s keen ear as producer and engineer. After hearing Lage and Eldridge perform four sets at the 2014 Wintergrass festival in Washington, Pattengale suggested the duo make a record that would document what they do onstage. Last spring, when the Milk Carton Kids’ tour itinerary crossed briefly with Lage and Eldridge’s on the East Coast, Pattengale rented the Avalon, a historic art-deco theater in Easton, Maryland, for a couple days of recording. He set up microphones onstage and in the balcony (see “Recording Avalon” on page 30) and let the two musicians play.

WHAT JULIAN LAGE & CHRIS ELDRIDGE PLAY In their acoustic duo, Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge use minimal gear. Lage plays a 1939 Martin 000-18 with D’Addario phosphor-bronze light-gauge strings. He uses a BlueChip TP50 pick and various capos, including a Planet Waves NS and a Dunlop Gold model. Eldridge plays a 1937 Martin D-18, using various mediumgauge phosphor-bronze strings (including DR and the Tony Rice signature Martin Monels). He uses a BlueChip pick and a McKinney-Elliott capo. Amplification: one AudioTechnica 4033 condenser mic, with no monitors.

“Ultimately, we worked a sum total of eight hours, meaning that we wouldn’t attempt more than three or four passes of a song,” Pattengale says. Some of the improvisational pieces, he adds, sounded completely different from take to take. In the duo’s repertoire, there’s a dichotomy between the tightly structured songs and more open-ended jazz-influenced pieces. In a song like Paul Craft’s “Keep Me from Blowing Away”—a mournful country waltz from the Seldom Scene repertoire that’s made all the more poignant by the songwriter’s passing shortly after Avalon’s release—Lage and Eldridge play very simply, letting the melody shine. Both guitarists are believers in what Eldridge calls “the beauty of getting out of the way of a song.”

On the other end of the spectrum are instrumentals such as “Wilson’s Waltz,” written by Lage, which can travel anywhere. On the album version, the composed music doesn’t start until nearly four minutes into the track. Everything leading up to that moment was made up on the spot. “‘Wilson’s Waltz’ is a good example of the trajectory we aim for,” Lage says. “There’s an orchestral component, there’s an improvisation component, and there’s a simple song—it could be whittled down to that. It’s kind of like an accordion effect where you can look at the nucleus of it all, but you can also see it expand in all these directions and in all these implications. The more we play together, the more we realize that’s a specialty of our interests: We’re drawn to things that can be cracked open, then put back together, then cracked open again.”

LAGE UNPLUGGED While Eldridge has been picking dreadnoughts his whole career, Lage usually plays an acoustic-electric Manzer archtop or a Telecaster. But he says the flattop acoustic was his “secret passion” as a kid. When Lage was around nine, he played a Santa Cruz OM in a local music store and loved the sound. So when his family happened to be in Santa Cruz, California, to drop off his big sister at college, Lage called the guitar company from their hotel room to see if he could go visit. Richard Hoover wound up giving the young guitarist an extended tour of his factory and eventually helped get an OM-28-style Santa Cruz into Lage’s eager hands. At the time, Lage practiced every day on the guitar—often logging marathon sessions on the flattop before going out in the evenings to gig with an electric archtop. The Santa Cruz was “like a feedback mechanism,” Lage says. “If it sounded good on the Santa Cruz, I had it. If it wasn’t coming across . . . it just kind of revealed anything that was not all there in my playing.” Given this childhood connection with the OM, Lage says playing his Martin 000-18 along with Eldridge feels like “a homecoming.”

Eldridge (left) and Lage show off their vintage Martins. AcousticGuitar.com 31

But how do you start a song that has a defined destination yet no map showing the way there? “All it takes is one note,” Eldridge says. “As long as somebody plays one note, then you’re in it. And then eventually, there’s just the knowledge that, OK, we’re going to F at some point, whenever it feels like it’s time to go. But it’s really nice having something like that. That

song feels like a blank canvas to me. It feels like a laboratory to interact and try and discover things. I mean, ideally, as a musician, you always want to be trying to discover something, but I really cherish getting to play that one, because I feel like every time, the MO is discovery. Let’s discover something together.” AG

RECORDING AVALON For the Avalon sessions, producer Kenneth Pattengale set up a cluster of mics between the two musicians: Ear Trumpet Labs Edwinas for the vocals and Oktava MK-012s for the guitars. Up in the theater’s balcony, Earthworks QTC30s captured the room sound.

Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge Avalon Modern Lore Right Ear Trumpet Labs Edwina

32 March 2015

The most important factor in the sound, Pattengale says, was keeping the mics at least three feet away from the players. While most engineers favor close miking of the guitar to help it cut in a mix,

Pattengale believes that approach sacrifices the instrument’s sonic subtleties. “Taking a step back from the microphone allows for a tonally diverse instrument like the guitar to first establish its identity in the air, physically,” he says. The resulting sound on the album, a blend of all the vocal/guitar/room mics, does justice to the rich tones of the vintage Martins, the extraordinary attention to detail by the players, and the atmosphere of the old theater.

Both Lage and Eldridge have separate new albums out, too. Eldridge’s most recent release with the Punch Brothers, The Phosphorescent Blues, came out in late January, and Lage’s solo guitar album, World’s Fair, arrived in early February.

SPECIAL FOCUS

ACOUSTIC

TEXAS BIGGER IS BETTER

34 For the Sake of the Song 20 essential Texas singer-songwriters

In honor of the annual South by Southwest Music Conference held in Austin, Texas, in March, Acoustic Guitar takes a look at all the musical riches the Lone Star State has to offer.

41 Young Guns El Paso’s Dirty River Boys find their own path to glory

TEXAS MUSIC, FROM A TO VAN ZANDT

Austin, of course, is the live music capital of the world, but Texas is a massive state with lots of diverse musical offerings beyond the capital city—particularly for acoustic guitarists. In this section, Texas writers Peter Blackstock and Richard Skanse spotlight the essential Lone Star

singers, songwriters, guitarists, musical newcomers, and livemusic venues. Contributing editor Adam Perlmutter takes a look a few Texans who create the hardware for musicians, including the famous Collings Guitars and Kyser Capos. (Go to acousticguitar.com for a list of Texas music festivals.) Enjoy this special focus on the music of Texas, where everything is bigger—especially the yarns that singer-guitarists like Robert Earl Keen and the late Townes Van Zant spin.

42 5 Texas Troubadours A handful of gifted newcomers 44 Praise the Lloyd From pedal steel to production, Maines is the Man 46 Live Music Capital of the World 20 music hotspots around the Lone Star state 52 Hotbed 5 great Texas guitar builders you should know

AcousticGuitar.com 33

PHIL WEEDON PHOTO

FOR THE SAKE OF THE SONG THESE 20 ESSENTIAL TEXAS SINGER-GUITARISTS HELPED WRITE AMERICAS STORY BY RICHARD SKANSE

From blues and rock ’n’ roll to country and hip-hop, the Lone Star State has produced a size-appropriate share of bona-fide legends over the decades, but it’s the acoustic guitarwielding singer-songwriter that perhaps best exemplifies Texas music’s independent spirit and outlaw mythos. By and large, the best Texas troubadours pay little heed to genre fences and the conventional rules of Songwriting 101. They set their own rules, break them at will, and dedicate their lives pursuing not so much the bridge between art and commerce as the golden mean between impeccable craftsmanship and true poetry.

34 March 2015

1. TOWNES VAN ZANDT “Songwriter’s songwriter” is a title that gets tossed around a lot, but when it’s bestowed by no less a giant than Kris Kristofferson upon a recipient as deserving as Townes Van Zandt, take it as gospel. The scion of a Fort Worth oil family who battled manic depression throughout his life and died at 52 on New Year’s Day 1997, Van Zandt wrote songs that could be both dazzlingly abstract and devastatingly direct, often in the same verse, and his melodies could be as beautiful as his blues were brutal (weigh the achingly lovely “To Live’s to Fly” against the harrowing “Waitin’ Round to Die.”) He was also a fleet flatpicker in the tradition of his hero, Lightnin’ Hopkins, as evidenced on Van Zandt’s Live at the Old Quarter. Recorded in Houston in 1973, the double album is as essential as records in this genre get: 93 minutes of nothing but the poet, his guitar, and a sack of songs so bulletproof, he opens with “Pancho and Lefty” (see music on page 76).

2. GUY CLARK A veritable Rock of Gibraltar to his mercurial compadre Townes Van Zandt’s rolling stone, the Monahans-born Guy Clark has called Nashville home for his entire recording career. Generations of younger writers, from Rodney Crowell to Hayes Carll, study his craft and strive for inclusion on his Dean’s List. By the time Clark released his flawless 1975 debut, Old No. 1, a fistful of his most enduring songs (including “Desperados Waiting for a Train” and “L.A. Freeway”) had already been canonized in Texas via covers by Jerry Jeff Walker. Decades later, a host of other esteemed troubadours (many on this list) did right by the master on the terrific This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark. But as proven with every record he’s made up to 2013’s Grammy-winning My Favorite Picture of You, nobody sings a Clark song as definitively as Guy himself, his cigarette-toasted, West Texas drawl fitting every precision-tuned line “like a coat from the cold.”

Right Billie Joe Shaver has paid his Texas songwriter dues.

3. WILLIE NELSON Has any artist in country music ever had a more distinctive guitar sound than Willie? The Abbottborn songwriter had already penned most of his greatest Nashville-era hits (“Crazy,” “Night Life,” “Hello Walls,” etc.) by the time he finally acquired “Trigger” in 1969, but American music’s most iconic living artist and his beloved Martin N-20 classical have been inseparable ever since. Every record he’s made over the last four-and-a-half decades (and Willie makes a lot of records) has prominently featured his trademark tumbling leads and gypsy-jazz chording, plucked out of an instrument with a voice and battle-scarred face as singular as his own behind-the-beat phrasing. Willie, who turns 82 this April, is still as active as ever, and though he doesn’t write near as much as he records or tours anymore, 2013’s Band of Brothers—his first album in many years comprised mostly of originals—proves he can still knock out a stone-cold classic when he fancies. Just listen to “The Wall.”

4. KRIS KRISTOFFERSON Even if there were other Texas songwriters who could pad their resumes with Rhodes Scholar, Army captain, chopper pilot, and silver-screen idol, Brownsville’s Kris Kristofferson would still stand out from the crowd by merit of being the only one who also wrote “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Mornin’ Coming Down,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and “For the Good Times.” Although his songs are best known through other voices (most notably Janis Joplin and Johnny Cash), Kristofferson’s writing alone was a game changer, serving notice to mainstream critics and rock snobs that country music could be every bit as sophisticated and scary smart as Dylan at his best. And damn, was Kristofferson suave! “I ain’t saying I beat the devil,” he growled on his 1970 debut, sounding like the most interesting man in the world, “but I drank all his beer for nothin’ . . . Then I stole his song.”

JIM MCGUIRE PHOTO

JIM HERRINGTON PHOTO

Above Willie Nelson’s face itself says Texas.

5. BILLY JOE SHAVER Armed with an eighth-grade education and a right hand shorted two fingers in a saw accident, Billy Joe Shaver has written some of the finest hardscrabble country songs this side of Hank Williams. The Corsicana scrapper was an Outlaw’s outlaw from the git-go, with Waylon Jennings recording almost an entire album of his songs (1973’s Honky Tonk Heroes) the same year Kris Kristofferson produced Shaver’s seminal debut, Old Five and Dimers Like Me. Shaver’s ’70s songbook is chock full of progressive country classics (“Black Rose,” “Georgia on a Fast Train”), but he recorded many of his best albums in the ’90s with MVP support from his guitar-hero son, Eddy: 1993’s Tramp on Your Street, featuring arguably his best song, “Live Forever,” is a masterpiece. Eddy’s death in 2000 and myriad other obstacles have knocked Shaver sideways numerous times over the last decade-plus, but 2014’s Long in the Tooth finds the “Old Chunk of Coal” still fit as the proverbial fiddle—and still plenty randy for a born-again Christian soldier.

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ACOUSTIC TEXAS

6. THE FLATLANDERS: BUTCH HANCOCK, JOE ELY, & JIMMIE DALE GILMORE We’re cheating here, given that the three main members deserve their own spot on this list (along with fellow Lubbock luminary Terry Allen, if only his weapon of choice were guitar rather than keyboards). But even though whip-smart raconteur Hancock (“If You Were a Bluebird”), rootsrocker Ely (“Letter to Laredo”) and cosmic honky-tonker Gilmore (“Dallas”) have all established storied solo careers, any time their stars and schedules align is cause for celebration. Fortunately that happens a lot more nowadays than it used to: After waiting 30 years to follow up their 1972 debut with 2002’s Now Again, the three amigos have taken to touring and recording together fairly regularly over the last decade.

7. RODNEY CROWELL From his salad days as a disciple of Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt in the early ’70s through his stint playing rhythm guitar in Emmylou Harris’ formidable Hot Band, Rodney Crowell wrote a handful of songs that remain some of his most enduring crowd favorites, including “Till I Gain Control Again,” “Ain’t Living Long Like This,” and “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight.” But his best work was yet to come, most notably 1988’s edgy country blockbuster Diamonds & Dirt (which launched a record-setting five No. 1 chart hits) and his 2001 Americana masterpiece, The Houston Kid. Crowell’s continued in strong, prolific form ever since, constantly raising his own bar both as a solo artist (see 2003’s splendid Fate’s Right Hand and 2014’s widely acclaimed Tarpaper Sky) and as a collaborator (as on his Grammy-winning 2013 duo record with Harris, Old Yellow Moon). 36 March 2015

8. NANCI GRIFFITH Austin-reared folkie Nanci Griffith has long been a champion of other writers, from up-and-comers such as Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen to heroes including the host of folk icons (Dylan, Prine, Van Zandt, etc.) she paid tribute to on her Grammy-winning 1993 set, Other Voices, Other Rooms. But her own compositions are just as strong, with poetic jewels like “Love at the Five and Dime,” “Gulf Coast Highway,” and “It’s a Hard Life Wherever You Go” cut with bittersweet nostalgia, palpable heartbreak, and astute social awareness that rings as pure as her sweet Texas twang and strong, gorgeous melodies.

9. STEVE EARLE Like Rodney Crowell, Texas ex-pat Steve Earle honed his craft at marathon song-pulls with Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt in Nashville before finding a quick taste of mainstream country fame with his rollicking 1986 debut, Guitar Town, and even a flash of rock-radio love via the hardhitting title track of 1988’s Copperhead Road. But from the acoustic renewal of ’95’s Train a Comin’ to the rousing post-addiction surge of ’96’s I Feel Alright and onwards, he’s evolved into one of the most stridently political and adventurous artists in modern Americana music—a selfstyled “Hardcore Troubadour” as comfortable playing bluegrass with Del McCoury as he is raging against the death penalty, fascism, and other social ills with swagger (and maybe a borrowed riff or two) reminiscent of the Stones at their “Street Fighting Man” best.

10. ROBERT EARL KEEN Although best known for “The Road Goes On Forever,” Houstonborn, Kerrville-based Robert Earl Keen hasn’t maintained his standing as one of the biggest live draws in Texas since the ’70s heyday of Jerry Jeff Walker on the strength of one rousing anthem alone. His catalog is stacked with three decades’ worth of modern classics every discerning Americana music fan should know by heart, ranging from singalong favorites including “Gringo Honeymoon” to such songs as “Corpus Christi Bay,” “Dreadful Selfish Crime” and “Wild Wind” that feel as cinematic in scope and narrative detail as Texas novelist Larry McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show. Keen is also a peerless bandleader and savvy, inventive interpreter, qualities brought to the fore on his first covers collection, 2015’s Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions.

Left The Flatlanders in 1972: Steve Wesson (left), Hancock, Gilmore, Tony Pearson, and Ely.

LONE STAR APPROVED They’re not from Texas, but Texas loves ’em anyway

The artist born Ronald Clyde Crosby in upstate New York had already spent years crisscrossing the country as a wandering troubadour and even written his biggest hit (“Mr. Bojangles”) by the time he finally settled down in one place long enough to call it home. But from the moment he hit town, neither that artist, Jerry Jeff Walker, nor Austin, Texas, would ever be the same again. Walker had passed through the Austin, Dallas, and Houston folk scenes a number of times in the ’60s, but it wasn’t until he adopted the state as his own that the pieces began to fall into place. That was 1972, when Willie Nelson was getting his own great Second Act in order. Walker arrived just in time to grab his piece of the cosmic-cowboy pie and help kick the progressive-country party into high gear. “Jerry Jeff still may be the best single entertainer with an acoustic guitar I’ve ever seen,” Guy Clark told Texas Music magazine in 2004, recalling his first encounter with the gypsy songman who would later play a big role in putting Clark on the map. 11. RAY WYLIE HUBBARD After tumbling through two decades in a self-described “honky-tonk fog” and being relegated to the footnotes of cosmic country history as the guy who wrote “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother” (immortalized by Jerry Jeff Walker), Oklahomaborn, Dallas-raised Ray Wylie Hubbard found sobriety and a new lease on his artistic life at the dawn of the ’90s. His first four “comeback” albums, culminating with 1999’s Crusades of the Restless Knights, showcased a fingerpicking, Rilke-quoting Zen troubadour on literate jewels like “The Messenger” and the wry “Conversation with the Devil.” But from 2001’s Eternal and Lowdown through to 2015’s Ruffian’s Misfortune, he’s favored a resonator slide to plow a deeper, grittier groove through a devil’s banquet of gnarled blues and snarling fare like “Snake Farm” and the forked-tonguein-cheek anthem, “Screw You, We’re From Texas.”

12. LYLE LOVETT Even on his self-titled 1986 debut—the closest Lyle Lovett’s ever come to making a pure country record—this long, tall Texan sounded (not to mention looked) like a true original. Years of seasoning on the Houston/ Austin folk circuit had already honed his dry, sometimes cruel wit to a razor’s edge (“God Will”), while “An Acceptable Level of Ecstasy” forecast the jazz and gospel genre-bending to come with the introduction of his Large Band on subsequent records. Lovett’s entire catalog is ribboned with gold and eccentric surprises, but his two best records to date are 1996’s The Road to Ensenada (worth it for the gut-wrenching title track alone) and ’98’s Step Inside This House, his masterful two-disc tribute to his own favorite Texas songwriters.

Four decades on, Walker still hangs his hat in Austin—and you’d have a hell of a time convincing even the stubbornest Texas music fan that he’s not every bit as much of a true, blue Texan as, say, Ray Benson—the Phillyborn, guitar-playing Jerry Jeff Walker leader of Asleep at the Wheel who was designated as the official Texas State Musician in 2004. If there’s one thing Texans love as much as bragging about their music, it’s claiming ownership of any reputable artist who happens to land there. Or maybe it’s just an Austin thing, given that city’s habit of seizing bragging rights away from other Texas cities: Ask Dallas (Stevie Ray Vaughan) or San Antonio (Doug Sahm) how they feel about that. Continues on page 39 AcousticGuitar.com 37

C LAWRENCE PHOTO

ACOUSTIC TEXAS

13. ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO Born in San Antonio, Alejandro Escovedo is first and foremost a rocker, but his earliest solo albums (most notably 1993’s exquisite Gravity) found him leaning just enough in the altcountry direction for No Depression magazine to hail him as its “artist of the decade” before the ’90s had even expired. His more recent efforts, like 2008’s widely acclaimed Real Animal, have found him re-embracing his Cali/NYC punk roots to thrilling effect, though the quality of his songwriting remains unassailable—and it’s worth noting that Escovedo favored acoustic rather than electric guitars to drive the explosive, glam-rock anthems like “Man of the World” that powered 2012’s Big Station.

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14. TERRI HENDRIX Nearly two decades on from her winsome debut, Two Dollar Shoes, San Antonio-born, San Marcosbased Terri Hendrix remains a jewel on the national contemporary folk scene, with an independent, playful spirit and free-range muse (spinning from country-blues to rootsy pop to swinging jazz on a whim) that charges her music with an irresistible feel-good buoyancy. But songs like “Hand Me Down Blues” and “The Ring” demonstrate the emotional depth of her writing, and there’s also a not-to-bemessed-with fierce side that comes to the fore in “Monopoly” and “I Found the Lions,” which Hendrix and longtime duo partner Lloyd Maines (see story on page 42) can whip into a bracing acoustic maelstrom.

15. JAMES MCMURTRY Notoriously taciturn in interviews, this son of novelist Larry McMurtry certainly doesn’t spare many words (let alone the rod) in densely packed, sprawling epics, like the meth-themed “Choctaw Bingo” or brutal state-of-thenation address “Can’t Make It Here.” James McMurtry’s shorter anthems (“Childish Things,” “Just Us Kids”) hit just as hard, as does his sly sense of humor (“Looks like a Wal-Mart waiting to happen,” he quips in “60 Acres,” describing a prime piece of open real estate). McMurtry can easily drive his furious bar band, the Heartless Bastards, into the red, but his writing loses none of its power in the acoustic arrangements that pervade his latest album, this year’s Complicated Game.

16. SAM BAKER Itasca-born Sam Baker has only released four albums, debuting at age 50 with 2004’s Mercy, but that first record alone was enough to warrant his standing as one of the most compelling singer-songwriters to emerge from Texas in decades. He was nearly killed in a 1986 terrorist train bombing in Peru, so it’s no surprise he specializes in writing about broken souls (and bodies) and haunted memories in startling still-life detail: “Her face was blood and diamonds/he remembers her that way,” Baker croaks in the devastating “Odessa,” from 2007’s Pretty World, while Mercy’s “Steel” recounts his fateful train ride with chilling flashes of nightmarish verisimilitude. But as befits a man who knows firsthand the difference between hell and hope, it is beauty and resilience, not despair, that ultimately defines his work.

17. TISH HINOJOSA The youngest of 13 children born to Mexican immigrants, Tish Hinojosa captures the multi-cultural splendor of her native San Antonio with such deft grace that you almost don’t even notice when her crystal-clear voice switches from English to Spanish. Her 1992 breakthrough, the aptly titled Culture Swing, seamlessly blended folk influences from both sides of the border, with the stirring, bilingual Mex-Tex anthem “Bandera del Sol” ringing as true as “Something in the Rain,” a portrait of the migrant experience as poignant as Woody Guthrie’s “Pastures of Plenty.” Even better is ’96’s unrelentingly gorgeous Dreaming from the Labyrinth.

19. RUTHIE FOSTER Even when she was playing acoustic duo music best suited for coffee houses and campfires, Ruthie Foster’s voice always sounded like a powerhouse instrument worthy of bigger stages and national attention. She found both with 2007’s The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster, which traded stripped-down folk for thick slabs of Memphis soul and swaggering blues (including strong originals like “Heal Yourself” and “Mama Said” holding their own alongside assertive covers of Son House, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Lucinda Williams). Subsequent releases such as 2012’s Grammy-nominated Let It Burn and 2014’s Promise of a New Day have been steeped in the equally potent gospel influences Foster grew up with from singing in churches in the tiny East Texas town of Gause.

Continued from page 37 Louisiana-born Lucinda Williams spent much of her 20s singing folk songs and blues covers there, and South Dakota native Shawn Colvin has been a resident since before she won her Grammys for “Sunny Came Home” in ’98. Patty Griffin, originally from New England, has also been an Austin fixture for most of her recording career—long enough that some Austinites are still in denial that her ex-boyfriend, Texas-claimed Robert Plant, has since moved back across the pond. Austin also had another famed Brit rocker, Ian McLagan, the former Small Faces/Faces keyboardist who died on December 3rd. McLagan was the second member of that seminal British rock band to move there, after the late Ronnie Lane’s tenure through most of the 1980s.

Hinojosa

18. BRUCE ROBISON The Dixie Chicks, George Strait, and Tim McGraw may have been the mainstream-friendly voices that carried his “Travelin’ Soldier,” “Wrapped,” and “Angry All the Time” to the top of the country charts, but Bruce Robison is no slouch of an entertainer himself. The Bandera-reared songwriter is one of the smoothest country crooners this side of fellow Texan Don Williams. His best solo album, 2001’s Country Sunshine, plays like a lost classic from the golden age of AM country radio, while 2013’s Cheater’s Game and 2014’s Our Year, a pair of duo albums with wife Kelly Willis are packed with fun, feisty covers of songs by artists ranging from Dave Alvin to the Zombies.

20. HAYES CARLL The drollest songwriting voice to roll out of Houston suburbia since Lyle Lovett, Hayes Carll leapt from pretty good (2002’s Flowers & Liquor and 2005’s Little Rock) to legitimately great on 2008’s Trouble in Mind and 2011’s even better KMAG YOYO (& other American stories). The guy can do earnest, tears-in-beer honky-tonk (“Chances Are”) and crunchy roots rock with the best of them (“Bad Liver and a Broken Heart” coulda been a monster of a Tom Petty hit), but it’s his sense of humor that really sets Carll’s work apart: “She Left Me for Jesus” goes for easy laughs, but the Dylan-on-acid trip of “KMAG YOYO” and neo-con/hippie hook-up anthem “Another Like You” only get funnier with repeated listens.

Richard Skanse, a former editor at Rolling Stone, is currently the editor of Lone Star Music Magazine based in San Marcos, Texas.

Lucinda Williams

The list of honorary Texas troubadours goes on: Eliza Gilkyson, the Hollywoodborn daughter of ’50s songwriter Terry Gilkyson (“The Bare Necessities”) and an acclaimed folk artist in her own right, has lived in Austin for years, as has Buffalo native Gurf Morlix, who in addition to writing and performing his own music is one of Americana’s most sought-after producers and guitar players, in large part due to his work with fellow Texas transplants like McLagan. And then there’s Maine’s Slaid Cleaves, Canada’s Bonneville, and Los Angeles’ Tom Russell, who’s based in El Paso. Regardless of their point of origin, all of the above merit consideration for any playlist of great Texas singer-songwriters. Or perhaps a companion playlist of their own, kicking off with Lyle Lovett’s “That’s Right (You’re Not from Texas)”—the “Texas loves you anyway” song he cowrote with fellow Texas songwriting icon Willis Alan Ramsey . . . of Birmingham, Alabama. —R.S. AcousticGuitar.com 39

YOUNG GUNS EL PASO’S DIRTY RIVER BOYS FIND THEIR OWN PATH TO GLORY

TODD WHITE PHOTO

BY MARC GREILSAMER

The 600-mile drive from El Paso to Austin takes about eight or nine hours on the long, straight, and flat Interstate 10. Yet, when it comes to musical identity,

El Paso Austin

the two cities might as well be a million miles apart.

“Growing up in El Paso,” says the Dirty River Boys’ Nino Cooper, “we were a bit secluded from the Texas music scene. We were in our own little bubble—unaware of it—and I think that helped us develop a unique sound.” “El Paso’s pretty far removed from everything else that’s happening in Texas,” adds bandmate Marco Gutierrez. It wasn’t until the Dirty River Boys started touring around central Texas, opening for artists such as Houston-born country singer Cory Morrow, that they internalized the Lone Star State’s signature brand of country-folk songwriting.

“The truth is,” says Gutierrez, “we had no idea what the Texas country scene was about.” Things have changed for the high-energy, mostly acoustic West Texas foursome. Cooper, Gutierrez, Colton James, and Travis Stearns are now well-acquainted with the “Texas country scene”; they are, indeed, a crucial part of it. Yet, with an exhilarating blend of rock, bluegrass, honky-tonk, folk, punk, and pop, the Dirty River Boys stand apart from the central Texas singer-songwriter crowd, their El Paso roots still shining brightly. “Being from the desert, it’s really inspiring,” says Gutierrez.

“A few of the songs that I wrote, I wanted to re-create the feel of a desert landscape—reaching for a spaghetti-western kind of feeling.” Notes Cooper, “There are definitely sounds that evoke West Texas imagery, some of that desert feel, some of that border feel. You’ll hear a little bit of a western sound, a little bit of a Latin flair.” El Paso is a vital source of lyrical themes as well. For example, “Down by the River,” the opening track on the Boys’ recently released self-titled album, references the drug violence of neighboring Juarez, Mexico—a town that was, before the cartels, a popular destination for El Paso’s denizens. The

band even enlisted fabled Texas songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard to help finish it off. “‘Undertaker looks like crows, red-eyed and dressed in black’— that Ray Wylie vibe rounded out the tune,” says Cooper. The hometown influence also shows itself in more elusive ways. For one, the lack of a bona fide country scene meant the band members were exposed to a wider variety of music—emo, hardcore, and indie rock in particular. For another, El Paso’s relative dearth of music venues indirectly led them to the acoustic-based instrumentation they boast today— guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, upright bass, cajon box drum—after they’d started out as a “full-blown electric” band. “We started breaking it down into all-acoustic instruments out of necessity,” says Cooper. “A lot of the places we were playing didn’t want a loud drum set or amplifiers. We were just trying to play everywhere that would allow us: hotel lobbies, three-hour bar gigs, restaurants playing in the corner, Sunday brunches, birthday parties. It naturally evolved from there, and we just sort of fell into [an acoustic sound].” Both Gutierrez and Cooper already owned acoustic guitars they loved. For Gutierrez, it’s a Gibson Songwriter he got from his dad at 17—“fresh off the Guitar Center wall” in El Paso. Cooper is partial to his Taylor 814ce limited edition with cocobolo back and sides, which boasts an A/B switch that toggles between a Baggs Venue DI preamp system and an 18-watt Lee Jackson Master Series amp (for a “dirty electric” sound). Prudently, his 1968 Brazilian rosewood Martin D-28, a handme-down from his father, stays at home. By combining thoughtful, reflective lyrics with an infectious, full-throttle approach, the Dirty River Boys seem to have settled on a winning formula that is distinctly Texas—with a twist. Says Gutierrez, “We wanted the best of everything—something of substance, something with meaning, with catchy poppy hooks and the raw, gritty, dirty guitars.” AG AcousticGuitar.com 41

TEXAS TROUBADOURS 5 MORE SINGER-SONGWRITERS WHO ARE BLAZING NEW TRAILS

JARRED GASTRIECH PHOTO

BY RICHARD SKANSE

While many of the living legends of Texas music continue to tour and produce noteworthy material, there’s no shortage of gifted newcomers who are well on their way toward renown. Along with El Paso’s explosively energetic Dirty River Boys, here are five more rising stars from the

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generations to come.

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tradition alive for

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3. BETTYSOO Born in the Houston suburb of Spring but long based in Austin, BettySoo may well have the most gorgeous voice in Texas at the moment, if not in all contemporary folk: Its purity and strength can be downright devastating when shined through the prism of songs like “100 Different Ways of Being Alone,” one of the many standouts from her deeply moving 2014 set, When We’re Gone. The rest of her catalog is just as rich—and varied, too, with 2007’s Little Tiny Secrets flashing a sense of humor as wicked as the true grit that characterized her Gurf Morlix-produced 2009 release, Heat Sin Water Skin.

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their part to keep the

2. ROBERT ELLIS Houston kid Ellis cut his teeth playing classic country on his hometown’s honky-tonk bar scene, but since following his wanderlust to Brooklyn, New York, and Nashville, Tennessee, he’s evolved into a true original— as fully revealed on his 2014 album, The Lights from the Chemical Plant, an eerily beautiful mix of twilit Americana awash in pedal steel and spacey flourishes that sound like Gram Parsons’ “cosmic American music” updated with cunning imagination for the late 21st century.

DA

Lone Star State doing

1. RYAN BINGHAM Calling Bingham an “up-andcomer” is admittedly a stretch, as the 33-year-old troubadour has already won a Grammy, Golden Globe, and Oscar for “The Weary Kind,” his theme song for Crazy Heart. Calling the native of Hobbs, New Mexico, a Texan is a little iffy, too, though he did spend a good chunk of his formative years in Texas and started songwriting in between riding bulls on the rodeo circuit. Most important, though, he’s got the goods, as he proved right out of the gate with his startlingly strong 2007 national debut, Mescalito, and the handful of fine records he’s released since (including the brand-new Fear and Saturday Night). Having Joe Ely and Terry Allen among his biggest fans hasn’t hurt his Texas cred, either.

4. SHAKEY GRAVES Although he’s now trying to shake off the one-man-band tag, “Shakey Graves” is still for all intents and purposes the stage name of Alejandro Rose-Garcia, the Austin actor-turned-songwriter who snuck onto the indie radar with his download-only 2011 debut, Roll the Bones, and is now making a serious impression on the national Americana scene with 2014’s And the War Came. His sound is a compelling mix of raw, stomping blues and haunting-but-hummable acoustic folk, reminiscent at times of both the Black Keys and his Dualtone label mates the Lumineers, but also unique unto itself.

Far Left Shakey Graves introduces the talents of Alejandro Rose-Garcia

5. JAMIE LIN WILSON As one of the four lovely voices that made the all-female act the Trishas among the decade’s more refreshing new acts in Texas Americana music, Jamie Wilson stood out as a solo talent in waiting. That promise, first hinted at during her early days co-fronting the Gougers and later on her 2010 solo EP, Dirty Blonde Hair, takes its long-overdue turn in the spotlight on her new full-length debut, Holidays & Wedding Rings. Wilson’s songs are equal parts folksy and country, with breezily catchy melodies, but her lyrics convey the maturity and emotional fortitude of a seasoned Texas road warrior who also happens to be a happily married mother of three.

Right Jamie Lin Wilson goes solo

CENTRUM PRESENTS

Port Townsend

Acoustic Blues

Festival & Workshop Join us for the largest country blues gathering in the nation! Centrum’s weeklong workshop focuses on acoustic pre-war country blues and the African-American cultures and traditions it grew from. It’s one week with a friendly multi-generational down home backporch vibe.

July 26-August 2

Fort Worden State Park

Jerron Paxton Artistic Director

Faculty includes Paul Asbell, Michael Jerome Browne, Daryl Davis, Rich DelGrosso, Pat Donohue, Mary Flower, Samuel James, Steve James, John Miller, Lauren Sheehan, Cyd Smith, Alice Stuart, Valerie Turner, Phil Wiggins and more. Details online.

centrum.org

AcousticGuitar.com 43

TINA MAINES PHOTO

PRAISE THE LLOYD FROM PEDAL STEEL TO PAPOOSE, PRODUCER MAINES IS THE MAN BY RICHARD SKANSE

Lloyd Maines had just finished his set with fellow Lubbock, Texas, musician Jay Boy Adams in front of the biggest crowd of his life—some 80,000 packed into Austin’s UT Memorial Stadium for ZZ Top’s First (and last) Annual Texas Size Rompin’ Stompin’ Barn Dance and Bar B.Q. As Maines scrambled to pack up his rig and clear the stage for the next band, Bad Company, a fellow with a British accent came up and enthused to him, “Man, I’ve never heard anybody play the pedal steel like that!” Maines responded with a cordial smile and quick “thanks,” but didn’t have time to chat. A few moments later, a stagehand excitedly asked Maines if he had any idea who had just paid him the compliment. He didn’t.

44 March 2015

“That was Jimmy Page, man!” the stagehand said. “I went, ‘OK—who’s Jimmy Page?’” Maines chuckles as he recalls the incident that happened 40 years earlier. “That just wasn’t part of my world,” he says. “I had heard of Led Zeppelin, but I didn’t know who their personnel was. But I could tell you every member of Merle Haggard’s band!” Maines was just 23 at the time—two years away from his epic five-year run with the Joe Ely Band, and four decades from being inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame for the most appearances ever on the long-running live-music show. But anyone who’s ever heard Maines make a pedal steel scream through a distortion unit like a runaway train can understand Pagey’s awe. Maines’ hair-raising solos on songs such as “Boxcars,” from Ely’s 1980 album, Live Shots, is not for the meek. Still, Maines’ legend wasn’t built on his pedal-steel work alone. Beginning with Terry

Allen’s seminal 1979 album, Lubbock (On Everything), Maines also made his mark as one of the busiest and most sought-after producers in Texas, with miles of credits including albums by such Lone Star luminaries as the Maines Brothers (the family outfit he and his brothers inherited from their father and uncles), the Flatlanders, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ray Wylie Hubbard, James McMurtry, Robert Earl Keen, and the Dixie Chicks. Of course, Maines also helped “produce” Chicks singer Natalie, his daughter, who made her debut singing back-up on a Terry Allen album as a kid and is featured on one of her dad’s most recent projects, Keen’s new release, Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions. The Keen album (featuring such notable guests as Lyle Lovett, banjo player Danny Barnes, fiddler Sara Watkins, and mandolinist Kym Warner) is just one of many Maines productions due out this year. Others in the pipeline include not one, but four different projects by Terri Hendrix, the San Marcos-based singer-songwriter with whom Maines has performed almost exclusively since he moved to Austin in the late ’90s. It was his steady duo work with Hendrix that rekindled Maines’ interest in the first instrument he ever played: the acoustic guitar. “Up until that point I had really only played acoustic guitar in the studio,” says Maines. “But with Terri I had to play acoustic and Dobro live, and I feel like that’s when I became a better player and started to rise to the occasion.” With Hendrix playing rhythm and mandolin, and both taking turns on the Tacoma Papoose—a mighty little marvel of a sadly discontinued instrument with a distinct sound Maines likens to a cross between a guitar, Dulcimer, and banjo— the duo can floor a listening room or festival crowd as convincingly as any electric outfit Maines has ever played in. “I’ve had people come up to me numerous times and say, ‘Man, for two people, you sound like four people going at it up there!’” Maines says. AG

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LIVE MUSIC CAPITAL OF THE WORLD VISIT THE 20 ESSENTIAL TEXAS VENUES BY PETER BLACKSTOCK

From a city that proclaims itself “The Live Music Capital of the World” (Austin) to a town that doesn’t really exist except for a legendary dancehall (Luckenbach), Texas has long celebrated places where musical magic happens. Many of the best regularly present artists who adapt acoustic instrumentation to a variety of genres, from country and folk to blues and jazz to BILL ELLISON PHOTO

Cajun and conjunto. AG surveyed the state for this panoramic sampler of 20 essential Texas music venues. AUSTIN AREA CACTUS CAFE No lesser authority than Townes Van Zandt signed a gig poster declaring the Cactus to be “my home club.” A former lunchroom in the student union building on the University of Texas campus might seem an unlikely locale for a songwriter’s mecca, but longtime proprietor Griff Luneburg spent decades getting the sound, feel, and bookings in the room just right. Now run by UT radio station KUTX, the Cactus has broadened its stylistic horizons a bit, but at its core it remains a classic listening room. 2247 Guadalupe St.

CONTINENTAL GALLERY Steve Wertheimer’s revered Continental Club has been the musical anchor of the city’s centrally located South Congress district for nearly 30 years (and it existed in other forms before that), but the more recent addition of the Continental Gallery upstairs has been a major plus for acoustic fare. A small space with a livingroom feel, the Gallery is home to some of the city’s top weekly residencies, including first-rate jazz with the “Church on Monday” gang and songwriter sessions by Jon Dee Graham and James McMurtry.

BROKEN SPOKE The iconic honky-tonk recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and though it’s now surrounded by giant apartment complexes as Austin has grown up around it, everything still feels the same once you walk through the front door. Couples twirl and two-step in an oval across the long concrete dance floor as top regional bands play traditional country spiked liberally with fiddle and pedal steel. If you get tired of Austinites bemoaning that “you should have been here back when…,” head to the Spoke and you’ll be back there again.

ONE WORLD THEATRE Rising from the hills on the west side of Austin is a castle-like building that looks like it belongs in the European countryside. A rambling property that includes patios and banquet rooms leads into an immaculate theater space with a few hundred seats plus a small balcony. Bookings, which tend toward known names in jazz, folk, Latin, blues, rock, and pop, may not be as progressive as the city’s central venues, but One World serves an important constituency with a consistent emphasis on quality performances in a unique setting.

(512) 475-6515

1315 S. Congress Ave.

3201 S. Lamar Blvd.

7701 Bee Caves Road

cactuscafe.org

(512) 441-2444

(512) 442-6189

(512) 330-9500

continentalclub.com

brokenspokeaustintx.com

oneworldtheatre.org

46 March 2015

BILL ELLISON PHOTO

DALLAS/FORT WORTH M ETROPLEX CHEATHAM STREET WAREHOUSE About a half-hour south of Austin in the small college town of San Marcos, this aptly named spacious joint next to the railroad tracks has witnessed some history within its walls. George Strait’s Ace in the Hole Band got their start here in the 1970s, and Todd Snider rose up from weekly songwriter gigs at Cheatham Street in the 1980s. Those songwriter circles, held every Wednesday with host Kent Finlay, remain the centerpiece of a calendar that regularly features roadhouse country acts and Tex-Mex genre-benders.

KESSLER THEATER From the ashes of an old movie theater once owned by Gene Autry in the historically artist-rich North Oak Cliff neighborhood, the Kessler quickly gained renown as one of Dallas’ top live music destinations when it opened in 2010. A high-end sound system complements a comfortable and cool small-theater floor plan ringed by a small balcony. The venue accommodates a wide range of performers, from storytelling singer-songwriters to instrumental masters to envelope-pushing art-rockers.

119 Cheatham St.

thekessler.org

1230 W. Davis St. (214) 864-1748

GRANADA THEATER Like the Kessler, the Granada is a 1940s-era movie theater that has been converted for live music, though its spacious standingroom pit accommodates acts with larger draws. Massive murals dominate the walls, while a seated balcony in the back provides additional capacity. Bookings run the gamut of generation and genre, juxtaposing hip young indie acts with livinglegend songwriters.

Opposite Rhett Miller at the Granada Theater Top Left Amanda Sudano of Johnnyswim at Granada Theater Top Right One World Theatre Bottom Left Kessler Theater

3524 Greenville Ave. (214) 824-9933 granadatheater.com

Bottom Right Kern Watts at the Cheatham Street Warehouse

(512) 353-3777 cheathamstreet.com

AcousticGuitar.com 47

ACOUSTIC TEXAS

HOUSTON/ GULF COAST

106 E. Exchange Ave.

DAN’S SILVERLEAF Just north of Fort Worth and Dallas, the small town of Denton gets a boost from the renowned music school at University of North Texas, which helps provide a base for venues such as the smallish but smartly designed Silverleaf. Classic country purveyors, indie folk acts, and even classical guitarists have found a place on the curved-front stage that was enlarged specifically to accommodate Leon Russell’s piano a few years back.

(817) 624-8273

103 Industrial St.

2425 Norfolk St.

whiteelephantsaloon.com

(940) 320-2000

(713) 528-5999

danssilverleaf.com

mcgonigels.com

POOR DAVID’S PUB Originally located on the north edge of downtown before moving a couple miles east and finally settling just south of the Dallas Convention Center, Poor David’s has persevered through the relocations to remain a vital spot for acoustic music in Dallas since the 1970s. Built around a basic tablesand-chairs setup, it’s a pretty humble and unglamorous room, but everyone from Lyle Lovett to Los Lobos to the Dixie Chicks played there on their way up.

WHITE ELEPHANT SALOON Though the massive Billy Bob’s Texas dominates Fort Worth’s historic Stockyards District, the White Elephant may be a better place to get a sense of Cowtown’s musical heart without the sprawl. An old-fashioned barroom with lots of wood and brass bar rails, the saloon features mostly country-leaning singer-songwriters seven nights a week, with additional afternoon shows on weekends.

1313 S. Lamar St. (214) 565-1295 poordavidspub.com

MCGONIGEL’S MUCKY DUCK The warm Irish bar with tables and chairs and a red curtain behind the stage has drawn accomplished acoustic acts to Houston for nearly 25 years. Singer-songwriters are the focus, though bookings include Latin, jazz, and world-music performers for shows where seating preference is given to those who avail themselves of the venue’s supperclub menu.

WINKER WITHANEYE PHOTO

10 MORE FOR THE ROAD

48 March 2015

ACL Live at the Moody Theater, the new downtown home of the Austin City Limits TV show, has become one of the capital’s premier showcase venues, with a state-ofthe-art sound system that greatly benefits acoustic artists. . . . Two South Austin venues, mainstay the Saxon Pub and newcomer Strange Brew, are important fixtures in the city’s songwriting community, with multiple shows most days mixing established locals and fresh faces. . . . Just west of Austin in Spicewood, near Willie Nelson’s ranch, his late manager Poodie Locke founded Poodie’s Hilltop Tavern, a rustic haven for old-school pickers. . . . If you’re drawn to the Urban Cowboy glitter and glitz, Gilley’s opened a massive new complex in Dallas long after its original Houston-area location shuttered, and BillyBob’s Texas offers acres of boot-scooting in the Fort Worth Stockyards. . . . Back down to earth in San Antonio are Sam’s Burger Joint and the 502 Bar, a couple of casual hangouts that prominently feature acoustic music. . . . If you venture out to the quirky deep-west artist community of Marfa, check out Padre’s, a mission-style building that pulls in local players and the occasional touring act. . . . Proudly promoting itself as Texas’ second-oldest dancehall (trailing Gruene) is Schroeder Hall, built in 1890 and still drawing quality regional country acts to the small burg of Goliad an hour north of Corpus Christi. Left Willie Nelson performs at Saxon Pub

ANDERSON FAIR Not many Texas music venues have been the subject of documentaries, but this restaurant’s contributions to the state’s folkmusic scene were significant enough to inspire the 2010 film For the Sake of the Song: The Story of Anderson Fair. It’s a venture that many Texas troubadours developed a close relationship with in the 1970s. One of Nanci Griffith’s finest records, One Fair Summer Evening, was recorded live at Anderson Fair in 1988.

GRUENE HALL Billed as Texas’ oldest dancehall, Gruene is, like Luckenbach, a tiny community that’s really all about its one classic music venue. Located just north of New Braunfels on the Interstate 35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin, Gruene (pronounced “green”) is down-home country, but not exclusively so, accommodating all manner of Texas meltingpot sounds into its seven-daysa-week schedule.

JOHN T. FLOORE’S COUNTRY STORE A landmark in the small town of Helotes, just outside the northwest flank of San Antonio’s outer loop, Floore’s is a mandatory rite of passage for any aspiring Texas roots-music act. Even Willie Nelson and his Family Band still set up shop there on occasion, while its back pages include gigs by an American music who’s who including Elvis, Hank, Dylan, and Little Richard.

SAN ANTONIO/ HILL COUNTRY

1281 Gruene Road

14492 Old Bandera Road

(210) 223-8624

2007 Grant St.

(830) 606-1281

(210) 695-8827

tobincenter.org

(832) 767-2785

gruenehall.com

liveatfloores.com

TOBIN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS The state’s newest world-class music and theater facility opened its doors in the fall of 2014 with a major coup: Paul McCartney took a break from stadiums to play for a lucky couple thousand folks here. Future concert bookings promise everything from classical to folk to Celtic and mariachi. 100 Auditorium Circle

andersonfair.net

LUCKENBACH There’s really nothing else in this ghost town about an hour north of San Antonio besides an old dancehall, but what a storied old dancehall it is. Shortly after Hondo Crouch revived the place in 1970, it became the site of one of Jerry Jeff Walker’s most famous live recordings (Viva Terlingua!) and subsequently attained household-name status thanks to that song about Willie and Waylon and the boys. Decades later, it’s still the icon of Texas Hill Country music.

413 20th St.

412 Luckenbach Town Loop

(409) 762-9199

(830) 997-3224

oldquarteracousticcafe.com

luckenbachtexas.com

Right Gruene Hall in San Antonio ROBERT FLETCHER PHOTO

OLD QUARTER ACOUSTIC CAFE Owner Rex Bell’s original Old Quarter, where Townes Van Zandt’s career-defining Live at the Old Quarter double-album was recorded, was in Houston. After an extended hiatus, Bell rechristened a new Old Quarter on Galveston Island about an hour southwest of the Bayou City. Van Zandt’s legacy still looms large, as evidenced by the tribute show held every New Year’s commemorating the day of the singer-songwriter’s death.

Below Jimmy LaFave, Kevin Welch & Gretchen Peters perform at Luckenbach

CEZANNE It may not be an acoustic-focused venue, but you can’t talk about Texas music hotspots without mentioning the small upstairs room above the Black Labrador Irish pub. This Houston institution provides a classy and intimate environment for firstrate jazz shows. Regional and national touring acts, as well as alumni from a nearby high school arts academy, play sets at 9 and 10:45 every Friday and Saturday night. 4100 Montrose Blvd. ROBBYN DODD PHOTO

(832) 592-7464 cezannejazz.com

AcousticGuitar.com 49

ACOUSTIC TEXAS

CHARLIE STOUT PHOTO

CHARLIE STOUT PHOTO

The bar, left, and band Crooks on stage at Blue Light Live.

WAY OUT WEST BLUE LIGHT LIVE Lubbock’s role in shaping Texas music is the stuff of legend, though most of the town’s historic hot spots have faded away. Enter the Blue Light, which provides a proving ground for the current generation of Texas Panhandle upstarts who might aspire to have

a street named after them—like the one that gives this club its address. 1806 Buddy Holly Ave. (806) 762-1185 thebluelightlive.com

RAILROAD BLUES There’s not a lot in Alpine (population 5,905) beyond a small state university and an Amtrak station, but the latter lends a name to a happening joint that draws regulars from all the neighboring towns in the remote Big Bend National Park area. They do blues,

Photo Credit: Pamela Hodges Rice Courtesy of Zane Fairchild

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50 March 2015

as the name attests, but also country, folk, soul, jam bands, and pretty much anything that might come down the pike to land in the middle of nowhere for a gig. 504 W. Holland Ave. (432) 837-3103 railroadblues.com

BEDELL EARTHSONG Inspired by the beauty and wonder of the American landscape: the streams and deserts, swamps and forests, beaches and valleys, and all the natural wonders that grace this vast and diverse country, from shore to shore. Handcrafted, with great reverence and passion, from plentiful American tonewoods: bigleaf maple sides and back, Eastern hard rock maple neck, and walnut fretboard and bridge. Featuring a salvaged Sitka spruce top, and a hand-rubbed semi-gloss nitrocellulose finish. Exquisite sound, sustainable tonewoods… at an affordable price.

MUSICAL HOTBED FIVE LONE STAR GUITAR BUILDERS YOU SHOULD KNOW BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Texas in the development of popular music. The Lone Star State has been the breeding ground of so many different idioms and offshoots, from Western swing to Tex-Mex to Texas blues. Texas is likewise a hotbed of musical-instrument manufacturing, including both production and boutique acoustic guitars. While the offerings surveyed here might be all over the map, they share in common a certain flair and ruggedness of design that is unquestionably Texan. 52 March 2015

Collings D1A

1. BILL COLLINGS When you think of acoustic guitars and Texas, Bill Collings is likely the first name that comes to mind. In the mid-1970s, Collings dropped out of medical school to pursue a career in lutherie, and today he presides over one of the premier instrument companies in the country. Headquartered in Austin, Collings and his roughly 100 employees produce about 3,500 instruments a year, and just as the music of Texas is richly varied, so is Collings’ line of fretted instruments. Collings’ models include flattops, archtops, and electrics, as well as mandolin-family instruments and ukuleles—all in Texas style. “There is a certain pride that most Texans feel about living here,” says Collings’ sales director Alex Rueb. “Everyone in our shop feels the same pride for the guitars we produce. When people care about something and take ownership of it, they will put their heart and soul into it. That’s quintessentially Texan in my book.” Synthesizing the designs of many golden-era instruments, Collings guitars share many features with their prewar counterparts, but are more rugged with their hybrid mortise-and-tenon bolt-on neck joints and steel-

reinforcement neck strips. Many great musicians have responded to these creations, including singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett, who has played Collings instruments since he bought the company’s 29th guitar back in the mid-1970s. Singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz, who grew up in Wimberly, Texas—“just a stone’s throw away from the Collings factory,” she says—has played Collings instruments since she was a teenager. Now 23, Jarosz still relies on her MF5 mandolin and D1A guitar, one of two guitars Collings built for David Bromberg to celebrate his 60th birthday (he chose the other one). Jarosz had met Collings’ general manager Steve McCreary, a wood expert, shortly after she began playing the mandolin at ten. “From the very beginning, Steve was incredibly supportive of my music,” Jarosz says, “and with his help, I bought my MF5 mandolin around the age of 13. The guitar came along a couple of years later. “There’s a rawness and beauty about the Texas Hill Country where I grew up,” Jarosz adds, “and I think that Collings’ instruments embody those qualities of the landscape in which they’re built.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF AMERICANCRAFTSMANPROJECT.COM

2. VINCE PAWLESS In recent decades, there’s been an impressive boom in the number of independent luthiers building guitars, and Texas has seen its share. After first building a guitar from a Martin kit in the mid1990s, Vince Pawless went on to create his own line of steel-string acoustics. Using vintage designs as a point of departure, he produces a dozen instruments a year, starting at $3,000, in his Gainesville shop. “My instruments are very similar to what was produced in the 1930s,” Pawless says, “but I keep an open mind and instill new methods that I feel won’t compromise the timeless design.” Pawless, a native Texan, uses the woods of his home state whenever possible. He reserves a stash for decorative elements like inlays, headstock veneers, and

heel caps, specifically to give the instruments a Texas feel. He’s often used mesquite—nicknamed “Texas rosewood” because of its resemblance to the Dalbergia genus—for backs, sides, fretboards, and even soundboards, and lately he’s gotten favorable results from native black walnut. “I personally cut it down, sliced up sets, stickered, and dried it myself,” he says. High-profile Texas musicians including Jack Ingram ply their trade on Pawless guitars, and the battle scars they leave on the instruments inform the luthier’s work. “I encourage my artists to get me those instruments into the shop when needed, as it teaches me to build a better guitar. I’ve definitely learned a lot from what the road can do to a guitar that lives in a trailer.”

‘There’s a rawness and beauty about the Texas Hill Country where I grew up, and I think that Collings’ instruments embody those qualities of the landscape.’

3. JASON SIMPSON In Minden, about 200 miles southeast of Pawless’ Gainesville shop, Jason Simpson builds ten high-performance acoustics, starting at $7,500, each year. “I like to think of a guitar as a fine sports car, like a Ferrari,” Simpson says. “An instrument made with precision, with alluring beauty and modern lines, to meet the demands of a modern player.” His guitars incorporate optimized bracing systems, graphite reinforced necks, and armrest bevels. Like most contemporary luthiers, Simpson relishes collaborating with clients in designing instruments that best suit their needs, though he does sell some standard models through highend dealers like Hearts’ Home Acoustics, in Boerne, Texas. A couple of years ago, the King of Country wandered into Hearts’ Home and left with one of Simpson’s guitars. “I’m told that George Strait spent a whole day there, playing just about every guitar in the store,” Simpson says. “Of all of the hundreds of guitars there, he walked out with my grand auditorium model. That’s such an incredible honor.”

Like a Fine Sports Car Jason Simpson creates amazing headstock and soundhole designs such as the ones above on his Lady Eire model.

SARAH JAROSZ AcousticGuitar.com 53

ACOUSTIC TEXAS

4. CHRIS JENKINS Under the name Lame Horse, Chris Jenkins builds guitars in Mansfield, in conjunction with his youngest son, Jeremy, who lives in Austin. As a teenager, the younger Jenkins asked his father to build him an electric bass, and the longtime woodworker and music fan complied. Bolstered by that instrument’s success the elder Jenkins attended Charles Fox’s American School of Lutherie and later continued his education with such venerated guitar makers as Ervin Somogyi and Rick Turner. “I believe I will never master the art and science of lutherie,” Jenkins says, “but Jeremy and I must constantly work to educate ourselves and improve what we do.” Together, the father-son team complete between 12 and 15 acoustic guitars and banjos each year (from $2,800), shipping parts and instruments back and forth. In their well-oiled routine, Chris Jenkins prepares the tops, backs, and rims of the guitars, while Jeremy builds the necks and does all the brace gluing and carving, plus almost all of the banjo building. “I think being separated by 200 miles is really a good thing,” says papa Jenkins. “In today’s world, long-distance communication is easy, and some separation probably helps our relationship.” Each Lame Horse guitar boasts an ingenious proprietary actionadjustment system with an access compartment between two upper frets. Its cover plate is emblazoned with the five-point star of the Texas state flag. What’s more, Jenkins adds, “Every instrument contains at least one inlay of the outline of our state inside the guitar. We want it to be obvious that our guitars are proudly made in Texas.” 54 March 2015

5. STEPHEN KINNAIRD Another family team of luthiers, brothers Stephen and John Kinnaird work independently— Stephen in the Piney Woods of East Texas and John in the hills of North Carolina—but both use the Kinnaird brand name and occasionally combine forces to work on special instruments. “Ongoing discussions with my brother have been an invaluable influence,” says Stephen Kinnaird. The brothers first became interested in building guitars when they visited a couple of luthiers in Atlanta, Jay Rhyne and Wade Lowe, in the early 1970s. “It was eye-opening to learn that a lone individual could build world-class instruments,” says the Texas Kinnaird, who builds about a dozen guitars a year in a range of body sizes from parlor to jumbo. All are customizable in terms of wood selection—a variety of spruces and cedar for the soundboards and everything from mahogany to Malaysian blackwood and Macassar ebony for the bodies—as well as binding, rosette, and inlay work. Prices start at $4,400 and “go as high as the customer’s tastes dictate,” says Kinnaird. Unlike some of his fellow Lone Star luthiers, Kinnaird views his work less as Texan than American, but acknowledges the exponential growth of his state’s boutique-guitar industry: “The Texas lutherie scene is a healthy one, to say the least.”

Kyser’s slightly rippled capo was a winner.

Milton Kyser

CLAMP OF APPROVAL: KYSER CAPOS In 1978, after getting a patent for his Quick-Change capo, Milton Kyser of Grand Prairie, Texas, converted his garage into a workshop. Local guitarists quickly discovered the ease of operation facilitated by Kyser’s design, and within a few years, he and four other workers were hand-making capos in a proper shop. Four decades later, almost any guitarist who uses a capo has clamped on a Quick-Change at some point. Kysers are still made by hand, using locally sourced components and packaging, at the company’s factory in Canton, Texas, and the original device’s basic design remains intact. “Certain tweaks have been made regarding the length of the capo’s nose; the texture of the body, which had slight ripples for a while; and the color of the silicone boot, which touches the back of the guitar neck,” says Kyser’s Max Lintner. “In general, though, it hasn’t changed at all.” While the capo was first offered only in black, gold, or silver, it’s now available in 16 different colors. The new Artisan Series of Quick-Change capos is an interesting collaboration with Texas artists, available only by special order from Kyser. Each capo is printed with a design hand-sketched by Kelly Wiggins, whose pencil strokes are revealed on close inspection, and hand-colored by Jyll Richburg. The capos’ bright colors are evocative of the Southwest, according to Lintner. “These capos were born from the mind of Milton Kyser,” Lintner says of the Texas pioneer, who died in January 2014. In keeping with Kyser’s original process, Lintner adds, “we’re making them one-by-one when ordered.” —A.P.

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Basics Use jazz to improvise in any style

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Weekly Workout 2 ways to get fluent on the fretboard

78

Acoustic Classic Learn ‘Pancho and Lefty,’ by Townes Van Zandt

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Acoustic Classic “Go Tell It on the Mountain”— fingerstyle

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Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes

MARTIJN VAN DE STREEK PHOTO

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SONGCRAFT

Clown Prince

The songs of Loudon Wainwright III are sometimes serious, sometimes funny, but always compelling BY JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS

he cover of Loudon Wainwright III’s new album, Haven’t Got the Blues (Yet), sports a vintage photo of Ringling Bros. sad clown Emmett Kelly, sitting in a bubble bath with a forlorn expression. It’s an apt image for Wainwright, who for more than 40 years has managed in his music to crack up and entertain audiences while also chronicling the troubles and disappointments of life—sometimes all in the same song. Only in the songwriting world of Loudon Wainwright do you find the kinds of scenarios he’s come up with on the new album. In “The Morgue” (originally written for Judd Apatow’s Undeclared, but not used in the sitcom), the narrator gleefully identifies the body of a cheating ex who died with “a guilty conscience and a broken heart.” The jug-band-style “Man and Dog” details the daily routines of a plastic-bagcarrying dog owner in the city, while in “I’ll Be Killing You This Christmas,” Wainwright sings about guns and the NRA over a jazzy, swinging holiday tune. Alongside these characteristically witty, sardonic tracks are a few deeply moving serious songs, such as “In a Hurry,” in which a homeless panhandler addresses a harried commuter at the train station.

T

Loudon Wainwright III Haven’t Got the Blues (Yet) Proper

Wainwright, 68, continues to set a high bar with his songwriting, but in the last couple of years he’s introduced a poignant new element to his concerts: He recites passages from the firstperson writings of his late father (Loudon Wainwright Jr.), a columnist for Life magazine, and connects their themes with his own songs. In 2014, the singer and actor also debuted a one-man theater show, Surviving Twin, around this unique mix of music and spoken word. As this conversation from his home in New York City reveals, the posthumous collaboration with his father is one of Wainwright’s favorite current projects—along with his career-long quest to write songs that catch his audience off guard.

‘I write about the important stuff, whether it’s a family situation or trying to find a parking space.’

56 March 2015

ROSS HALFIN PHOTO

When you were starting out, were there particular songwriters who modeled the blend of humor and seriousness that comes through in your own songs? As to the humor aspect of it, some of my favorite songwriters were so-called novelty songwriters. I’d include Tom Lehrer on that list, Ray Stevens, Allan Sherman. And then even Frank Loesser, who wrote Guys and Dolls—he could write a heartbreaking ballad and then a really funny song. He might be my biggest songwriting influence, although I don’t know that we’re particularly similar. So, yeah, I was exposed to novelty songwriters, and I loved hearing them and laughing and then loved figuring out a way to make an audience laugh.

Was it instinctual for you to combine comedy with singing about often painful topics? I think it was. I’ve been writing songs for almost 46 years now, and everybody develops a style as they go along. They write what they write about. Along the way, I appreciated both aspects of the serious and the not-so-serious, and I found a way in the shows, and to a degree on the records, to do both, and in some cases to do both in one song. It’s a way to unsettle the audience a little bit, which brings them in closer, makes them pay more attention. They’re not so relaxed and thinking, oh, this is a sad, mopey little song. If there’s a laugh in the middle of it, they wake right up.

Has his writing ever made you look at one of your songs in a new light? I don’t know if that’s the case. What it’s made me feel—and feel is the right word, because it is a feeling as opposed to a thought—is something that I’ve suspected for a long time: that we’re the same person in a sense, despite the conflicts that we had when I was young, and he was the dominating male of the family dynamic. He talks about his struggles with his own father in his writing, and I’ve incorporated that into the shows; and, of course, I have a son, too [musician Rufus Wainwright], and have had my issues with him. So incorporating my father’s work into the show leads me to think that all of us are the same in a certain sense, with obvious differences. We are very connected.

Do you feel the term ‘novelty songwriter’ is a bit belittling? Yeah, it is. Comedy movies don’t win the Oscars either. I don’t know what that is about, but great songs are great songs. In a club, if you can get 300 or 3,000 people to laugh at the same time, that’s quite an accomplishment.

Your songs address such specific topics— for instance, on the new album, parking the car [‘Spaced’]. The lyrics are not ambiguous. Do you consciously zero in on a topic when you write? I think so, because you’re right, none of my songs is particularly cryptic or mysterious. The listener generally knows exactly what I’m talking about, and I am very specific. I intend to be specific. You know, my dad was quite a well-known journalist, and I think I might have gotten some of that from him. I can also write to deadline, and if somebody asks me to write a song about something—and I’ve done this over the years for National Public Radio or for a movie—I can do that.

Tell me about the song ‘In a Hurry.’ Did that come about from picturing the character of the homeless man? Yeah. You know, I grew up in a commuter town in Westchester, New York. I didn’t have a commuting job, but I rode the train in a lot. The aspect of the song that I find interesting is that it’s a portrait of a compassionate homeless person and not someone who’s just needy. The homeless guy seems to be concerned about the commuter a little bit. I like that idea.

WHAT LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III PLAYS GUITAR Wainwright is “primarily a Martin man.” At home and in the studio, he plays a D-21 he got used in the 1970s, and in concert he plays a 2010 HD-28 with a Martin/ Fishman Gold+Plus Natural 1 active pickup system. ACCESSORIES Martin medium-gauge strings, Kyser and Shubb capos, medium-gauge flatpicks

What got you started on writing a song about parking? In that case, it was a line: “A space is a place, it’s a beautiful thing.” I just liked the balance and the feel of that. But underlying that, of course, [parking] is a big issue in New York. It’s in my everyday life, just like walking the dog is in my everyday life. It’s seemingly mundane, but that stuff has importance for people, so why not write about it? I write about the important stuff, whether it’s a family situation or trying to find a parking space. These are the things that matter to me. What has your experience been like featuring your father’s writing in your concerts and in the show Surviving Twin? I’m very into it now. It’s the thing I’m the most interested in, and we’re hoping to have a more extended run in New York [this] year. I’m a fan of my dad’s writing, particularly the personal stuff. He’s been dead since 1988, and it’s a way for us to collaborate posthumously. On certain nights, it feels like I’m playing creative catch with him. And I love the fact that the audience will come up afterwards and say, “I loved that piece your dad wrote about the dog” or whatever.

What’s interesting, too, is that at first the narrator seems to be you. The fact that it’s a homeless person doesn’t become clear until well into the song. It does sneak up. By the time the character says, “When I ask you for money,” the penny drops, so to speak. I do the same thing, kind of, in another song of mine from a number of years ago called “Primrose Hill,” about a homeless guy who lives on the side of a hill in London. It’s a device I’ve used on a couple of occasions. Again, this idea of unsettling the audience or giving them a nudge, getting a laugh, a gasp—these are all things that I look for. When I see an opportunity for that, I jump on it, because I want to hold the audience’s attention. I don’t want to lull them—I want to grab them. Is an audience’s reaction in concert the way you measure your success? Well, the songs are written to be performed. I make these records, which some people buy, not many, and it’s fun to make records and all that. But when I’m writing a song, I’m always thinking about performing it for a live audience. Is it going to work in a club or outside at a festival? I played at the 50th Cambridge Folk Festival this year, and there were 8,000 people underneath a tent, and it was just me and my guitar. So you have to figure out a way to get them, and the songs are constructed that way. One of the ways you get an audience is you make them laugh. But the job overall is to affect them somehow for 75 minutes, if that’s how long the show is. AcousticGuitar.com 57

The Capo Company

You often seem to embody a character when you sing. Especially given your background as an actor, do you think of singing as an acting job? I do. I studied to be an actor, and before I wanted to be a songwriter, I wanted to be a performer. As a kid, I was a performer in school plays and singing for my mother. So acting is a big part of it. It’s a show—there are lights and a microphone, and people paid money, and they’re sitting in the dark. So it may look like just a guy up there strumming and singing, but I’m aware of putting on a show. The song ‘I Knew Your Mother,’ on the new album, reminisces about a couple’s life before kids and divorce. You wrote that for Rufus, right? Yeah. He turned 40 in July of 2013, so sometimes, for occasions like that, I will write a song. I had this idea that a couple has a life before the kids come along, a special separate life that’s often lost in the battles that ensue. I’m really happy about that song. I think it’s a good one, and I think it says something that’s important.

Performance 2 Smaller, lighter, faster

www.G7th.com

58 March 2015

G7thTheCapoCompany

TheCapoCompany

@G7thCapos

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When you’re writing about family, how do you navigate what you’re comfortable revealing in a song and what they’re comfortable with? How do we all manage to have Thanksgiving dinner together? [chuckles] Well, you know, my family, like most families, is pretty fraught with stuff going on. My job is not to make everything nice at Thanksgiving. But I’m also not thinking about—to stay with a cooking analogy—stirring the pot as much as trying to come up with something that’s really tasty. AG

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TAKE IT EASY

Opening Rules Play second fiddle with your guitar BY JANE MILLER

f you’re looking for a larger audience, performing as an opening act may be just the thing to do. Acoustic guitarists are natural fits as opening acts. If you play and sing, your setup is relatively simple to accommodate. And if you’re an instrumental guitarist, you require even less attention. But there are a few things to keep in mind to make it a successful show. In most cases, it’s to everyone’s advantage to keep the opening act down to just one or two musicians—smaller than the headliner. And remember that you are being given an opportunity to play a short set—which means choosing the best of your best material. You are not compromising your music if you’re playing a pareddown version of your full-length show or playing without your full band. When you book the gig, get the scoop on how many minutes you are expected to play. If the deal is for a 25-minute set, stick to it no matter what. If you check the time and you have three minutes left to play your last song, which usually runs four minutes, ditch the song and wrap it up early. Ideally, you’ll have the timing worked out before the show, but err on the too-short side rather than running long. First, find out the time the headliner is scheduled to soundcheck. You will either be assigned a time to soundcheck after that, or you

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will be asked to do a quick check whenever the headliner finishes. In either case, arrive at the venue before the headliner soundchecks. Go inside, meet your contact person, and ask where you can store your guitar while you wait.

Relate to the headliners’ audience with enthusiasm, as if you are in their home, not yours. Avoid cluttering up the stage area before the headliner is set up. You shouldn’t need more than a small bag’s worth of gadgets: tuner, strings, DI box or preamp, and quarter-inch cables. Most of that can fit into your guitar case. If you are singing and have a favorite mic, bring it, but be willing to work with the sound person to determine what is available for your sound needs. Simpler is better, so if you can play with what is offered, do it. However, don’t assume you can use the headliner’s gear. Also find out in advance what the merch table situation will be. Don’t assume you can join up with the headliner’s merch table.

Be respectful of space before and after the show. Some headliners will be friendly and want to hang out and trade stories with you. Others will be preoccupied, focused, changing strings, changing clothes, or generally unavailable. This has nothing to do with you, your musical ability, or what you’re wearing. It has to do with the headliner’s tight schedule and mental preparation. Be gracious if you do get to spend some time together, and be gracious if you don’t. Keep your set musical. This is the time to play at your best. Take a couple of minutes between two songs to tell a short story or anecdote. The rest of the time, move on to the next song, then the next. Early on, make a brief mention of the headliners and say how glad you are to open for them and to see them perform. Relate to the headliners’ audience with enthusiasm, as if you are in their home, not yours. Before your last song, thank everyone for the opportunity to play for the headliners’ nice fans. Reiterate how excited you are to hear the headliners’ set. All of this goes a long way toward endearing the audience to you rather then making them wish you would hurry up and be done. If you are good, happy to be there, and genuinely cordial, you will be remembered as a good opening act. AG

HERE’S HOW

DO ALL GUITARS NEED A SETUP? Yes, especially if the guitar is new or if you purchased it online or at a yard sale. The guitars at your local guitar shop don’t necessarily arrive from the factory set up well, and online instruments are notorious for coming with problems. While some smaller independent stores will make an effort to check and set up all guitars prior to display, many of the big stores do not. Do your research at the time of purchase and find out if the store has an on-site luthier or can recommend someone reputable in the area. Remember that setup preferences vary from player to player, so take time to experiment and find what combination suits you best.

2

IS ONCE ENOUGH? No. Most regions experience more than one seasonal shift in temperature and humidity a year. A set-up every six months is good for low- to mid-range guitars. Higher-quality instruments are more sensitive to changes, so adjustments may be needed on a more frequent basis.

3

LOCATE THE BUZZ While most adjustments are best left to the professionals, knowing the potential source of a buzzing string can be helpful when talking with your repair tech. Bradford provides a few pointers: If a string buzzes when open, but not fretted, the problem is likely in the nut. If the buzz occurs when playing in frets 1 through 5, a tweak to the truss rod is in order, as the neck is either too straight or back-bowed slightly. You can usually fix a buzz in fret 12 or higher with an adjustment to the bridge or saddle. Other causes could be a high fret or a bad string. Always replace your strings before getting any work done, as that may take care of the problem.

4

The Setup

Five answers to keeping your guitar in tip-top playing condition BY OCTOBER CRIFASI

ou’ve heard it a thousand times: make sure you give your guitar a regular setup. What you might not hear as often are the reasons why. Wood is organic, and depending on the weather, fluctuations in temperature and humidity can lead to swelling or shrinking of a guitar’s neck and body. Over time, this can cause changes to the angle of the neck or a shift somewhere else. A regularly scheduled setup will fix these issues and keep your instrument in good running order. A setup is like a checkup at the doctor’s office. The guitar “doctor” checks your instrument and makes adjustments where necessary. Setup costs vary from shop to shop, but plan to spend between $45 and $75 per visit (plus the cost of strings, in some cases).

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WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT? Matt Bradford, a luthier based in Los Angeles, defines a setup as “adjusting all the things we can adjust to make the guitar play as well as possible—adjusting the amount of bow in the neck, adjusting the height at the bridge or saddle, and adjusting the height of the strings at the nut.” Depending on the guitar, it also can include the leveling of the odd high fret. Bradford cautions beginners to refrain from using very low action (string height) on the neck; while it may make for easier fretting at first, it also makes for buzzier strings if you are a heavy-handed rhythm player. Ask your repair person to dial in a setup that’s best suited to your needs as a beginner until you get a sense of how you play.

1

PREVENT PROBLEMS To keep your guitar in good shape between setups, Bradford recommends keeping the instrument safely stored in its case with humidification. Whenever possible, do not leave your guitar in a car. When your car gets too hot or cold, so does your instrument. With 200 pounds of tension on a standard steel-string guitar, serious neck angles, warping, or worse can occur within a very short period. When transporting your guitar, take it with you at each stop, even if it creates a slight inconvenience. Carry it inside and be mindful of where you put it. A minor delay in plans is much better than irreparable damage to your instrument. AG

5

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THE BASICS

Anatomy of a Jam

Borrow the language of jazz to improvise in any style BY RON JACKSON

was a teenager when I was first blown away by jazz-guitar masters such asGeorge Benson and Charlie Christian. Since I played mostly rock at the time, I had no idea what they were doing. Their styles sounded so complex, like alien musical languages that I assumed were made up on the spot. When I started learning jazz at the Berklee College of Music in the early 1980s, though, I developed a more nuanced understanding. Jazz is actually comprised of lots of little bits of language that, when strung together in different ways, sound as if they’re spontaneously composed. This is jazz improvisation. The great improvisers know how to make the best use of a single idea, placing it in as many different contexts as possible. In this lesson, I’ll show you how to begin doing the same with four simple licks, each in the key of

Great improvisers know how to make the best use of a single idea, placing it in as many different contexts as possible.

G major, that can be applied to a variety of situations. Memorize all of them, and play them in all 12 keys. Remember, it’s not about how many licks you know, it’s about knowing how to use them.

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FOUR LITTLE WORDS Ex. 1 shows four different melodic ideas, each of which can be used on any G-major type chord, whether a simple triad (G–B–D), dominant-seventh chord (G–B–D–F), or major seventh (G–B–D–F .) Practice each one at a slow and easy tempo, preferably with a metronome, increasing the beat incrementally until you can comfortably tackle the music at around 120 beats per minute. Lick 1, in the style of George Benson, simply ascends through the first five notes of the G major scale (G–A–B–C–D–E–F.)

The next three licks are inspired by Charlie Christian. In the jazziest of the bunch, Lick 2, you’re playing down from the fifth note (D) of the scale to the third (B), which is anticipated by a half step, from the note A. This is an approach note—a note that lends a hint of chromatic flavor (notes appearing outside of the key) that’s essential to jazz. Lick 3 is essentially an arpeggio of a G6 (G–B–D–E)—the same chord on which Lick 4 is based. Make sure you’ve got all four

Ex. 1 shows four different melodic ideas. Ex. 2 & 3 show how you can combine those licks.

Ex. 1

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licks firmly planted in your fingers—and your ears—before moving on. 3 2 4 5 MAKING SENTENCES 5 Now I’ll show you various ways of combining the four jazz riffs into logical phrases based on a I–vi–ii–V progression (in the key of G, that’s Ex. 2 Gmaj7–Em7–Am7–D7), which is one of the most common harmonic structures G maj7 E m7 in jazz and A m7 popular music. These phrases all work on this progression because the chords are diatonic (within the same key) to G major. In Ex. 2, you’ll find a combination of Licks 1 and 2. Notice how I replaced the last two beats

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of the first lick with the second lick, eliminating sentence. Also check out how I transposed the half-note D on beat 3. Similarly, Ex. 3 some of the licks3as needed to fit the IV and V 3 3 5 chords (C7 and D7). 5 Once 3 includes both Licks 3 and 4. Ex. 4 merges Licks you’ve worked 5 3 4 4 4 2 and 3, for a kind of boogie-woogie through this example, try using these licks in 5 effect: a repeated bass line originally played by blues some of your own improvisations, and always pianists. In Ex. 5, another nod to Charlie Chrislisten for other cool licks that you can integrate tian, you combine Licks 4 and 2. into your vocabulary. AG

. . . .

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Ex. 3

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master E m7Ron JacksonA ism7a New York City–based D7

Your homework is to identify each one in Ex. 6. Notice how I use rests throughout, to avoid having the solo be one long run-on

Jimmy McGriff, Randy Weston, Ron Carter, and many others. Find more of Jackson’s lessons at practicejazzguitar.com.

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AcousticGuitar.com 65

WEEKLY WORKOUT

Take a Position

Get fluent on the fretboard by combining the methods of two guitar sages BY ADAM LEVY

ant to learn your way around the fretboard? There are many instructional books available, each detailing an author’s particular methodology. Among my favorites are Mick Goodrick’s The Advancing Guitarist and Wayne Krantz’s An Improviser’s OS. Neither book is solely about fretboard fluency, but the topic is covered extensively in both, although from decidedly dissimilar angles. Of particular note is the different way the two authors approach playing scales within fixed positions. Goodrick’s concept is the more expansive of the two, with each position comprising a six-fret span. In second position, for Week 1

example, your first finger would play any note at the second fret, your second finger any note at the third fret, and so on; additionally, you may use your first finger to reach notes at the first fret and your fourth finger to reach notes at the sixth. This allows for total chromaticism, as well as offering a few options for alternate fingerings where a given note may be playable on two adjacent strings. Krantz’s model is more austere. In his book, second position includes only the notes playable at the second, third, fourth, and fifth frets. This limitation makes for some hiccups in position playing and may lead to some atypical

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WEEK 1 Ex. 1 is an eight-bar workout in second position that takes you through four different keys. You will climb up a G major scale in the first two measures, transpose that same figure up to

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melodic choices, as you’ll see in the following musical examples. You will explore both position models in this month’s Weekly Workout, with one goal in mind: to be able to play fluidly in any key, anywhere on the fretboard. Such fluency can greatly improve your sight-reading and improvisation skills.

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2 2 24 4 5 5 2 23 35 5 2 3 35 5 2 4 5 5 A major for the next 2 two 3measures, descend a 3 5 C major scale in measures 5 and 6, and descend a D  major scale in the two final measures. You’re using Goodrick’s expandedposition model here, which lets you reach for a few notes that aren’t, strictly speaking, in second position—namely, the G in bar 3, the F and A in bar 7, and the E and B in bar 8. You will have to dispense with all of these outliers3in 3Ex. 2, where you will employ 5 53 3 3 3 Krantz’s four-fingers/four-frets 5 5 4 system. 42 2 To work 3 5 3 2 around the 5 unreachable 3 3 members, you5 will3 5 4 2 have to make some different melodic choices, 5 3 2 using alternative notes from the respective scale to keep the overall shape of the melody intact.

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AcousticGuitar.com 67

Ex. 4

WEEKLY WORKOUT

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(seventh this time). Before playing Ex. 5, look it over and you’ll see that the notes in measures 1, 2, 5, and 6 land squarely within the position. The remaining bars, however, will require some finger gymnastics. Take this example nice and easy at first—maybe 60 beats per minute, or even slower if need be. Don’t increase your practice speed until you can articulate every note clearly. Ex. 6 is based on Ex. 5. As you’ve seen in the pairs of etudes in previous weeks, this second example has been modified to Krantz’s four-fret specs. Unlike Ex. 4, however, you won’t rely on octave displacement this time to make the music fit. Instead, you will repeat the previous pitch in lieu of any out-of-reach notes. This will affect the melody significantly in measures 3, 7, and 8, but the overall shape of things4remains intact. 48 84 44 85 58 5 6 6 4 8 4 47 7 6 8 5 4 7 WEEK94 7 7 9 9 do things a little 4differently You will 8 4 this week. 8 Instead 5 6 4 two 7 of 7working through one position 9

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ways, explore the one position where alternate approaches aren’t part of the plan: first position. Here you will dedicate the first finger to the first fret, second finger to the second, and so on. This position includes all the open (unfretted) strings as well. That means you can access five different notes on each string, with no stretching. As with all of the previous examples, Ex. 7 is built around the key centers G, A, C, and Db. You will be in each for two measures, then move on, just as you have before. This example, however, takes you on a victory lap. Measures 9 through 12 cycle through those same four keys for just one measure each before finally resolving to a lone G in measure 13. AG

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program Los Angeles College of 6performance 4 at 4 67 6 work 6 appeared 6Music. 4 His on7record7 76 guitar 6 has 6 7 7 6 6 5 8 7 6Jones, 5 Amos 8 ings by Norah Tracy Chapman, Lee, 6 5 8 6Ani DiFranco, among 4 others. Read more of Levy’s 7 and hear 6 his music 6 at adamlevy.com. 7 writing 6 5 8

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The First Hard-Coated String Hear the brilliance and clarity of DRAGONSKIN strings at DRstrings.com, as played by Tom Feldmann. TM

“I am shocked at how easy it is to play with these strings on my guitar. The string tension makes playing seem effortless. They feel just like non-coated strings.”

Dan Miller

Editor Flatpicking Guitar Magazine

70 March 2015

MY

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Introducing the J-15. Handcrafted from solid, North American tone woods with a price you won’t believe. Play one today at your local Gibson dealer and experience the new American

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SEAN PECKNOLD PHOTO

ACOUSTIC CLASSIC

Fleet-Fingered Foxes

Test your mettle with this varied and challenging indie-folk tune BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

leet Foxes are known for their unusual instrumentation. A pump organ, Tibetan singing bowls, and a Marxophone (fretless zither) are among the oddities that line the fabric of Helplessness Blues, the group’s 2011 sophomore album. But the idiosyncratic Seattle-based folk rockers don’t neglect guitars. Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset both have excellent chops, as shown on “Sim Sala Bim,” which begins with gentle fingerpicking and ends with frenzied strumming. The song uses an unusual tuning, essentially a C7 chord without a third (E), as well as a fifth-fret capo. To get into this tuning, drop

F

72 March 2015

the first and sixth strings to C, the second to Bb, and the fifth to G. Note that all of the music sounds a perfect fourth higher than written, and that the capoed fret is zero in tablature. So, for instance, what’s written in tab as the open first string is actually the fifth fret of that string. To learn the song, it’s best to work one section at a time and take things slowly. Make sure that you have the intro firmly in your fingers before moving to the verse. The good news is that this section has one bar played four times, and it’s repurposed in the verse, so you’ll get a lot of mileage from it. To play this part, use your fourth finger for the seventh-fret

note and your index for those at the fourth and second frets. Pick the open strings 4 and 3 with your thumb and the highest notes with your index and middle fingers. Once you’ve made your way to the outro, use a pick for the rest of the song, beginning at the sign, with strictly alternating strumming. Note that in some instances, like the first measure of the coda, you’ll see gaps in the tablature but you should in fact strum all six strings. Those strings without numbers will be muted by your fretting fingers. After you’ve polished off the song, take the opportunity to try writing and improvising using its rich and unusual tuning. AG

Tuning: C G C G Bf C SIM SALA BIM Tuning: C G C G Bf C Tuning: CCapo GCV G Bf C Capo V Intro Capo V Intro C 7(sus4) Intro

WORDS AND MUSIC BY ROBIN PECKNOLD

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Then the earth shook that was all that it took for the dream to break All the loose ends would surround me again in the shape of your face What makes me love you despite the reservations What do I see in your eyes Besides my reflection hanging high 2. Then the earth shook that was all that it took for the dream to break All the loose ends would surround me again in the shape of your face What makes me love you despite the reservations What do I see in your eyes and Besides my reflection hanging high Coming

4 2 0

2.

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ACOUSTIC CLASSIC

Desperados on the Run

he Texas singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt wrote scores of classic songs, but none has proved more enduring than the enigmatic yet universal “Pancho and Lefty,” the tale of two outlaws in search of freedom but ultimately left alone in the world. Van Zandt first released the song in 1972 on his second album, The Late Great Townes Van Zandt, but revisited it throughout his career. Other heavyweights who’ve put their imprint on “Pancho and Lefty” include Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, and Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson, among others. This arrangement of “Pancho and Lefty” is based on Van Zandt’s original version, which had mariachi horns that lent a Mexican flavor to the song. It shouldn’t be overly difficult to learn, because there are just four chords—C, G, F, and Am—all of which sound a half-step higher with a capo at the first fret. The song begins with a brief intro led by a pair of intertwining guitars, which I have arranged for one streamlined guitar part, you can play either with a pick or fingerstyle. Take things slowly on these four bars; this is potentially the trickiest part of the song. Heads up on the legato slide in bar 3, which is best fretted with the third finger. For the rest of the song, try the basic picking pattern shown in notation for the C and G chords. (Remember: p stands for thumb; i, index; m, middle; and a, ring.) Pick the bottom three strings with your thumb, and pick strings 3, 2, and 1 with your index, middle, and ring fingers, respectively. Play those arpeggios smoothly and evenly, letting each note ring throughout. Once you’ve learned the C and G chord patterns, it should be a cinch for you to work out the F and Am chords, and you’ll have the whole song under your belt. AG

T

Townes Van Zandt’s ‘Pancho and Lefty’ is an easy-to-play country-folk classic BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

Intro

Capo I PANCHO AND LEFTY

WORDS AND MUSIC BY TOWNES VAN ZANDT

G

Am

Fingerpicking Pattern Fingerpicking Pattern œ w # œ GmG A A jœ C œC œ œ G G œ œ 4 C G F A œ Intro Intro Fingerpick Capo Capoxx II œœ œ w jw œ œ œ œ œœ ˙œ œœ œ Fingerpick xx 4 & œ œ œ # # j œ œ œ j œœ œ œ C C G G F FA A ..œmœ œ œœœœ œœœ.. œ.... œ ..œ œ œ œ œ œ œ.. œC .. & & 44 œ44 œœœG Gœœœ œœ œjœ œœj œœœœœœœ œœ œœœœœœ œœ˙ ˙œ œ œ œ ..AAœœm C œœ œ œ œ œ œ w # 4 œ jœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Pic œPi œ G G FF xxAAmm œ . œ j œ ˙ . & 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ3 œ œ œ œ . . . .. . . . œ œ3 œ . 0.. . . 1 0 1 3. 3 1 3.5 . Intro Intro

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IntroIntro 78 March 2015

G G

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3. 3.LeftyLefty he can’t singsing the the blues he can’t blues pp CHRIS FELVER PHOTO / AMERICAN JUKEBOX 2014 All night long like he used to All night long like he used to 33

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F friend n’ on the road my Now you wear your skin like iron and your C free and clean G gonna keep you Breath’s as hard as kerosene

you wear your Fskin like iron and your You weren’t your momma’s only boy but her F

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began to cry when you said goodbye 2. Pancho was a bandit boy

rus

©2015 JTVZ MUSIC (ASCAP), WILLIAM ZANDT PUBLISHING (ASCAP), KATIE BELL MUSIC (ASCAP)

F Amhorse was fast as polished steel His sank into your dreams Wore his gun outside his pants For all the honest world to feel cho was a bandit boy Pancho met his match you know horse was fast as polished steel On the deserts down in Mexico e his gun outside his pants And nobody heard his dying words all the honest world to feel Ah but that’s the way it goes cho met his match you know he deserts down in Mexico Chorus nobody heard his dying words F but that’s the way it goes And all the Federales say C

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The dust that Pancho bit down south Ended up in Lefty’s mouth Lefty he can’t sing the blues The day they laid poor Pancho low All night long like he used to Lefty split for Ohio The dust that Pancho bit down south Where he got the bread to go Ended up in Lefty’s mouth Ah there ain't nobody knows The day they laid poor Pancho low Lefty split for Ohio Chorus Where he got the bread to the go Federales say And all Ah there ain't nobody knows They could’ve had him any day

with Tom Strahle and ELIXIR® Strings

Was gonna keep you free and clean

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They only let him slip away Chorus Out of kindness I suppose And all the Federales say They could’ve had him any day 4. slip Well the poets tell how Pancho fell They only let him away And Lefty’s livin’ in a cheap hotel Out of kindness I suppose The desert’s quiet and Cleveland’s Tom cold Strahle moved to Los Angeles So the story ends we’re told when he was 21 years old, specifically Well the poets tell how Pancho fell become a session guitarist. Not Pancho needs your prayers it’stotrue And Lefty’s livin’ in a cheap hotel knowing anyone in LA, it was very But save a few for Lefty too difficult to reach his goals. Well, he’s The desert’s quiet and Cleveland’s cold He just did what he had to do reached them! Tom is a first call LA So the story ends we’re told And now he’s growing old session guitarist. His days are booked Pancho needs your prayers it’s true writing music and playing guitar for But save a few for Lefty too many top artists and television shows. Chorus (play twice) He just did what heAhad to do If that’s not enough Tom has toured few gray Federales say North America teaching clinics on elecAnd now he’s growing Theyoldcould’ve had him any day tric and acoustic guitar. His YouTube

They only let him go so wrong channel (youtube.com/tstrahle) Chorus (play twice)Out of kindness I suppose features almost 200 lessons! A few gray Federales say They could’ve had him any day Go behind the scenes with this They only let him go so wrong video from Elixir. Strahle shares some stories from the recording studio and Out of kindness I suppose offers some advice for developing guitar pros.

Amsay F G all the Federales They only let him hang around F

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Get Tom Strahle’s acoustic groove tips:

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Am

of kindness I suppose

LISTEN TO THIS Townes Van Zandt The Late Great Townes Van Zandt Tomato

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ACOUSTIC CLASSIC

Stirring Gospel Folk

Protest or spiritual song? You can play it both ways BY STEVE BAUGHMAN

he spiritual “Go Tell It on the Mountain” dates back to at least 1865, but was updated and secularized in 1963 by Peter, Paul, and Mary, who replaced the words “Jesus Christ is born” with “Let my people go.” Fair’s fair in the folk process! And for us this means a piece that we can play year ’round—the original lyrics make it a great Christmas tune, and the update makes it acceptable music to play between the months of January and November. I have arranged “Go Tell It on the Mountain” here as an alternating-thumb instrumental with a bit of a bluesy feel. Those of you with lots of experience in Travis picking may find this arrangement quite accessible, and beginning

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alternating-thumb players should find this to be a good piece to get started on for playing a melody while you keep your thumb on autopilot (an essential skill for fingerpickers). This arrangement instantiates a bit of good advice I got from another hymn arranging enthusiast, fingerstyle guitarist El McMeen: When a piece of music is short, as most hymns are, avoid over-repetition by moving parts of your arrangement to a higher or lower octave. In this piece, the verse melody (heard first in the higher octave in measures 3–10) is played in a low octave beginning in measure 19. This section offers a chance to practice your alternating-thumb technique while playing a melody

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

on the middle strings—a somewhat tricky but very useful skill! As you tackle the arrangement, I recommend slightly muting the bass strings with your picking-hand palm to enhance the percussive groove of the piece. This is an important skill to have—place the heel of your picking hand gently on the bass strings and see if you can create that muting while you pick the bass strings. You’ll know you’ve got it right if you can keep that muted bass thumping while still allowing the treble notes to ring out, and it’s worth playing around with the angle and position of your picking hand until you can lock in that sound. AG

TRADITIONAL, ARRANGED BY STEVE BAUGHMAN

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AcousticGuitar.com 81

SHUBB CAPOS

After

40

years

still the best! [email protected] • www.shubb.com 707-843-4068 82 March 2015

86

Makers & Shakers Ren Ferguson follows Guild to the West Coast

88

Guitar Guru Listen, don’t look, for great Brazilian rosewood

90

New Gear Check out Thompson’s new OM Brazilian guitar

98

AG TRADE

Great Acoustics Collins revived a classic Cowboy

As any traveling musician knows all too well, not everyone treats your precious cargo with appropriate care and attention. However, the folks at Timbre Cases are on your side, developing a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art dreadnought case that solves a number of the most commonly seen issues. Timbre’s DNone cases are made with aerospace-grade Kydex shells, which are lightweight, waterproof, and shock-absorbent. Latches and hinges are fully recessed, and the torqued hinges will protect your guitar from a careless slam. Also of note is the useful “easy-glide” structure, which allows you to wheel your instrument through airports and train stations, as well as integrated humidification pockets. After years of research, development, prototyping, and testing, the DNone is ready to go into production, and to that end, Timbre Cases has set up a Kickstarter campaign to assist with production costs.

Sexauer cradles his prized Pear

SHOPTALK

MICHAEL AMSLER PHOTO

CANADA’S TIMBRE CASES DEVELOPS PREMIUM DREADNOUGHT PROTECTION

Pear of Kings

Talking tonewood with luthier extraordinaire Bruce Sexauer BY MARC GREILSAMER

ike most world-class luthiers, Bruce Sexauer is on a quest for the quintessential guitar. Unlike many, he knows he’ll never find it. “The nature of my work,” Sexauer says, “is that I’m constantly prototyping. That’s what I do. I’ve been prototyping now for 47 years. For me, it’s not about perfecting a design; it’s about metamorphosizing my concept in the ongoing pursuit of the ultimate guitar. I’m trying to get better at what I do.” Still, there are times when Sexauer—whose studio is in the Northern California city of Petaluma—gets closer to perfection than others. Perhaps that is the case with the “Pear,” a 000size, 12-fret cutaway that seems to have—shall we say?—a certain mystique. J.R. Rogers, owner and founder of Acoustic Guitar Forum, certainly thinks so. Rogers recently bestowed upon Sexauer’s creation the 2014 Founder’s Choice Award for guitar of the year.

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“It seemed as perfect as I could imagine a guitar could sound, and I wasn’t really expecting that,” Rogers says. “This guitar produced a beautiful sound no matter where I played on the neck.” Rogers first encountered the Pear at last year’s Woodstock Invitational Luthiers Showcase. Before then, Rogers had never actually picked up a Sexauer instrument. When the two connected at Woodstock, Sexauer had a pair of instruments with him: a Brazilian rosewood OM and the Pear. “I said, ‘J.R., if you only have time to play one of these guitars—that’s a Brazilian rosewood OM, and it’s what you think it is, it’s a wonderful guitar—but play this one, because the Pear is something different,” Sexauer says. Rogers was impressed. “When he brought it back to me 20 minutes or a half an hour later,” Sexauer remembers, “he actually had tears running down his face. It was amazing.” (Rogers says that’s a bit of an exaggeration, although he does admit to being “a little teary-eyed.”) AcousticGuitar.com 83

Left Sexauer used German spruce for the Pear’s top, ebony for the fingerboard, Madagascar rosewood for the bridge, and maple and burl for the unique rosette.

BREEDLOVE UPDATES ITS STUDIO SERIES Breedlove’s popular Studio series of acoustic guitars is getting a bit of a makeover for 2015. Most notable among the changes is the addition of the new Fishman INK3 USB system, released at the January 2015 NAMM show. Featuring a Sonicore pickup, three-band EQ, chromatic tuner, and a low-battery LED, this onboard preamp includes USB connectivity that gives players the ability to directly interface with their recording software of choice.

Designed in Oregon and crafted in Korea, the Studio series comes in concert, dreadnought, and 12-string versions, with mahogany necks and rosewood fingerboards to go along with the solid Sitka spruce tops and figured laminated maple back and sides. Each model will feature an updated sunburst finish, abalone rosette, and motherof-pearl fretboard inlays. In addition, the concert and 12-string models will include a Breedlove Bridge Truss, which mounts to the bridge from the inside and connects with the tail block, reducing pressure on the top and enhancing the guitar’s resonance. The 2015 Studio series models will have a street price of $899.

Breedlove Bridge Truss

84 March 2015

s the moniker implies, the Pear is distinguished by its European pearwood back and sides. “There’s a long tradition of European pearwood in musical instruments,” Sexauer points out, particularly in lutes, Cremonese-era cellos, and Baroque violin fingerboards. It looks similar to cherry, although pear has a finer grain and slightly creamier color. (In fact, the pear’s grain is so fine that no pore filler is required.) What really sets pearwood apart, however, is its distinctive tone. “If you just picked it up and played it—if you were playing through 100 guitars and you just went one after another—you wouldn’t notice it,” Sexauer says. “It’s not particularly extraordinary at first blush. It’s the depth of the tone, it’s the subtlety of it. You need to sit down in a quiet place and play it for a few minutes to really understand it.” Rogers, who hasn’t played any other pearwood guitars, describes the tone as having the “ring of mahogany with a subtle brightness in the high end, approaching maple.” “In some ways,” Sexauer says, “I find the Pear’s tone deeper, and by deeper I don’t mean fuller or bassier, I mean emotionally deeper.” Sexauer should know. He’s used as many as 25 different tonewoods in his career. As a selfdescribed “wood whore,” he could not resist the beautiful pearwood set when a regular customer (and amateur builder) in Rhode Island presented him with a deal. After sitting on it for a couple of years, he decided (with the encouragement of a few Acoustic Guitar Forum members) to build a spec guitar using the pearwood.

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MICHAEL AMSLER PHOTOS

“Breedlove’s Studio series was built with the home studio and traveling musician in mind,” says Breedlove’s Devin Percell. “When looking at the voice of this instrument, we wanted to create a guitar with the crisp and articulate properties of maple and the versatility of Sitka spruce.”

Below The beautiful, fine-grained pearwood back

‘I find the Pear’s tone deeper, and by deeper I don’t mean fuller or bassier, I mean emotionally deeper.’ In the end, Sexauer combined it with a German spruce top, ebony fingerboard, and rosewood bridge. Though “grounded in tradition,” he took a few “aesthetic risks,” including the maple/abalone top purfling and the maple/ burl rosette of non-concentric circles. The Pear also features a longer scale length (25 11/16 inches) and the unusual nut width of 199/128 inches (which, after many years of experimentation, has become Sexauer’s standard). His use of labor-intensive oil varnish adds relatively little structure to the top, enhancing the transparency of the sound. “The Pear has a staying quality,” Sexauer says. “It becomes more intriguing and interesting the longer you play it.”

hough the pearwood experiment was successful, Sexauer’s most beloved tonewood remains pernambuco, which he calls the “one true voice.” Prized for its unique combination of density and flexibility, pernambuco is commonly used for violin-family bows, but those same qualities make it an outstanding choice for guitar bodies as well. “I consider pernambuco to be the most unaffected tonewood; it’s not biased,” Sexauer proclaims. “It’s the purest-sounding tonewood. It’s what a guitar is really supposed to sound like.” Not long after Sexauer made his first pernambuco guitar, a 00, guitarist Joe Satriani spotted it in the shop, fell in love with it, and took it home. That guitar was an incredibly balanced instrument, Sexauer recalls, with a “wide playing field” and a “broad palette of notes all with a related tone color.” Unfortunately, pernambuco is endangered and quite rare—especially pieces large enough for guitar building. According to Sexauer, “A two-foot-diameter tree, which is what it takes to make a quartersawn pernambuco guitar, is about twice the girth that pernambuco’s supposed to grow to.” It’s also the most expensive wood that he’s ever purchased. Yet, as the Pear guitar proves, it’s possible to build exceptional instruments using non-tropical tonewoods. “This wood isn’t commonly used,” Rogers says, “but I think it’s highly important that luthiers begin to look at nontropical tonewoods, reclaimed woods, and other alternative materials so that we may continue this industry in a responsible and sustainable manner.”

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As for Sexauer, his hunt for the perfectly balanced guitar moves forward. “My goal has been to have the worst note on the guitar be great,” he says. “This is the true frontier—it’s pulling up the bottom, it’s taking the worst part of the guitar and lifting it up. That’s the real magic. This is the reason the Pear excels. This particular guitar has this incredibly beautiful sound everywhere in it.” For all its majesty, the Pear guitar simply represents one step of Sexauer’s journey. “For me, it’s the past.” AG

Top Schaller GrandTune gold machine heads

Bottom Sexauer shaves the braces of a soundboard.

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AcousticGuitar.com 85

MAKERS & SHAKERS

Mountain Man

Ren Ferguson leads Guild’s transition from Fender to Córdoba BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

ack in 2012, when Fender recruited Ren Ferguson to oversee its acoustic guitar lines, the legendary luthier had already retired from building instruments. He had presided over Gibson’s acoustic division for more than 25 years, with great distinction, and his sterling reputation in the industry was virtually unparalleled. “Ren did some of the finest ornamental work to ever grace Gibson instruments at any time in the entire history of the company,” says George Gruhn, a vintage-instrument expert and proprietor of Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, Tennessee. “The custom-shop instruments he produced for Gibson are highly sought by collectors as superb pieces of art and very fine musical instruments.” However, in 2011, Ferguson had taken himself out of the game after a freak accident in a Hardin, Montana, cabin. It was early one morning when, preparing for a day of hunting, he stumbled and fell while getting dressed in the dark. “I thought maybe I’d just torn a muscle and it would heal on its own,” Ferguson says. “But after hobbling around for a bit, it became clear that I needed emergency surgery. It turned out that the quad tendon on my right leg had torn off my patella.” Ferguson was laid up for a month in recovery, and during that period, he reflected on his life as a guitar maker and decided it was time to move on. He resigned from Gibson and readied for retirement, but the following year, those plans were thwarted. Fender asked Ferguson to lead its Ovation and Guild brands, and the luthier couldn’t refuse. When Córdoba Music Group acquired Guild from Fender last year, the company named Ferguson vice president of R&D and manufacturing for Guild, and the instrument maker is once again relishing the challenge of setting up a new factory to produce fine new acoustic guitars. “When I was growing up, either you played a Guild, a Gibson, or a Martin,” Ferguson says.

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86 March 2015

Ren Ferguson

“Guild is such a great old brand. It’s been an honor and a privilege, for sure, to help revitalize it.” LEARNING THE TRADE For the 69-year-old Ferguson, the move back to the West Coast—Córdoba’s factory is based in Oxnard, California—brings him full circle. He grew up about an hour south of Oxnard in the Westchester neighborhood of Los Angeles where, like so many teenagers in the early 1960s, he bought his first guitar—a Harmony— and taught himself to play. In his high school shop class, Ferguson built his brother a banjo, and he learned finishing skills by trial and error in the spray booth of his father’s furniture store, refinishing chairs, tables, and the occasional Fender Telecaster. By his late teens, Ferguson had landed a job selling guitars at Westchester Music, a large emporium with a rental department for string and band instruments. It was there that he learned about instrument maintenance. “I wish I still had some of the valuable guitars I ruined in the process back then,” Ferguson says. Westchester Music was near Los Angeles International Airport, and would sometimes receive guitars broken due to mishandling. The casualties offered Ferguson valuable clues about their construction. “I got such an education in putting those Martins and Gibsons back together, closely studying their braces and neck joints,” he remembers. Eventually, Ferguson got poached by John and Emil Dopyera, owners of the resonator

guitar company Dobro. Though Ferguson was hired as a salesman, he also did some custom engraving and inlay work for the company, and he designed the thin-bodied, twin-cutaway Californian, which was introduced after Mosrite bought Dobro in 1966; the Californian remains a highly prized, hard-to-find collectible model. Ferguson then took his skills to the repair department of Westwood Music before opening a repair division at the famed McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, which he’d once referred to as “a little beatnik store.” Then, in 1966, he did something altogether different: “I accepted an offer from Uncle Sam to go to the Far East for a few years.” Working on a naval ship might not seem like the kind of place you’d practice your instrument building, but Ferguson managed to pick up some useful skills. “I was working in the ship’s repair shop, where I would do everything from grind a pair of glasses to put a new barrel in a gun,” he says. “Since there wasn’t much to do between runs, I learned how to run a lathe, to mill a little bit—and, probably most important, how to use machining to take the most accurate measurement.” During his naval stint, Ferguson met some fellow seamen from Montana who spoke constantly about the beauty of their home state. After Ferguson was discharged from the Navy in 1969, he resumed his work in California, but couldn’t shake those idyllic visions of Montana. He finally moved to Montana in the mid-1970s and became somewhat of a mountain man, working as a trapper and home builder and

hunting for sport. He also built custom rifles at Shiloh Sharps, a company known for making its own parts in reproductions of rifles from the 1800s. “I worked for a guy named Wolfgang, a gruff old New Yorker who just had ways of doing things in a completely unorthodox way,” Ferguson says. “If he couldn’t get a tool to do something he needed, he just invented it. So I learned that if you have a finished product in mind, just reverse-engineer it, and determine what you need to build the parts.” THE BIG BREAK In Montana, Ferguson married and began a family, and it happened that a midwife who attended one of his children’s births was married to an employee of the Flatiron Mandolin and Banjo Company. One day in 1985, Steve Carlson, who’d learned of Ferguson’s skills, called and offered him a job. At first Ferguson balked, being so occupied by his other pursuits—“I was cobbling together a living with four separate jobs, and that was including working 40-hour weeks at Sharps,” he says—but acquiesced when the money was put on the table. “Steve offered me $1,850 a month, and I said, ‘I’ll see you in the morning!’” Bruce Weber, one of Ferguson’s Flatiron coworkers, recalls being initially intimidated by the instrument builder. “He’s such an accomplished and talented artist, and an incredible craftsman,” says Weber, who’s no slouch himself. “He’s so good with details, and the things he can do with his hands is just amazing.” During Ferguson’s tenure at Flatiron, demand for the company’s mandolins came to exceed the supply. Soon, Gibson slapped a cease-and-desist order on Flatiron, claiming that its mandolins compromised the design of the classic F-5 model. Instead of taking legal action, Gibson bought Flatiron in 1987 and moved the production of its acoustic guitars from Nashville to Montana. “Steve convinced [Gibson CEO] Henry Juszkiewicz that I was this legendary luthier and had what it took to build the factory and make good guitars for Gibson,” says Ferguson, who made good on the claim. When Carlson and Ferguson unpacked the fixtures shipped from the Nashville factory, they were both pleased and confounded. “There were a lot of great materials in there, including Brazilian rosewood, and so much history, such as some of the 1930s molds that had originally been at the Kalamazoo factory,” Ferguson says. “But much of what we received was in a state of disarray, broken or smashed, and so we had to piece together a shop basically from the ground up and make some of the molds with a Hershey bar and a brick.” “[Ferguson’s] got great foresight, always thinking about how what he’s doing at the moment will affect the final instrument in terms of sound and playability,” Weber

remembers. “That’s what made the instruments we built together so awesome.” While presiding over Gibson’s acoustic division, one of Ferguson’s main challenges was to consistently mass-produce guitars of top quality, which he accomplished when he designed the Songbird and Songwriter lines. Ferguson attributes this success to having hand-picked a team of workers who could make quick and intelligent decisions about their areas in the assembly process. “During my time there, almost everyone was a [guitar] picker, and so thrilled to be making the instruments—not just there for a paycheck,” Ferguson says. “Each worker understood how what he was working on factored in to the end product, and everyone busted their ass to make perfect guitars.” In celebration of Gibson’s 100th anniversary (and to make a splash at a 1994 NAMM show), Ferguson hand-built some instruments, including an SJ-200 with Brazilian rosewood back and sides and an elaborate vine inlay on the headstock and fretboard. That marked the inception of Gibson’s Master Museum guitars, which included the extremely labor-intensive “Pirates of the Caribbean” SJ-200 that Ferguson made for Johnny Depp when Depp starred in the 2003 Disney film. Estimates place the lavishly appointed guitar, with its carved ship-head neck heel and 22-karat-gold ornamentations, at more than $100,000. “I’ve made so many instruments that I could never afford,” says Ferguson, who owns a modest guitar collection.

‘I’ve made so many instruments that I could never afford.’ Ferguson has a longstanding affinity for golden-era flattops, and he oversaw the reissue of some of Gibson’s most popular vintage designs, including the J-45, the J-200, the L-00, the Hummingbird, and the Dove. “I taught myself to build guitars by taking apart a lot of these original instruments,” he says, “and I based the reissues not just on the original materials but on details like how the wood was cut and how the grain patterns behaved. “Most important, I designed the reissues based on what was made well, what has endured and sounds great,” Ferguson continues. “People tend to think that all old guitars are magical. But the truth is, a lot of old guitars haven’t survived over the years, and some have held up structurally well but just don’t sound good.” For the exacting reissue of an L-00, the small-bodied 1930s guitar favored by fingerstyle blues players, Ferguson borrowed a particularly sweet L-00 from country singer and

guitarist Lee Roy Parnell. “Ren did amazing work in recreating the guitar. I never thought it’d be possible to nail the guitar as closely as he did, right down to the dulled finish and the firestripe pickguard,” says Parnell. “It looks, feels, and sounds virtually identical to mine.” BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME The Gibson reissue projects were such a labor of love for Ferguson that he often took his work home. For instance, he found that the best way to replicate the braces on a 1930s-style L-00 was to use a table saw without guards—a process unsafe to do in a frenzied production environment. “I brought home a bunch of Adirondack spruce with me on the weekends and with my son Timothy would cut hundreds of braces in the same way as they were originally done, with the correct textures and weights,” Ferguson says. “That’s what was needed to make those Legend Series guitars sound scary good.” Not long after his ostensible retirement, in 2012, Ferguson found himself shuttling back and forth between his Montana home and his new employer’s factory in New Hartford, Connecticut. There, he oversaw the building of what are arguably the finest instruments since Guild’s founding in 1953. Ferguson worked on refining Guild’s classic designs while developing a new line, the Orpheum Series—a smart collection of orchestra, dreadnought, jumbo, and 12-string models using 1930s-style construction techniques. “I’m so proud to have helped Guild take things up a notch,” Ferguson says. The commute, however, wasn’t much fun. “Each time I went to the factory, it was really difficult to walk away from the same house I’ve been living in since 1987,” Ferguson says. “I have an enormous garden and the kind of lifestyle that revolves around staying local. I thrive on hunting for wild game, in a responsible way, and cooking my own food. And I enjoy spending time with a small community of friends and family that gets together as often as possible to share music and food together.” Ferguson isn’t fond of traveling between bucolic Montana and Oxnard, California, either, but at least it’s brought him back to his childhood home, where he first began tinkering with instrument building so long ago. He also finds himself reenergized by helping Córdoba set up a new shop for Guild: designing the fixtures and jigs, making sure all of the moving parts are coordinated. He’s excited to work from the ground up, starting with the return of the American-made M-20, a modest all-mahogany offering. “We’ll be using premium tonewoods to recapture the beautiful simplicity of the original design,” Ferguson says. “I think guitar connoisseurs will be excited, but most important, this will be the kind of guitar that people just long to play and to make beautiful music on.” AG AcousticGuitar.com 87

GUITAR GURU

longer exhibit traditional reddish-brown color and deep luminosity. Straight grained sets are occasionally salvaged from sunken logs, though these are often sand-colored or grey and have a dull, washedout look. Rare as it is to find straight-grained back-and-side sets, it’s much more difficult to find ones having the traditional color. But it’s rumored that great-looking sets are sometimes salvaged from table tops. In my career I’ve only seen three. The majority of new Brazilian rosewood guitars are made from sets salvaged either from stumps or from building timbers. Natural oils allow the stumps to remain in the ground for decades without rotting. Superbly preserved, colorful, reasonably well-quartered sets harvested from stumps are still readily available. Even wellquartered examples, however, usually exhibit figured, as opposed to straight, grain.

Blame It on the Rainforest

Commercial demand has made Brazilian rosewood guitars a rare commodity BY DANA BOURGEOIS

I’m thinking of ordering a Brazilian rosewood guitar. New Brazilian rosewood guitars that I see online are beautiful, but they don’t look much like the vintage guitars in reference books, nor do they look much like each other. Can all this wood be of the same species? And how can I tell from appearance which sounds best?

Q

Allen Konigsberg New York

Brazilian rosewood grain

GOT A QUESTION? Uncertain about guitar care and maintenance? The insand-outs of guitar building? Or a topic related to your gear?

88 March 2015

A

Brazilian rosewood, dalbergia nigra, grows in a relatively small area of Brazil’s coastal rainforest. Since the earliest days of Portuguese colonization, dalbergia has been a valuable export commodity, prized in Europe for furniture and decorative woodwork and used as far back as the late Renaissance for lutes, woodwind instruments, and ancestors of the modern guitar. Commercial demand for dalbergia never ceased. Centuries of over-harvesting and more recent habitat degradation have taken Brazilian rosewood to the brink of extinction. As you may already know, in 1992 dalbergia nigra was listed as a protected species by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), after which most nations banned trade in Brazilian rosewood products. The beautiful quartersawn Brazilian rosewood seen on many vintage guitars—tightgrained, straight, even-colored and often laced with inky black lines—came from the “saw log,” the branchless cylindrical center section of a mature tree between a sometimes buttressed stump and the canopy. Though Brazilian rosewood harvested prior to 1992 can be legally exported, virtually no unprocessed saw logs from the world’s most commercially valuable tree are left to be had. Occasionally, an unused, legally certified back-and-side set processed prior to 1992 can be found. Unfortunately, many older sets are permanently darkened from oxidation and no

Ask Acoustic Guitar’s resident Guitar Guru. Send an email titled “Guitar Guru” to editor Marc Greilsamer at [email protected], and he’ll forward it to the expert luthier.

Be prepared to pay an amount equivalent to the down payment on many a house.

Salvaged dalbergia building timbers, I am told, still abound in Brazil. I see the sets. These are often riddled with cracks (many repairable) and sometimes streaked with patches of black oxidation, often yielding strikingly beautiful but highly untraditional-looking guitars. If you’re after a new guitar made from perfect-looking Brazilian rosewood (i.e. could have been used by Martin in 1937), be prepared to pay an amount equivalent to the down payment on many a house. Demand simply outstrips supply. If you’re willing to compromise, however, on cut (quartersawn vs. flatsawn), color, straightness of grain, state of preservation (hey, wormholes don’t affect tone), or a combination of these features, you may still be able to afford the guitar of a lifetime. To my ears, and to those of many others, good Brazilian rosewood guitars are still unequaled for their unique combination of richness and clarity. And as I’ve suggested in these pages before, there’s often scant correlation between appearance and tone. If you’re in the habit of not listening with your eyes, it’s easier to recognize that it’s all the same species. AG

If AG selects your question for publication, you’ll receive a complimentary copy of AG’s The Acoustic Guitar Owner’s Manual. Dana Bourgeois

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GIVEAWAY RULES: No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Entrants must be 18 years or older. Each entry must be individually submitted using the Official Entry Form at AcousticGuitar.com/Win//Yamaha-LS16-ARE-Giveaway and received by March 31, 2015; facsimiles may not be substituted. Prize drawing will be made on or around March 15, 2015. The prize will be fulfilled by Yamaha within 60 days of receipt of winner’s written acceptance. Employees of Acoustic Guitar and Yamaha are not eligible to win. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received. Limit one entry per person. Acoustic Guitar magazine reserves the right to notify the winner by mail or by e-mail and to identify the winner in the magazine as well as the Acoustic Guitar website and Facebook page. International entrants, please note: If the winner is resident outside the United States and Canada, he or she is responsible for all shipping, customs, and tax costs. In the event that an international winner is unwilling or unable to cover these costs, he or she will forfeit the prize and a new winner will be selected at random. Giveaway entrants may receive information from Acoustic Guitar and Bourgeois. For the name of the prize winner, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Yamaha LS16 ARE Giveaway, c/o Acoustic Guitar Magazine, 510 Canal Blvd, Suite J, Richmond, CA 94804. This offer ends on March 31, 2015. Taxes are the responsibility of the winner. No prize substitutions are permitted.

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NEW GEAR

Solid Adirondack spruce top

Shipshape W A stash of salvaged Brazilian rosewood helps distinguish Thompson’s OM BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

ith its powerful and immediate voice, deep resonance, and protracted sustain, Thompson’s OM Brazilian model is the sort of magical guitar that one seldom encounters, especially in a newly built instrument. Patterned after Martin’s original 1930s-era orchestra model, it’s made from that most venerated combination of tonewoods: a soundboard of Adirondack spruce paired with Brazilian rosewood back and sides. The result is a note-perfect recreation of a golden-era flattop. DYNAMIC SOUND Overall, the OM has great clarity and note separation, along with excellent tonal balance. The guitar’s warm, robust bass is matched by a strong, crystalline treble. Thompson’s interpretation of the original OM is clearly intended for traditional

90 March 2015

fingerpicking, and it excels in this context. It responds to the lightest pick-hand touch and sounds just as brilliant in standard tuning as in DADGAD or open C. Yet, with such a dynamic sound, the possibilities are endless on this instrument. Amazing things would surely happen if, for instance, a contemporary virtuoso like the young Julian Lage, who pushes the boundaries of jazz, were to get his hands on this instrument. FINE CRAFTSMANSHIP Preston Thompson’s name may be new to some guitar enthusiasts, but he’s been building guitars since the 1970s. In the 1980s, the late bluegrass picker Charles Sawtelle of Hot Rize loaned Thompson a trove of vintage prewar Martins—including a 1929 000-45, a 1935 D-18, and a 1937 D-28—and commissioned the luthier to build him some guitars.

Ebony fretboard

1 3/4-inch nut width

Nickel Waverly tuners

BODY OM size Solid Adirondack spruce top with advanced scalloped X-bracing Brazilian rosewood back and sides AT A GLANCE

THOMPSON OM BRAZILIAN

NECK Honduran mahogany neck

EXTRAS Elixir phosphor bronze strings with Nanoweb coating (.012–.053)

Ebony fretboard

TKL Elite hardshell case

25.4-inch scale length

PRICE $10,800 street

Ebony bridge 1.75-inch nut width High-gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish

Thompson took detailed measurements and impressions of the instruments, and today he and his small team of luthiers at his Sisters, Oregon, workshop refer to the data when building their line of small-production flattops. At a glance, this Thompson OM looks much like an original (with the few differences being the Thompson headstock logo and extra fingerboard inlay at the 15th fret). It’s got the same paddle-shaped headstock with Waverly butterbean tuners, herringbone top purfling, threering rosette, and tortoise celluloid pickguard. Inside the instrument are period-correct details like advanced X-bracing and cloth reinforcement strips on the sides. The soundboard, devoid of the aging toner commonly used on new guitars, has a beautiful reddish tint and fine, straight grains that become more widely spaced at the guitar’s bouts. The Brazilian rosewood back and sides are

Nickel Waverly tuners

particularly special—quartersawn, with rich shades of deep brown, burgundy, and orange. (This particular rosewood has its own compelling story: Originally harvested in Brazil in 1936, it was lost in a shipwreck off the coast of Spain and sat on the ocean floor for nearly 70 years before it was discovered and retrieved in 2005.)

The result is a noteperfect recreation of a golden-era flattop. The craftsmanship on this Thompson is impeccable, from stem to stern. The nitrocellulose lacquer finish is thinly and uniformly applied, the fretwork is first-rate, and the bone nut and saddle are perfectly notched. The internal components appear to have been carefully sanded, and there are no excess traces of glue.

Made in the United States pktguitars.com

The guitar has a V-shape neck that gradually gets softer as it moves from the heel to the nut. With about 0.820 inches at the first fret, it’s not quite as chunky as the neck on a typical vintage example, and despite having an action that’s slightly high for my liking at the 12th fret, it’s playable in all regions of the fretboard. With a street price of $10,800, Thompson’s OM Brazilian may be out of reach for many players. Considering, however, that a vintage specimen easily sells for $50,000 or more, it is a relative bargain. This is an heirloom-quality instrument that stacks up favorably to the prized originals it emulates—and certainly worth the investment to those who can make it. AG Contributing editor Adam Perlmutter transcribes, arranges, and engraves music for numerous publications. AcousticGuitar.com 91

NEW GEAR

AT A GLANCE

GRETSCH G9201 HONEY DIPPER BODY Bell brass body with singlecone resonator and ebonytipped maple biscuit bridge Weathered finish NECK Mahogany neck Rosewood fretboard 25-inch scale length 1.75-inch bone nut Grover Sta-Tite die-cast tuners EXTRAS D’Addario EJ16 phosphor bronze strings (.012–.053) Optional gig bag PRICE $879 list/$529 street Made in China gretsch.com

92 March 2015

A Taste of Honey Gretsch looks to the Delta with its G9201 Honey Dipper resonator guitar BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

retsch’s G9201 Honey Dipper resonator guitar might be a modern instrument, but its sound transports you to another era. Just a handful of notes on the instrument will conjure up black-and-white images of players hunched over their guitars on front porches in the Deep South. The Honey Dipper is part of Gretsch’s Roots Collection, which uses 1920s and ’30s fretted instruments as inspiration for contemporary designs. As with other entries in the series, the guitar successfully merges vintage-approved sound with modern playability, all in an affordable package.

G

OLD-SCHOOL STYLING The Honey Dipper has a bell brass body housing Gretsch’s Ampli-Sonic biscuit-bridge cone (handspun in Eastern Europe from 99-percent pure aluminum), giving the instrument the characteristically brash tone of a single-cone resonator. The rounded neck is made from mahogany and capped with a rosewood fretboard. The guitar not only sounds old but looks old, thanks to its vintage cosmetic details. Cutouts on the cone’s cover plate form a beautiful poinsettia design that pairs nicely with the top’s twin segmented f-holes. The headstock, which has a 1930s paddle-shaped silhouette, is

capped with a layer of pearloid, a matching truss-rod cover, and an old-school Gretsch logo. Open-geared Grover Sta-Tite tuners with black buttons complete the antique effect, as does a lightly distressed finish treatment on the body. The review model is soundly built, with all of the cutout areas on the metal body perfectly uniform. The guitar’s 19 jumbo frets are smoothly crowned and polished, without any jaggedness at their edges, and the bone nut is cleanly notched. On the neck, a honey-stained semi-gloss finish is smoothly applied and free from imperfections, except for a hint of flaking at the neck-to-body junction on the treble side—an area unseen when you’re playing.

The Honey Dipper has an exciting sound, loud and lively, with an impressive natural reverb. PRIMED FOR DELTA BLUES & BEYOND At eight pounds, seven ounces, the Honey Dipper is on the hefty side, but it sits nicely on your lap and feels well-balanced between its

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LuthierFrankenstein AG 245.indd 1

3/5/13 3:51 PM

wooden neck and metal body. Designed to be fretted conventionally, it’s built with a rather large, medium-V-shape neck (instead of square, as on instruments built to be played exclusively in the bottleneck style), a profile that vintage aficionados will find inviting. The factory-set action is a little high at the 12th fret for my preference, but on the plus side, this makes it easier to play slide. The Honey Dipper has an exciting sound, loud and lively, with an impressive natural reverb. Each note is full of color and information. Though the instrument’s voice lends authenticity to playing in the mold of original Delta Blues practitioners like Son House or Bukka White, it also sounds great for fare not ordinarily associated with the resonator. I played Thelonious Monk’s “Ugly Beauty,” in dropped-D tuning, and the Honey Dipper added unexpected tonal shadings to this idiosyncratic waltz. Gretsch’s G9201 Honey Dipper might not have the mojo of a 1930s National, but it offers an excellent approximation, with a classic sound and smart appearance to match. The guitar would be a good choice for a player looking to branch out into Delta blues territory, or one who wants to casually explore the timbral possibilities in a resonator instrument— for only a minimal cash outlay. AG AcousticGuitar.com 93

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NEW GEAR

Small Wonder

The 0-size Recording King RP1-16C packs a punch BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

t first blush, Recording King’s RP1-16C sounds astonishingly good for a $500 guitar. Inspired by 1930s Gibson flattops, this sweet-sounding, responsive instrument plays a whole lot better than the average vintage guitar, at a fraction of the cost, and its clear and articulate voice might surprise skeptics.

A

ECHOES OF A GOLDEN ERA Part of the Music Link family, the Recording King line revives the brand of Depression-era fretted instruments originally made for Montgomery Ward. The 12-fret RP1-16C, designed in conjunction with the historian, luthier, and shop owner Eric Schoenberg, appears to be a straightforward parlor guitar, but it boasts some distinctive features.

Given its small body and 1.75-inch nut width, the RP116C is intended for fingerpicking, and it really shines for this application.

94 March 2015

For one, the instrument pairs a 0-size body with a cutaway design and the longer scale length (25.4 inches) of a dreadnought, which lends punch and projection. But the real draw is a torrefied Adirondack spruce soundboard— the tonewood of choice for most golden-era guitars, but usually reserved these days for more expensive instruments. Torrefied guitar woods are organically aged through a strictly controlled heating process, in the interest of greater resonance and stability. A byproduct of this process is an aged appearance; the review model featured a lovely amber-colored top. The rest of the guitar is pretty snappy, too, with its appealingly narrow waist, stained mahogany back and sides, and vintage-style banner headstock logo. FINE FINGERPICKING CHOICE The RP1-16C is soundly constructed, with a cleanly cut bone nut and saddle, tip-top fretwork, and a gloss finish free from imperfections. However, the stain used on the mahogany reveals a hint of sloppiness at the neck-to-body junction, and the guitar’s interior could have received a little more attention during the sanding. Not perfect, but no big deal. The RP1-16C has a sort of streamlined V-shaped neck that feels at once modern and vintage. It’s easy to get around on the neck, and all of its notes, from the highest to the lowest, ring true, with accurate intonation. Given its small body and 1.75-inch nut width, the RP1-16C is intended for fingerpicking, and it really shines for this application. The guitar has excellent detail and clarity, whether played in standard or alternate tunings, and it takes little force from the picking fingers to extract a beautiful tone from the instrument. Plectrum players won’t be disappointed either. Strummed or flatpicked, there’s an impressive amount of headroom for a guitar of such modest size. Recording King has produced a honey of a guitar with this latest offering, at a bargainbasement price. AG

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AT A GLANCE

RECORDING KING RP1-16C BODY 0-size body with Venetian cutaway Solid torrefied Adirondack spruce top with Sitka spruce scalloped X-bracing Mahogany back and sides Gloss natural finish NECK Mahogany neck Rosewood fingerboard Ebony bridge 25.4-inch scale length 1.75-inch nut width Grover butterbean tuners Gloss finish EXTRAS D’Addario EJ17 Phosphor Bronze strings (.013–.056) PRICE $668 list; $499 street

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PICKIN’

AT A GLANCE

WEBER TWO-POINT BITTERROOT OCTAVE MANDOLIN BODY Two-point body style Hand-graduated and tuned solid Sitka spruce top with f-holes Solid mahogany back and sides Ebony bridge

Flower Power

Adventurous guitarists will appreciate Weber’s Two-Point Bitterroot octave mandolin BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

Nickel tailpiece Satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish NECK Mahogany neck Ebony fretboard 22-inch scale length 1 3/8-inch nut width Grover open-geared tuners Satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish EXTRAS John Pearse strings (.014–.048) Deluxe hardshell case PRICE $4,399 MAP Made in Bend, Oregon, United States webermandolins.com 96 March 2015

nce you pick up Weber’s Two-Point Bitterroot octave mandolin, it’s nearly impossible to put it down. With its brilliantly sparkling timbres, complex overall voice, and impressive sustain, this large mandolin almost sounds like a tiny string orchestra. Whether played with customary mandolin triads or altered jazz voicings, the instrument has an impressive and vibrant chop—you can clearly discern the individual members of chords. It also has a dynamic, well-projected tone, with excellent clarity and note separation, and a sound that’s a little smoother and less twangy than that of a standard mandolin. When I downloaded the sheet music for some reels and jigs and played them on the mandolin, I was impressed by the instrument’s authoritative voice. And it was easy to add ornamentations like grace notes, thanks to the instrument’s perfect setup. It sounded particularly warm and robust on an arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1.

O

LONG AND LEAN Granted, it can be difficult for a guitarist to transition to the mandolin. After all, a guitar’s usual scale length is 25.4 inches; by contrast, a standard mandolin’s scale is just 14 inches. The octave mandolin, however, is pitched an octave below a regular mandolin (low to high: GDAE),

and has a much longer scale length of 22 inches, making the switch easier. (Weber also offers also a version with a 20-inch scale length.) At 37.5 inches long, the lightweight Bitterroot sits nicely on the lap. Its fretboard has a 10-inch radius, and this, in tandem with its low action, makes it comfortable to play both barre chords and single-note lines up and down the fretboard. A 13/8-inch nut width (as opposed to 11/8 inches on a standard mandolin) give both the fret and pick hands plenty of space to move around. WESTERN STYLE Based in Bend, Oregon, Weber offers many other mandolin-family instruments, in addition to acoustic archtop and resonator guitars. The company has its roots in the Bozeman, Montana-based Flatiron Mandolin and Banjo Company, which was subsumed by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1987. When Gibson relocated Flatiron to Nashville in the mid-’90s, Bruce Weber, the head luthier, stayed behind in Montana to work on his own finely crafted, distinctively styled instruments. A couple of years ago, Weber joined the Two Old Hippies family of musical instruments, which also includes Breedlove and Bedell, and moved to its present headquarters.

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The Bitterroot is inspiring to play—a beautifully constructed and superbsounding instrument.

Each of Weber’s instruments is available in one of seven cosmetic packages; the review model featured the company’s Bitterroot treatment, named after the state flower of Montana. Though the Bitterroot package is one of Weber’s least-expensive options, it incorporates a number of attractive cosmetic flourishes, like a Celtic knot mother-of-pearl headstock inlay, diamond-shaped fretboard markers, and

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back, ribs, and neck are made from beautiful, straight-grained mahogany. The fretboard and bridge are inky black ebony, while the headstock cap is made from attractively streaky ebony. The instrument is exceptionally well built, with 27 smoothly polished and beveled frets, plus a precisely notched nut and bridge. The inlay work is meticulous, as is the interior kerfing. In your hands, it feels like a solid instrument. Most important, though, the Bitterroot is inspiring to play—a beautifully constructed and superb-sounding instrument that will help guitarists access the chorusing effects of a mandolin. It might be prohibitively expensive to many players, but it’s a fine choice for those who can afford it. AG

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Toy Story Collings turned cowboy kitsch into a quality collectible BY RICHARD JOHNSTON

heap guitars with colorful scenes stenciled on the face were mainstays in catalogs and department stores starting in the 1930s. Cowboys were the most frequent subjects, and Gene Autry or Roy Rogers smiled down from many a boy’s bedroom wall. By the 1960s, however, rock ’n’ roll made singing cowboys’ painted smiles and white hats anything but cool. Then, in the 1970s, “cowboy stencil” guitars, as they’ve come to be known, began to appear on coffeehouse walls. They were soon considered collectible by the same dealers who hoarded pearl-bordered Martins and early Fenders. Even the best were rarely playable, but it didn’t seem to matter since most were built with birch tops and clunky bracing anyway. Cowboy guitars were better seen than heard. The idea of a modern take on the cowboy stencil guitar was simmering at Collings Guitars in Austin, Texas, when Bill Collings’ trail boss, Steve McCreary, came back from California with a hand-painted ukulele by cartoonist and illustrator Robert Armstrong. Armstrong was no stranger to cool old instruments, thanks to his long tenure as one of the founding members of R. Crumb’s Cheap Suit Serenaders. Rather than a cheery campfire scene or a smiling cowboy on a horse, however, the creator of the Couch Potatoes and Mickey Rat drew the starkly humorous scene shown here. Collings employee John Allison sprayed the stenciled design on a special C-10 model with mahogany back and sides, a spruce top, and half-herringbone “lariat” top border, adding subtle shading around the edge. At the 2000 NAMM show in Los Angeles, McCreary photographed dozens of music-industry movers and shakers in the Collings booth playing the guitar while wearing a kiddy cowboy hat. Maybe they can’t go back home and be fresh-faced kids again, but at least those who pick up this modern version of the cowboy stencil guitar can play an instrument that sounds good, plays in tune, and looks great. AG

C

This article was first published in the August 2000 issue. 98 March 2015

100

Playlist Laura Marling plugs in . . . somewhat

102

Playlist African American Songsters defy stereotypes

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Final Note Loudon Wainwright III gets the last word

PLAYLIST

MIXED MEDIA

101 Eric Bibb

gets really real.

MICHEL VERLINDEN PHOTO

AcousticGuitar.com 99

PLAYLIST

Woman Warrior

British singer-songwriter Laura Marling toughens her sound without sacrificing her tenderness

Laura Marling Short Movie Ribbon Music

BY WHITNEY PHANEUF

s she did on 2013’s Once I Was an Eagle, Laura Marling continues her obsession with love, mortality, and loneliness on her fifth and latest album, Short Movie. But there are more complexities and contradictions here. At 25, the singer, songwriter, and guitarist seems to be holding on tighter to time, to life, and to the struggle for truth, while simultaneously tortured by every adult decision she makes. With this shift comes a darker, bolder sound that seamlessly traverses rock and folk, electric and acoustic, tough and tender. The change is evident from the opener, “Warrior,” which pairs a winding, Western melody, achieved by Marling’s quick and dexterous acoustic fingerpicking, with howling strings and ominous atmospherics. Lyrically, the song introduces the album’s overarching theme: being one’s own “Warrior” (i.e. learning to be alone). And when Marling kicks off the second song, “False Hope,” by belting the question “Is it still OK that I don’t know how to be

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100 March 2015

alone?” amid anxious electric guitar, her manic and defiant vocal inflection evokes Patti Smith or Chrissie Hynde far more than Joni Mitchell, the artist to whom Marling is often compared. It’s an impressive earworm that sets the tone for an album that takes dramatic turns in its 13 tracks without ever losing its way. While Marling stretches her voice and experiments with arrangements on Short Movie, the album is still rooted in her phenomenal acoustic playing in alternate tunings. Crisp, bright notes open “Feel Your Love,” her flamenco-tinged strumming building to an anthemic finish in which she howls “Please let me go.” Marling’s rapid-fire rhythms take center stage on “Strange,” a biting talking-blues kissoff to a lover she’s lost respect for. The warm, wistful ballad “Easy” revisits the Led Zeppelin III-style circular acoustic chord progressions and percussive builds that traced songs such as “Master Hunter,” on Once I Was an Eagle. The bright, lo-fi sound of “Divine” draws inspiration

from ’70s folk-rock, opening with an inescapable hook that blooms into a love song about the passionate relationship between Marling and her guitar. Bluesy folk melodies imbue “How Can I,” Marling’s deft hand sliding into lower tones, which match the mood of this heartbreaker that asks the question “How can I live without you?” The more understated “Walk Alone” and “Worship” return to the somber, meditative quality of her second album, 2010’s I Speak Because I Can. Urgent, intense, and intimate, Short Movie unfolds like vignettes ripped straight from Marling’s various states of disquietude—she’s less naïve, more confident, yet remains utterly lost. So, who is Laura Marling today? A nu-folkie, a modern-day Mitchell, “just a girl that can play guitar,” as she sings on the title track? Marling writes songs like a woman who has lived a dozen lives, and on Short Movie she explores many worlds—some familiar, others foreign. Ultimately, she makes them all her own. AG

Eric Bibb Blues People Stony Plain

Negro Music in White America . . . the U.S. blues revisited If 2013’s Jericho Road was Eric Bibb’s personal meditation on race in America, Blues People is the guitarist’s urgent call to action featuring a multigenerational cast of friends, from veteran Taj Mahal to the young cellist and banjo player Leyla McCalla. In the wake of the racially charged killings in Ferguson and Staten Island, Bibb’s timing couldn’t be more right. “We’re the dream catchers, the next wave, Lord keep us strong,” Bibb sings in “Dream Catchers,” a nod to Martin Luther King Jr. that also features singer-guitarist Ruthie Foster. Mahal plays clawhammer banjo in the raw intro to “Needed Time,” which morphs into countrygospel atmospherics before culminating in the Blind Boys of Alabama’s heavenly harmonies. The songs that carry Bibb’s musical journey forward through race, struggle, and spirituality—or, “the path the slave took to ‘citizenship,’” as Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) put it in his 1963 book Blues People: Negro Music in White America, for which this album was named—are basic country-blues: “Silver Spoon,” which finds its protagonist leaving home with guitar in hand; “Driftin’ Door to Door,” “Turner Station.” But the emotional tipping point comes in “Rosewood,” about a brutal, racially motivated 1923 massacre in the majority-black Florida town of the same name. Bibb invokes King again in the final track, asking, “Where Do We Go from Here?” There’s also some levity amid all the serious business of Blues People. It comes in “Chocolate Man,” over the crisp fingerpicking of storyteller Guy Davis, who sings, “If you like my chocolate, I don’t mind / You can eat my bonbons two at a time.” It’s an homage to the African American tradition of the double-entendre—a lifesaving art for blacks who lived in pre-civil rights America. —Mark Segal Kemp

Jim White vs. the Packway Handle Band Take It Like a Man Yep Roc

Pratt picks the Packways to fire up a bluegrass CD While producing a 2013 album for Tennessee duo the Skipperdees, Southern singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jim White (real name: Michael Davis Pratt) decided he needed a bluegrass group to fill out the sound. So he called the Packway Handle Band, and everybody had such a good time that the Packways asked him to produce their new album. The result, after more than a few twists and turns, is Take It Like a Man, on which the Packways play new songs by White, White plays new songs by the Packways, and everybody brings out the best in each other, just like God intended. For the Packways, that meant having the 50-something White help them push beyond their “apocalyptic infotainment” style. For White, it meant having 30-something bluegrass pickers move him beyond what’s been called his “longsuffering, implosive-depressive novelist view of the South.” All that matters to acoustic music fans, though, is that it works—and it does. The Packways’ “Not a Song,” with its warning that “this is not a song, it’s a suicide mission,” drives the quintet as close to the edge as it’s ever been. And for all the Newtonian foolishness, “Gravity Won’t Fail” has something important to say to the chronically brokenhearted. Even better is the genuine sadness of White’s “Sorrows Shine” and the epiphany of “Jim 3:16,” where he realizes, “Half my life I lived in fear/ I’d burn in hell, but now it’s clear/ that a bar is just a church where they serve beer.” Take It Like a Man is an album that packs a punch, as it should, with as much serious fun as fun seriousness, and a pure, unwholesome pleasure from start to finish. —Kenny Berkowitz

Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley Before the Sun Goes Down Compass

Bluegrass prodigy’s soulful vocals match his virtuosic picking Listen to flatpicking prodigy Trey Hensley lock into a slivery groove with Dobro king Rob Ickes on a smoking blues-grass version of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy,” and you’ll have to grab your head to keep it from spinning. Hensley and Ickes transform the bar-band warhorse that, for all practical purposes, should never have been covered by anyone again. Throughout Before the Sun Goes Down, 24-year-old Hensley—on a Martin 000-28 or a Henderson mahogany dreadnought—spars like an old-timer with Ickes, who plays a Scheerhorn rosewood L-body resonator on the album’s acoustic tracks. Hensley’s picking puts the spark in Bobby Starnes’ “Lightning” and the homespun fun in Lester Flatt and Bill Monroe’s “Little Cabin Home on the Hill.” But Hensley is not just a great picker; he’s also a standout singer. He delivers a tearful, Hank Williams moan on the title track that’s as believable as the Merle Haggard grit he puts into his own “My Way Is the Highway”—not to mention the three non-obvious Haggard covers, most notably Hag’s 1972 spiritual “When My Last Song Is Sung.” The two also turn in a rollicking take on Billy Joe Shaver’s “Georgia on a Fast Train” and a mind-bending performance of the Buddy Emmons instrumental “Raisin’ the Dickens,” which finds Hensley playing a 1958-style Les Paul with Ickes on a Beanstock lap steel. Ickes discovered Hensley when the East Tennessee singer and guitarist was just 12— picking with Earl Scruggs, no less. This stunning duo project introduces a very grown-up Hensley with a rare combination of talents: He’s a guitar virtuoso with a voice that sounds like liquid gold. —M.S.K. AcousticGuitar.com 101

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Sean Rowe

Various Artists

Madman Anti-

Classic African American Songsters Smithsonian Folkways

Baritone crooner strikes out for new horizons on eclectic set G G /F C Bm Am G G /D B /D # E m F #m7 b 13 Onœ “Razor ˙ of Love,” one of the gem-like, 3 œ j Please visit # 3 œ œ œ . œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & 4‰ ˙œ obsidian songs nœ œ onœœMadman, Sean Rowe’s rich, œ #œ œ œ œ ˙ œ guttural baritone rides eddies of acoustic guitar 0 GITC's first 3 5 7 to learn more and check out 3 3 3 3 3 1 0 3 as he asks, “Do you 3 remember when a kiss was 5 4 2 3 0 2 publication:5 The Green Songbook 3 2 0 6 shocks 7 a hundred to the spine?” B 3 2 b # # G 6 E 7 9 A m9 D 9 B m7 A m11 F m11/G A m7 Available now from Alfred Music Publishing Rowe’s latest album furthers the songwritj œat www.GreenSongBook.com. œ œœ .. œœ œ ˙˙ œ œœ # œ n œœœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œ er’s brooding guitar-man ethos with hypnotic, œ . ˙ œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ #œ œ ˙ œœ .. œœ œ œœ œ ˙ Œ reveries like “The Drive” and ‰ œ # œ acoustic-driven œ Leather,” but Madman’s biggest shock 7 7 7 7 5 3 2 3 5 “Spiritual 7 5 3 5 6 5 5 3 3 5 5 3 4 7 7 5 5 2 2 4 5 5 2 5 6 5 4 4 2 4 is the 5 electrifying spectacle of Rowe pulling 5 2 0 B 3 0 5 4 5 from his dark C #m11 B 7 b 9 B b7 A m7 A b7 b 5 G7 F 13 E 7 # 9away D 13sus B m7 alt-folk moorings. ˙œ embraces sunny Motown and bouncy j œ Rowe œ # œ . œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ œ œ & œœ # œœ b b œœ bœ. n œœ b œœ # œ hornsœœ on “Desiree,” distorted Delta-blues #œ œ œ bœ œ œ bœ. ‰ œ nœ œ swagger and clattering tin-roof percussion on 5 7 3 3 3 5 3 3 8 5 and spastic electric guitar 4 2 1 5 5 4 2 7 “Done5 Calling You” 7 4 1 1 5 4 3 1 6 5 7 Fingerstyle Jazz 2 1 5 B 4 Guitar Essentials 5 4 3 1 0 on the tribal 8 garage 7 rocker “The Real Thing”. b # A m7 F 6/9 E m7 D m7 C 6/9 B m7 B maj13 11 Grooving, pop-savvy, even cheery, Madman is œ œ œœ œœ œœœ œœ œœœ œœœ n œœœ # ˙œ œ œœ eclectic œœ œ Rowe’s most set of songs. Some stylistic & ˙ nœ nœ œ œ œ œ bœ ˙ experiments fall short. “Looking for the Master,” 8 8 8 8 7 5 7 a8 mish-mash of 55Afro-pop and New Wave elec5 8 8 6 7 8 5 7 7 7 5 7 7 7 5 5 7 7 5 tronics, runs out of steam, but Rowe’s scat-sing8 8 7 5 B 5 8 7 6 cut A bmaj13 B b6/9 A bmaj13 B b6/9ing on the G maj13is an unexpected pleasure, and ˙. .. n ˙˙ œœ n ˙˙ elsewhere œœ he ˙˙doo-wops # b ˙˙ . with rough gusto. b bn ˙˙˙ œœœ œœœ ˙ œ ˙ œ & b n ˙˙ ˙˙ .. b˙ œ b˙ œ b˙ œ b˙ œ ˙ . Rowe’s playfulness and solid More often, sense of classic soul weaves his disparate 3 3 2 6 6 6 6 4 4 4 4 3 5 5 5 5 3 3 3 3 2 into a muscular, R&B-flavored Our 5 5 guide, 5 strands 5 together 3 3 comprehensive 3 3 2 B 4 Fingerstyle 6 6 Essentials, 6 6 4 4 4 Jazz Guitar tapestry that3 recalls the effortless swing of is available in two different 1970s Van Morrison. formats: Yet Rowe anchors his newfound levity with BOOK + AUDIO driving, gnarled grooves. His cavernous voice 84 pages with notation, tab, and audio downloads for balances melancholy and menace, so that the all music examples. kinetic jump-blues sway of the album’s title track PDF + VIDEO is leavened with the lyric, “Let a walnut tree Downloadable PDF version replace me, give my body back to the birds.” (including standard notation The album ends on a note both eerie and and TAB), and more than three hours of accompanying video comforting as Rowe’s rumbling voice—as powinstruction. erful and insistent as the sap rising—gradually slips away to a breathy sigh. Rowe’s madness is Availble today at ecstatic, a celebration of life—and decay. store.AcousticGuitar.com —Pat Moran

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Folkways collection helps dismantle ‘blues’ stereotypes In 2005, I sat on a panel at the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, with a handful of journalists and musicians including the singer and songwriter Otis Taylor. The topic was the continued stereotyping of black music. During a lively and healthy debate on black and white roots-music forms, Taylor made a critical observation: Why are black musicians who write and sing various different strains of roots-based music almost always categorized as “blues,” while their white counterparts are given the more lofty title of “singer-songwriter”? “Bob Dylan, Ani DiFranco—singer-songwriters,” Taylor said. “But Otis Taylor—blues musician. White equals singer-songwriter and black equals blues singer.” Smithsonian Folkways’ 21-track compilation Classic African American Songsters goes a long way in illustrating (and rectifying) Taylor’s concern. Many of the more well-known singers, songwriters, and interpreters here—Brownie McGhee, Lead Belly, the Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy, John Cephas and Phil Wiggins—would be considered blues in almost any other context. And yet these artists all wrote or performed traditional songs well outside the realm of the strictly blues form, including pre-blues rags, old-time string music, country, and Tin Pan Alley. Most of the titles are familiar—“Nobody’s Business (If I Do),” “Pallet on the Floor,” “Candy Man,” “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,” “Bill Bailey”—but music scholar Barry Lee Pearson’s rich and comprehensive liner notes put the songs into the context of the African-American “songster” tradition. What exactly is a songster? “He is the inventor of blues and not a blues musician at all,” Pearson writes. Confused? Don’t worry—this excellent collection will clear things up for you. —M.S.K.

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DANNY CARNAHAN TEACHES ‘IRISH SONGS FOR GUITAR’ 17

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1. AS I ROVED OUT ON A BRIGHT MAY MORNING CALM AND CLEAR WAS THE WEATHER I CHANCED TO ROAM SOME MILES FROM HOME AMONG THE BEAUTIFUL BLOOMING HEATHER

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4. WE BOTH SHOOK HANDS AND DOWN WE SAT IT BEING THE LONGEST DAY IN SUMMER AND WE SAT TILL THE RED SETTING BEAMS OF THE SUN CAME SPARKLIN’ DOWN AMONG THE HEATHER

AVAILABLE NOW store.AcousticGuitar.com AND IT’S HEATHER ON THE MOOR OVER THE HEATHER OVER THE MOOR AND AMONG THE HEATHER I CHANCED TO ROAM SOME MILES FROM HOME AMONG THE BEAUTIFUL BLOOMING HEATHER AND IT’S HEATHER ON THE MOOR

2. AS I ROVED ALONG WITH MY HUNTING SONG AND MY HEART AS LIGHT AS ANY FEATHER I MET A PRETTY MAID UPON THE WAY SHE WAS TRIPPIN’ THE DEW DOWN FROM THE HEATHER CHORUS

3. WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO MY PRETTY FAIR MAID BY HILL OR DALE COME TELL ME WHETHER RIGHT MODESTLY SHE ANSWERED ME TO THE FEEDING OF MY LAMBS TOGETHER CHORUS

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CHORUS

5. NOW SHE SAYS I MUST AWAY FOR MY SHEEP AND LAMBS HAVE STRAYED FROM OTHER BUT I AM LOATH TO PART FROM YOU AS THOSE FOND LAMBS ARE TO PART THEIR MOTHER CHORUS

6. UP SHE ROSE AND AWAY SHE GOES AND HER NAME OR PLACE I KNOW NOT EITHER BUT IF I WERE KING I’D MAKE HER QUEEN THE LASS I MET AMONG THE HEATHER

Established 1985. 12-week, comprehensive courses. Beginner to working professional. Collins Road, Totnes Devon TQ9 5PJ England + (44) 1803 865255 totnesschoolofguitarmaking.co.uk

CHORUS

IRISH SONGS FOR GUITAR

2

Acoustic Guitar Store, store.acousticguitar.comm . 95,102, 105

Ernie Ball Music Man, ernieball.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Memphis Acoustic Guitar Festival, memphisguitarfest.com 77

Acoustic Guitar Subscribe, acousticguitar.com/subscribe . . 85

G7th, Ltd., g7th.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

The Music Emporium, themusicemporium.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Acoustic Remedy Cases, acousticremedycases.com . . . . . . . 82

Gibson, gibson.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Paul Reed Smith, prsguitars.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Alvarez Guitars, alvarezguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Guitar Center, guitarcenter.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Original Guitar Chair, originalguitarchair.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

American Music Furniture, americanmusicfurniture.com . . . . 32

Guitars in the Classroom, guitarsintheclassroom.org . . . . . 102

Red House Records, redhouserecords.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Bedell, bedellguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Hill Guitar Company, hillguitar.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Saga Musical Instruments, sagamusic.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Breezy Ridge Instruments, Ltd., jpstrings.com . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Hoffee Cases, carbonfibercases.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Shubb Capos, shubb.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

California Coast Music Camp, musiccamp.org . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Homespun, homespun.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Soloette, soloette.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Centrum Foundation, centrum.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Indian Hill Guitar Company, indianhillguitars.com . . . . . . . . . 61

Stewart-MacDonald’s Guitar Supply, stewmac.com . . . . . . 76

D’Addario & Company, daddario.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12, 18, 19

Steven Kaufman Enterprises, Inc., flatpik.com . . . . . . . . 21, 76

The Swannanoa Gathering, swangathering.com . . . . . . . . . . 97

DR Music, drstrings.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Kyser Musical Products, kysermusical.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Sweetwater Sound, sweetwater.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Elixir Strings, elixirstrings.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 79

Levy’s Leathers, levysleathers.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Take a Stand, Inc., takeastandinc.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Elliott Capos, elliottcapos.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Luthier Music Corp., luthiermusic.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Taylor, taylorguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Epiphone Guitars, epiphone.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

C.F. Martin & Co., Inc., martinguitar.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26, 108

Yamaha Corporation of America, yamaha.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

AcousticGuitar.com 105

FINAL NOTE

THIS IDEA OF

UNSETTLING THE AUDIENCE

OR GIVING THEM A NUDGE, GETTING A LAUGH, A GASP—

THESE ARE ALL THINGS THAT I LOOK FOR. LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III

Acoustic Guitar (ISSN 1049-9261) is published monthly by String Letter Publishing, Inc., 501 Canal Blvd., Suite J, Richmond, CA 94804. Periodical postage paid at Richmond, CA 94804 and additional mailing offices. Printed in USA. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. Canada Returns to be sent to Pitney Bowes International Mail Services, P.O. Box 32229, Hartford, CT 06150-2229. Postmaster: Please make changes online at AcousticGuitar.com or send to Acoustic Guitar, String Letter Publishing, Inc., PO Box 3500, Big Sandy, TX 75755.

106 March 2015

ROSS HALFIN PHOTO

THANK YOU FOR 25 YEARS OF READING, PLAYING, AND ENJOYING ACOUSTIC GUITAR. TO ORDER YOUR POSTER OF THESE ACOUSTIC GUITAR COVERS FROM THE LAST 25 YEARS VISIT STORE.ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM

Why you fell in love with us in the first place.

D-35 Brazilian 50th Anniversary Limited Edition

108 March 2015

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