AG acoustic-guitar-2015-06 AG_270.pdf

STEVE EARLE | CAITLIN CANTY | JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ | HOLLYWOOD ANDERSON

JERRY GARCIA & DAVID GRISMAN Shady Grove RAY WYLIE HUBBARD Stone Blind Horses

3 SONGS

THE DOORS Moonlight Drive

JUNE 2015 | ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM | 25TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR

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COURTESY OF MCPHERSON GUITARS

CONTENTS

‘McPherson insists that a guitar’s interior be pristine, free of glue, water marks, scratches, or pencil marks.’

Features

Special Focus Acoustic Dead

Miscellany

18 How to Get a Free Gibson J-45 Sage advice from a Texas “outlaw” singer-songwriter

38 High on Bluegrass A flashback to Jerry Garcia’s collaborations with David Grisman

10 From the Home Office 12 Opening Act 97 Ad Index 98 Final Note

By Ray Wylie Hubbard

By Greg Cahill

20 Keeping It Simple Caitlin Canty finds songs in a 1930s flattop

42 Dead Unplugged How the kings of psychedelia found their acoustic groove

P. 35

By Jeffrey Pepper Rogers

By Blair Jackson

22 In the Afterglow Singer-songwriter José González goes it alone on his hit album Vestiges & Claws

46 Jerry’s Way Master Jerry Garcia’s influential acoustic style By Adam Perlmutter

By Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

26 Parlor Pickin’ Small-body guitars have come a long way from their Victorian-era roots By Adam Perlmutter

32 Roadside Americana III Check out our special guide to US guitar-factory tours

June 2015 Volume 25, No. 12, Issue 270 On the Cover Jerry Garcia Photographer Jay Blakesberg

By Adam Perlmutter

AcousticGuitar.com 5

CONTENTS

Martin Guitars archivist Dick Boak, p. 78

NEWS 14 The Beat A new album and book look at Woody Guthrie’s LA years; Mandolin Orange’s serene Americana; Steve Earle’s music camp 17 News Spotlight Hollywood Anderson’s amazing American Idol journey PLAY 58 The Basics Learn the fundamentals of Brazilian bossa nova 60 Weekly Workout Discover the myriad possibilities of open-D fingerpicking Songs to Play 64 Moonlight Drive The Doors’ moody classic 66 Stone Blind Horses A new one from Ray Wylie Hubbard 68 Shady Grove Jerry Garcia and David Grisman’s take AG TRADE 74 Shop Talk Alister Atkin re-creates Buddy Holly’s Gibson J-45; independence for Takamine; new Martin Ed Sheeran model 78 Makers & Shakers Archivist Dick Boak is Martin’s history detective

82 Review: Gibson Bob Dylan SJ-200 Player’s Edition This vintage-inspired model boasts an outstanding voice

1919 Ditson 1-45, p.72

84 Review: Bedell Blackbird Vegan A parlor guitar that will appeal to troubadours and blues players 86 Review: Mitchell ME1 & ME2CEC Affordable series has much to offer entry-level players 88 Pickin’ Larrivée jumps back into the ukulele game with the UB-40 baritone 90 Great Acoustics Revisiting the circa-1900 Washburn White Rose parlor guitar MIXED MEDIA 92 Playlist Tom Brosseau’s strange and evocative Perfect Abandon; also, A Wanderer I’ll Stay by Pharis & Jason Romero, Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell, Charlie Parr’s Stumpjumper, and six essential bluegrass tracks 95 Stage: Rock Bottom Remainders Literary rockers reunite at Tucson book fair

AcousticGuitar.com 7

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Andy McKee

Tells the Story Behind his Most Recent Record (and Performs the Title Track!)

Emmy-nominated and National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion, Pete Huttlinger, tells the story behind his most recent record, and plays the title track, McGuire’s Landing. Question: What do the Emmys, the Grammys, Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival, Carnegie Hall, John Denver and LeAnn Rimes all have in common? Answer: Pete Huttlinger. This Nashville-based, National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion has toured the world as a solo artist and sideman, written and recorded music for television, and released eight solo albums. Pete Huttlinger is truly an American guitar treasure.

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In the Studio: Andy McKee Enjoy a recent Acoustic Guitar Session episode with guitar-wiz and YouTube phenom Andy McKee. And visit AcousticGuitar.com/Sessions to check out interviews with and performances by Richard Thompson, Ani DeFranco, Seth Avett, Peter Rowan, Della Mae, Bruce Cockburn, Valerie June, Julian Lage, Eliza Gilkyson, Preston Reed, and many others. GET GUITAR LESSONS, GEAR REVIEWS, ND MORE IN YOUR E-MAIL Sign up for Acoustic Guitar Notes and we’ll send you a guitar-related e-mail every afternoon. Recent Notes include a vibrato lesson, an exclusive Don Alder performance video, and a demo of the Taylor 616ce. Sign up for Acoustic Guitar Notes at AcousticGuitar.com/Newsletter-Sign-Up. SAVE BIG ON VIDEO LESSONS, SONGBOOKS, AND MORE Every Friday at 12PM we are sending a special Deal to thousands of guitarists like you. Recent Deals include $2 back issues, 20% off our Rhythm Guitar Essentials Book, and our alternating tunings course, Explore Alternate Tunings for just $5 . Visit AcousticGuitar.com/Deals to sign up.

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FROM THE HOME OFFICE AcousticGuitar.com • AcousticGuitarU.com

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT Editorial Director & Editor Greg Cahill 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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Stringletter.com Publisher David A. Lusterman

hen you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jerry Garcia is never far afield. The rock legend has even popped up, as a bobble head, at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, which each year marks the late guitarist’s birthday with a special Deadhead promotional event (Garcia was a longtime fan). On occasion, then–Giants’ third base coach and singer/songwriter Tim Flannery has joined Bob Weir and other local rock notables to sing the National Anthem and the musty smell of patchouli has mingled with the pungent aroma of garlic fries, a park delicacy. And now the Dead are back, at least in spirit. In July, surviving members of the Grateful Dead, along with guitarist Trey Anastasio of Phish, among others, will celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary at a three-day concert at Soldier Field in Chicago. That’s the site of the Grateful Dead’s last concert with Garcia.

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This year also marks the 20th anniversary of Garcia’s death at a rehab center in Northern California, not far from the rural Marin County communities where he and his band mates, along with lyricist Robert Hunter, in 1969 and 1970 conceived of the songs that would grace the acoustic-oriented albums Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty. So AG couldn’t resist the opportunity once again to pay tribute to Garcia and the Dead’s acoustic roots. In this issue, you’ll find a recollection of my breakfast tea with Jerry, as he discussed his love of bluegrass; an analysis by AG managing editor, author, and Dead aficionado Blair Jackson; and an encore appearance of a 2011 Adam Perlmutter lesson feature that teaches the basic skills you need to master Garcia’s acoustic technique. Keep on truckin’. —Greg Cahill

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all your subscription needs at our online Subscriber Services page (AcousticGuitar.com/Subscriber-Services): pay your bill, renew, give a gift, change your address, and get answers to any questions you may have about

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

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.

OPENING ACT

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Hurray for the Riff Raff

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NEWS

15

Mandolin Orange Serene Americana— Southern style

16

Steve Earle From troubadour to camp teacher

17

News Spotlight Hollywood Anderson: Saved by a guitar

THE BEAT

Woody on the Left Coast

California star: Darryl Holter

A new album and book explore Woody Guthrie’s formative years in L.A. BY WHITNEY PHANEUF

oody Guthrie moved to Los Angeles in 1937, just one among hundreds of thousands of penniless Okies fleeing the Dust Bowl in search of a better life. By the time he left California in 1940 to move to New York City, Guthrie was an established songwriter, urban radical, and successful radio host. A new album, Radio Songs: Woody Guthrie in Los Angeles 1937-1939, and forthcoming book by Americana musician and folk-music scholar Darryl Holter explore Guthrie’s formative years in L.A. Holter says his historical research, funded by the Woody Guthrie Fellowship, led him to a deeper understanding of Guthrie’s musical and political evolution. “We all have this image of Woody Guthrie as the guy that rode on the rails during the Depression, as the guy who was in the folkrevival movement in Greenwich Village, as the person who had a guitar that said ‘This machine

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14 June 2015

kills fascists,’ as the person Bob Dylan emulated, but for me, the real question was how did he get that way,” says Holter, during a phone interview. “It was in Los Angeles that Guthrie transformed from an amateur guitar playersinger to a professional person with a radio show that had a following, and started to write his own songs and evolve musically. And there was a parallel evolution politically.” Much of Guthrie’s artistic development, depicted in Haskell Wexler’s 1976 film Bound for Glory, took place during the singer’s stint as a radio host on L.A. station KFVD. Guthrie performed traditional ballads and gospel tunes with his co-host Maxine Crissman (known as “Lefty Lou”), as well as such original songs as “Do Re Mi,” “I Ain’t Got No Home,” and “Talking Dust Bowl Blues,” which chronicled the tough realities of being a down-and-out Okie in L.A. At the same time, Holter says, Guthrie was introduced to

members of the American Communist Party and left-wing activists who influenced his thinking and introduced him to the local radical scene. To capture the original spirit of the songs performed by Woody and Lefty Lou, Holter enlisted a number of guest vocalists, including Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins on “California Stars,” Ani DiFranco on “Looking for That New Deal Now,” and his daughter Julia Holter on “My Flowers Grow Green.” They’re backed by guitarist Tim Young, pedal- and lap-steel guitar virtuoso Greg Leisz, fiddler Gabe Witcher, bassist Billy Mohler, and drummer Dave Kemper. The album includes a 30-minute DVD of Holter performing in and talking about various L.A. locales that have historical significance to Guthrie’s songwriting. Also due sometime this year is Holter’s Woody Guthrie L.A., a collection of 20 essays by various scholars about Guthrie’s stint in the City of Angels.

NOTEWORTHY

BIG IN SWEDEN

Mandolin Orange: Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz

GRACE UNDER PRESSURE There’s no room for anxiety in Mandolin Orange’s style of serene Americana. The North Carolina-based duo broke through with 2013’s This Side of Jordan—which landed on NPR’s Top 10 Folk and Americana Albums year-end list—and have been on the road since. With their follow-up album, Such Jubilee, due on May 5, guitarist and fiddle player Emily Frantz shares that recording new material “right in the middle of all the craziness” of touring presented its challenges. “As an artist, you have this kind of anxiety wondering if you’re ever going to do anything as good as the last thing you did,” she says. “We were carrying around a lot of that anxiety in the first part of 2014, but then we

recorded the [new] record and we were so happy with the way everything came out that I think we carried a lot of confidence into the second half of the year.” Frantz adds that she and Andrew Marlin, the duo’s songwriter and primary lead vocalist, who plays guitar and mandolin, found solace in Asheville’s Echo Mountain Recording Studio. “We spent a lot of time honing in on miking and had a bunch of different acoustic guitars set up throughout the studio,” she says. Self-proclaimed “guitar nerds,” Frantz adds that the duo recorded primarily on a 1951 Gibson J-45 and 1944 Martin D-18. —W.P.

Country music star Emmylou Harris has been named as one of two recipients of the 2015 Polar Music Prize, often called the Nobel Prize of Music. At press time, Harris—a 13-time Grammy winner and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame— was scheduled to receive her prize on June 9 from Sweden’s King Carl XVI at Stockholm’s Concert Hall. “I was both surprised and honored at the news of this most prestigious award,” Harris wrote in a statement. “[I’m] now looking forward to once again returning to your beautiful country where I was first so warmly welcomed those many years ago.”

‘HARVEST’ TIME Tom Paxton Redemption Road

RAMBLIN’ BOY NO MORE Veteran folk artist Tom Paxton—whose songs include “The Last Thing on My Mind,” “Bottle of Wine,” and “Ramblin’ Boy”—hit the road for one last time this spring in support of his new album Redemption Road on what amounts to a farewell tour. “I am leaving touring after 55 years because, well, 55 years is a sufficiency (to put it mildly) of airports, taxis, hotels, and cancelled flights,” Paxton explains. “I’ll still do

one-shots, but that’s it. I’ve been assured I’ve earned a rest, so I think that’s what I’ll do.” In 2009, Paxton earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for an impressive body of work that has included powerful songs in support of 9/11 victims and decrying social and racial injustice. His songs have been covered by everyone from Joan Baez and Johnny Cash to the Kingston Trio and Gram Parsons.

The members of Blitzen Trapper are channeling their inner Neil Young—at press time, the Pacific Northwest roots rockers were set to release Live Harvest, a cover of Young’s 1972 blockbuster Harvest recorded during two shows at the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, Oregon. Live Harvest was due for release on Record Store Day (April 18). The band was set to perform the album in its entirety in April at a series of dates east of the Mississippi. AcousticGuitar.com 15

THE BEAT

STEVE EARLE—A CLASS ACT Ask singer and songwriter Steve Earle, who will be supervising the second annual Camp Copperhead this summer, about the rewards of teaching, and he shoots straight from the hip. “Teaching is good for you,” he says during a phone interview from the airport at Austin, Texas, while waiting for an early morning flight to New York. “The stupidest words that were ever uttered is ‘Those that can, do, and

those who can’t do, teach.’ All the great poets taught—teaching keeps you on your toes.” Earle’s camp at the Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, New York, is billed as “four days and nights of singing and songwriting—hard core.” He downplays that “hard core” tagline, but emphasizes that he embraces the full-immersion aspect of attending summer camp in the heart of the Catskills.

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“I wrote ‘You’re the Best Lover’ [from the new album Terraplane] at camp last year,” he says. “I put the process on the board as I was working on it. Of course, I wrote it at a little more casual speed than I would normally write a song, but I did it in front of the class with some input from them, though I made it clear that they were not going to get a dime in royalties, so don’t even think about it. But they got to see the whole process because I started it at the beginning of the week and finished it just before they left camp.” Camp Copperhead will be held from July 20-24. “It’s designed for people who are serious about songwriting,” he adds, “and I got a couple of people who were really, really great last year and I heard some really great songs. These are folks that I think you’re going to hear from in the future.” Learn more at camp-copperhead.com. —Greg Cahill

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Troubadour turned teacher: Steve Earle

Street cred: Hollywood Anderson

The Gift of a Guitar Through Covenant House, American Idol contestant Hollywood Anderson found his calling BY PAT MORAN

hat guitar did more than change my life,” Hollywood Anderson says. “It saved me.” Anderson (his real name is Anderson Footman) is talking about the worn Fender Squier steel-string acoustic that lifted him this year off the streets of New York City and into the American Idol spotlight, where his high expressive voice and rich, fluid chords enchanted the judges and the popular TV show’s audience. Though Anderson was cut from Idol’s running in February, his enthusiasm and talent remain undimmed. In recent weeks, he’s recorded with funk bassist Bootsy Collins, and Anderson’s debut album, due soon, is slated to include contributions from rapper Timbaland. But before the limelight found Anderson, the 22-year-old singer, songwriter, and guitarist was living on the streets of New York City. “Anywhere from 1.6 million to 2 million young people will experience an episode of homelessness in the United States this year,” says Norman Lotz, vice president of development and legacy-giving at Covenant House, a nonprofit charity that serves homeless youth and that gave Anderson his break. The product of a troubled family in Florida, Anderson saved his money and staked his

“T

future on a musical career in New York. When expected support from friends fell through, he landed on the street. No one chooses that life, Anderson says, citing domestic violence, poverty, or the death of a parent as frequent causes of homelessness. “[Some] see homeless people as another race, another nation . . . but we’re all part of the same society.” Landing at Covenant House, Anderson found shelter and community—and a career. “I met Norm [Lotz] because he plays a 215-year-old upright bass,” Anderson says. “He’d be plucking and jiving in his office, and I’d just sit and listen.” Lotz, who also plays a Taylor steel-string acoustic, recognized Anderson’s talent as a vocalist, but he felt Hollywood’s development was hampered by relying on other musicians for accompaniment. Lotz offered to teach Anderson guitar, gifting him the Fender Squier to get him started. It’s the first guitar Anderson has ever owned. “Norm tuned the guitar in open D, and showed how easy it is to change chords,” Hollywood says. Adds Lotz, “I told Hollywood to come back for lesson two, but that was all he needed.”

NEWS SPOTLIGHT

Anderson went directly to the Bedford Avenue L train station—ground zero of Brooklyn’s fiercely competitive busking scene. His soaring vocals and emotionally direct playing made an impression. Anderson says the drums—his first instrument—influence how he plays chords. “I’ll stop and play arpeggios—quick and strong. I’m mashing chords and single notes together.” “I think of him as a modern acoustic-blues artist, like Robert Johnson for the 21st century,” Lotz says. “Being self taught, he plays what he feels, and that speaks to people.” Soon, Hollywood’s music caught the ear of American Idol’s producers. At the New York audition in January, Anderson broke with the show’s tradition by singing his own composition, the haunting “My Best Friend,” rather than a popular cover. By the time of the audition, Anderson’s Squier had been “messed up” by the wear and tear of subway busking, so Covenant House gave him a replacement—a Yamaha C40II classical model—that he used on the show. Lotz accompanied Anderson to the Idol TV studio. “Most contestants are supported by their family—their ‘true believers’,” Lotz says. “Hollywood doesn’t have that, so [the producers] invited me to [attend the] audition. I’ll always be Hollywood’s first true believer.” When Anderson was eliminated from Idol in February after a rendition of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine,” he broke down in tears. Speaking days after the event, he was thoughtful and thankful for the experience. “The beautiful thing is, I’ve learned so much about phrasing, melody, and arrangements from covering someone else’s song,” Anderson says. “It’s taught me a lot as a songwriter.” Anderson has also drawn inspiration from his sessions with Bootsy Collins, an experience he calls transformative. He’s recently augmented his guitar collection with a Córdoba C5-CEBK Iberia nylon-string guitar, which he used in later Idol episodes. Though he no longer lives at the shelter, Anderson remains a spokesman for Covenant House’s music program, which now includes an on-site recording studio. He hopes the program that nurtured him will inspire and empower more homeless youth. “My heart will always be with Covenant House and particularly Norm,” Anderson says. “With a single gift, he opened the door to my future.” AG AcousticGuitar.com 17

HOW TO GET A FREE GIBSON J-45

(and other ironic advice)

ere’s another songwriting hint . . . wait . . . forget it . . . everybody knows how to write songs. Seems what everybody wants to know is how to get them recorded by famous hot-shot singers, so they can make a ton of money off royalties. Well, I can’t help you there—in my case, it’s been like shooting dice. I’ve rolled a seven probably four times in my life, as far as having one of my songs recorded where it made a little dough after years of shooting snake eyes on the other-peoplerecording-my-songs craps table. But the thing is, I never wrote songs with the intended purpose of having anybody else record them. I wrote them because I had no choice. I wrote them not thinking about what was going to happen to them in the future. I just wrote them.  One time Waylon Jennings asked me to write him some songs. I said, ‘‘What kind of songs?’’ He said ‘‘Waylon goddam Jennings songs. What else, hoss?’’ I regret to this day that I was unable to empathize in order to do that.

H

18 June 2015

TODD WOLFSON

Texas outlaw singer-songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard offers a few thoughts on success, mechanical monkeys, and such

Now, I’ve heard some cats say that as far as songwriting as a full-time, getting cuts, collecting royalties occupation, that you should go to Nashville ’cause “you must be present to win.” That’s good advice, I would imagine, if you wanna do that. I don’t. I have a lot of respect for some friends of mine that do that, but it ain’t for me. I dig where I am, just rolling them bones and when the song is finished I get to sing it for people who come to hear me sing it.  Oh yeah, after I finish a song, I sing it, then I sing it again and then I say, ‘‘thanks.’’ I don’t know who or what I’m thanking, but I do want to keep that who or what happy so the door stays open for another song to come through. Weird, huh? I don’t care if it is; been doing it for a while and it’s been working for a while. Really? Big talk, Ray. But what I really wanna know is this: I’ve written these songs. I got a family so I can’t start a band and then get in a van and travel around and play bars and can’t get a gig anyway since I don’t have a CD being played anywhere. I’d really like to have someone hear them. I can’t move to Nashville.

So what do I do? Right now would be a good time to write the word, “alas.”  So . . . alas. But here goes nothing. Some things to remember: 1. There is a fine line that does not need to be crossed as far as getting your songs heard, and that line is the difference between being persistent and being a pest.   2. However, it’s OK to promote yourself. Just don’t let anybody see you do it on purpose. Now, the music business is changing faster than I can keep up with it and I really am more on the fringe of it, as in the past on my income tax form there have been years I have been barely above “hobby status.” Hey, Ray, I forgot, I don’t have any money to go in a studio, hire musicians, record an album, mix it, master it, press it up, hire a radio promoter, hire a publicist... Alas. Oh, alas. OK.

Here’s the deal then. Do a YouTube thing. Wanna get you songs heard? Might as well have them seen. For example, I did the videos for my “Coricidin Bottle” and “South of the River” videos for the total price of nine bucks for the monkey and two dollars for the AA batteries. Hang on, I’m gonna go see how many views they got: “Coricidin Bottle” . . . 13,262 views . . . well, 13,263 since I watched it again. “South of the River” . . . 12,816. So there you go, a bunch of people saw ’em. I don’t know if any of the people who saw them bought the CD or even downloaded it, but that’s not why I did ’em. I just wanted to see if I could. And over 10,000 people saw each one, so that’s pretty amazing for the cost of 11 bucks.  See, I knew I wasn’t going to be on CMT or GAC or on television—I figured they were only gonna be seen on a phone or a computer so it didn’t have to be shot on 35mm film. So I just did it on my phone. There you go: I did ’em with iMovie and 8mm. Most of the time, I did something, then pushed a button, said, “Rats,” pushed “undo,” and then tried it again. So do a video of one of your songs, but, hey, don’t post ’em on my Facebook page (see No. 1 above)—just tell me you did one and I’ll go to YouTube and watch it. Or at least 30 seconds of it—I have a short attention span, so keep it interesting. No tailgate parties in a country field, no trucks, no dirt roads, no girls in cut-offs and boots, no aviator sunglasses, no backwards ball caps. It is OK to use a mechanical monkey. That’s great advice, Ray. You’re a most brilliant cat. You think that’s brilliant? How ’bout this? If you’re a young, broke songwriter and don’t have any money to get a good guitar, here’s what you do: Go to your girlfriend’s dad and say, “If you buy me a Gibson J-45, you will never see me again.” What? Wow. That’s cold, Ray. I can’t believe you’d say that. Wait, think about it. Your girlfriend will have a broken heart for a while, but she’ll find someone obviously better for her than you, and you may miss her for a while, but you’ll have a Gibson J-45, and in the long run, you’re better off with the blues and having a good guitar to play ’em on. It’s worth a few tears. AG

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This article is excerpted from Ray Wylie Hubbard’s new autobiography, A Life . . . Well Lived, with Thom Jurek. You can find the song “Stone Blind Horses,” from Hubbard’s latest album, A Ruffian’s Misfortune, on page 66. AcousticGuitar.com 19

KEEPING IT SIMPLE BY JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS

20 June 2015

Caitlin Canty finds songs inside a smoky 1930s flattop

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aitlin Canty never believed the songwriters’ lore about finding songs in particular guitars—until she started playing a funky old Recording King flattop from the ’30s. “It has a big V-neck like a baseball bat, and it has been dinged up for years,” she says. “When I opened up the case it smelled like cigars—it almost knocked me over. It feels like it’s an old man and I’m having a conversation with it, and there are lots of songs in that guitar.” Some of those songs can be heard on Reckless Skyline, the latest album by the up-andcoming Americana singer-songwriter. Tapping into blues, country, mountain ballads, and roots rock, Canty’s songs have an elemental sound— reflecting the influence of such songwriters as Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Johnny Cash, and Tom Petty. “I’m always simplifying,” says Canty. “If a chord is not essential, I don’t want it in my song.” In songs like “I Wore Your Ring,” she strips the music down further, doubling the guitar’s minor-blues melody with her soft, smoky voice. On her Recording King, she even prefers the thumpy fundamental sound of old strings to the shiny overtones of new ones—“The deader the better, in my opinion. That’s part of the dark tones and the charm for me.” On Reckless Skyline, producer and fellow songwriter Jeffrey Foucault expanded Canty’s core sound with a seasoned acoustic-electric band, enlisting his frequent collaborators Billy Conway on drums and Jeremy Moses Curtis on bass, plus Eric Heywood on pedal steel and Matt Lorenz (aka the one-man band the Suitcase Junket) on pump organ, guitar, and more.

Canty has long been scheming to make a record with a combo like this. Live, she nearly always performs with an electric guitarist and brings in a full band whenever she can. The knowledge that she’d be recording with Foucault’s rhythm section—which she loved on his recent solo and Cold Satellite albums—influenced her songwriting for Reckless Skyline, too. “Billy Conway and Jeremy Moses Curtis, the way they play gives you a particular swing and a groove without even hearing them,” Canty says. “I just hear them in my head.” Born and raised in Vermont, Canty tried for a while to make music around a day job in New York City, but about five years ago she jumped into the vagabond touring musician’s life. With the independent release of Reckless Skyline, bolstered by a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $30,000 (more than doubling her original funding goal), Canty is taking her music to the next level—and relocating to Nashville, the hub of today’s Americana scene. That’s also the home base of Peter Bradley Adams (formerly with Eastmountainsouth), with whom Canty has been writing and recording under the name Down Like Silver. “Co-writing,” she says, “has definitely opened up doors and carved a few friendships.” Meanwhile, Canty has expanded her collection of funky old instruments: Lately she’s been playing a single-pickup Kay Speed Demon hollow-body electric from the 1950s, plus a little five-watt Kalamazoo Model 2 tube amp. Like the Recording King, no doubt the Speed Demon has songs in it, and Canty is already starting to find them. AG AcousticGuitar.com 21

IN THE

AFTERGLOW

MALIN JOHANSSON

BY JEFFREY PEPPER RODGERS

22 June 2015

Singer-songwriter José González’s latest album explores dream-like imagery and ponders philosophical questions istening to Vestiges & Claws (Imperial), the new album by José González, feels like entering a very private world. At the center is his nylon-string guitar—cascading arpeggios and bluesy bass lines—and his gentle voice, sometimes multitracked with Simon and Garfunkel–esque harmonies. “Idle as a wave moving out at sea / Cruising without sound, molding what’s to be,” González sings in the dreamy opening track, “With the Ink of a Ghost.” “Serene between the trails / Serene with the time and ink of a ghost.” The soundscape of Vestiges & Claws will be instantly recognizable to anyone who’s discovered the music of this quietly commanding singer-songwriter over the last dozen years. González, who grew up in Sweden with Argentinean parents, released his solo debut, Veneer, in 2003, reaching an international audience a few years later thanks to an unlikely hit: a guitarand-voice cover of the electro-pop tune “Heartbeats,” by the Knife. Another solo album, In Our Nature, followed in 2007. Then González turned his attention toward a band project, Junip, expanding his instrumental palate with keyboards, bass, and drums. On Vestiges & Claws, though, González is once again very much alone—making every sound (except for one appearance of flute) with guitar, vocals, and percussion; recording most of the album himself in his kitchen; and mixing it, too. The resulting sound is intensely intimate. “Part of my ambition,” says González in a conversation from his home in Gothenburg, Sweden, “was to have a sound that feels like it’s homemade.”

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NYLON-STRING ROOTS Picking up the Spanish-style guitar was natural for González, since it was central to the soundtrack of his childhood. “The music that we heard at home was Argentinean folklore, like Mercedes Sosa, and also Brazilian music and [Cuban folksinger] Silvio Rodríguez—all of that music was based around the nylon-string guitar,” González recalls. “And when I started playing, I really got into the sound of nylonstring, through bossa nova. I was playing Beatles songs but on nylon-string guitar.” González studied classical guitar, playing in the traditional position with a footstool, but eventually shifted to the more casual feet-flat style when he started doing his own music. The classical training still influences the way he approaches such technical details as the choice of fingerings, but in his own songs, he says, “It’s in no way as methodical as it used to be with classical guitar.” His guitar parts are simpler than in classical pieces, too—and they don’t use the sophisticated harmonic vocabulary of bossa nova either. “I’ve been more inspired by monotonous riffs and blues riffs,” says González. “Joel [Wästberg], who plays with me in the band, he’s gone to music school and plays saxophone, and whenever I need to know which harmonies we’re playing or which melodies we should choose, he always mentions how I stick mainly with octaves, the fifth, and the fourth, but not so much the third. There’s not so much coloration in my music.” Though González is devoted to the acoustic nylon-string, he is far from a traditionalist about its tone. Throughout Vestiges & Claws, in moments when the guitar rises in intensity and volume, he often adds a tinge of unsettling distortion—using plug-ins that emulate the analog tube sound (see page 25 for details). Acoustically, he achieves a similar overdrive effect at times by playing hard enough that the strings start vibrating against the fretboard, as can be heard in his early song “Crosses.”

EXTENSIVE USE OF ALTERNATE TUNINGS Another nontraditional aspect of González’s approach to the nylon-string guitar is his use of alternate tunings. On his first album, one of his favorite tunings was D A D F# B E—which he found in part by listening to legendary English songwriter Nick Drake, with whom González is frequently compared. “Really early, with my first album, I noticed how Nick Drake had E A D F# on ‘Cello Song,’ and that was one of the reasons why I tuned G down to F#,” González recalls. Beyond that discovery, though, Gonzalez says he has not studied the use of tunings by contemporary players, whether instrumentalists or songwriters. “I haven’t really played other guitarists,” says González. “I’m not aware of how people play.” His occasional covers tend to be of songs far outside the acoustic guitar realm—for instance, he’s recorded Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” Massive Attack’s “Teardrop,” and even Kylie Minogue’s “Hand on Your Heart.” Nearly all of the songs on Vestiges & Claws are in alternate tunings, with the third string either down to F# or up to A, and the sixth string often down to D as well (see below for a complete list of tunings). Playing around with tunings is central to his writing process. “When I sit down and improvise, sometimes I find a riff that I like a lot, but I’m noticing that I need to hold my fingers in a certain way to make it sound good,” he says. “Then I might retune one of the strings to make it easier to play. But in general it’s about starting with a tuning and just jamming around that tuning.”

AcousticGuitar.com 23

IN TUNE WITH GONZÁLEZ Here’s a complete rundown of the tunings and capo positions that José González uses on the album Vestiges & Claws. Notice that the only strings he retunes are the sixth and third—all the others stay at the standard pitches. STANDARD “Open Book” D A D G B E (DROPPED D) “With the Ink of a Ghost” (capo 3) EADABE “Let It Carry You” “Stories We Build, Stories We Tell” (capo 2) DADABE “The Forest” (capo 3) “Leaf Off/The Cave” “Every Age” (capo 6) “Vissel” D A D F# B E “What Will” (capo 2) E A D F# B E “Afterglow” (capo 2)

WHAT JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ PLAYS GUITARS Spanish-style classicals, including an Esteve and a Córdoba Loriente STRINGS D’Addario Pro-Arté EJ46LP (lightly polished, hard tension) AMPLIFICATION Fishman Prefix Pro Blend through an ART Tube PAC mic preamp/compressor that allows him to get distortion when he plays louder ACCESSORIES Shubb capo RECORDING AKG 414 and Neumann U67 mics through a Universal Audio Apollo interface. He records with Apple’s Logic and uses plug-ins such as SoundToy’s Decapitator and Universal Audio’s TwinTube (for distortion) as well as Universal Audio’s Precision Enhancer Hz (for adding low frequencies on percussion tracks). 24 June 2015

THE MALI CONNECTION While some songs on Vestiges & Claws recall folk music of the UK and the Americas, others draw inspiration from another part of the globe—West Africa. González’s love of the hypnotic grooves and bluesy guitar figures of Ali Farka Touré, Sidi Touré, and other musicians from Mali is clearly audible in three tracks on the album: “Stories We Build, Stories We Tell,” “What Will,” and “Afterglow.” González has been listening to West African music for a long time and playing along with it at home for fun. In his own songs, he says, he’s trying to tap into the feel of the music more than the details of how it’s played. “I’ve been able to tour with Sidi Touré, and I also watched Tinariwen live a couple of times, so I sort of know how they get the sounds,” he says. “If I really wanted to make it sound more like them, I probably could. But these songs are me being inspired by them and not really trying to imitate too much.” On the album, González enhanced the grooves in these Mali-inspired songs, and other tracks as well, with percussion tracks created in his home studio. For a kick drum, he tapped the bridge of his guitar, adding low frequencies on the computer (specifically, he used Universal Audio’s Precision Enhancer Hz plug-in to add 70 Hz). For a snare, he used the body of the guitar, and then he added handclaps, finger snaps, and shakers. On tour in Europe and the United States after the release of Vestiges & Claws, González is enlisting four musicians to create a similar ensemble sound—with percussion, multiple guitars, and close vocal harmonies.

In the past, González struggled to find the right words to match his guitar compositions, but with Vestiges & Claws he feels much more satisfied with the lyric-writing process and its outcome. In particular, he’s developed some strategies, taking advantage of online thesaurus and rhyme sites, which help prevent him from getting stuck. “Usually when I have a song [idea], I get a feeling of how many verses I want to have, how many choruses and bridges,” he says. “Then I know the length of the song, and I get a sense of how many syllables I need and where they should rhyme to make it sound musical. I have brainstorming sessions where I write down words that could fit into the song, and with those I find synonyms. I make lists of

words, basically, and make sure to have words that rhyme. With these sheets of words and sentences, it’s easier to brainstorm a finished lyric.” On Vestiges & Claws, González mostly steers clear of personal revelations—the customary territory of the singer-songwriter—to explore dream-like imagery and ponder philosophical questions. In “Afterglow,” he simply repeats three lines, overdubbing harmonies into his own Crosby, Stills, and Nash blend above a mesmerizing bass riff in 7/8 time. “All of this will be gone someday,” he sings. “You and me and everyone we know / Leaving memories and traces for the afterglow.” Songs like this, too, leave a glow that remains long after the track stops playing. AG

Accentuate

‘I had writing sessions when I knew that the only thing needed for the song to come together was the lyrics.’ FINDING THE WORDS For González, songwriting starts on the guitar— with riffs and chords—and the vocal melodies and lyrics follow. “Usually I have the guitar riff, I do a demo, and then I do humming sessions,” he says. “So I jam with humming and also sometimes add consonants here and there just to make it feel a bit more like real words. And then especially with this album, I had writing sessions when I knew that the only thing needed for the song to come together was the lyrics.”

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AcousticGuitar.com 25

PARLOR PICKIN’ Martin Size 1

The humblest of small-body models has risen from its Victorian-era roots to become one of today’s most popular acoustic guitars BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

n 2013, in the zero-gravity atmosphere of outer space, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield made history when he reached for a floating Larrivée parlor guitar to perform the early David Bowie hit “Space Oddity” for a video clip captured live from the International Space Station. The video went viral—and Larrivée got the best publicity the solar system had ever seen. Back on Earth, interest in small-bodied parlor guitars—precursors to the bulky modern dreadnought—skyrocketed. Earlier this year, at the Winter NAMM music retailers convention in Anaheim, California, a steady stream of curious guitarists strolled past the Santa Cruz Guitar Co.’s impressive line of stalwart dreadnoughts to ogle a diminutive PJ model tucked away into a crook in the manufacturer’s exhibit booth. The little parlor guitar nearly stole the show. “The smallest guitar that we make today was one of the biggest guitars available up until about 1870,” Santa Cruz owner Richard Hoover says. “The only reason they didn’t make larger guitars [in the old days] is that they didn’t need to. More volume wasn’t an issue until people started competing with other instruments in ensembles, or with barking dogs and banjos in vaudeville.” Hoover says that today, advances in amplification and recording have rendered larger guitars less essential, resulting in the current parlor guitar craze. “In the early 1980s, interest in smaller instruments began a steady incline because people realized they didn’t need the volume of the dreadnought,” Hoover says. “In 1985, probably 70 percent of our guitars were dreadnoughts. Today, the majority of the instruments we make are OM, 00 size, or smaller, as more people appreciate the quality of the volume over the quantity.” Santa Cruz isn’t the only company experiencing growth in its sales of small-bodied

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26 June 2015

‘Quicker fingerstyle patterns really benefit from the clarity of the parlor . . . . I play this guitar every day of my life and will never sell it.’ MARK ORTON

instruments. Last year, Gretsch added the lowcost G9515 Jim Dandy Flat Top model to its Roots Collection and parlor guitars were in evidence everywhere on the exhibit floor at this year’s NAMM show. The growing list of other companies that have added parlor guitars to their product lines—including well-crafted instruments at affordable prices—is a testament to the popularity of this model. Those include Alvarez, Aria, Bedell, Breedlove, Blueridge, Córdoba, Godin, Hohner, Fender, Grace Harbor, Ibanez, the Loar, Lowden, Luna, Martin, RainSong, Recording King, Simon & Patrick, Taylor, Tanglewood, and Seagull, to name a few. Meanwhile, parlor guitars are finding renewed interest among a broad spectrum of players, both professionals and those looking for small, lightweight instruments to take to beach parties or campfire singalongs. “The parlor guitar is light, easy, and fun to bring on trips,” says Dom Flemons, formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. “It’s a wonderful social instrument to have around for gatherings, vacations, and picnics. Everyone usually knows at least one song on the guitar, so it’s really nice to have a parlor to pass between a bunch of friends” PLAYERS ‘FLIP’ OVER PARLORS In the modern era, parlor guitars are perhaps most closely associated with folk singers, including Joan Baez and a young Bob Dylan, as well as earlier bluesmen such as Blind Blake and Blind Lemon Jefferson. “I love to play the old styles on a parlor guitar,” says Flemons, who played a parlor on his recent solo debut, Prospect Hill. “I use a medium-size parlor—a Fraulini Loretta. It has a punchy sound while still having a delicate tone; it has a great response for both fingerpicking and for using a thumb pick and the fingers.”

Even in bluegrass, a genre in which most guitarists prefer big dreadnoughts, some players favor small guitars. “Jody Stecher played bluegrass on a 1-sized Martin for years, travelled all over the place with it in its original coffin case, and it just sounded incredible,” says Eric Schoenberg, vintage-guitar expert and proprietor of the eponymous store in Tiburon, California, on the shore of the San Francisco Bay. “I sold Ronnie Earl, the [former] Roomful of Blues guitarist, one of those really early Martins—an interesting thing I’ve found is that electric blues players have just flipped over these things on a number of occasions.” One of the most notable high-profile players of the parlor guitar is Mark Orton, who uses the instrument for his work in wide-reaching chamber ensembles, including Tin Hat (formerly the Tin Hat Trio), as well as in films, dance, and theater. Orton’s signature sound—the one that resulted in being asked to score movies such as the Oscar-nominated Nebraska—is made possible by virtue of using a parlor instrument. “My main guitar is a Martin 1-21 from 1893 that I’ve had for years,” says Orton, who also plays a 1913 Martin 2-17. “It’s my pride and joy, my second wife. It’s very comfortable to play, even easier than my Telecaster. It weighs next to nothing; you could practically push a pencil tip through the face of the thing. “It’s so incredibly responsive,” Orton adds. “It takes very little force to get great bass out of the guitar, and it works great for switching between pick and fingerstyle. I have a D-18 as well, but that guitar can get muddy-sounding, especially for doing stuff with more dissonance and with smaller intervals—quicker fingerstyle patterns also really benefit from the clarity of the smaller guitar.” Orton uses steel strings on his 1-21, but to make it work he had the bridge reinforced, and he uses very light strings—basically a gauge-ten

WHAT IS A PARLOR GUITAR? The definition of a parlor guitar can be a bit murky. Some consider any small-bodied guitar a parlor; others point to a more specific set of attributes. For instance, Martin’s 0size might be small by today’s standards, but when it was introduced, the instrument was large relative to other guitars—with its 131/2-inch-wide lower bout, the 0 was built with the concert hall in mind, not the parlor. Smaller Martins included the Size 1 (standard) at 12¾inches wide; the Size 2 (ladies), 12 inches; and the Size 21/2, (child’s), 115/8 inches. Since other makers have traditionally based their guitar sizes on or around those of Martin, many think of a parlor guitar as having dimensions comparable to Martin’s Size 1 or smaller, with a 12th-fret neck-to-body junction as opposed to the 14th-fret found on larger and more modernized guitars.

‘Everyone usually knows at least one song on the guitar, so it’s really nice to have a parlor to pass between a bunch of friends.’ DOM FLEMONS

AcousticGuitar.com 27

PARLOR GUITARS

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Companies large and small now include new parlor guitars in their product lines. Here’s a select sample.

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set in which the first string is replaced with an 11. He tunes everything down by a whole step (low to high) D G C F A D. “A collector would cringe to see the things that have been done to stabilize the bridge, but I play this guitar every day of my life and will never sell it, so I don’t care,” he says. DESIGNED FOR WOMEN With their distinctively narrow bodies and short scale lengths, parlor guitars are the smallest of all six-string flattop acoustics—as much as three inches shorter than the modern standard of 25.4 inches. Often seen as a bridge between the traditional Spanish nylon-string guitar and the modern steel-string, parlor guitars served a specific function when they appeared in the United States in the late 1800s. They were originally built for women’s more compact frames, and they were named for their use as instruments intended to entertain guests in homes rich enough to include parlors. In the mid-19th century, design distinctions between European and American guitars were minimal—both were compact by today’s standards, and built delicately to accommodate the comparatively weak gut strings. Near the end of the century, as European guitars became increasingly larger, some American companies, 28 June 2015

including Martin, continued building small guitar bodies while experimenting with structural elements—for example, X-bracing in place of the traditional Spanish fan—that would give them a heartier sound. Popularity of parlor guitars waned by the early part of the 20th century when guitar makers began designing larger-body sizes structurally reinforced to handle the tension of steel strings. After Martin introduced the bigger dreadnought in 1931, to compete with other bluegrass instruments, parlor guitar sales began to wane. Today, thanks to modern sound reinforcement and recording technology, getting volume from a small instrument is no longer a big concern. And in the past decade, as guitarists have become more drawn to old music and vintage instruments, fascination with parlor guitars is on the rise. Guitar companies have rolled out new models across the spectrum of affordability—from high-end Martins to budget Washburns—for contemporary players drawn to the look and feel of the little instruments. Grace Teague, of Grace Harbor Guitars, agrees that one reason there’s an increase in interest in parlor guitars today is that the small bodies are friendlier to women than jumbos and dreadnoughts. “Anything we can do to encourage women to play guitars is a good

thing,” she says, adding that a parlor model was a natural for the new line just launched by distributor Dana B. Goods. MODERN PARLORS Companies large and small now include parlor guitars in their product lines—instruments without the problems of playability inherent to 100-year-old guitars. In some instances, the rise of parlors has come from a demand for detailed recreations of golden-era instruments from before World War II. In the 1990s, Martin, for example, began revisiting small-bodied guitars with period details such as tapered slotted headstocks. “Years ago, I asked Martin’s Custom Shop if they could build a 000-42 exactly like a 1930s model, but they didn’t have the fixtures, so they turned my order down,” says Martin historian Dick Boak. “Then, in the mid-’90s, I worked at the estate of Jimmie Rodgers and got to know his historic 1927 000-45. Martin finally retooled its fixtures to create a replica of this guitar, and this now allowed us to build guitars in the Vintage and Golden Era series.” The instruments in Martin’s standard line that most closely resemble parlor guitars are the 0-28VS, the company’s smallest full-size guitar, and the slightly larger 00-28VS. Both are

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1 FENDER CP-100 With its 24.75-inch scale length, the CP-100 is designed for the beginner with smaller hands, but it’s a fun guitar for a musician of any ability and mitt size to play.

4 WASHBURN R314KK This guitar looks more than 100 years old but boasts modern sturdiness and playability.

Price: $329.99 list/$199.99 street

2 RECORDING KING RPH-05 The RPH-05 is a neat little guitar, inspired by classic 1930s flattops, with a fullscale-length neck, a solid top, and a modest price tag.

7 FRAULINI LORETTA The Loretta is luthier Todd Cambio’s tribute to the parlor guitars built in Chicago in the early 1900s by companies like Washburn and Lakeside with their traditional ladder bracing.

10 LARRIVÉE P-01 PARLOR “FIRST IN SPACE” Here’s a nifty replica of the guitar that visited space with Commander Chris Hadfield aboard the International Space Station.

5 CÓRDOBA C9 Available with a European spruce or Canadian cedar top, mated with mahogany back and sides, the all-solid-wood C9 is Córdoba’s nylon-string take on a parlor guitar.

Price: $3,000 base

Price: $1,349 list/$1,012 street

8 SANTA CRUZ PJ Santa Cruz’s elegantly simple PJ is a modern parlor classic.

Price: $990 list/$799.99 street

6 MARTIN 00-42SC JOHN MAYER STAGECOACH EDITION Martin’s ultra-luxurious new signature model is John Mayer’s interpretation of a late-1800s parlor guitar.

9 FROGGY BOTTOM MODEL L After Froggy Bottom’s founder, Michael Millard, repaired an old Martin 1-17 by replacing its trashed top, everyone in his shop was so impressed by the guitar’s stunning voice that the company incorporated the parlor-sized Model L into its line.

11 MIKE BARANIK RETREUX Nineteenth- and 21st-century guitar design and a midcentury modern aesthetic are merged in this fine guitar handcrafted by the luthier Mike Baranik.

Price: $9,999 list/$7,999 street

Price: From $6,560

Price: $712.90 list/$399 street

Price: $266.99 list/$199.99 street

3 ALVAREZ APA 1965 With its slotted headstock and AA Sitka spruce top, the mid-priced APA 1965 cuts a handsome figure. Price: $749 list/$499 street

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Price: $4,800 list

Price: $4,500–$7,000

AcousticGuitar.com 29

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

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PARLOR GUITARS

equipped for steel strings. But Martin’s Custom Shop has made detailed recreations of 1800s parlor models. Most recently, the company built a slightly fancier version of a mid-1800s style 2-24 for the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit Early American Guitars: The Instruments of C.F. Martin. “We’re seeing requests from vintage dealers for size-2 instruments made in the old way, just as they began asking for OMs a couple of decades ago,” says Boak. In other cases, companies offer parlors as inexpensive and fun guitars, built with modern construction techniques for greater durability than their original counterparts. Washburn’s Vintage Series includes decently built parlors with traditional-looking appointments and wallet-friendly price tags. Larrivée’s parlor guitar was originally conceived as a travel guitar. But with variations using several other all-solid tonewoods—including Italian spruce, Indian rosewood, and genuine mahogany—the parlor also happens to be an excellent instrument for performing and recording. At the other end of the spectrum, high-end independent luthiers and boutique makers have gotten in on the fun. Stunning modern interpretations of the classic parlor form include Santa Cruz’s aforementioned PJ and Style 1, and Froggy Bottom’s L, P-12, and P-14. And Todd Cambio, the builder behind Fraulini Guitar Co., patterns his Loretta model after the ladderbraced guitars made by Lyon and Healy. Cambio’s Loretta not only looks traditional but is built in an old-fashioned way, assembled with hide glue and finished with varnish—although it does include a truss rod. “The Loretta is very light in weight, comparable to the old ones,” Cambio says. “The last one I made was only two pounds, ten ounces. I try to build it delicately, like the originals, but with structural integrity. It’s a balancing act, and I love the challenge.” Meanwhile, other luthiers are working to create something new with smaller body sizes. About ten years ago, Michael Baranik, based in California’s San Luis Obispo County, scored a turn-of-the-century parlor guitar on eBay and had used it as the basis for his Retreux guitars with mid-century-inspired cosmetics. “I borrowed the shape and the back brace placement of the old parlor, but redesigned just about everything else,” he says. “I decided to increase the scale length, from 24 to 24 ½ inches, and went with a 13th-fret neck joint and solid headstock, rather than a 12th-fret and slotted headstock. For the soundboard bracing, I used a traditional X with one tone bar. I also increased the depth of the guitar and use a domed braced soundboard, as well as a small oval sideport that really adds another dimension for the player.”

THE MARKET FOR VINTAGE PARLORS Vintage parlor guitars can be pricey, but certain originals by companies like Martin, Lyon and Healey, and Washburn can be found for a relative bargain—it’s not uncommon to see a late-1800s Martin with Brazilian rosewood back and sides for several thousand dollars, or a comparable Washburn for a bit less. But while those prices might be attractive to collectors, there are some obstacles in preparing the instruments for modern playability—especially considering that many of the guitars were originally built for nylon strings. For instance, not only is the typical 1800s or early-1900s parlor guitar insufficiently sturdy to accommodate a medium-gauge or heavier set of steel strings, the footprint of its bridge is too small to house the slanted saddles needed for the spot-on intonation of steel strings. But the guitars can be transformed into great players. “We tend to make these older guitars quite playable by resetting the neck angle and getting the frets perfectly leveled, the action set just right,” guitar dealer Schoenberg says. “Most of them do fine with pretty light steel strings, unlike the typical modern guitar on which heavy strings are needed just to pull the sound out of it.” Provided that it’s receptive to a modern setup, a good parlor guitar will have a sweet sound that is well-balanced between the registers, and even a healthy amount of volume and projection. “Practically every day we have customers who are absolutely blown away by the sounds that emerge from these instruments,” Schoenberg says. “But the truth is, with such a small size, it’s easy to drive the top and enjoy a greater frequency range, especially in the high end. People just assume that a small instrument will make a small sound—even though a Gibson mandolin, for instance, is incredibly loud. The nicest parlor guitars actually have a big, full sound— 1800s Martins are some of the best-sounding steel guitars ever made.” With Brazilian rosewood being used less often and costing much more on new instruments, finding an old parlor guitar might seem like a great way to access this prized tonewood. But old or so-called good wood doesn’t necessarily make a fine-sounding instrument, as evidenced in the varying sonic merits of those small early guitars made from Brazilian rosewood. “It’s interesting how Washburn and other companies used what we now consider to be really fine materials on cheap guitars,” Schoenberg says. “Many of them were just sort of studentgrade, and they can really run the gamut. Some sound great; others, not so much.” AG

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NATIONAL RESO-PHONIC LARRIVÉE

PART III

TAYLOR

COLLINGS

There’s nothing like the smell of freshly sawed spruce to perk you up. Check out our guide to ten US guitar-factory tours BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

ny guitarist who’s ever bought a new instrument knows how exciting it is to receive a shiny, unblemished steelstring, smelling freshly of seasoned woods and finishing compounds, and promising musical companionship for years to come. But getting to know a new instrument can be even more thrilling with a visit to its birthplace. Companies large and small offer guided factory and woodshop tours, open to the public, where visitors get an up-close look at their instruments coming into being. The ten factory tours surveyed here encompass a range of guitar styles and building approaches, but all show every step a guitar takes on the path to becoming a playable instrument, from having its components fashioned from raw materials to receiving its finishing touches. All are open to the public, and best of all, are free of charge.

A

32 June 2015

NORTHEAST BOURGEOIS GUITARS Lewiston, Maine Tour hours: Once a month, on a Friday, at 1:30 PM bourgeoisguitars.net (207) 786-0385

Master luthier Dana Bourgeois is a pioneering figure in the arena of steel-string boutique guitars. In 40 years of building, the luthier and tonewood expert (who’s also a contributor to Acoustic Guitar) has refined vintage designs to arrive at new models of all shapes and sizes, celebrated for their unusually high quality of tone and construction. Bourgeois works with a select team of luthiers in his shop in Lewiston, Maine,

a quaint town about 35 miles from the coastal city of Portland. Because Bourgeois only gives tours on a rotating Friday each month, it’s necessary to call the shop to find the date of the next tour and to place a reservation. Though another member of the staff normally gives the hourlong tour, if he’s in the shop, Bourgeois always enjoys meeting and chatting with his visitors. Rather than watching the luthiers in respectful silence, Bourgeois encourages visitors to talk with them while they work. And so tour-goers get a better sense of what goes into all facets of production than by passively observing the proceedings. Another special aspect of visiting the shop is that visitors are able to select woods for custom orders to be placed through dealers—and even receive completed orders in person.

FROGGY BOTTOM GUITARS Chelsea, Vermont Tour hours: By appointment only froggybottomguitars.com (802) 763-0100

Michael Millard, the owner and founder of Froggy Bottom Guitars, has been building custom instruments for more than 40 years, often in collaboration with clients. His company is headquartered in a fairly remote location, the small town of Chelsea, Vermont, 150 miles northwest of Boston. Unlike any of the other tours profiled here, Froggy Bottom’s shop is open only to players who are in the process of ordering instruments—something Millard encourages, but doesn’t require, of all his clients. Visitors to Froggy Bottom are shown all aspects of guitar making (save for the finish work) that Millard and his team of four other luthiers do in their modest shop, such as building guitars with their soundboards face-down, in the manner of a nylon-string builder, or crafting the classicalinspired three-piece necks engineered with stability in mind. But the most exciting part of touring Froggy Bottom guitars happens when a musician plays a handful of guitars in the shop, talks with Millard and company about his or her goals in terms of sound and feel, and selects the woods that will be set aside for use in a custom instrument. Then the customer goes home and waits in eager anticipation, as if for a baby, for the arrival of the new creation.

M ID-ATLANTIC C. F. MARTIN & COMPANY Nazareth, Pennsylvania Tour hours: weekdays between 11 AM and 2:30 PM, first come, first served martinguitar.com (610) 759-2837

A pilgrimage to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, where Martin has made guitars since 1839, is absolutely compulsory for the guitar connoisseur. The sleepy town of Nazareth is about 85 miles west of Martin’s original location, Manhattan, and 75 miles north of Philadelphia, making it an easy day trip for visitors to those big cities. Martin’s factory is a 200,000-square-foot behemoth, employing 600 workers who make tens of thousands of guitars per year using a combination of centuries-old building techniques and cutting-edge technology, such as CNC machinery and PLEK fret-dressing equipment. Visitors take guided tours, receiving headsets so that they can hear about what’s

going on over the din of the factory’s machinery. The tour takes 45 minutes to an hour, starting with a look at rough-milled lumber and ending with finished guitars, like the flagship D -28, and such custom editions as the CS-00041-15: a process requiring several hundred steps in all. As part of the tour, visitors are encouraged to audition a selection of guitars in a small soundproofed room, and as an added bonus they can check out the company’s museum, featuring a rotating inventory of historic and significant instruments ranging from guitars made by C.F. Martin’s mentor, Johann Georg Stauffer, to a prewar D-45 to the Backpacker that traveled on a mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

PRS GUITARS Stevensville, Maryland Tour hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 AM and 1 PM prsguitars.com (410) 643-9970

Since the mid-1980s, Paul Reed Smith has been Taylor’s analogue in the electric world, its highperformance solid bodies and hollow bodies built using computerized equipment to consistently elevate levels of craftsmanship. It’s only in recent years that PRS has been offering acoustic guitars, like the select high-end models built within its massive electric complex, in Stevensville, Maryland, about 40 miles east of Washington, DC. The bulk of PRS’s factory tour is, of course, devoted to its electric offerings, and visitors enjoy seeing every part of their build, from raw cuts of wood to finished guitars and amplifiers. But the penultimate stop of the tour is the acoustic-custom shop, which is presided over by the master luthier Michael Byle. It takes about 30 minutes for Byle to walk visitors through the 4,300-square-foot shop, where a team of eight luthiers works largely by hand. They fashion Adirondack spruce, curly maple, Peruvian mahogany, and other prized tonewoods into sleek instruments like the Angelus and the Tonare Grand, with their fancy cosmetics and hybrid Torres-style and X bracing. In contrast to the high volume of PRS’ electric-instrument output, the acoustic shop produces between 16 and 20 instruments per month, giving tour-goers a fascinating glimpse of old-world lutherie in action.

Top Terri Fetherman demonstrates how to shave a brace Middle Bourgeois fits a wooden binding to a headstock veneer Bottom The PRS factory in Stevensville, Maryland

AcousticGuitar.com 33

ROADSIDE AMERICANA III U.S. FACTORY TOURS

A A Santa Cruz Guitar Company builds heirloom-quality acoustic guitars. B Add the Collings tour to your Austin itinerary. C Luthier Bruce VanWart measures spruce top thickness during the voicing process at Collings. Each top is individually hand voiced based on its weight and stiffness to bring out the most tone and volume from the instrument. JEREMY LEZIN

D A McPherson luthier cleans glue squeeze from the braces.

B

COURTESY OF COLLINGS GUITARS

D

COURTESY OF MCPHERSON GUITARS

C

34 June 2015

SOUTHWEST COLLINGS GUITARS Austin, Texas Tour hours: Fridays at 3:30 PM collingsguitars.com (512) 288-7776

Collings, the premier midsized company, is known for its classy interpretations of goldenera guitars, acoustic and electric; mandolinfamily instruments; and ukuleles. The shop is situated in Austin, Texas, a little over 15 miles from the Sixth Street entertainment district that put Austin on the map as a destination for music lovers. As Collings only hosts tours on Friday afternoons, the company requires advance reservations. After gathering in a living-room-like reception area, visitors are walked through the shop to check out every step of the building process. They admire the shop’s stashes of exotic and domestic tonewoods, Brazilian rosewood and stunningly curly maple, among many other species. On occasion, it’s possible to see the laborintensive carving of an archtop’s soundboard, or the application of the delicate but toneenhancing varnish finish that Collings applies to select instruments. And recent visitors have had the pleasure of checking out Collings’s new line of Waterloo guitars, inspired by Great Depression–era instruments, in development. The Collings tour also offers of evidence of the iconoclastic nature of the company’s owner, Bill Collings. There are the innovative jigs and fixtures that he’s built for the factory—not to mention, as a bonus to automotive enthusiasts, his hotrod shop inside the facilities.

M IDWEST MCPHERSON GUITARS Sparta, Wisconsin Tour hours: During shop hours between 6:00 AM and 4:30 PM mcphersonguitars.com (608) 366-1407

With their offset soundholes, “overpass-underpass” bracing systems, and cantilevered necks, McPherson guitars are rather unorthodox. These high-performance instruments are made in limited numbers at luthier Matt McPherson’s shop, in Sparta, Wisconsin, a small city along the La Crosse River, about 115 miles northwest of Madison.

The shop is a tiny operation—just two luthiers working on McPherson guitars and three others working on a series of Kevin Michael instruments, which share design ideas with McPherson but are made from carbon fiber. Just as McPherson and his staff enjoy building custom orders, they like to tailor tours of their shops to visitors. That’s why they ask guests to call in advance of a tour, so that they can select an optimal time for showing as much of the building process as possible. The tours are open-ended, generally lasting as long as a visitor likes. It’s a relaxed atmosphere, too, with guests encouraged to take photos of the luthiers at work and to chat with them about their craft. Visitors are generally most intrigued by watching luthier Eric Pelton work on building a body—a feat of craftsmanship considering that McPherson insists that a guitar’s interior be pristine, free of glue, water marks, scratches, or pencil marks.

WEST COAST LARRIVÉE GUITARS Oxnard, California Tour hours: Weekdays before 11 AM larrivee.com (805) 487-9980

Larrivée guitars, the brainchild of the luthier and auto mechanic Jean Larrivée, were for many years made in Canada, first in Toronto and then in British Columbia. In 2001, the growing company opened a second factory in Oxnard, California. While 14 years later Larrivée’s wood milling operations are still based in Canada, its instruments are now all built in Oxnard, a small coastal city 60 miles north of Los Angeles and 35 miles south of Santa Barbara. The staff of Larrivée gives factory tours of its 16,000-square-foot facilities during weekdays, usually before 11 AM, as the second half of the day tends to get hectic. They prefer that visitors make reservations, though tend not to turn away drop-ins. Tours generally last 45 minutes and include stops in every department, from the raw wood processing to nut and saddle fitting. The focus of a Larrivée tour is on its line of smart modern flattops, made from all-solid woods. As the tour travels within inches of builders’ workbenches, visitors have an intimate look at the specialized bracing patterns found on these guitars. They also see the

company’s other acoustic instruments—mandolins and ukuleles—in progress, as well as its electric guitars.

NATIONAL RESO-PHONIC GUITARS San Luis Obispo, California Tour hours: Weekdays between 9 AM and 3:30 PM nationalguitars.com (805) 546-8442

The building of an entirely different type of acoustic guitar can be witnessed at National ResoPhonic, the maker of iconic metal-bodied resonator guitars, as well as the Scheerhorn brand of wooden-bodied resonators. National instruments were first made in the Los Angeles area in 1927 and are now built 190 miles to the north, in San Luis Obispo, on California’s Central Coast. National is a small and laidback company. To arrange for a tour, visitors need only call a day or two in advance, to make sure that someone will be available to show them around. Despite the shop’s modest size, it produces a staggering assortment of models, many of them replicas of 75-year-old tricone and single resonator models and some modern instruments with cutaways and electronics. The staff of National prefers to give tours when the builders are at work, giving visitors the best window into the specialized techniques in making these instruments. True to vintage style, pretty much all of the work is done by hand, and the craftspeople are keen on explaining how they build the instruments, for example taking the time to show how certain models incorporate a bolt-on neck whose attachment screws are concealed by position markers at the upper frets, or demonstrate how a biscuit bridge is carefully slotted and fitted.

SANTA CRUZ GUITAR CO. Santa Cruz, California Tour hours: 2:30 PM on Thursdays and 10 AM on Fridays santacruzguitar.com/tour-the-shop (831) 425-0999

In 1976, long before boutique guitars were all the rage, the luthier Richard Hoover set up a small shop in Santa Cruz, California. In this sunny coastal town, about 75 miles south of San Francisco, Hoover and a small team still build heirloom-quality acoustic guitars, made from reclaimed or responsibly harvested woods. AcousticGuitar.com 35

ROADSIDE AMERICANA III U.S. FACTORY TOURS

The company produces only about 700 guitars per year, and these coveted instruments are often snatched up as soon as they’re built. After visitors are greeted by the three dogs who mill about at Santa Cruz, Hoover himself normally leads tours of his company on Thursday afternoons and Friday mornings. Reservations are recommended. A tour lasts about 90 minutes, though Hoover is known to allow more time for a particularly inquisitive group of visitors—apparently, he doesn’t closely guard any company secrets. Visitors to the shop get to watch its 16 luthiers in action, carving tops, tap-tuning, voicing, binding, inlaying, sanding, bending sides, carving necks, filling pores, and more— all by hand. Hoover does, though, demonstrate the company’s single CNC machine, which is used only to help prevent repetitive stress injuries, or for tasks that don’t require any artistry.

Right Glossed guitar bodies wait to have their necks pocketed on a Fadal CNC machine at Taylor Guitars in El Cajon, California.

TAYLOR GUITARS El Cajon, California Tour hours: Monday through Friday at 1 PM taylorguitars.com/contact/factory-tours (800) 943-6782

DANIEL KNIGHTON PHOTOS

Above A Taylor craftsman inlays an abalone rosette into a Sitka spruce top.

36 June 2015

Taylor has long been at the forefront of modern acoustic guitar building, with such innovations as bolt-on necks, specialized onboard electronics, and ultraviolet-cured finishes. Visitors to Taylor’s sprawling U.S. headquarters, in El Cajon, California, 20 miles east of downtown San Diego, get a revealing look at these details on guitars in progress. The 75-minute tour begins with a walk through Taylor’s extensive stash of neatly collated tonewoods, and an explanation of the company’s thoughtful approach to sourcing these precious timbers and to seasoning them. Taylor, for instance, owns a mill in Cameroon, Africa, the world’s largest legal producer of ebony, and the company has a deep commitment to responsible forest stewardship. Particularly compelling are the high-tech aspects of Taylor’s tour. Visitors witness computercontrolled machines shaping necks and excavating pockets for inlays, lasers cutting soundboards, and robots finishing and buffing guitars, among other cool displays of ingenuity and efficiency. At the same time, the tour travels through areas where craftspeople are busy doing intensive handwork, like inlay art and brace gluing. The tour wraps up in the final assembly department, where fans of Taylor tend to swoon at the site of so many gleaming 300- through Presentationseries guitars, lined up in neat rows, awaiting preparations for shipment to dealers. AG

SPECIAL FOCUS ACOUSTIC DEAD

THEY’RE DEAD AGAIN . . . for reals . . . well, sort of. The four main surviving members of the Grateful Dead (guitarist Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh, drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann), with Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, and pianist Bruce Hornsby in tow, will stage a reunion July 3-5 at Soldier Field in Chicago. The event marks the 50th anniversary of the iconic San Francisco band’s formation and the 20th anniversary of the band’s last gig, also at Soldier Field. The “core four,” as they’re sometimes called, claim this will be their final live appearance playing in a band together, but you know how that usually goes (the rumor mill already is working overtime). AG celebrates the Grateful Dead’s acoustic side—a major influence in the emergence of acoustic-guitar music in the pop culture— with a special section spotlighting Garcia’s bluegrass and country roots, his longtime association with mandolinist David Grisman, the Dead’s landmark acoustic-based albums, including 1970’s Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, and an encore appearance of a popular 2011 Garcia lesson feature.

BARON WOLMAN PHOTO/ICONIC IMAGES

DEADAGAIN AcousticGuitar.com 37

JAY BLAKESBERG

SPECIAL FOCUS ACOUSTIC DEAD

HIGH ON BLUEGRASS SHARING A CUP OF TEA WITH JERRY GARCIA YIELDED REFLECTIONS ON FRIENDSHIP AND HIS COUNTRY ROOTS BY GREG CAHILL

38 June 2015

[Editor’s note: In 1992, on a rainy winter morning, I had the opportunity to interview Jerry Garcia at the Grateful Dead’s office in a two-story clapboard Victorian in a shaded residential neighborhood near downtown San Rafael, California. We sipped hot tea and Garcia chainsmoked as he spoke affectionately of the acoustic guitar, his love of bluegrass, and his long relationship with mandolinist David Grisman.]

I

t was one of the most celebrated bootleg recordings in pop history. In 1993, mandolinist David Grisman invited his old pal Jerry Garcia—then enjoying some of his most commercially successful days as the Grateful Dead’s guitarist—to join him and bluegrass picker Tony Rice for a laid-back afternoon session at Grisman’s home studio in Mill Valley, California. The result was an intimate gathering that evoked a friendly frontporch feeling. Some months later, Grisman heard that the jam session had found its way onto WBAI radio in New York City, and Deadheads were swapping the tapes at shows. The recording even popped up in a shipment of bootleg CDs that the Dead confiscated. Perplexing. But then Grisman discovered that a pizza delivery boy had lifted a cassette copy of the sessions from Garcia’s kitchen counter. That episode is immortalized in The Pizza Tapes (Acoustic Disc), released 15 years ago on Grisman’s label. It’s a real gem, sometimes brilliant, sometimes not, but filled with warmth. The recording retains the banter—and false starts—that took place during the session. The trio tries its collective hand on Lefty Frizzell’s “Always Late” (a hit a few years earlier for country star Dwight Yoakam), jams on George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” and noodles its way through Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” There’s even a rare Garcia rendering of a tentative “Amazing Grace,” sung at the request of Grisman’s wife. The closing track, on which Garcia sings “The House of the Rising Sun,” alone is worth the price of admission. RAISED ON THE OPRY For Garcia, the sessions at Grisman’s marked another return to his country roots. “My grandmother was a big Grand Ole Opry fan,” he recalled, adding with a sly smile, “Yeah, I grew up in San Francisco listening to the Opry every Saturday night on the radio without knowing what I was hearing. In fact, my first 45 was a Hank Williams record, a song called ‘The Love Bug Itch.’ It was a really stupid song,” he added with a belly laugh, “but, hey, it was Hank Williams.” At the time of the interview, Garcia—long regarded as one of rock’s most innovative electric guitarists—had started nurturing his affinity for bluegrass breakdowns and spirituals, playing occasional concerts with Grisman and recording with some of the hottest country pickers this side of Kentucky (he considered himself a neophyte acoustic guitarist). Grisman had just released Bluegrass Reunion, the first of six Acoustic Disc recordings featuring the duo, to which Garcia contributed two tracks. That CD was a traditional outing with Red Allen and also featured banjo player Herb Pedersen,

fiddler Jim Buchanan, and bassist Jim Kerwin. Their working friendship would be captured in the film documentary Grateful Dawg, directed by Grisman’s daughter, Gillian. Toward the end of the film, Billboard noted in a 2001 review, the mandolinist and Garcia are shown working through an old-timey song in the living room of Grisman’s Northern California home: “With the sun pouring in the room from a nearby sliding glass door, Grisman is pickin’ away on mandolin, and Garcia is doing the same on acoustic guitar. Grisman is loose and playing off of Garcia, who seems totally oblivious to Grisman’s dog and children walking in and out of the room. They finally take a break and Grisman gets up for a sandwich. Garcia starts to do the same, but stops, seeming almost to have had an epiphany. He grabs his guitar, sits back down, and with his head down, returns to work on the song.” “That’s like my favorite spot in the movie,” Grisman told the magazine. “That was just a camera left on a shelf. Nobody staged that.” Added Billboard: “The moment captures the essence of Garcia and Grisman’s musical relationship, which, as the movie explains, was based on a true passion for everything from bluegrass and folk to jazz and blues.” There’s no question it was a productive relationship. In 1992, Garcia and Grisman had teamed up for a gorgeous self-titled duo album featuring bluegrass-inflected renditions of B.B. King’s signature song, “The Thrill Is Gone,” the Dead’s “Friend of the Devil,” and Irving Berlin’s “Russian Lullaby,” among others. “For me, that was a rich experience,” Garcia said of the recording, while puffing on a low-tar cigarette and showing satisfaction at being “one of the guys” during the no-frills sessions. The Grisman/Garcia projects clearly were close to Garcia’s heart, coming at a time when the Grateful Dead had ramped down its acoustic material. “He’s a real livewire and kind of a perfectionist,” Garcia said of the notoriously finicky Grisman. “We fire each other up in a way that I think is very interesting—and it’s interesting for the audience. But it’s one of those things that doesn’t bear too much analysis. “After all, musical chemistry doesn’t yield to a rational yardstick.” A CHANCE ENCOUNTER Ironically, the pair had first met by chance in 1964, when Garcia was on a pilgrimage to the East Coast in search of authentic bluegrass music. At the time, Grisman was leading a group of upstart bluegrass players called the New York City Ramblers, still fresh from their upset victory at the prestigious Union Grove fiddle competition in North Carolina. “I had my banjo, he had his mandolin,” Garcia explained of their meeting at a Bill Monroe concert at Sunset Park in West Grove,

SOME GARCIA-GRISMAN CLASSICS

Old & In the Way 1975

Garcia / Grisman 1991

That High Lonesome Sound 1996

Shady Grove 1996

Breakdown 1997

The Pizza Tapes 2000

AcousticGuitar.com 39

SPECIAL FOCUS ACOUSTIC DEAD

Pennsylvania. “We cranked a little bit and he kind of tested me. I guess he wanted to see if these guys from the West Coast could play.” Returning to San Francisco, Garcia fretted over the lack of good bluegrass players in the Bay Area and found himself hampered by what he perceived as his own lack of virtuosity. “I wanted the bluegrass stuff to be perfect, and I wasn’t happy if it wasn’t,” he said. Instead, he passed his time in Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, a local jug band he formed with guitarist Bob Weir—then a rebellious 15-year-old kid who’d been expelled from high school—and blues harmonica enthusiast Ron “Pigpen” McKernan. In 1965, the band went electric, changed its name to the Warlocks, and added drummer Bill Kreutzmann and bassist Phil Lesh (who three years earlier had taped the English ballad “Matty Groves” and other tunes with Garcia on a home recorder). In December of 1965, the band changed its name again, this time to the Grateful Dead, moved to the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco, and began playing at Bill Graham’s psychedelic emporium, the Fillmore Auditorium, and other local venues.

Yet bluegrass continued to influence Garcia. With their prominent acoustic instrumentation, three-part vocal harmonies, and narrative lyrics, Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, both recorded in 1970, marked a momentary shift from the band’s trademark freewheeling jazzrock jams. “For me, it was one of those things where I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life making records that are too fucking weird for anybody to listen to,” Garcia said. “Besides, we recorded [Workingman’s Dead] around the same time as Live/Dead, which gave us a chance to scratch our itch for the weird shit.” Coincidentally, American Beauty features Grisman playing mandolin on two tracks: “Ripple” and “Friend of the Devil.” Two years later, he settled in Stinson Beach, an artist community, near Garcia and fellow musician Peter Rowan. Grisman and Rowan soon persuaded a moonlighting Garcia to pick up his five-string banjo for the first time in a decade for the short-lived Old & in the Way. On October 8, 1973, that band—which included fiddler Vassar Clements and bassist John Kahn—recorded a live album, at the old Boarding House nightclub in San Francisco.

ROCK BLUES JAZZ ACOUSTIC CLASSICAL SONGWRITING

SUMMER 2015

In 1975, the Grateful Dead’s Round label issued that album of live sessions, also called Old & in the Way—widely regarded as a seminal event in the progressive bluegrass movement. In 1996, Grisman released the stellar collection of outtakes called Old & in the Way: That High Lonesome Sound, following that the next year with Old & in the Way: Breakdown, also culled from the Boarding House performances. More recently, Grisman released the complete October 8 concert along with another show at the same venue from October 1. Despite what would become a long break between projects with Grisman, Garcia maintained that bluegrass remained “a vast reservoir” to which he returned time and again. “I think of this as an ongoing thing in my life,” he said. “And as long as it’s comfortable for both of us, I’d be happy to keep doing it part of every year.” Fittingly, Garcia’s last known recording, made just two weeks before his death in 1995, was with Grisman, at his friend’s modest home in Mill Valley, in the small basement studio in which he had found so much peace and contentment and comraderie. AG

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SPECIAL FOCUS ACOUSTIC DEAD

THE DEAD UNPLUGGED hen the Grateful Dead hauled a stovesized Ampex 16-track recorder into San Francisco’s Fillmore West in late February 1969 for a series of five shows at the old ballroom, it was to capture for posterity the group at its fiery psychedelic peak. Mission accomplished: Performances culled from those concerts (and an earlier show at the Avalon Ballroom) became the double-LP Live/ Dead, released in November 1969, still arguably the greatest single document of the band’s power, majesty, and improvisatory prowess. There had never been anything quite like it—“Dark Star” alone, which ate up all of side one of the album, was more than 20 minutes long; a bold exploratory voyage through distant nebulae. And the rest of the album ranged from a ferocious jam in 11/4 time to a harrowing blues, a long R&B rave-up, and even a few minutes of screeching, squealing feedback. Nobody connected with the band ever liked the term “acid rock.” Well, this was acid rock, “electric” in every sense of the word.

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HOW THE KINGS OF PSYCHEDELIA FOUND THEIR ACOUSTIC GROOVE BY BLAIR JACKSON

Unbeknownst to fans, however, by the time the Dead played those historic Fillmore West shows, a subtle shift in the band’s sound was starting to germinate. Working at a studio south of San Francisco, called Pacific Recording, on their third album, Aoxomoxoa, the group had begun to incorporate acoustic-guitar textures into a few of their songs. “Dupree’s Diamond Blues” found guitarist Jerry Garcia and his lyricist partner Robert Hunter penning a sly and slinky take on a venerable (and mostly true) blues story, while their “Mountains of the Moon” paired Garcia’s luminous Martin D-18 with keyboardist Tom Constanten’s harpsichord in a courtly evocation of some mystical realm. Then there was the ethereal “Rosemary,” with just two Garcia acoustic-guitar tracks and his voice eerily channeled through a swirling Leslie speaker. At a couple of those Fillmore West shows, as well as in a few other cities in the winter and spring of 1969, the Dead paired “Dupree’s” and “Mountains of the Moon” with Garcia playing acoustic guitar onstage with the band for the

first time since their formation four years earlier. Lest anyone fear that the psychedelic dragon had been banished, however, on a few occasions the band played an improvisatory tail to “Mountains of the Moon” that gave Garcia a chance to put down the D-18, pick up his trusty Gibson SG electric, and drift into “Dark Star.” In a way, the whimsical “Dupree’s Diamond Blues” was a harbinger of the Grateful Dead’s new direction, which would manifest itself slowly over the second half of 1969, then blossom fully in early 1970, just before the release of the acoustic-electric Americana tourde-force that would change the band’s fortunes forever, Workingman’s Dead. Part of the change was a result of the natural evolution of Garcia and Hunter as songwriters. By 1969, inspired in part by such rootsy albums as Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding and the Band’s Music from Big Pink, the duo had begun to simplify their songwriting and also look back to their shared roots in folk, bluegrass, and old-time music. Long before there was an electric band called the Warlocks, which

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properly showcase some of their new material. Additionally, Garcia and Weir used the acoustic sets to play a wide variety of cover songs— everything from the Everlys’ “Wake Up Little Susie” to Bill Monroe’s “Rosalie McFall” to Jesse Fuller’s “The Monkey and the Engineer” to the traditional gospel string-band tune “Cold Jordan,” to name just a few. By the time the spring of 1970 rolled around, they had added a few more HunterGarcia gems to their acoustic outings, including “Cumberland Blues” (co-written with bassist Phil Lesh), “Friend of the Devil” and “Candyman”—the last two destined for their American Beauty Garcia usually album, released in November played his Martin 1970, just six months after their remarkably radio-friendly comD-28 during the mercial breakthrough, Workingacoustic sets, man’s Dead. while Weir Bob Weir says that Garcia usually played his Martin D-28 favored a Guild. during the acoustic sets (which turned up at shows sporadically through 1970), while Weir favored a Guild: “On the occasions that someone put an archtop in my hands, I was taken by how well they projected,” he told me in a 2005 interview, “and though I wasn’t about to go with an archtop for the style of music we were playing, the sheer volume was pretty impressive, so I said to Mark Dronge [of Guild, who had a close relationship with the Dead], ‘Why don’t we do a flattop with an arched back? It’d be loud and have a beautiful tone.’ “There were three of them made—one for me, and [Dead roadies] Ram Rod and Rex Jackson each got one. It’s an F-50 archback with an oversized peghead, which improves the electric pickups had been installed,” he told sustain. It’s one of the prized guitars in my colAcoustic Guitar in 2002. “The finish was worn lection—the first one I ever designed. I used it and most of the top was bare wood. [But] it in the ’69-’70 acoustic sets and played it a lot was just incredible-sounding.” on the Festival Express [a trans-Canadian train That acoustic didn’t get much use during trip in the summer of ’70 featuring the Dead, the Dead’s first few years, but when he and the Band, Janis Joplin and many others].” Hunter moved into a house together in semiIt was during that Canada trek that Garcia rustic Marin County (across the bay from San wrote the music for what is perhaps his and Francisco) near the tail end of 1968, he started Hunter’s most loved acoustic classic, “Ripple,” writing more and more on the D-18 and also another American Beauty standout that found another Martin—a D-28, Bob Weir says—and its way into the Dead’s acoustic sets in the fall many of the songs that came out of the duo of ’70. That album’s best-known song, during this immensely fruitful period leaned “Truckin’,” also turned up initially in the acousheavily toward folk and country antecedents. tic sets that autumn. By year’s end, however, Among the new Hunter-Garcia songs that found the Dead had dropped their acoustic sets, and their way into the Dead’s still very jammy sets for the next decade, both in the studio and during the middle of 1969 were the dark but onstage, the band was almost exclusively electuneful campfire sing-along “Dire Wolf,” the tric, even as Hunter and Garcia continued to country ballad “High Time,” and “Casey Jones,” tap into folk/country/Americana roots for which, like “Dupree’s,” was the pair’s unique inspiration. (Material from the 1970 acoustic take on a classic American folk story. sets was captured on such archival CDs as By year’s end, they had finished “Uncle Bear’s Choice, Dick’s Picks Vol. 7, Road Trips Vol. John’s Band” and “Black Peter,” and added an 3, No. 3, and Family Dog at the Great Highway, acoustic segment to a few of their shows to San Francisco, April 18, 1970.)

Left to right Grateful Dead, 1971: Jerry Garcia, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Bill Kreutzmann (rear), Keith Godchaux, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh

quickly morphed into the Grateful Dead in late 1965 at the dawn of the psychedelic age, Hunter and Garcia had both played traditional American acoustic music. Garcia, especially, had devoted his every waking moment to learning various folk and blues guitar styles. Then, with his typically obsessive focus, he became a hot five-string-banjo picker for a couple of years. COUNTRY LIVING In his final proto-Dead acoustic group, Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions (which also featured future Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan), Garcia moved back to acoustic guitar—the same 1940 D-18 he’d bought in 1962. According to David Nelson, his bandmate in a few short-lived early ’60s acoustic groups, (as well as co-founder of the country-rock New Riders of the Purple Sage, for which Garcia played pedal steel for two years), that Martin “had been used by some country outfit and had two little holes drilled through the top where one of those old ’50s

AcousticGuitar.com 43

SPECIAL FOCUS ACOUSTIC DEAD

ENTER THE ’80S It wasn’t until 1980, during the group’s celebration of their 15th anniversary, that the Dead fully embraced acoustic music again. Whereas in 1970 the acoustic sets had been largely dominated by Garcia and Weir, with the other band members making more minimal contributions, the 1980 sets were ensemble affairs that included percussionists Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann on every number, then-new keyboardist Brent Mydland adding piano and (on one tune) harpsichord, and Phil Lesh stepping forward in the instrumental mix (on his electric bass). A few of the cover tunes they’d played in 1970 reappeared in the 1980 sets—such as “Deep Elem Blues,” “I’ve Been All Around This World,” and “Dark Hollow”—and there were exciting new choices, too, such as George Jones’ “The Race Is On,” the Memphis Jug Band’s “On the Road Again,” and Elizabeth Cotten’s delicate “Oh, Babe, It Ain’t No Lie.” But the group also took the time to rearrange a number of their electric songs for the acoustic group, such as “China Doll,” “Cassidy,” “It Must Have Been the Roses,” and “Bird Song.” Appropriately enough, every ’80 acoustic set ended on a warm note with “Ripple.” (The full range of the group’s 1980 acoustic repertoire can be found on the exquisite 1981 live release, Reckoning; highly recommended.) By 1980, there was nary a Martin or Guild in sight during the acoustic sets. Instead,

Garcia, who said he never much liked playing acoustic guitars exclusively through microphones onstage because they sounded boomy, feedback-prone, and imprecise, switched to a Takamine F-360 with a built-in piezo pickup. That guitar was closem enough in style to a Martin D-28 that some nicknamed it the “lawsuit dreadnought” (after a false story that Martin had sued Takamine over the similarities). Later, Garcia played a single-cutaway Takamine electro-acoustic. Weir flirted with using a Martin 000-21 with a FRAP (Flat Response Audio Pickup), “but I couldn’t get the feedback down to an acceptable level,” so he went with an Ovation, “which were all the rage for a while. “They’re good guitars, too; they work. That one had a nice, rich, full sound, and it blended nicely with Jerry’s guitar.” Despite the popularity of the 1980 acoustic sets, the group abandoned them once again (and for good) after their New Year’s Eve 1980-81 concert. However, a couple of years after that, Garcia and bassist John Kahn started touring as an acoustic duo between Dead tours, and Bob Weir went out with bassist Rob Wasserman doing acoustic shows across the country. Acoustic music would remain an important part of their lives outside the Dead for the rest of the group’s existence. In addition to his duo with Kahn, Garcia also formed the Jerry Garcia

Acoustic Band in the late ’80s (with his early ’60s folk-scene pals David Nelson and Sandy Rothman), and in the early ’90s he teamed up with mandolinist David Grisman for a number of productive recording sessions and Bay Area concerts. For Garcia’s and Weir’s later live acoustic ventures, both played different-sized custom single-cutaway Alvarez-Yairi guitars with graphite necks, a piezo bridge pickup, and internal mic; in fact, both became Alvarez endorsers. (Alvarez this year released a pair of Grateful Dead tribute guitars.) Weir also brought one of his Alvarez axes into the Grateful Dead mix in their last two years, typically employing it for a song or two at each concert. Weir has continued to champion acoustic music in the two decades since Garcia’s death, even doing a couple of completely solo acoustic tours for the first time, a few years ago. He has a wall of acoustic and electric guitars from nearly every era of his career in his sylvan Marin County A-frame home, and he’ll speak fondly of each of one. They’ve all been part of an amazing journey that, for him, is still rolling along. AG Acoustic Guitar managing editor Blair Jackson is the author of 1999’s Garcia: An American Life and the forthcoming This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead with David Gans.

AMALIE R. ROTHSCHILD

Acoustic set at the Fillmore East, May 1970, left to right: Mickey Hart, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir

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JERRY’S WAY

A LOOK AT THE GRATEFUL DEAD GUITARIST’S INFLUENTIAL ACOUSTIC STYLE BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

he lengthy, imaginative improvised excursions that Jerry Garcia called forth on his electric guitar inspired legions of devoted fans to hit the road with the Grateful Dead during the band’s heyday. While dissertations have been written on this work, Garcia’s acoustic side warrants consideration, too. A highly personal take on all sounds Americana, Garcia’s acoustic guitar can be heard on such Grateful Dead songs as “Uncle John’s Band” and “Ripple,” as well as in Garcia’s music outside the Dead with mandolin virtuoso David Grisman and others. Named after the composer Jerome Kern, Jerome John Garcia was born in San Francisco in 1942 to a musical family. Garcia studied the piano as a child, but having lost most of his right middle finger in a wood-chopping accident at the age of four made playing difficult. It

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wasn’t until he was 15, upon hearing Chuck Berry, that he took up the electric guitar. In the early ’60s, after a brief stint in the Army, Garcia became obsessed with folk music and got into acoustic fingerpicking, then picked up a banjo and dove headlong into bluegrass for a couple of years. In 1964, however, he went back to guitar (mostly) and started the irreverent acoustic group Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions with future Dead members Bob Weir and “Pigpen” McKernan (and a host of others). Those three, with the addition of drummer Bill Kreutzmann and (eventually) Phil Lesh on bass, morphed into the Warlocks, the electric bar band that preceded the Grateful Dead. With its freewheeling approach to musicmaking and life in general, the Dead became the band most emblematic of the hippie era, and

continued to record and tour until Garcia’s untimely death of a heart attack in 1995 at age 53. As one of the primary architects of the Dead’s music, Garcia played a pivitol role in creating the band’s uncanny synthesis of psychedelic folk, blues, country, and jazz, and his electric and acoustic guitar playing has been an influence on legions of jam band lead guitar players, from Phish’s Trey Anastasio to the String Cheese Incident’s Bill Nershi. This lesson feature examines the trademarks of Garcia’s acoustic approach, which incorporates strumming and flatpicking in both accompaniment and lead roles, all imbued with a fair amount of improvisation. In the process, we hope you will gain an appreciation for Garcia’s contributions to American music, as well as some new ideas for your own playing.

SINGLE-NOTE LEAD LINES In an extraordinarily productive single year, 1970, the Grateful Dead released two staggeringly good albums, Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty. These albums showcase a wide range of Garcia’s acoustic lead concepts, and we’ll start by looking at several of his techniques featured on these classic recordings. One of Garcia’s most identifiable lead techniques features a breezily descending series of triadic arpeggios on the top two strings, as heard in the beginning of “Uncle John’s Band,” from Workingman’s Dead. In Ex. 1, a typical Garcia arpeggio lick follows four bars of a syncopated A barre chord. To play the arpeggios, which outline the chord progression A–C#m–D–E, start with your index, middle, and little fingers on the ninth, tenth, and 12th frets, respectively, shifting down to seventh, fifth, and fourth positions for the C#m, D, and E chords. As Garcia would when playing a phrase like this, let each note ring as long as possible. Garcia also often took a more scalar approach embellished with chromatic passing tones, as in his bright single-note solo on “Uncle John’s Band.” Ex. 2 sticks mostly to the A-major scale, with a couple of ascending chromatic passing tones in measures 2 and 5. Notice that the D# note, bridging the D and E notes, imparts a jazzy flavor to the line. Garcia tended to stay in

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one position for a while before moving on to another, so, when playing through this example, keep your fingers in ninth position for the first four measures, then shimmy down to sixth position for the last two bars. Also, Garcia often used articulations like hammer-ons to keep the music from sounding stiff, so to really get inside his sound, be mindful of all the slurs in this example. In addition to arpeggios and scalar passages, like most rock guitarists Garcia often referenced the blues, heard for example, on his soulful lines behind the vocals during “Black Peter” (from Workingman’s Dead). The verse sections of “Black Peter” are based on a I–IV progression (A7–D7) in the key of A major. To play the chordal bit in measure 1 of Ex. 3, barre the seventh fret with your index finger and quickly hammer on to the E and G notes with your middle and ring fingers. In the next measure, move down to fifth position to play the triplet-based fill. Notice the use of descending chromatic passing tones, Eb and G, a Garcia trademark that lends a bit of sophistication to the lick. The move at the end of measure 3 leading into measure 4 might be a little tricky. Fret the G# and E# notes with your middle and ring fingers and slide the shape up while hammering on from the open B string to C with

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COUNTRY STRUMMING & UNUSUAL HARMONIES The country-western-influenced “Dire Wolf ” (from Workingman’s Dead) features Garcia on pedal steel above a bed of strummed acoustics. A close listen to the acoustic parts reveals that different voicings are used to fill out the chords—a smart arranging strategy that Garcia and Grateful Dead co-guitarist Bob Weir often used to stay out of each other’s way. In Ex. 4, the lower part sits squarely in open position and decorates the chords with bass lines, while the upper part sticks to closed-position F-shape voicings embellished with the suspended fourth. While keeping the basic chord shape depressed, add this ornament with your little finger. When you get to the G chord, make sure you barre the top three strings with your index finger; this will allow you to efficiently play the Bb–B hammer-ons in measures 5 and 6. Garcia often used a basic strumming approach to create colorful music. While the acoustic right-hand pattern he played on “Box of Rain” (American Beauty) might not be all that involved, it is harmonically compelling and even

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your index finger, making sure that all the notes of the second chord sound simultaneously—a subtle ornament that captures Garcia’s bluesy side.

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early 1960s, he showed up, banjo in hand, to audition for bluegrass founding father Bill Monroe, but at the last minute lost his nerve. His banjo playing can be heard in the bluegrass band Old & in the Way, which Garcia formed in the ’70s with Peter Rowan and David Grisman, and a bluegrass influence is evident in a number of Grateful Dead tunes, in particular, “Friend of the Devil” (American Beauty), its old-time sound reinforced by Grisman’s mandolin playing. Ex. 6 is inspired by a banjo-like guitar pattern that Garcia used as the foundation of “Friend of the Devil.” Be sure to emphasize the bass notes moving up the G-major scale and downplay the surrounding pitches. Pick each accented note with a downstroke and the two notes that follow with a single upstroke, letting everything ring as long as possible.

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A BLUEGRASS INFLUENCE Garcia was not just a fine guitarist and pedalsteel player, but also a sturdy banjoist. In the

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a bit disorienting. The progression in the first two bars of Ex. 5 toggles between G and C chords, setting up a G-major tonality. In measure 3, the tonic, or home chord, seems to move to C, but the subsequent harmonies—Gm, Dm, Bb, and F—suggest a modulation to F major. This example may be harmonically unusual but it is straightforward to play—use up-and-down strumming throughout, and in the final measure, use assertive downstrokes to play the bass line that will lead back up to a C chord. In the first two measures, keep your ring and little fingers anchored on the sixth and first strings, respectively, and play the C chord by adding your index and middle fingers on the C and E notes.

48 June 2015

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In the instrumental chorus of “Friend of the Devil,” Garcia and Grisman play lead lines simultaneously; Garcia plays in a style indebted to bluegrass flatpicking legends Doc Watson and Clarence White, both of whom influenced Garcia’s acoustic playing. In Ex. 7, just as in Examples 2 and 3, you’ll find chromatic notes that lend spice to the music. There are some frettinghand shifts to be aware of here, too. While the example is largely in open position, it starts off in second (play the notes in measure 1 on frets two, three, and four with your index, ring, and middle fingers, respectively) and climbs back up there in measure 5. Notice also that this example is not crammed full of eighth notes. If you listen to the original recording, you’ll hear how Garcia creates gaps in his solo, so as not to overwhelm Grisman—a good lesson in musical generosity.

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Toward the end of his life, Garcia’s preferences in instruments veered back to the traditional. For Not for Kids Only, a recording he made with David Grisman, Garcia played a 1939 Gibson Super 400N—an ultrarare blond archtop—and used a D-18 and a D-28 as well. —A.P.

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By the early 1980s, Garcia was playing a Takamine F-360, which, rare for the time, had a built-in piezo pickup. He played Takamine acoustic-electrics throughout the 1980s and in 1992 endorsed an Alvarez Yairi DY99 Virtuoso Custom with a Modulus graphite neck.

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While Jerry Garcia cycled through dozens of electric guitars throughout his career— everything from Fender and Gibson solidbodies to a custom-made Doug Irwin instrument—he played only a handful of acoustics. For Workingman’s Dead and the American Beauty sessions, he used a Martin D-18 and a D-28—instruments he also played onstage.

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œ œœ œ œ 10 7 9 7 0

œ œœ œ œ

0

2

0

H

1

1 2 2

2 2 2 2

0

0 2

œ n œœ œ œ

œ œœ œ œ

œ œœ œ œ

10 10 7 7 9 9 7 7 0 0

10 7 9 7 0

10 7 9 7 0

10 7 9 7 0

œ œœ œ œ

œ œœ œ œ 10 7 9 7 0

œ œœ œ œ

E7

œ œœ œ œ

n œœœ œ œ

œœ œ œ œ

œœ œ œ œ

10 10 7 7 9 9 7 7 0 0

9 7 9 7 0

9 7 9 7 0

9 7 9 7 0

1

0

0

œ œœ œ œ

H

œœ œ œ œ

1 2 2

0

0

1 2 2

1 2 2

1

0 2 0

0

1 2 2

0 0 2 2 0

0

œœ œ œ œ

œœ œ œ œ

œœ . œ .. œ œ œ nœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ nœ œ œ . œ

9 7 9 7 0

9 7 9 7 0

9 7 9 7 0

. .

7 9 10

9

7

7 10 7

9 7

10 7

9

. .

A7 Dm œ bœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ # œ œ j œ œ œ ‰ œ œ #œ œ nœ #œ œ nœ #œ œ. œ œ œ œ Ó & b 44 œ œ # œ œ J

Ex. 10

Dm

H

S

B

7

5 6 7

6 8

4 5

4

8 6

7

6 8 6

7

6

7

7

5 6

H

7

5

S

H

6

7

5

6

7

6

7

6

7

AcousticGuitar.com 49

SPECIAL FOCUS ACOUSTIC DEAD

“Ripple,” also from American Beauty, features some rootsy chord work from Garcia in a sort of embellished-chord approach he often used on acoustic guitar. Play through the figure in Ex. 8, letting everything ring as long as possible. Add emphasis to the melody notes, which tend to fall in the odd measures, without playing them too forcefully. If you like, try substituting G and C chords in place of Em and Am. JAZZY STRAINS Due to the improvisatory nature of Garcia’s approach, it should come as no surprise that jazz—a style born of spontaneity—often figured in his playing. “Bird Song,” which Garcia first recorded on his 1972 solo debut, Garcia, and which was long part of the Grateful Dead’s set lists, was influenced by the modal jazz that trumpeter Miles Davis pioneered in the 1950s. In fact, in 1993 Garcia, along with David Grisman, recorded several versions of Davis’ most well-known modal number, “So What,” and also performed it live at a few shows. One of the most salient features of modal jazz is harmonic stasis, and in the verse of “Bird Song,” Garcia hangs out on D7-type chords for

Due to the often improvisatory nature of Garcia’s approach, it’s no surprise that jazz figured in to his playing. long stretches at a time, between vocal phrases, adding licks from the D Mixolydian mode (D E F# G A B C). Ex. 9 shows a similar approach based on the E Mixolydian mode (E F# G# A B C# D). Fret the E7sus4 and E chords with a partial barre at the seventh fret and your ring and little fingers, respectively, on strings two and four; play the single-note lick with your index, ring, and little fingers on the seventh, ninth, and tenth frets. Garcia worked with saxophonist Ornette Coleman on the free-jazz pioneer’s 1988 album Virgin Beauty, but he was also drawn to earlier expressions of jazz, which is evident on the albums he recorded with Grisman in the early 1990s. “Grateful Dawg,” from the duo’s selftitled 1991 debut, sounds in places as if it could

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have been written during the swing era. On this peppy number in the key of A minor, Garcia demonstrates his fluidity in a more traditional jazz context. Ex. 10 is inspired by Garcia’s improvisations on “Grateful Dawg.” The first three measures are based around the D-minorpentatonic scale (D F G A C), dressed up with choice chromatic notes—C# and G#—in measure 1. The second half of measure 3 anticipates the A7 chord in measure 4, flirting with both the major and minor thirds of the chord (C#] and C before landing squarely on the major third on the downbeat of measure 4. The major third is also seen in measure 4 on the and of the fourth beat, where it leads smoothly up to the D note in the last measure. Be sure to play the example using alternate picking, taking things slowly at first and stopping to hear how the notes relate to the chord changes—something that Garcia, in his wide-ranging and thoughtful style, was keenly aware of. While Ex. 10, like all of the other examples, offers a small étude on a particular strain of American music, it also demonstrates the way Garcia used familiar sources to create his own idiosyncratic voice on the acoustic guitar. AG

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58 Basics

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Learn Brazilian bossa nova fundamentals

60 Weekly Workout

The Doors, p. 64 AcousticGuitar.com 57

THE BASICS

Blame It on the Bossa Nova

BY SEAN McGOWAN

Learn the fundamentals of this cool Brazilian style

João Gilberto

and 2, followed by chords on the “ands” of 3 and 4. The second bar is almost a mirror image of the first; chords are placed on the “ands” of beats 1 and 2, while 3 and 4 are squarely on the beat. Try the pattern with and without the tie on the “and” of beat 2 in the second bar. Now play Ex. 3, which combines the bass line and the chords. Be sure to notice when the chords and bass are played simultaneously and separately. Ex. 4 is identical to Ex. 3, but with the bass line moving between the root of the chord (C) and the fifth (G)—again, think Travis picking. A general guideline to bossa nova accompaniment is to play a root-fifth pattern if the root is on the A string, and the root only if it is on the low E string.

t’s so enjoyable to learn and play bossa nova, the relaxed yet complex style of music from Brazil. Bossa nova is a style of music based on the rhythmic language of samba and the harmonies of traditional Brazilian folk music and American jazz. It took America by storm in the 1960s with the release of popular recordings by Antônio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto, and Brasil ’66. At the core of bossa nova is the guitar, traditionally a nylon-string played with fingerstyle technique. This is the gentle engine that keeps the lightly propelling syncopation of the song moving, while defining the harmony with sophisticated chord voicings.

I

PICK-HAND PATTERNS First, explore the use of syncopation with a picking pattern. Bossa-nova guitarists use patterns that emulate a samba drum ensemble. The surdo bass drum plays on the first and third beats. Ex. 1 shows a typical bass line for a C chord, picked with the thumb. It is simply the 58 June 2015

Brazilian guitarists also love the sound of extensions such as ninths, 11ths, and 13ths in their voicings, and rarely play simple open or barre chords. root, or the root and fifth on beats 1 and 3, similar to Travis picking. You’ll later add syncopated chords on top, creating a rhythmic juxtaposition against the simple half-note bass pattern. Ex. 2 shows those syncopated chords to be picked with the fingers (index, middle, and ring). This rhythm can feel a bit tricky at first, so be sure to practice slowly. In the first measure, you have chords placed on beats 1

VARIATIONS & CHORD VOICINGS Examples 5 and 6 illustrate variations from your original pattern. Skilled players improvise freely between these different figures in the context of a song. Ex. 6 uses the same pattern in the key of A, adding open strings. Brazilian guitarists love using open strings in voicings; the Amaj9 and Am13 chords feature the ninth (B) and fifth (E) on the top two open strings, creating a beautifully ringing texture. Brazilian guitarists also love the sound of extensions such as ninths, 11ths, and 13ths in their voicings, and rarely play simple open or barre chords. Ex. 7 features a progression that illustrates the use of extensions in chords. Instead of just playing a C to D progression in the first four bars, you can play Cmaj9 and D9 to color the sound. The progression concludes with a Dm9– G13–G7 # 5 cadence back to C6/9, another sound favored by bossa-nova guitarists. The G13 to G7#5 is a classic jazz-guitar move, with color added by a quick shift from C6/9 up to Db6/9 before resolving to a Cmaj9#11 chord at the end. AG Sean McGowan (seanmcgowanguitar.com) is a jazz guitarist based in Denver, where he directs the guitar program at the University of Colorado.

Ex. 1

Ex. 2

C maj9 x 2143 x

& 44 ˙ B

˙

˙

3

˙

3

3

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3

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‰ œœ ˙ œ

3 4 2

3 4 2

3

j j œœ œœ œœ œ œ˙ œ

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3 4 2

3 4 2

3 4 2

3

3

Ex. 5

j œœ œœ œ œ

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3 4 2

3 4 2

3 4 2

3 4 2

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3 4 2

3 4 2

j j œœ œœ œœ œ œ˙ œ 3 4 2

x0 34 00

j œœ œœ œ˙ œ

j œœ œ 3 2 2

j œœ œœ œ œ ˙

3 2 2

3

3 2 2

3 2 2

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3

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C maj9

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3 4 2

3

A m9

A m13 x0 34 00

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0

0

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6 fr.

j j .. .. # # œœœœ œœœœ ‰ œœœœ ‰ œœœœ n n œœœœ ˙ ˙ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . . 06 06 6 6 5 6 6 5 . . 60 6

Ex. 7

j œœ œœ œ œ ˙

3 4 2

3

3

A maj9

j œ œ œ . ‰ œœ ‰ œœœ & . œœ œœ ˙ ˙ 3 3 . 32 32 2 2 2 2 . 23 2 B 3

œœœ œœœ .. œ œ ˙ 0 0 . 5 4 .

0 0 5 4

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D9

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D m9

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3

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j œœ œœ ‰ œœ ‰ œœ # ˙œ œ œ œ ˙

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5 5 4 5

3

x 2113

j œœ œœ # œœj œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ ˙

n œœ œ˙

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3

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1 x 234 x

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C 69

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j œœ œœ ‰ œœ œœ & n œ˙ œ œ œ ˙ B

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Ex. 6

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B

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Ex. 4

Ex. 3

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x 2113 x

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n n #n wwww w 2 3 4 2 3

AcousticGuitar.com 59

WEEKLY WORKOUT

Open-D Fingerpicking

BY PETE MADSEN

Simple patterns allow for infinite possibilities

To get into open D (low to high: D A D F# A D), begin by tuning your sixth string down a whole step, to D from E. Leave your fourth and fifth strings alone, as these notes (A) and (D) are members of a D chord. Tune your third string down a half step, to F # from G, and your second string down a whole step, to A from B. End by tuning your first string down to D from E, so that it’s two octaves higher than the sixth string. Your open strings are now tuned to a D chord.

f you’re new to fingerpicking, or just brushing up, it can be advantageous to learn the technique in an alternate tuning such as open D, allowing you to pay special attention to your pick hand. As the open strings are tuned to a chord, D major, it’s possible for you to play satisfying music without even using your fret hand. Then, once you get the hang of playing a simple fingerpicking pattern, you can add all sorts of cool ideas using scale tones, double stops, pull-offs, and other embellishments.

I

Tuning: D A D F#A D Week 1 Ex. 1

# & # 44

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60 June 2015

p

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i

Ex. 3

WEEK ONE In this lesson you’ll be picking the strings 6–4 with your thumb (p) and strings 3, 2, and 1 with, respectively, your index, middle, and ring fingers. Ex. 1—a simple alternating bass pattern, played in octaves on the open strings 6 and 4— uses the thumb exclusively. The bass pattern is essential to keeping a steady downbeat rhythm, so tap your foot and make sure you count in quarter notes.

0 0

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5

0

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0 0

j j œ œ

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Tuning: D A D F#A D Week 1 AfterEx. you’ve you 1 established the bass pattern, Ex. 2

WEEK TWO Ex. 3 Once you’ve become comfortable with playing can add melodic notes on the higher strings. In the D Mixolydian mode in a fingerpicking Ex. 2 you’ll play treble notes between the bass pattern, you’ll be ready to add a harmonized notes—in Ex. 3, treble and bass notes simultaline. In Ex. 7, that mode is played on strings 1 neously on each beat. Ex. 4 is a common fingerand 2 in major and minor thirds. The fret hand picking pattern that combines the rhythmic is more involved in this example. Your first ideas in the previous two examples. Next, run through the D Mixolydian mode ifinger will m be your aguide on m the first a string. m The i p 1, as p shown p in Ex. 5. p p p note forpeach pair of p thirds p will p second-string (D E F G A B C)pon string 0 0 or third be fretted with either your second In Ex. 6, this pitch collection is plugged into 0 0 0 the fingerpicking pattern from Example 4. 0finger; be sure to follow the fingerings indi- 0 0 above the staff. 0 0 cated Go slowly, making sure0that your bass0 notes are falling squarely 0on the downbeats. In the begin0 0 0 0 0 WEEK THREE ning, it might be useful to use only one finger to fret the notes of the mode as you focus Ex. on 6 In Ex. 8, your fret hand will be even busier, as it Ex. 5 adds a pull-off on the first beat of each measure. the fingerpicking. Not only does this provide a cool-sounding lick, The term pull-off is a bit in conjunction with the alternating bass pattern, the abundance of ringing Ds makes for a nice, of a misnomer, as the fat sound. I find the term pull-off to be a bit of a physical action is more misnomer, as the actual physical action is more like pull-down-and-off. When learning pull-offs, like pull-down-and-off. 0 2 4 5 7 9 10 12 0 0 2 2 4 0 0

# & # 44

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AcousticGuitar.com 61

WEEKLY WORKOUT

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TIP 3

Jump around the scale tones in a random fashion, but maintain the fingerpicking pattern.

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BEGINNERS’

TIP 4

Use pull-offs and slides between the two treble strings; these slurs will add textural interest to your playing.

many players simply lift a finger off the string, which produces a weak tone. If you pull down and then off, you get a much fuller sound from the pulled-off note.

ALL THE TIPS AND TECHNIQUES TO UNPLUG YOUR ROCK AND ROLL

WEEK FOUR Now, build on what you’ve learned in the previous examples, adding some double stops as well as a couple of quick changes through some of the harmonized thirds. In each of the first four bars of Ex. 9, alternate between playing a double stop and using a pull-off. Also, in the first four bars, ascend the fretboard, while in the second four you’ll descend. In bar 5, jump up to the ninth and tenth frets and play descending double stops on each successive beat. In bar 6, after you do another pull-off lick, descend through some more double stops as you progress down to the open strings. Try to keep a good balance between the sound of the bass and treble strings, especially when playing the double stops—some players have the unfortunate tendency to over-pick the strings. There are plenty of other fingerpicking ideas to explore using any open tuning—so many licks and phrases based on different scales and approaches. You can also add a bottleneck slide into the mix. Using a simple picking pattern will allow you to explore an infinite number of melodic and harmonic possibilities. AG

store.AcousticGuitar.com

Pete Madsen is an AG contributing editor.

Rock On. Ten Great Rock Strumming Patterns

ACOUSTIC ROCK ESSENTIALS

Add ten popular rock rhythms (and their variations) to your strumming vocabulary. n

n

Strumming patterns based on music by the Beatles, Coldplay, the Strokes, Buddy Holly, and more Tips for finding the right rhythm patterns for your own songs

By Andrew DuBrock Includes 16 minutes of video

Acoustic Rock Essentials

62 June 2015

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D7

ACOUSTIC CLASSIC

Let’s Swim to the Moon The Doors’ ‘Moonlight Drive’ takes you on a dark and mysterious journey

The Doors

BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

oonlight Drive” is one of the Doors’ earliest songs, written before the group was even assembled. But it didn’t appear on an album until the group’s sophomore effort, Strange Days, in 1967. This bluesy song is driven by Ray Manzarek’s piano and Robbie Krieger’s electric-guitar riffs, including a smart slide solo. But as you’ll see here, it translates nicely into an arrangement for acoustic guitar (check out the acoustic-guitar version on James Lee Stanley and Cliff Eberhardt’s 2011 album All Wood and Doors, which featured Krieger, Laurence Juber, Paul Barrere, and others).

“M

The song kicks off in the key of G major with a piano riff that’s reinforced by bass guitar on the first beat of each measure, as well as the “and” of 4. An approximation of this part is shown here in notation. Play it either fingerstyle or with hybrid picking, and if you’d like, shift the dyads on strings 1 and 3 to 2 and 4. For example, on beat 3, play the notes G and E at frets 6 and 5 on strings 4 and 2, respectively. While this might be more demanding of the fretting fingers, it makes it easier to cop the rhythmic bounce heard on the original recording.

Intro

MOONLIGHT DRIVE

G7

33xx00000011

G7

3 x0 0 0 1

A7

Whichever approach you choose, you can use the same riff for the G7 portions of the verse, and where you see a D7 symbol, try improvising variations on a basic down-and-up strum in steady eighth notes. After the first verse, the song modulates up a whole step, to the key of A major, where it remains until the end. Here, you can play the A7 chords with the basic open grip shown in the group of four chord frames, or you can use the two-bar repeating pattern that’s indicated in the notation. Either way, play along with the recording to get the proper rhythmic groove. AG

WORDS AND MUSIC BY THE DOORS

. Riff for A7 Bars n œ œ. # œ 44. j .. œ . œ œ A ‰ j œ œ œ ‰ j G D 7 xx A 7 E 7 xx xx & # nœ œ n œ œ œ œRiff . . Intro forœ A D A E & 44 œj .. œ n œœ œ ‰œœj œ œ œ ‰ œj .. .. # œœ œj œœ . œ j œ . .. œ œ œ œ G7 A7 . . # 4 j . œ œ ‰ j nœ œ ‰ j . . #œ E7 . .0 . œ & 4 œ . . œ nœ œ œ .0 . œ œ 1 œ œ . . œ œ . 0 3 .0 . B 0 2 0 0 0 0 . 3 B 1 0 . 0 3 00 . . 2 0 2 0 0 0 . . 2 . 3 Intro 0 Guit G7

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A7

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1. Let's swim to the moon uh huh

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A7

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D7

64 June 2015

2

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Let’s climb Guitar Solo (12-bar blues in A) thru the tide Moonlight drive A7

Penetrate the evenin’ that the

Intro

You A7 reach a hand to hold me

D7 A7 But I can’t be your guide # 4 j . œ œ. ‰ j n œ œ. ‰ j . . # œ œ . A7 . . œ j œ . A7 œœ j œœ .. .. E7 œ & 4 œ . œ nœ œ œ œ Come on baby gonna take a little rid œ œ œ œ 3. worlds œ swim Let’s Let’s climb through the that œto the moon Easy I love you as I watch glide It’stide our turn to try Surrender to the waiting Down you down by the oceanside

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Let's swim to the moon uhswim huh out tonight Let’s Let’s loveclimb through the tide

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G7

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©1967 (RENEWED) DOORS MUSIC CO. USED BY PERMISSION OF ALFRED MUSIC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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. Baby gonna drown tonight to. On holdour memoonlight drive baby Goin’ down down down

And no time to decide But I can’t be your guide Moonlight drive Guitar Solo (12-bar blues in A) Let's swim to the moon uh huh E7 A7

Let’s swim out tonight love A7 2. It’s our turn to try

A 7 We’ve stepped into a riverEasy I love you as I watch you glide

Outro D7 tide A7 A7 Let’s climb through the A7 7 E 7 our moonlight D7 Parked beside the ocean On driveA7 Falling through wet forests Come on baby gonna take a little ride t's swim to the moon uh huh Surrender to the waiting worlds that Down down by the oceanside A7 On our moonlight drive babyget real close On our moonlight drive Gonna 3. Let’s swim to the moon t’s climb through the tide Lap against our side Get real tight Moonlight drive A7 Baby gonna drown tonight E7 Let’s climb thru the tide netrate the evenin’2.thatLet's the swim to the moon uh huh Nothin’ left open Goin’ down down down Outro You reach a hand to hold me y sleeps to hide Let’s climb through the Andtide no time to decide A7 G7

7

Come on baby gonna take a little ride A7 But I can’t be your guide t’s swim out tonight loveSurrender to the waiting worlds that We’ve stepped into a river Down down by the oceanside

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Supplying Luthiers and All Types of Musical Easy I love you as I watch you glide Lap against our side On our moonlight drive Get real tight Instrument Makers Around the World Since 1980 A7 Baby gonna drown tonight E7

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7

rked beside the ocean Nothin’ left open

n our moonlight drive

And no time to decide A7

We’ve stepped into a river t's swim to the moon uh huh

On our moonlight drive t’s climb through the tide

rrender to the waiting worlds that

p against our side

7

othin’ left open

Falling through wet forests Goin’ down down down

On ourCo. moonlight drive baby Masecraft Supply is your source for a wide selection of both natural Moonlight drive and synthetic inlay materials including a variety of shell, pre-cut shell inlays, Outro and shell laminates, bone, horn, A7 reconstituted stone slabs, decorative acrylics andbaby gonna take a little Come on polyesters, alternative Down down by the oceanside ivory, casein, rigid composite laminates Gonna get real close including carbon fiber, Get real tight G10, canvas, linen, and Baby gonna drown tonight paper micarta.

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n our moonlight drive AcousticGuitar.com 65

SONGBOOK

TODD WOLFSON

The ‘Ruffians’ Rhythm Ray Wylie Hubbard’s ‘Stone Blind Horses’ is a textbook song BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

n the surface, Ray Wylie Hubbard’s guitar on “Stone Blind Horses,” from his new album, The Ruffian’s Misfortune (Bordello), might not seem particularly striking. But upon closer listening, the accompaniment on this song and elsewhere on the new album is teeming with the sort of details that make it a textbook example of great rhythm work. The song finds Hubbard making the most out of five simple open chords—Am, C, G, D, and Em, which, due to a capo at the second fret, sound a major higher (Bm, D, A, E, and F#m, respectively) than fingered and written. Glance

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through the chords before you dive in to the song. Note that on the C grip, wrapping your thumb around the neck to fret the chord’s fifth (the third-fret G) will add fullness to the sound, but if this feels too awkward, you can just play the C chord in the more standard way, omitting the sixth string. Throughout the song, Hubbard’s strumming is both relaxed and in the pocket, meaning the strums fall in exactly the right places without seeming mechanical. A good strategy for accomplishing a feel like this is to add open-string strums before chord

changes, so that the act of switching grips doesn’t disrupt the timing. This approach is depicted in the accompaniment pattern heard in the verse and harmonica solo. Another benefit of strumming the open strings is that they add a subtle hint of color to the proceedings. Adding rolls to select chords— articulating them with a single downstroke in such a way that you can quickly hear the individual notes, lowest to highest, one pitch at a time—also adds vibrancy. Try this technique where you see the squiggly vertical lines in the notation. AG

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14-05-04 2:08 PM

STONE BLIND HORSES

WORDS AND MUSIC BY RAY WYLIE HUBBARD

Accompaniment Pattern

Chords, Capo II

Am

Am

C

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Em

C

* ≥ = down; ≤ = up

Am

C

G

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0 1 0 2 3

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D

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3

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2

. .

Harmonica Solo (use verse progression)

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1. There are some saints that have been forgotten Em G

C

Like most of my drunken prayers Am

C

G

D

They say there’s a heaven it’s somewhere above the yonder Em

G

3. The high slurred whistle of a red-winged blackbird Sounds like he’s singin’ oh that I might die It’s a song for those who have fallen Unrepentant and with no more alibis

C

Where there’s no more crosses to bear 2. And there’s ghosts all along the highways And there’s storms out on the sea My only hope is somewhere in that heaven Someone says a prayer for me

Repeat Chorus Outro G

D

Em

C

Hey sweet Genevieve say a prayer for me G

D

And the wild young cowboys old drunks Chorus G

C D

G

The paramours the thieves

C

I’ve been ridin’ stone blind horses ©2015 WYLIEWORLD MUSIC USED BY PERMISSION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

G

D

C

Never seen a reason to believe G

D

Em

C

Hey sweet Genevieve say a prayer for me G

D

And the wild young cowboys old drunks C

The paramours the thieves

AcousticGuitar.com 67

SONGBOOK

Bound for ‘Shady Grove’ Learn Jerry Garcia’s unique approach to this popular folk classic BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

he late Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead had a deep connection to rootsy idioms, as is particularly apparent in the work he recorded with mandolinist David Grisman. Case in point is “Shady Grove,” the title track from the posthumous 1996 compilation recorded between 1990 and 1993. “Shady Grove” is an 18th century folk song that’s made its way into the bluegrass repertoire, having been interpreted by luminaries like Doc Watson and Bill Monroe. Garcia flatpicks in this mode, with lightly attacked but propulsive chord work during the verses and mandolin solos, and more prominent single-note lines during his three guitar solos. Use the first four measures of Verse 1 (bars 20–23) as a loose guide for approaching the accompaniment throughout the song, playing all downstrokes except on the “ands” of beats. Garcia’s three solos form a neat arch. The outer two stick to the open position, making

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good use of the open strings, while the second one ventures up to the middle of the fretboard to generate excitement. The guitarist approaches these passages like a skilled jazz musician, not plugging in pet licks to the i–VII (Dm–C) progression but spinning compelling variations on the original melody. The odd or perhaps inadvertent note choice here and there—like the B n bar 57 that conflicts with the song’s D Dorian (D E F G A B C) tonality, or the F over the Dm chord in 107— are the sort of details, defying textbook explanation, that you might find in a classic bebop solo. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to learn the solos note-for-note, slowly at first, until you can play them at the song’s brisk tempo. But better yet, get the solos under your fingers—and in your ears—so that you can use them as springboards for your own explorations. AG

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SHADY GROVE

TRADITIONAL, ARRANGED BY JERRY GARCIA

Intro

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70 June 2015

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AcousticGuitar.com 71

ACOUSTIC CLASSIC

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2. I wish I had a banjo string Made of golden twine Every tune I’d play on it I wish that girl was mine Shady Grove my little love Shady Grove I know Shady Grove my little love I’m bound for Shady Grove

5. Every night when I go home My wife I try to please her The more I try the worse she gets Damned if I don’t leave her Shady Grove my little love Shady Grove I know Shady Grove my little love I’m bound for Shady Grove

3. I wish I had a needle and thread Fine as I could sew I’d sew that pretty girl to my side And down the road I’d go Shady Grove my little love Shady Grove I know Shady Grove my little love I’m bound for Shady Grove

6. Shady Grove my little love Shady Grove my little darlin’ Shady Grove my little love I’m going back to Harlan Shady Grove my little love Shady Grove I know Shady Grove my little love I’m bound for Shady Grove

4. Some come here to fiddle and dance Some come here to tarry Some come here to fiddle and dance I come here to marry Shady Grove my little love Shady Grove I know Shady Grove my little love I’m bound for Shady Grove

72 June 2015

2

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Makers & Shakers Meet Dick Boak, Martin’s archivist

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Not Fade Away English builder Alister Atkin re-creates Buddy Holly’s iconic 1943 Gibson J-45 for Paul McCartney

Above Commissioned by the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation, Paul McCartney’s Atkin J-45 boasts a faux ‘leather cover’ painted by Andy Howe.

BY MARC GREILSAMER

uddy Holly’s “banner” Gibson J-45, factory order number 907-31, remains one of the most iconic fretted instruments of the past century. This past October, a replica of this legendary instrument landed in the hands of another icon, Paul McCartney, courtesy of English luthier Alister Atkin and the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation. About five years ago, the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation (formerly the Buddy Holly Guitar Foundation) embarked on a massive replica project focused around Holly’s original guitar. Luthier Rick Turner, who’d done repair work on the original in 1990 (and salvaged 18 of its frets), created the first replica of the series, “Rave On,” which was given to Graham Nash. The foundation, with the help of founding board member and “banner-era” Gibson expert John Thomas, then recruited a handful of acclaimed guitar builders to continue the mission, including Howard Klepper, Mick Johnson, Daniel Roberts, and Tony Klassen.

B

74 June 2015

“Because of Buddy’s popularity in the UK and the foundation’s recruitment of UK-based ‘ambassadors’ like Sir Paul [who owns Holly’s song catalog], Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Pete Townshend, and Brian May, I wanted to recruit a UK-based luthier to build some of the foundation’s guitars,” Thomas explains. “In selecting luthiers, I based my decision on the luthier’s reputation in the custom-guitar community, the luthier’s interest in vintage-styled instruments, and my overall [feeling] about the luthier’s fit with the foundation’s goals. Alister Atkin was a perfect and easy choice given these selection criteria.” Atkin had already spent many years studying banner Gibsons, so when the Foundation first approached him, he was “sure we could do it justice.” Unlike the other replicas, which boast leather covers in honor of the one Holly had hand-tooled himself on the original, Atkin’s McCartney model (called “That’ll Be the Day”) took a different route. “When we built Paul’s

guitar,” Atkin explains, “we decided that it would be wise to re-create the leather cover in paint, because of his involvement with animal rights. So, I worked with an artist friend of mine called Andy Howe, and we managed to get the feel and look of the original cover, I think.” McCartney’s left-handed version boasts a mahogany top and even mahogany bracing on the top and back. “I had hit upon this combo a couple of years ago and was blown away by how well mahogany works for top bracing,” Atkin notes. “You can build it nice and thin because it’s so strong. Now we use it on some of our spruce tops, too. People are amazed how good it sounds.” Through the foundation, Atkin has also created replicas for Albert Lee and Dolly Parton, among others. What’s more, thanks to the positive response his Holly replicas have gotten, Atkin decided to permanently add the banner-era J-45-inspired Forty Three line to his Historic Series. “One of the biggest things that

4 FAMOUS BANNER J-45 PLAYERS jumps out at me when playing and working on those old guitars,” he says, “is that they are in no way perfect, but if you get a good one it oozes personality, and that’s what we are aiming to achieve.” Made from 1942 through 1945, Gibson’s World War II-era “banner” flattops (named in honor of their headstock emblazoning) are considered among the finest acoustics ever made. Though no “official” record exists—Gibson was supposed to have been making war materials— Thomas says more than 9,000 “banner” Gibsons swere produced, mostly by young Michigan

women who’d stepped in for Gibson employees who went off to war. Holly’s original “banner” J-45, which, based on its order number, was probably started in late 1942 and shipped in early 1943, might well be the most revered “banner” Gibson of them all— not bad for $75, which is what it cost Holly when he found it in a Lubbock, Texas, pawnshop. “Encrusted in dead animal skin and sporting decades-old, sticky strings,” Thomas writes in his 2013 book about banner-era Gibsons, Kalamazoo Gals, “this guitar may have the best bass response of any guitar that I’ve ever encountered.”

GREG BROWN

SKIP JAMES

Martin’s Ed Sheeran X

MARTIN UNVEILS SECOND ED SHEERAN SIGNATURE MODEL Back in 2013, C.F. Martin & Co. and singersongwriter Ed Sheeran collaborated on a signature model, the LX1E Ed Sheeran Signature Edition. Production of that special guitar was limited to 4,000 units, and it sold out worldwide in just four months. This year, the company has revealed a second Sheeran collaboration, the Ed Sheeran X Signature Edition, and once again, Sheeran is donating 100 percent of his sales royalties to East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (each.org.uk), a UK-based charity in his hometown that provides care and support for young people with life-threatening conditions. By the time the new model was released in February, Martin had already booked orders for 7,000 instruments. Like its predecessor, the new model is 0-size, with 14 frets clear of the body, a 23-inch scale length, and Fishman Isys T pickup system. However, the just-released Ed Sheeran X Signature Edition will feature an entirely new wood

combination: solid spruce top with laminated koa back and sides, and laminated birch neck, as opposed to the original’s sapele top with “jett black” laminated back and sides and stratabond neck. Also of note: Instead of the “+” (plus) sign that graced the first model’s headstock, the new model will feature an “x” (multiply; the title of his most recent album) sign on the headstock, along with an inlaid koa “x” on the guitar’s top. “I’ve had the chance to bring the new model on the road with me already,” Sheeran says, “and I’m excited that my fans will be able to purchase one of their own, with all the proceeds going to EACH, a charity very close to my heart.” Adds EACH chief executive Graham Butland, “Not only will the guitar raise much-needed funds for the charity, but it will also greatly raise the profile of EACH and the vital care and support we provide to life-threatened children, young people and their families.” —M.G.

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AcousticGuitar.com 75

SHOPTALK

TAKAMINE DECLARES ITS INDEPENDENCE In 1959, a modest family-operated guitar workshop opened for business in Sakashita, Japan, in the shadow of Mount Takamine. Three years later, Takamine Gakki Ltd. was officially born, and over the course of the next 50 years, Takamine Guitars established a sterling reputation in the acoustic-guitar community, most notably for its fine acoustic-electric models. It looks like 2015 is shaping up to be one of the most significant years in the company’s history. Takamine has recently announced a major “reconfiguration” of its global-distribution strategy, finally terminating its relationship with Fender Musical Instrument Corporation (FMIC). Takamine is a fully independent brand once again and will now work with more than 30 distributors internationally—ending what the company calls “a massive journey to free itself” from Fender’s clutches.

For distribution in the United States, Takamine will be partnering with the electricfocused ESP Guitar Company. “The new agreement between ESP and Takamine allows ESP to offer one of the world’s most respected acoustic guitar brands to our dealers and customers, and gives Takamine the kind of sales distribution and marketing support that this fine brand merits,” says Matt Masciandaro, ESP’s president and CEO. In terms of Canadian distribution, Takamine will be working with B & J Music, its former partner under the KMC Music umbrella and now a division of JAM Industries. In February, FMIC sold KMC Music’s wholesale distribution business (including B & J Music) and other proprietary brands to JAM Industries. Not long before, Fender had announced the sale of KMC’s Ovation guitar brand (as well as a number of its percussion brands) to Drum Workshop as it continues to focus on its own brand. —M.G.

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MAKERS & SHAKERS

History Detective

Archivist Dick Boak serves as the institutional memory of C. F. Martin & Co. BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

n the mid-1970s, Dick Boak had the habit of cruising into the town of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and rummaging through the dumpsters behind the Martin Guitar headquarters. He stuffed the back of his yellow 1969 Ford Mustang with discarded portions of rosewood, ebony, and spruce, which he would use for making furniture and fretted instruments. Boak made no secret of gathering these materials, and one day, when a foreman asked him what he was doing with the wood, he retrieved a pair of his instruments from the car and handed them over. The foreman then disappeared into the factory, where the head of the company, C.F. Martin III, happened to be milling about. Suitably impressed by Boak’s eccentric creations—a mandolin-guitar and a drone banjo with a doorknob for a tuning machine—Martin told the foreman to have Boak apply for a job. In those days, with his long, unruly hair and ragged clothes, Boak wasn’t exactly poised to be a job applicant. Yet he wandered into the front office and tossed his hat into the ring. “I brushed the dirt off my clothes and straightened myself up as much as I could. The receptionist said, ‘I don’t think we have anything open for you, but we do have one opening for design drafting.’ I managed to speak to someone in personnel, though, and showed him some of my work. He asked if I could start the next day, but I told him I couldn’t because I had to go to a Dylan concert. I started the day after that.” Boak is in his mid-60s now. Sporting buttonfront shirts, unwrinkled slacks, and orderly white hair, his outward appearance suggests a Baby Boomer’s renunciation of an iconoclastic past. But the unorthodoxy of his youth has resounded continuously in his work at Martin over the last four decades. From drafting new model designs to managing the company’s museum and archives, Boak has approached his work with boundless creativity. “Trespassing does not always turn out so well for folks, but it was a fortuitous event for Martin,” Steve McCreary, general manager at Collings Guitars, says of Boak. “His kindness, 78 June 2015

JOEY LUSTERMAN

I

Dick Boak: C.F. Martin’s historian-in-residence

originality, talent, and ability to work with everyone have long been his trademarks, and he’s helped Martin Guitar remain a thriving company in a big way.” Ren Ferguson, vice president of R&D and manufacturing for Guild Guitars, amplifies McCreary’s assessment of his friend. “He’s continuously pushed forward the envelope at Martin, taking things to new levels all the time. And he’s been such a loyal and supportive friend to so many luthiers in the guitar-building community.” DUAL DOMINANCE Boak’s entree into music and woodworking happened early. He became enamored with rock ’n’ roll at the age of six, when Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” was released, in 1956. Later, he taught himself guitar by playing along with Beatles records. He also took up the autoharp—

a family Christmas present that had been neglected by his three brothers, and an instrument he still plays today. “I’m, in fact, working on an album right now with a modern instrument that’s light years beyond the old Oscar Schmidt,” Boak says of the autoharp. One Christmas, Boak’s father, a skilled woodworker, set up a basement shop with separate workbenches for his sons, and this is where Dick first got into lutherie. “Around the age of 12, I started making little instruments out of the balsa wood I could buy at a hobby shop,” he recalls. “I obviously didn’t know what I was doing. There weren’t any books, and if you approached someone who knew how to make guitars for advice, you’d get turned away because of guarding secrets.” In one frightening childhood episode, Boak punctured his right eye while flicking the metal bristles that had fallen off a street cleaner. He

was lucky to recover from this injury, which could’ve easily caused him to lose sight in the eye, but he acknowledges that his accident actually benefitted his professional life. “Poorer sight in my right eye forced me to work in very close proximity to my drawings and, more important, to study objects with an almost neurotic obsession for detail,” he says. He also speculates that the injury helped him achieve dual dominance, an equally analytical and creative mind. After he graduated from Blair Academy in 1968, Boak set off for Gettysburg College, a liberal arts school in Pennsylvania, where he became a self-described “instantaneous hippie” and immersed himself in the “whole Timothy Leary thing.” He started as an English major but quickly took to the visual arts. In his junior year, when his father refused to continue financing his higher education unless he got a haircut, Boak dropped out—but not before completing a provocative conceptual art project. “Inspired by a Franz Kafka story, I built a cage,” he says, “a living sculpture that I occupied on campus for three days until it was unceremoniously dismantled by fraternity boys.” Upon exiting college, Boak rambled for a bit. He lived in communal situations on the Eastern seaboard, working crappy odd jobs while illustrating on the side. He drove cross-country and settled in the Morningstar Commune, in rural Sonoma County, north of San Francisco. “It was the utopian dream,” he says. “I was living with a bunch of hippies and building dwellings and domes while enjoying my most fruitful period as an illustrator.” In 1973, Boak returned to the East Coast and made a go as a lathe turner, luthier, and performing artist. At the same time, he slid into a teaching position at the Stowe School, a boarding academy in Vermont. “Because of my prolific illustrating, I was given an exhibition there,” he remembers. “At the time, the art teacher was having a terrible time relating to the hippie students, and since the school saw I had an immediate connection to the students, they offered me a job. I really loved this reentry into society.” EARLY DAYS AT MARTIN Boak thrived in his first year at Martin, drafting models in the factory by day and working late into the night at home on his own experimental guitars, including eight- and nine-string models. But then, suddenly, he was fired. “Martin brought in an engineer who didn’t know much about guitars to be my boss,” he says. “I was working on drawing the components for Vega banjos when he came over and said, ‘I want you to move this braze joint over there.’ I argued that it would break. He said it wouldn’t, and I reluctantly changed the drawing. Then I went to the personnel manager and let them know the company was about to waste tens of thousands of dollars. The next

morning, the boss handed me an empty box and said, ‘You don’t go over my head.’ I just cried, having lost this dream job.” After he was canned, Boak completed a large pen-and-ink drawing of Martin’s venerable D-28 and published a limited-edition collection of guitar prints. He signed and framed one for C.F. Martin III, with the inscription, “Please consider this my reapplication for employment,” and delivered it in person to the factory. Martin was as delighted by the gift as he was dismayed by Boak’s dismissal, not having been told of the situation. And so the next day, Boak was back at work. “The company had been unionized, and workers were on strike,” he recalls. “I returned as a scab, gluing on bridges and shaping necks while trying to avoid my former boss.” On the strength of his drafting and guitarmaking experience, Boak was soon asked to submit design ideas for a line of electric Martin guitars. He sketched hundreds of different variations of body, headstock, and neck styles, and with a complete run of the machine shop, he went to work on prototypes of solid-body guitars and basses. It was then that his ex-boss reappeared, modifying Boak’s original designs in lamentable ways. “He saw my sculpted and ergonomic creations and said it was all ridiculous, and he just destroyed my project,” Boak says. “I almost came to blows with him.” In 1978, Boak was reappointed to the 1833 Shop in order to avoid further contentious episodes. The small factory gift boutique sold such wares as Martin t-shirts, belt buckles, and key chains. Under Boak’s watch, the shop began offering guitar kits with woods that might have otherwise been relegated to the dumpsters. Sales grew tenfold in just a few years. Around that same time, Boak’s nemesis got his comeuppance. “Quality control started seeing many broken banjo rims from the project I’d gotten fired for,” Boak explains. “This time, it was the ex-boss who had to pack his box.”

Building an 8-String Ebony Acoustic, 1980.

NEGATIVITY DON’T PULL YOU THROUGH In 2000, inspired by the photographic negatives he scoured on a light table in the Martin Guitar archives, Dick Boak designed the Negative Guitar: a black D-28 with white pickguard, herringbone purfling, white Micarta fretboard, and black tuners. The limited-edition black-and-white model was specially designed for Acoustic Guitar’s 10th anniversary: One was given to AG reader Clarence “Leo” Roehl, the other resides in our office. When the giveaway was announced in the magazine, Bob Dylan saw an image of the Negative Guitar and asked Martin to build one for him. Boak phoned AG for approval . . . er, yeah, Bob Dylan can have one, he was told. —Greg Cahill AcousticGuitar.com 79

MAKERS AND SHAKERS

TO BOLDLY GO . . . As the 1833 Shop continued to thrive, Boak was offered a chance to start a new shop in Martin’s old North Street factory, where it had produced instruments between 1859 and 1964. On the first floor of the factory, Boak opened Woodworker’s Dream, a retail space for the exotic timbers that Martin had been importing, as well as for guitar-making kits and components. Given his success in that venture, Boak was able to seize another opportunity. “I was appointed as the head of Martin’s wood products division and put in charge of running the sawmill and the acquisition of all of Martin’s woods,” he says. “I’m not sure how qualified I was, but I got to be a wood expert and even began writing for woodworking magazines.” In 1985, Boak landed a position with Martin— director of advertising—that he’d long coveted, one that pushed him in an entirely different direction. In that role, he was instrumental in creating such memorable campaigns as the NASA-themed “To Boldly Go” ad that introduced the Backpacker guitar in the early 1990s.

“I dove right into that job,” he says. “Agencies that we’d worked with didn’t really have a good handle on what Martin was all about, so I fired them. I also started attending the NAMM shows, for which I was in charge of designing the trade-show booths. I got to know pretty much everybody in the entire industry, establishing many close friendships outside of business in the process.” After Eric Clapton played a 1939 Martin 000-42 and a 1966 Martin 000-28 with 45-style appointments on a 1992 episode of MTV’s Unplugged, Boak started fielding a lot of inquiries about these long-out-of-production guitars. He convinced Martin to run a series of Clapton signature models, but not everyone was sold on the idea. “A sales manager canvassed the dealers without mentioning that it was an Eric Clapton edition, and the response [for this $8,000 guitar] was negative,” Boak says. “But we made 461 of them, a reference to the album 461 Ocean Boulevard. And when they all sold in two hours at the 1995 winter NAMM show, I joked that I wish we’d made 4,061 instead!”

After the success of the initial Clapton models, Boak was reappointed as Martin’s director of artist and public relations, where he spearheaded other signature editions, including replicas of guitars played by Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson. Martin now had more than 150 models. “Some very compelling stories came out of these collaborations with some of the greatest artists of our time,” says Boak, adding that the yarns are collected in his book Martin Guitar Masterpieces. When luthier Mike Longworth, Martin’s longtime staff historian, passed away in 2003, Boak eventually shifted to his current position as director of museum and archives, special projects. In the process, Boak has pored over about 500,000 documents and images, including those he recently discovered in the attic of the North Street factory wrapped in burlap and covered with ancient Brazilian rosewood sawdust. “It’s been a huge task,” Boak says. “And I’m happy to say that the archives of what is arguably one of the greatest companies in the US, if not the world, is now starting to tell a complete story.” AG

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80 June 2015

NEW GEAR Custom engraved pickguards

The Bard’s Guitar The vintage-inspired Gibson Bob Dylan SJ-200 Player’s Edition boasts an outstanding voice BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

ven if Gibson’s Bob Dylan SJ-200 Player’s Edition hadn’t been designed in collaboration with the iconic singer-songwriter, it’d still be a special guitar. The instrument, which underwent a lengthy design process, is deeply resonant and has a rather commanding voice— brawny and bright, but not overly so. Its thick, round bass notes are particularly impressive, and natural harmonics all about the neck, even the notoriously weak ones at the fourth and ninth frets, ring vividly and clearly.

E

CLASSIC DESIGNS The SJ-200/J-200 has been Gibson’s premier flattop since its introduction, in 1937 (the J stands for jumbo and the S for super). The model was called SJ-200 until the early 1950s, after which it was simply labeled J-200— possibly to distinguish it from Gibson’s dreadnought-sized Southern Jumbo line, a very different guitar with its own decorative style. Starting in the 1990s, reissues made with ornamentation closer to the earlier model were labeled SJ-200, and since then Gibson has produced both SJ-200 and J-200 models that 82 June 2015

Adirondack spruce top

are extremely similar, with only subtle cosmetic differences. Such players as Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page, George Harrison, and Neil Young have favored this large-bodied guitar for its excellent presence onstage and in studios. Bob Dylan has owned a handful of Gibson jumbos, including one he purportedly received from Harrison, which is seen on the cover of Dylan’s 1969 album Nashville Skyline. And Dylan played a different SJ-200 when he performed acoustic numbers at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival’s Contemporary Songs Workshop (the same year as his infamous gone-electric controversy). With its twin pickguards, that version is the inspiration for this new creation. The Player’s Edition includes many of the same specs you’d find on a vintage example. As opposed to the Sitka spruce currently used on Gibson’s standard SJ-200, the soundboard is made from Adirondack spruce—the species found on most golden-era guitars, prized for its strength, stiffness, and tonal brilliance. The back and sides are made from AAA figured maple, and the set used on the review model is

VIDEO REVIEW ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM/GEAR

Maple neck with rosewood fretboard

Dylan eye logo on headstock

BODY Adirondack spruce top with scalloped X bracing

AT A GLANCE

GIBSON BOB DYLAN SJ-200 PLAYER’S EDITION

AAA flamed maple back and sides

NECK Maple neck with rosewood stringer

EXTRAS Gibson light strings (.012–.053)

Rosewood fretboard

L.R. Baggs Anthem electronics

25.5-inch scale length

Certificate of authenticity

1.725-inch bone nut

Custom Shop hard-shell case

Gold Gotoh 15:1 tuners

PRICE $6,448 list; $4,999 street

Rosewood “mustache” bridge Custom engraved pickguards Dylan eye logo on headstock Vintage sunburst finish (nitrocellulose lacquer)

perfectly book-matched, with the flames running uninterruptedly across the back. The guitar also sports the details historically found on a super jumbo: compound dovetail neck joint, adhered with hide glue; the distinctive, mustache-shaped rosewood bridge, inlaid with mother-of-pearl shapes; and an L-5–style scroll at the upper end of the fretboard. Nitpicking for sure, but it would have been nice for the neck to have been studded with vintage-correct tortoise side dots, rather than black dots. Then there are the details unique to this signature edition. Silkscreened on the headstock is Dylan’s eye logo, whose meaning is still open to interpretation. The fretboard is embellished with what Gibson calls Bella Voce inlays, the floral shapes of which depart from the crown motifs on most jumbo examples vintage and new. TOP-NOTCH BUILD The review model is beautifully built, to say the least. The handsome Vintage Sunburst finish, which appears not just on the soundboard but on the neck, back, and sides as well, is evenly applied, ranging in color from a rich, dark

Nitrocellulose lacquer finish

brown to a warm amber; the guitar’s clear coat of nitrocellulose lacquer is applied thinly and without any apparent flaws. The fretwork is impeccable, the nut and saddle are perfectly cut, and the guitar’s innards betray no sloppiness. The Player’s Edition is as impressive to look at as it is to play. Its C-shaped neck profile is on the slim side, accommodating of barre chords and speedy runs alike. At 1.725 inches, the nut is a hint wider than Gibson’s standard of 1.6875 inches, giving the fretting fingers ample space while not discouraging the thumb-fretted chord shapes sometimes impossible on a wider nut. It felt only natural to play Dylan fare on the Player’s Edition, and the guitar sounded so robust when I strummed the main chord progression to “Lay Lady Lay.” It also responded well to “Girl from the North Country,” both the version in G that Dylan recorded with Johnny Cash (on Nashville Skyline) and the earlier solo version, capoed at the third fret, from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. In other words, the guitar works just as well for strumming as it does for

Made in the United States gibson.com

fingerpicking, and that’s definitely not always the case with such a large instrument. Having recently heard the adventurous guitarist Nels Cline use a 1962 J-200 in a series of duets with the young jazz wizard Julian Lage, I also played through a few standards in a fake book, adding a little free improvisation as well. The guitar performed well in this context, thanks to its evenness of tone, not to mention its detail and clarity—a sound that’s nicely preserved when the guitar, with its L.R. Baggs Anthem electronics system, is plugged into a Fender Acoustasonic amplifier. At about $5,000 street, the Bob Dylan SJ-200 Player’s Edition might be a bargain relative to the Autographed Collector’s Edition, which costs twice as much, but it will no doubt have a limited audience. For those with the means, the instrument is an excellent choice for the performing or recording guitarist—and an absolute treat for the diehard Bob Dylan fan. AG Contributing editor Adam Perlmutter transcribes, arranges, and engraves music for numerous publications. AcousticGuitar.com 83

NEW GEAR

Listen to the Sustainability Bedell’s tasty Blackbird Vegan parlor guitar offers a lot to feel good about BY ADAM LEVY

regon-based Bedell Guitars recently introduced its new Blackbird series, with dreadnought, orchestra, and parlor models available. All three are built entirely from trees ethically harvested in the Unites States and are vegan-friendly—utilizing no animal products (no bone nut and saddle, no hide glue, no seashell inlays). If you’re passionate about the fate of our forests and the well-being of all creatures, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more conscientiously crafted line of instruments. You don’t need to know the Blackbirds’ righteous backstory, of course, to appreciate their robust tones, excellent craftsmanship, and sleek “black burst” finish, but it is rare to find an instrument that can give you a warm, fuzzy feeling before you even pick it up and play it.

O

AT A GLANCE

BEDELL BLACKBIRD VEGAN PARLOR

MARRIAGE OF SUBSTANCE AND STYLE The petite 12-fret parlor model, with its lapfriendly dimensions, will appeal to fingerstylists, troubadours, and old-timey blues players. The moderate string spacing (nut width is 1 11/16 inches) accommodates chording and single-note playing with equal ease. The parlor’s neck profile is comfortably curved—not unlike those found on Gibson acoustics from the mid- to late-’60s. The tonality of the Blackbird is balanced, with burnished upper frequencies, salty-sweet mids, and a focused bottom end. Open-position chords sound harmonically rich and complex, with clear string-to-string definition. This quality is even more pronounced when jazzier voicings are played up the neck. The smallish frets are expertly finished.

BODY 12-fret parlor size

NECK Eastern hard-rock maple

Salvaged Sitka spruce top

Walnut fretboard and peghead overlay

Western big-leaf maple back and sides

Some modern-minded players may find the parlor’s 12-fret neck limiting, but on the upside, there’s not a bum note to be found anywhere on the walnut fretboard. The smoky look of the Blackbird parlor is nicely matched to its voice. Bedell’s unique “black burst” finish showcases the tonewoods (Sitka spruce top, big-leaf maple back and sides) in ways you’ve never seen. Imagine taking a photograph of your favorite sunburst acoustic, then processing the pic with a sepiatone filter. That’s what the Blackbird looks like in real life. Among the noteworthy nitty-gritty here: brass dot inlays and position markers (instead of abalone), an all-wood rosette, and open-gear Waverly tuners.

EXTRAS D’Addario EXP16 coated phosphor-bronze strings (.012–.053) Bedell deluxe hard-shell case

TUSQ nut and saddle Limited lifetime warranty

Nitrocellulose finish (gloss top, semi-gloss back and sides) over a translucent black burst

25-inch scale length 111/16-inch nut width Nickel Waverly open-gear tuners

ELECTRONICS K&K Pure Mini pickup system 84 June 2015

PRICE $2,490 list Made in the USA (only the TUSQ is Canadian made). bedellguitars.com

VIDEO REVIEW ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM/GEAR

Western big-leaf maple back

Intimate Peformances and Insightful Conversations with Today’s Top Guitarists

SETH AVETT AND THIS BIRD CAN SING While the parlor-size Blackbird is louder, acoustically, than you might expect from such a diminutive guitar, most performance situations require amplification. No sweat—the Blackbird comes factory equipped with an excellent K&K Pure Mini pickup system. The Pure Mini offers no built-in controls for volume or tone, but its dynamic, mic-like signal is easy to shape via your favorite outboard preamp and/or at the mixing console. Another quality that helps make the parlor a stage-friendly guitar is that it balances evenly in the hands. Whether you’re a sit-down or stand-up player, you’ll have no trouble cradling the parlor in playing position. It’s also lightweight, which can make a real difference to your neck and shoulders on longer gigs. Parlor guitars, generally, are designed with a particular musical attitude in mind. Most such models aren’t likely to suit every player or every idiom (see the “Parlor Pickin’” feature on page 26). That said, the Bedell Blackbird Vegan parlor guitar is remarkably versatile. On top of that, it’s handsome to behold and eco-friendly. Perhaps black is the new green. AG Adam Levy is an itinerant guitarist based in Los Angeles, where he is the chair of the guitar dept. at Los Angeles College of Music. His guitar work has appeared on recordings by Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman, Amos Lee, and Ani DiFranco, among others. You can read more of Levy’s writing and hear his music at adamlevy.com.

ERIC BIBB

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FIRST AID KIT

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NEW GEAR

Boutique Inspired, Budget Priced Mitchell’s affordable new Element Series has much to offer the entry-level player BY ADAM PERLMUTTER

Download 21 Songwriting Tips from the Masters and you’ll learn to write better songs with advice from from Pete Seeger, Joni Mitchell, Jakob Dylan, Elvis Costello, and more! SONGWRITING BASICS FOR GUITARISTS

21 SONGWRITING TIPS FROM THE MASTERS Ex. 1a

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TWEAK THE CHORDS. “It’s amazing how much cooler it gets when you change one note in a chord,” Sean Watkins once said in a conversation with his thenband mates in Nickel Creek. His guitar parts often use modal chords (with no third) and suspensions that add a nice openness to the sound. Check out the differences between Examples 1a and 1b, and between Examples 2a and 2b, to hear how a one-finger change in a chord makes a big impact.

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UNCHAIN THE MELODY. An insight about chords and melodies from a young David Wilcox—interviewed 20 years ago—still rings true for me. “I learned from listening to James Taylor that you don’t want your melody to be the root of the chord,” Wilcox said. “You want the melody to be an interesting note in the chord. And if you have a given melody note, there are different chords that go with it, so pick one where the melody is a fifth or a seventh or a third or a ninth, but not the tonic.” To make this concrete, take a look at Examples 3a and 3b (play the same accompaniment—shown in Example 3a—for both examples). Notice that in Example 3a the melody notes are the same as the roots of the chords, while in Example 3b the melody is shifted onto other notes. In this version, the melody lifts free of the chords and has much more impact.

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SONGWRITING BASICS FOR GUITARISTS • 21 Songwriting Tips from the Masters

Songwriting Basics for Guitarists.

store.AcousticGuitar.com

86 June 2015

2

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s the prices of high-end, US-made acoustic guitars head toward the stratosphere—you can expect to pay around $10,000 for an instrument with Brazilian rosewood back and sides— Asian-built budget instruments are enjoying great gains in craftsmanship while becoming even more affordable. Case in point is Mitchell Guitars’ new Element Series. The ME1, a noncutaway dreadnought, and its counterpart, the ME2CEC, a cutaway dreadnought with Fishman electronics, each sell for well under $500, and with solid soundboards, they certainly pack a lot of bang for the buck. The ME1 and ME2CEC share similar cosmetics but have different tonewood configurations. The ME1 is made with a spruce top and sapele back and sides, while the ME2CEC features a red cedar top and Indian rosewood back and sides. (The ME1 spruce/sapele combo is also available in a cutaway acoustic-electric dreadnought, the ME1CE, and in a cutaway acoustic-electric auditorium, the ME1ACE.) The soundboards of both guitars incorporate a shifted scalloped-X bracing pattern and open-pore satin finishes, each said to enhance resonance and projection. These smart-looking guitars have some boutique-style appointments as well. Wrapping their bodies and necks is flamed maple binding, instead of the customary plastic. Other appealing touches include small, left-justified fretboard position markers in abalone, rosewood headstock cap, and ebonite keys. Overall, both instruments display decent craftsmanship. The fretwork is clean, with just a hint of jaggedness at the edges; the NuBone nut and compensated saddle are well notched. However, there’s some sloppiness in the finer details: You can find a bit of sawdust and glue

A

3

traces populating the innards, and the bridge on the ME1 could’ve been more carefully sanded and glued. Weighing in at around four pounds, each of the Mitchells is comfortable to hold. Their slim C-shaped necks have low, easy action and feel very playable in all regions, though just a tad stiff. (They probably just need a little breaking in.)

These new models are far superior to the budget guitars of the past. Neither guitar can be considered a cannon. When strummed, the ME1 has a fair amount of projection, though the low-E string buzzes when really pushed. With decent note separation and a respectable balance between registers, the guitar responds well to stylistic approaches from Carter strumming to swinginspired soloing. The ME2CEC boasts a stronger voice than its companion. It sounds warmer and more complex, and it doesn’t suffer from the buzzing sixth string. It, too, has reasonable clarity and balance—attributes that translate well when plugged in, thanks to the onboard Fishman INK 3 preamp system, with its three-band EQ. Far superior to the budget guitars of the past, both the ME1 and the ME2CEC might serve as worthy beginner guitars, though given their credible playability and sound, they might also be appropriate for more-skilled but frugal players. AG

Mitchell ME1

AT A GLANCE

MITCHELL ME1

BODY Dreadnought body

NECK Mahogany neck

Solid spruce top

Rosewood fretboard

Sapele back and sides

25.5-inch scale length

Rosewood bridge

111/16-inch bone nut

Mitchell ME2CEC

EXTRAS D’Addario EJ11 80/20 Bronze Light strings (.012–.053) PRICE $599 list; $299 street Made in China mitchellguitars.com

Chrome die-cast tuners with ebonite keys

AT A GLANCE

MITCHELL ME2CEC

BODY Dreadnought body

NECK Mahogany neck

EXTRAS D’Addario EJ11 80/20 Bronze Light strings (.012–.053)

Cutaway solid red-cedar top

Rosewood fretboard

Indian rosewood back and sides

25.5-inch scale length

Rosewood bridge

111/16-inch bone nut

PRICE $799 list; $399 street

Chrome die-cast tuners tuners with ebonite keys

Made in China mitchellguitars.com

Fishman INK 3 electronics

AcousticGuitar.com 87

VIDEO REVIEW ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM/GEAR

PICKIN’

AT A GLANCE

LARRIVÉE UB-40 BARITONE UKULELE BODY Mahogany soundboard Mahogany back (arched) and sides Sitka spruce bracing Maple binding Rope marquetry purfling and rosette Ebony bridge Bone nut and saddle Acrylic satin finish NECK Mahogany neck Ebony fretboard with maple binding Ebony head plate with inlaid logo Dovetail neck joint Grover tuners Acrylic satin finish EXTRAS D’addario EJ87B Titanium Strings (.028, .033, .030W, .035W) PRICE $1,200 list; $900 street Made in the USA larrivee.com

88 June 2015

Small Wonder Jean Larrivée and company jump back in the ukulele game

BY MARC GREILSAMER

bout 20 years ago, Jean Larrivée found a sweet spot in the Japanese market for highend ukuleles, and by his own estimation, his company produced “several thousand” of the four-stringed instruments. However, when demand softened in the early 2000s, Larrivée left the uke behind in favor of other projects. Today, the demand for high-end ukes is stronger than it’s been in years, and so Larrivée has decided to re-enter the market in full force, with four new uke models (soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone) joining the company’s Legacy Series of instruments. After years of tooling development (accompanied by rampant rumors of a return to the uke field), the company began production of its new line of ukes late last year, basically deciding to start from scratch. Completely re-designed from what they’ve done in the past, the new ukes feature what Larrivée calls “more of a traditional American design.” “We wanted to create a line of ukuleles that didn’t suffer from ‘ukulele-itis,’” Jean Larrivée explains. “So many ukuleles that are out there on the market have body shapes that look squished and malformed. We wanted to create ours to look more like a miniature guitar—specifically like a mix between our parlor and 000 bodies—and we think the result is exactly that.”

A

GUITARISTS WELCOME The all-mahogany UB-40 baritone ukulele— tuned DGBE—is an ideal transitional instrument for guitar players who want to explore the tonal possibilities of the uke while retaining some of the feel and sound of their six-stringed instruments. In fact, the dark, brooding tone of the baritone displays little of the “tinkle” that most ukuleles have. Thanks largely to its allmahogany construction, the instrument is most successful projecting the midrange, while the

copper-wound D and G strings help support the low end. High-end tones, in contrast, are a bit muted and dusky, especially when engaging in open-position strumming, although the use of titanium for the B and E strings helps mitigate that issue. (The model also is available with a spruce top, which would help even further to project the upper register; an all-koa version will also be available in limited numbers.) Though open-position strumming may not be its ideal function, the mahogany UB-40 excels as you move higher up the neck. Intricate chord melodies take on an elegance and refinement that’s often hard to find in the ukulele world, and jazz voicings reveal a warmth and grace that will delight the ears. In the end, this instrument may get a tad lost in a spirited hapa-haole ensemble, but it’s absolutely ideal for solo jazz and classical readings, thanks to its sophisticated and stylish tone. In terms of craftsmanship, the uke delivers the level of quality and care for which Larrivée is already well known as a guitar maker. The soundboards and arched backs are individually planed and voiced using AAA woods, and the hand-fit dovetail neck joint is superior. The ebony fingerboard is a joy to play, and the ultrathin acrylic satin finish feels like a dream. Cosmetically, the uke is tasteful and understated, thanks to the handmade rope marquetry purfling and rosette, flamed maple binding, and ebony headstock cap. Though many ukulele enthusiasts will often dismiss the baritone size as “nothing more than a small guitar,” Larrivée has turned that notion on its head, instead relishing the similarities the uke shares with its six-string cousin. For guitarists who wish to join (or can’t escape) the current wave of uke mania, Larrivée’s UB-40 makes for a safe landing area—and, perhaps, a cure for ukulele-itis. AG

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his beautiful parlor guitar was built by the Washburn Company circa 1900. It was custom-ordered by Col. John Hancock III, great-grandson of founding father John Hancock. The instrument represents a purely American craft that departs from European ideals of beauty and construction. The delicately intertwining lines in the rosette are made of pearl, ebony, and red and green wood marquetry and are based on designs found in ancient Apache pottery that was excavated in the Southwest at the turn of the last century. The inlays in the headstock, fingerboard, and rosette were custom-made at the Washburn factory in Chicago, not acquired through European vendors. The White Rose is a large-bodied guitar for its era, with a lower bout that’s 14 inches wide and a scale length of 25 inches. It features a spruce top, a mahogany neck, and Brazilian rosewood back and sides. The fingerboard is inlaid with copper and pearl, and the rose vine design dates back to the Roman Empire. Although most American guitar manufacturers did not begin building steel-strings until the early 1900s, Washburn was already doing so by 1880. To handle the added tension of the steel strings, Washburn included a metal-reinforced truss rod, a bolstered X-brace, and a fortified Durkee patented bridge. These innovative constructions would have a profound influence on the playability, tone, and soul of American guitars for a century to come. AG

COURTESY OF HANK RISAN, WASHINGTON STREET MUSIC

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90 June 2015

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Playlist Tom Brosseau’s ‘Perfect Abandon’

93

Playlist Sufjan Stevens amps up the gloom

95

Stage Rock Bottom Remainders return

PLAYLIST

MIXED MEDIA

Sufjan Stevens p.93 AcousticGuitar.com 91

CAREY BRASWELL

PLAYLIST

Great Plain Tom Brosseau’s strange and evocative new album finds depth in its simplicity

Tom Brosseau Perfect Abandon Crossbill / Tin Angel

BY MARC GREILSAMER

here’s always a bit of pressure around creating something that will be able to reach the stretches of land beyond your domain,” North Dakota native Tom Brosseau recently told AG. “You want to be able to write something that enables other people to look through it.” To a certain extent, that statement illustrates what makes Brosseau’s songs so engaging—they are deeply personal tales that manage to, well, reach far beyond his own domain. Brosseau’s latest, Perfect Abandon, is chock-full of these penetrating tunes. Produced by John Parish and made in Bristol, England, the album was recorded directly to one mic, with Brosseau’s acoustic steel-string enhanced by David Butler’s two-piece drum kit, Joe Carvell’s double bass, Parish’s organ, and Ben Re y n o l d s ’ S t r a t o c a s t e r c o l o r i n g s . T h e unadorned musical backdrop allows these

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92 June 2015

songs of love and loneliness to truly shine through, Brosseau’s fragile, slightly unsteady voice leading the way. The opening “Hard Luck Boy” does well to set the mood: This peculiar talking blues, about being abandoned by his mother at a department store, somehow ropes you into its crooked emotional landscape. “Landlord Jackie,” an odd, rambling reflection about a former place of dwelling, deftly balances colorful details about a particular time in his life with the kind of existential musings that always seem to be percolating in Brosseau’s brain. Backed only by his own gentle acoustic flatpicking, the enchanting “Island in the Prairie Sea” is a stark and arresting meditation on adoration and isolation distinguished by its vivid lyrical imagery. Best of all is the brooding closing song, “The Wholesome Pillars.” With its ghostly organ creeping underneath, the tune

recalls in some ways the sounds coming from early-’60s Greenwich Village. “Keepin’ on the bright side may be the best for you, like many others here, can be hard to do,” he warbles. “One little dark thought to enter your domain will build an empire if given sun and rain.” A spiritual anthem on barbiturates, this track will haunt you long after it’s ended. No matter how unassuming the veneer might be at times, there’s no doubt a woozy undercurrent of tension, if not dread, that permeates this striking, shambling album. Brosseau’s delicate and disarming singing style is hard to resist, and his songwriting has never been more powerful—intensely moving, full of humor and pathos, plainly direct in some places, twisting and wandering in others. It all makes for a compelling little journey through the back roads of his psyche, and very likely through the alleyways of your own.

BLUEGRASS CLIPPINGS 6 ESSENTIAL TRACKS

Pharis & Jason Romero

Sufjan Stevens

A Wanderer I’ll Stay Lula

Carrie & Lowell Asthmatic Kitty

Folk duo delivers handcrafted duets that mix tradition with modernity Hailing from the hamlet of Horsefly, British Columbia, Pharis and Jason Romero spin a web of restlessness, loneliness, and discovery on A Wanderer I’ll Stay, their third collection of duets. With a mixture of instruments both vintage and new—the couple builds banjos for their family business in their woodland workshop—the Romeros entwine rough-hewn tradition with cut-crystal modernity in a dance so tightly coiled, it’s impossible to distinguish their rustic originals from antique covers. Jason’s percolating J. Romero banjo is tethered to the railway rhythms of Pharis’ 1943 Gibson J-45 on “Ballad of Old Bill,” a cantering air that balances regret with the relief of letting go. The cold bite of the final line, “I believe in the natural way of man, oh kill or he be killed,” jostles the tune’s gentle uplift. On “There’s No Companion,” Pharis’ lyrics mine the tension between down-home storytelling and trenchant observation. “There’s no companion like the misery of an unfilled desire,” she sings, as smooth as the current of a stony brook, while Josh Rabie’s fiddle wheels overhead. The Romeros aren’t always balancing backporch intimacy with a mordant outlook. On “Backstep Indi,” Jason takes his heirloom gourd banjo for a solo spin, celebrating his daughter’s first steps with an effervescent do-si-do. When Pharis and Jason jump-start the Alan Lomax field recording “Goodbye Old Paint,” the rejuvenated ramble soars like wind scouring the pine tops. And the closing Civil War-era lament, “The Dying Soldier,” releases the tension gathered in this collection with harmonies as sturdy as wrought-iron scroll work, and as delicate as lace. —Pat Moran

Far-ranging folkie pares down his sound and amps up the gloom There’s a moment on Sufjan Stevens’ new album, during the fourth track, “Drawn to the Blood,” where he sounds like he’s about to give up, his strumming so delicate that you strain to hear his acoustic guitar over his pained falsetto as he warbles, “What did I do to deserve this now?” The ambitious Brooklyn artist—who toyed with weird electronics on 2010’s The Age of Adz—returns to stripped-down bedroom folk for his seventh album, Carrie & Lowell, a sober meditation in the wake of his mother’s death. His mother (Carrie) abandoned the family when Stevens was an infant, but came back into his life when he was five, during her brief marriage to his stepfather, Lowell Brams (Stevens’ steadfast parent figure and the cofounder of his label, Asthmatic Kitty). The 11 songs on Carrie & Lowell are informed by Stevens’ longing to mourn a parent he barely knew and whose demons—depression, addiction, schizophrenia—haunt him in his grief. Opener “Death with Dignity” kicks off with bright, lilting fingerpicking, but the simple melody gains a gauzy texture from Stevens’ double-tracked vocals and builds into a hymnlike pedal-steel outro. Stevens continues to play with juxtaposition throughout the album, pairing fragile acoustic guitar with ethereal synths and mournful piano on “Should Have Known Better” and folding ominous atmospherics into the second half of “All of Me Wants All of You.” The spare arrangements elevate Stevens’ startlingly raw and personal lyrics—the weightiest of his career. If it all sounds dramatic and melancholy, well, it is, but it never feels sentimental or indulgent. When music is this beautiful, it’s worth the pain. —Whitney Phaneuf

1. PIG IN A PEN Haven’t heard enough of Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings of late? You’ll squeal with delight (sorry, couldn’t resist that pun) as they team up with country legend Dr. Ralph Stanley on his hit duet album Ralph Stanley & Friends: Man of Constant Sorrow (Cracker Barrel). 2. BIG RIVER ROLL Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver serve up a bluegrass master class on this frisky track from In Session (Mountain Home), which lives up to its admittedly corny subtitle: 33 Strings + 6 Pickers + 6 Voices = Reading, ’Riting & Rhythm. It all adds up. 3. 99 YEARS FOR ONE DARK DAY Robert Earl Keen lends a Western swing vibe and bluegrass icon Peter Rowan picks a storm on this standout from Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions (Dualtone), maybe the best bluegrass album of 2015 so far. 4. THAT’S WHAT MAKES THE BLUEGRASS BLUE Singer Rhonda Vincent joins Nu-Blu on this mid-tempo lover’s lament from All the Way (Rural Rhythm). Love the title. 5. LONG HARD ROAD Dobro dominates this opening track from country-star Alan Jackson’s The Bluegrass Album, still riding high on the charts after 80 weeks—hmmm, do you think the world was ready for an Alan Jackson bluegrass album? 6. JULEP “Heaven’s a julep on the porch,” the Punch Brothers croon on this languid made-for-summer ballad from their lushly produced album The Phosphorescent Blues (Nonesuch). Drink deeply. —Greg Cahill AcousticGuitar.com 93

PLAYLIST

Charlie Parr Stumpjumper Red House

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Heartland folk-bluesman cuts to the core of the new American Dust Bowl Charlie Parr is steeped in the roots of the heartland. Raised amid stockyards and soybean fields in the Hormel meat-packing town of Austin, Minnesota (where Spam is manufactured), this gifted singer, songwriter, and folk-blues picker has his finger on the pulse of Old Weird America. Stumpjumper, his Red House debut and first album with a full band, delivers ten originals and a cover of the murder ballad “Delia.” Switching between acoustic guitar, Dobro, and banjo, Parr lays down mesmerizing, trance-like tracks that bring to mind the bluesman Otis Taylor and the fire-and-brimstone of 16 Horsepower (“Resurrection”). But there’s a gentleness to these performances, spiked as they are with simple hooks, dark ruminations on life and death, stiletto slide guitar, and foot stomps.

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Influenced by Charley Patton, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Blind Willie McTell, Spider John Koerner, and Lead Belly, Parr has aligned himself over the years with Low, Trampled by Turtles, and other fiercely independent bands that cropped up in the progressive-bluegrass scene of Duluth. For Stumpjumper, he traveled outside his Minnesota home to record with Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger) in North Carolina, setting up in an old outbuilding at Down Yonder Farm, and that locale informs the spirited, freewheeling nature of the album. Parr is a folk artist for the new American Dust Bowl, a resonator-ready troubadour armed with a well-worn satchel of troubled tales that cut to the heart of a nation mired in fear and in dire need of a roots-music revival. —G.C.

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t felt so good to the bookish fans crowded in a ballroom at the University of Arizona in Tucson to hear the reunited Rock Bottom Remainders do what they do best, when they’re not writing bestsellers: play always rousing, if not boldly off-tune, renditions of classic oldies, with the caveat that whatever they cover has three chords or fewer. Which explains their choice of Van Morrison’s classic “Gloria” as the finale. Advised Pulitzer Prize-winning Dave Barry, co-lead guitar and a Remainders veteran, before the March 13 gig at the Tucson Festival of Books—and by way of explaining why simpler is better—“If you throw a guitar on the ground, it’ll play ‘Gloria’ by itself.” Renowned for self-deprecating marketing— “We pride ourselves on our mediocrity,” said Barry—the band is equally famous for the spirit of just plain fun its literate musicians bring to the stage. “We play with abandon,” Barry adds. “We have no clue if we’re good or bad.” Granted, for the most part, acoustic was not the style of choice for the star-studded band members on stage that evening, who between them have sold more than 350 million books: Barry, Ridley Pearson, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom, Greg Iles, Scott Turow, and early Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel, who noted, “I told

I

Dave I didn’t play or sing and he said I’d do just fine.” But the real guitarist of the enthusiastic lot is acoustic man Greg Iles, the other co-lead guitarist, who thrilled with the bluesy “I’m a Big Best Seller, Baby.” Author of Natchez Burning and the just-released sequel, The Bone Tree, Iles cut his teeth in a “real band,” Frankly Scarlet, and he’s a proud owner of two handmade Lance McCollum guitars. “I know what it’s like to work your ass off, loading and unloading equipment. This is a wonderful experience. You can pretend you’ve made it,” said Iles, adding that full-time rocking would’ve been a fine career choice. It’s the love from the audience that excites, he said, “a feedback opiate loop” of instant gratification that the lonely craft of writing lacks. Literary alumni have included Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver, Roy Blount Jr., Greil Marcus, and Matt Groening, to name a few. Al Kooper once served as “rock star in residence.” Formed in 1992 and on hiatus since 2012, the year founder Kathy Kamen Goldmark died, the Remainders will probably pack it up for good now, said manager Ted Habte-Gabr. They go out on a sweet note, receiving the festival’s Founders Award for the $2.6 million their impassioned musical abandon has raised over the years for literacy programs. AG

4/9/15 3:39 PM

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ADVERTISER INDEX Acoustic Guitar Guides, store.acousticguitar.com . . . . . . 80, 86

Gibson, gibson.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

The Music Emporium, themusicemporium.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Acoustic Guitar Sessions, acousticguitar.com/sessions . . . . 85

Guitar Center, guitarcenter.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

P.K. Thompson Guitars, pkthompsonguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . 65

Acoustic Guitar Subscribe, acousticguitar.com/subscribe . . 89

Guitar Intensives, guitarintensives.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Acoustic Image, acousticimg.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Guitar Workshop Plus, guitarworkshopplus.com . . . . . . . . . . 40

Alvarez, alvarezguitars.com.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Guitars in the Classroom, guitarsintheclassroom.org . . . . . . 95

Bourgeois Guitars, pantheonguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Hill Guitar Company, hillguitar.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

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

Homespun, homespun.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Collings Guitars, collingsguitars.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Ibanez Guitars, ibanez.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

D’Addario & Company, daddario.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30, 31

Steven Kaufman Enterprises, Inc., flatpik.com . . . . . . . . 50, 68

Janet Davis Acoustic Music, jdmc.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Kyser Musical Products, kysermusical.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Elixir Strings, elixirstrings.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, 8

Luthier Music Corp., luthiermusic.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Elliott Capos, elliottcapos.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

C.F. Martin & Co., Inc., martinguitar.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Ernie Ball Music Man, ernieball.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Masecraft Supply Co., masecraftsupply.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Sweetwater Sound, sweetwater.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

G7th, Ltd., g7th.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Memphis Acoustic Guitar Festival, memphisguitarfest.com 56

Yamaha Corporation of America, yamaha.com . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Paul Reed Smith, prsguitars.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Radial Engineering, radialeng.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

RainSong Graphite Guitars, rainsong.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Original Guitar Chair, originalguitarchair.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Red House Records, redhouserecords.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Saga Musical Instruments, sagamusic.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Shubb Capos, shubb.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Stewart-MacDonald’s Guitar Supply, stewmac.com . . . . . . 68

The Swannanoa Gathering, swangathering.com . . . . . . . . . . 68

AcousticGuitar.com 97

FINAL NOTE

THERE HAVE BEEN OCCASIONS WHERE I’VE WANTED PARTS TO DO DIFFERENT THINGS THAT WERE IMPOSSIBLE. AND THEN YOU HAVE TO DELIBERATE, ‘SHOULD I REALLY DO THIS?’ AND THE ANSWER IS, ‘YEAH, OF COURSE, IF YOU CAN DO IT; THE MUSIC IS WHAT COUNTS.’ JOHN RENBOURN (1944-2015), ACOUSTIC GUITAR, MARCH 2007

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.

98 June 2015

Handcrafted. Limited Edition. Yamaha’s high acclaimed A-Series acoustic-electric line now has new limited models in the mix. All models feature the familiar fast and comfortable neck profiles, cutting edge S.R.T. (Studio Response Technology) preamp systems and stage-ready good looks. The new A6 & AC6 models are handcrafted in Japan and feature nitrocellulose finishes and hi-grade all-solid tone materials. The A3R, AC3R, A1R and AC1R models are now available in a stunning Translucent Black finish. These new Yamaha A-Series guitars are all available for a very limited time. Get them while you can…

©2015 Yamaha Corporation of America. All rights reserved.

www.4wrd.it/ASERIES2AG

signature edition Contact your Authorized Martin Dealer to order yours today!

Introducing Ed Sheeran X Signature Edition | Designed in collaboration with award-winning artist Ed Sheeran, this Signature Edition Little Martin® features platinum-selling album’s logo inlayed in solid koa on a solid spruce wood top. For every guitar sold, all of Ed’s proceeds will be donated to the East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices. www.each.org.uk | edsheeran.com

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