Acoustic Guitar 276.pdf
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DECEMBER 2015 | ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM
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CONTENTS
56Pierre Bensusan
Making DADGAD his own
By Karen Peterson
58Sarah McQuaid
DADGAD in the UK
a comfort zone
By Karen Peterson
60Daithi Sproule
Magically Irish
By Karen Peterson
10From the Home Office
96Marketplace
97Ad Index
December 2015
Volume 26, No. 6, Issue 276
On the Cover
McPherson Guitars
Manhattan Skyline
Artist: Eric Pelton
The custom-built Manhattan Skyline
is a full-size McPherson featuring an
Adirondack Red Spruce top fit into
a curly Brazilian Rosewood back
and sides. Master luthier Eric Pelton
adorns the deco-style back art with
hand-cut and inlaid pieces depicting
the Manhattan waterfront in the late-
1920s era. The intricate inlay consists
of koa skyscrapers, Myrtle, maple, and
Brazilian rosewood buildings on the
waterfront, cocobolo and Brazilian
rosewood sky, and ziricote water.
See more on pg. 38
Special FocusIts a DADGADWorld!22Stuff Like This
Yo La Tengo is back with
a successor to Fakebook
By Pat Moran
26Welcome to the Machine
Inside the David Rawlings
Machines new Southern-Gothic
album Nashville Obsolete
By Kenny Berkowitz
30Homeward Bound
Don Henley returns to his
country roots on Cass County
By Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
38The Art of the Axe
Sometimes an acoustic guitar
is a canvas of wood and steel
By Greg Cahill
Features
Miscellany
A lot of traditional
country music is
about heartache
and regret, looking
back, which is
what a man tends
to do when he
reaches my time
in life.
DON HENLEY, P. 30
DANNY
CLINCH
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6 December 2015
CONTENTS
NEWS
15The Beat
David Hidalgo on Los Lobos
city of gold; Intl Bluegrass
Museum breaks ground;
Inside the Americana Awards
20News Spotlight
Five minutes with Oliver Wood
of the Wood Brothers
PLAY
63Heres How
Tap your inner guitar teacher
64Weekly Workout
Developing melodic solos
Songs to Play
68Hear Me LordFrom George Harrisons
All Things Must Pass
70Walk Away Renee
The Left Bankes 1966 smash
74Keep It Clean
A classic 30 blues
AG TRADE
79Shoptalk
Ovation reopens USA plant
80Movers & Shakers
Collings GM Steve McCreary
82Guitar Guru
Putting pickups
on high-end guitars
84Review: Lichty Small Jumbo
This might be your dream
steel-string
86Review:
Takamine EF360S-TT
Bold, balanced tones
plugged or unplugged
88Review: Mackie Freeplay
A feature-rich personal PA
98Great Acoustics
A classic 60s Fender flattop
MIXED MEDIA91Playlist
Shawn Colvin delivers Uncovered;
also Tom Russells The Rose of
Roscrae: A Ballad of the West,
Joan Shelleys Over and Even,
Beppe Gambetta and Tony
McManus Round Trip,
and Hot Wax: Bob Dylans John
Wesley Hardingon audiophile vinyl
95Books
Boutique Acoustics: 180 Years
of Handbuilt American Guitars
2000 Bourgeois
Martin Simpson guitar
from the new book
Boutique Acoustics, p. 95
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8 December 2015
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young artist whose work before his untimely
death last year graced some of Taylor Guitars
most-coveted limited editions.
Youll also find editor-at-large Jeffrey Pepper
Rodgers insightful interview with Don Henley,
whose country-inflected album Cass Countyispacked with reflective songs that mark some-
thing of a homecoming for the former occupant
of Hotel California.
Longtime contributor Kenny Berkowitz
catches up with guitarist Dave Rawlings to
discuss the David Rawlings Machines latest
album project, steeped in Southern Gothic
imagery (and it doesnt get much moodier than
that).
And I contribute a short review of the new
audiophile reissue of Bob Dylans 1967 acoustic
masterpieceJohn Wesley Harding, which theAll
Music Guidehas hailed as quiet, country-tinged. . . [and] reflective.
That works for me.
Play on. Greg Cahill
Theres something about the acoustic guitar
that lends itself to quiet reflectionmaybe
its those moody chords and wistful ballads, or
perhaps its a DADGAD tune that lets those open
strings ring. And theres something about these
winter issues (published in the dog days ofsummer) that also lends themselves to reflection.
This is the December 2015 issue, with nary
a Yule log in sight, but Im in a decidedly reflec-
tive mood nonetheless.
In that spirit, this issue offers profiles of
three DADGAD players of various persuasions,
with a player tip from each. Youll also find the
haunting Baroque folk-pop song Walk Away
Rene, one the best break-up songs of the
1960s, arranged by contributing editor Adam
Perlmutter for DADGAD tuning.
In addition, theres a lengthy pictorial spot-
lighting the intricate works of nine talentedinlay artists, including William Grit Laskin, a
master of the craft who has a forthcoming book
on the subject, and Pete Davies Jr., the gifted
AcousticGuitar.com AcousticGuitarU.com
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Editorial Director & Editor Greg Cahill
Editor at Large Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
Managing EditorBlair Jackson
Associate Editor Whitney Phaneuf
Copy Editor Anna Pulley
Production ManagerHugh OConnor
Contributing EditorsKenny Berkowitz,
David Hamburger, Steve James,
Orville Johnson, Richard Johnston,
Sean McGowan, Jane Miller,
Greg Olwell, Adam Perlmutter,
Rick Turner, Doug Young
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Creative DirectorJoey Lusterman
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Except where otherwise noted, all contents 2015 Stringletter, David A. Lusterman, Publisher.
FROM THE HOME OFFICE
Tracy Cox drew the
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NEWS
L os Lobosalbums are always eclectic affairs,blending rock, blues, soul, and Mexican folkinfluences into a roots fusion that sounds unlike
any other band. Their latest, Gates of Gold(429
Records), is no exception. It artfully weaves
songs that were clearly influenced by such 60s
predecessors as Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and
Buffalo Springfield with plaintive ballads and
mid-tempo numbers from the resident writing
team of guitarists David Hidalgoand Louie
Perez(the bands original drummer), and gritty
boogie-blues and Latin flavors from guitarist
Cesar Rosas.
Golden SoundsLos Lobos return with a new album
full of acoustic textures
BY BLAIR JACKSON
19The Beat
Inside the 2015
Americana Awards
16The Beat
Bluegrass museum
breaks ground
205 Minutes with . . .
The Wood Bros.
in Paradise
THE BEAT
CONT. ON PG. 16
EL CANELO
from Los Lobos delEste de Los Angeles1978
4 ESSENTIALLOS LOBOS
ACOUSTICSONGS
LA PISTOLA Y
EL CORAZON
fromLa Pistolay El Corazon
1988
SAINT BEHI ND
THE GLASS
fromAcoustic en Vivo2005
TIN CAN TRUST
from Disconnectedin New York City2013
Not surprisingly, there are acoustic textures
in many of the new songs, a Los Lobos tradition
dating back more than 40 years. A good portion
of the ideas that became songs and ended up on
this album started out acoustic, Hidalgo says,
by phone from his LA home. The basic chords
and riffs came out of playing the guitar in a hotel
somewhere. I might come up with 30 seconds or
so of something that I liked and Id record that
on my phone, so I wouldnt forget it.
Then, after a couple of years, when it came
time to make this album, I went back to those
SCOTTSHEFF
David Hidalgo
of Los Lobos
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16 December 2015
THE BEAT
and found some other ideas that wed work on
from an acoustic-guitar start. Sometimes, assongs developed, wed keep the acoustic guitar
as part of it, and sometimes we didnt. Made to
Break Your Heart [which opens the album] is
an example. That was a hotel idea and we kept
the acoustic guitar prominent.
Hidalgo says his primary acoustic guitar for
that period of songwriting in hotels was Perezs
Gibson Keb Mo L-00 Bluesmaster. I also found
an old Harmony OO-18 concert size with a
mahogany topa really nice guitar. Those are
the ones I used the most.
When it came to recording, he chose a 1959
Guild flattop. I dont know the model number,
but its close to their version of a J-200, with abig, focused sound. I got it a year before we did
the recording and it was the best-sounding
acoustic I had.
The acoustic ornamentation doesnt stop
with guitars. Made to Break Your Heart also
features what sounds like it could be a 12-string,
but is actually a new creation: Thats an instru-
ment I came up with, Hidalgo says. Phil Alvin,
from the Blasters, called it a Hidalguero. Its a
double tenoreight strings. The Gs are in
octaves and the Bs are high-strung, almost like a
Nashville tuning. Its a four-course instrument
[made by] Candelas Guitars [in LA]. I told[owner] Tomas Delgado I wanted something like
a double-requinto. It has a nice, bright, transpar-
ent sound.
Other songs on Gates of Goldinclude Perez
playing a jarana (a smaller, eight-stringed
instrument) and Rosas plucking a 12-string
bajo sexto; both are widely used in Mexican
and Tex-Mex music. Hidalgo also contributes
mandolin on the title track.
Those instruments are all fun to play,
Hidalgo offers. We plan to do more folkloric
stuff, maybe do another album of that, and take
it on tour.
TheInternational Bluegrass Music Museum
has a new executive director and will soon break
ground on a new location, three blocks west of
its current space in downtown Owensboro,
Kentucky.
Executive directorChris Joslina guitarist
and banjo player who was a founding member
of the bluegrass group Crucial Smith
assumed his new role September 1, telling the
local newspaper, theMessenger-Inquirer, that he
plans to make Owensboro the bluegrass musiccapital of world.
Joslins goal will no doubt be aided by the
museums move to a 48,000 square foot build-
ing, which is set to break ground before the end
of 2015.
According to promotions director Chris
Langdon, the new location will double the
museums current exhibit and archive space,
include an outdoor stage and indoor, 500-seat
auditorium that will become the official home
of the Bluegrass Opry, and have classroom
space for music education and lessons.
The building is estimated to cost $15.3
million, according to theOwensboro Insider;
that money was jointly raised through grass-
roots fundraising in the bluegrass community,
the city of Owensboro, and the state of Ken-
tucky. Langdon says construction is set to take
16 months, and the new location will be open
by 2017in time for Owensboros
bicentennial.The Bluegrass Music Museum was established
in Owensboro in 1991.
The museums current exhibit,Bluegrass
Music: A History with Many Sources, traces blue-
grass from the early 1900s to the late 1950s; it
wil l remain open through 2016. Upcoming
exhibits include a celebration of women in blue-
grass. For details, visit bluegrassmuseum.org.
Whitney Phaneuf
Entertainer of the Year
The Earls of Leicester
Instrumental Group of the YearThe Earls of Leicester
Song of the Year
Moon Over Memphis,Balsam Range
Album of the Year
The Earls of Leicester,The Earls of Leicester,Jerry Douglas, producer
Instrumental Recorded
Performance of the Year
The Three Bells, Jerry Douglas,Mike Auldridge, Rob Ickes
Emerging Artist of the Year
Becky Buller
Recorded Event of the Year
Southern Flavor, Becky Buller,with Peter Rowan, MichaelFeagan, Buddy Spicher,Ernie Sykes, Roland White,and Blake Williams
Dobro Player of the Year
Jerry Douglas
Guitar Player of the Year
Bryan Sutton
Inductees into the
Bluegrass HOF
Bill Keith and Larry Sparks
The complete list can be
found at ibma.org.
Jim & Jesse with Lester Flatt
BIG CHANGES AT INTERNATIONALBLUEGRASS MUSIC MUSEUM
Los LobosGates of Gold
429
Select winners of the 26th annual International
Bluegrass Music Awards, announced on Oct. 1.
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THE 2015 AMERICANA MUSIC AWARDS
The cream of the crop gathered September 23
at the fabled Ryman Auditorium in Nashville
for the 14th annual Americana Honors and
Awards Show to honor their peers. Limos
delivered stars dressed in rustic chic and fans
filled the balconies and downstairs lobby to rub
elbows with industry bigwigs and media folks.
The winners this year were:
Album of the Year: Down Where the Spirit
Meets the Bone by Lucinda Williams
Artist of the Year: Sturgill Simpson
Duo/Group of the Year: The Mavericks
Song of the Year: Turtles All the Way
Down, by Sturgill Simpson
Emerging Artist of the Year: Shakey Graves
Instrumentalist of the Year: John Leventhal
Free Speech Award: Buffy Sainte-Marie
Lifetime Achievement Award: Don HenleyLifetime Achievement Award for Instrumen-
talist: Ricky Skaggs
Lifetime Achievement Award for Perfor-
mance: Los Lobos
Lifetime Achievement Award for Song-
writer: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
AcousticGuitar.com 19
Marc Ribot and Buddy Miller
THE BEAT
DENVER, COJUNE 20-25, 2016
Metropolitan State University
Local Host, Alex Komodore
Guitar Foundation
ofAmericaINTERNATIONAL CONVENTION & COMPETITION
Concerts
International Concert Artist Competition
International Youth CompetitionLectures | Vendor Expo | Private LessonsMasterclasses | Technique Workshops
Registration/info:guitarfoundation.org
JudicalPerroy
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BenjaminVerdery
JasonVieaux
FabioZanon
FEATURED ARTISTS
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20 December 2015
What did you two play as kids?
I was really into my dads record collection, like
Jimmy Reed, which was simple enough, form-
wise, and technique-wise, to do together. When
I was 16, I got an electric bass, but I switched
to guitar after a few months and gave the bass
to Chris. He just disappeared into his room,
quit having a social life, and got really good
really fast, even before I left home. But we
drifted apart, and until the last couple of years,
it was hard to stay connected.
So you started a band . . .
The Wood Brothers really brought us together.
We have our music and our brotherhood in
common, and thats been a real bonding for us.
For the first time in our adult lives, were living
in the same city, so instead of trying to schedule
time together, we can just drive down the
street, hook up, and work on a new song. Hes
a world-class bass player, and I feel super-
blessed just trying to keep up with him.
Is that why the album is called Paradise?
It started as a pun. Theres a song called Snake
Paradise FoundA sense of desire and longing
informs Wood Brothers latest CD
BY KENNY BERKOWITZ
5 MINUTES WITH OLIVER WOOD
After playing together as
teenagers, Chris and Oliver
Wood spent the next 15 years
finding their voices. Oliver
cut his teeth on guitar with
bluesman Tinsley Ellis and
Southern rockers King Johnson;
Chris made his name on upright
bass with Medeski Martin &
Wood. In 2004, they formed
the Wood Brothers, whose
new album is Paradise(Thirty
Tigers)an acoustic, jam-
inflected mix of the blues, rock,
soul, and gospel.AGrecently
chatted with Oliver Wood
about the new album.
Eyes, and the chorus is, Im looking for my
paradise. You know, snake eyespair of
dice, that kind of thing. But, in retrospect, we
realized this album really has a strong theme
not just of paradise, but of longing and desire,
of wanting things you dont have. That keeps
creeping up, and it may be that you want some
sort of spiritual redemption or it may be you
jus t want an iPad. It runs the gamut of all
different types of desire: sexual or spiritual or
material. On the cover of the record, theres a
donkey with a carrot dangling in front of it on astick. When we saw that image, we were like,
Man, thats exactly what this album is about.
Its like youre already in paradise, and this may
be as close as youre going to get.
What do you long for?
Theres a song called Two Places, about this
double life we lead as touring musicians. We
love being with our families, and we love our
work, which requires us to be gone a lot of the
time. So when Im on the road, I long to be
with my family, and when Im at home, I long
to be playing music. AG
Left to RightChris Wood, Oliver Wood, Jano Rix
Below
Paradise
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22 December 2015
FAKING ITefore Yo La Tengo covered the CuresFriday Im in Love on their new
album, Ira Kaplan says the band
may have only played the song twice before.
Yet that tunes live debut could be Yo La Tengos
strangest gig, because it was the night the band
got killed onstage.
Kaplan, the guitarist and co-founder of the
long-running indie-rock band, convinced his
band mates, drummer/vocalist (and wife)
Georgia Hubley and bassist James McNew, that
the Cures jaunty, bipolar hit would be ideal for
a Christmas party thrown by the irreverent fake
news site The Onion. The satirical website hadlampooned the hipster adulation of Kaplans
band with its story 37 Record Store Clerks
Feared Dead in Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster,
and the band agreed to the show on the condi-
tion that they could reenact the article.
The twist was that Yo La Tengo got killed
instead of the audience. Fake speakers fell from
the rafters and landed on Kaplan, Hubley, and
McNew, crushing them, and they were carried
offstage on stretchers. For an encore the band
reappeared, resurrected in angels wings.
Friday Im in Love is one of several songs
relaunched on Stuff Like That There (Matador),
Yo La Tengos 14th album. Its an acoustic-basedmix, including a handful of shimmery originals,
reinterpreted gems culled from Yo La Tengos
back catalog, and an eclectic batch of covers
ranging from sunny folk-rockers the Lovin
Spoonful to avant-garde jazzman Sun Ra.
Our enthusiasm for playing cover songs
[remains] unabated, says Kaplan, who also
calls the new album a sequel to the bands folk-
inflected 1990 recordingFakebook.
As well as replicatingFakebooks acoustics-
and-covers template, Stuff Like That There
harkens back to the earlier release in other
ways. Dave Schramm, Yo La Tengos originalelectric guitarist who returned to the fold for
Fakebook, contributes mostly electrics to the
new collection. On one song I played an acous-
tic, Schramm says. It was my 1991 Taylor
Grand Concert on Friday Im in Love. Kaplan
plays all other acoustics on the set.
Also on board is Fakebook producer Gene
Holder, who mixed and recorded the current
album.
For Kaplan, the new project feels like hes
revisiting old roles. Its kind of like, Oh, I can still
fit into my old army uniform, but it also works as
a marker of how everybodys changed. Thats
lucky, because if [the recording process] hadntbeen surprising, wed have been disappointed.
One welcome surprise was bassist McNews
decision to learn upright bass for the new
recordings.
Al Grellers upright bass is one of the touch-
stones fromFakebook, Kaplan says. Once we
decided to revisit [that record], and James
expressed his desire to learn upright bass, we
thought, Why not?
Acceptance ofand willingness to work
withwhatever comes their way has character-
ized Yo La Tengos approach to music making,
ever since Kaplan and Hubley composed the coreof the trio in 1984. We were (recently) doing a
session, and some . . . people there were trying
to obtain a specific sound, Kaplan says, and I
thought how alien that was to me. Im rarely
looking for a sound. Its more a matter of
working with the one Ive got.
Since the addition of full-time bassist
McNew in 1992He filled in for our [rotating
bass chair] for a tour, and it just worked out,
says Kaplanthat sound centers on the dusky
warmth of Hubleys vocals, Kaplans swarming
harmonies, and the tactile strumming and
picking of his Gibson B-25.
B
With their new album, Yo La Tengoreturns
to the eclectic, covers-heavy, acoustic template
of their 1990 alt-rock classic Fakebook By Pat Moran
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Its the same Gibson I used on Fakebook .For years it was the only acoustic guitar I
owned, and its still the one I play live, Kaplan
says, adding that his guitars tone is simply
what we sound like.
t wasnt always like that. Throughout
the late 1980s, and well into the
2000s, Kaplan alternated honeyed
acoustics with coruscating electric runs on his
Stratocaster, routed through an array of pedals,
including a pair of Pro-Co Rats, a Vox Wah
Wah, and a Mutron II, with a switcher running
to two Fender amps. In contrast, on the newalbum, his Gibsonand on a few songs, his
Guild F-30are played dry, without the aid of
pedals or amps.
Though acoustics have always been on Yo
La Tengos palette, emphasis switched to them
during the bands Freewheeling Yo La Tengo
tours between 2007 and 2009. We were doing
two sets, Kaplan says. The first set was quiet
and the second set was louder, [and] a lot of
the songs in the loud set would make an
appearance in the quiet set.
With Kaplan on his Gibson and McNew on
electric bass, we referred to those [quiet] sets
GEAR LIKETHIS HEREI dont approach acoustics
differently than electrics, Yo La
Tengos Ira Kaplan says. When
appropriate, Ill use an acoustic
to make a racket, and Im not
more likely to use my fingers
instead of a pick than I am with
an electric.
Kaplans primary guitar on the
new album, Stuff Like That There
is his vintage Gibson B-25,
which he has owned for several
decades. More recently, he
acquired a Guild F30, which
I played on a couple of songs
on the album to get a different
color, he says. Kaplan uses
DAddario or DR 12s strings.
Stuff Like That Therewas
recorded at three studios, one in
New York and two in New Jersey:
Brooklyn Recording in Brooklyn,
Water Music across the Hudson
River in Hoboken, and Kaleido-
scope Sound in Union City. At
Kaleidoscope, a Gibson J-45 and
a Kalamazoo KG11 were avail-
able, and Kaplan played those
guitars on retakes.
Kaplan used no pedals or
amps in recording the album.
Onstage, he runs his acoustics
through the pedal setup that
I have at my disposal for my
electric guitar, but I use the
pedals more sparingly,
Kaplan says.
Yo La Tengo uses multiple
tunings on acoustic guitar forseveral songs, so live they
switch between the Gibson
and the Guild, Kaplan says.
Not so much because
of the sound of the guitar,
but to keep the set moving.
He uses a Boss EQ pedal
to match the sound between
the two guitars.
as stripped-down rather than acoustic,Kaplan says.
A similar gig, for the bands former Euro-
pean label City Slang, planted the seed for Yo
La Tengos return toFakebooks spare, eclectic
approach. Kaplan and crew recruited Schramm
for the gig, and they played a showFakebook-
style, drawing from our entire career with
City Slang.
The shows concept appealed to the band,
Kaplan says, because it was out of character (for
us) to go back to something wed done before.
The career-retrospective quality of Stuff Like
That Thereis reflected in its choice of covers,many of whichcome from Yo La Tengos stage
repertoire: A dry-eyed, two-step rendition of
Hank Williams Im So Lonesome I Could Cry
dates from a 1994 tour when the trio opened
for Johnny Cash. That song started with us just
liking the way Georgia sings it, Kaplan says.
In fact, the sound of Hubleys voice is often
the deciding factor in which songs to cover. On
the new album, Hubleys deadpan lead cuts
through the jaunty instrumentation of songs like
the Lovin Spoonfuls Butchies Theme, which
dates from the quiet set when we were on tour
for [the 2013 album]Fade,Kaplan says.
I
Left to right
Dave Schramm,
James McNew,
Georgia Hubley,
Ira Kaplan
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24 December 2015
YO LA TENGO
As with Friday Im in Love, Kaplan remem-
bers the exact night a cover of avant-jazz great
Sun Ras Somebodys in Love made its stage
debut. I was driving to a show in DC by
myself, he says. For some reason, Georgia and
James took a separate car. I was listening to[the Sun Ra singles collection] and it occurred
to me that it would be fun to hear what the
three of us singing together sounded like. So
we did the song that night, and weve done it
ever since.
Its frequently our last encore, Kaplan adds.
Georgia is upfront and everyone is singing. Of all
the songs on the record, I wouldnt be surprised if
thats the one that weve played the most.
In addition to two new, suitably stripped-
down compositions penned specifically for Stuff
Like That There, the album also boasts a trio of
Yo La Tengo tunes drawn from the bands past.We like the balance of these three songs
together, Kaplan says of Deeper into Movies,
first recorded for 1997sI Can Hear the Heart
Beating as One; The Ballad of Red Buckets,
originally on 1995sElectr-O-Pura;and All Your
Secrets, from 2009s Popular Songs.Yet, he
feels each song works well individually, and
that recasting the tunes in an acoustic setting
yielded some surprises.
When we did Deeper into Movies, wewere finding new sides of that song the whole
time we tracked it, he says. We recorded it
with drums, and then we [accidentally] found
out what it sounded like without them. We put
up faders without labeling them, and at some
point we were listeningjust monitoring our
recordingand there were no drums. We all
looked at each other and said, That sounds
interesting. Lets pursue that.
Pursuit of the accidental has been a factor of
Yo La Tengos development since day one ,
Kaplan says. Its funny to talk about James
[McNew] becoming a full-time member of theband almost by accident, because thats how I
came to lead guitar.
Schramm, who had played lead, decamped
after Yo La Tengos 1986 debut album Ride the
Tiger. After that, Georgia and I played shows
with various people on lead guitar.
With no permanent replacement for
Schramm, we would practice as a trio, Kaplan
says. I was playing lead guitar [during prac-
tice], because I was the only guitarist.We accepted a show in Albany, and then
found out that nobody could make it. We had
the choice of canceling or playing as a trio, so
we thought, Well, we practice that way a lot.
Why dont we see what its like? I just kind of
fell into the lead guitar role.
Thirty-one years on, the initially accidental
guitarist and his band mates have become that
rarest of rock institutionsone that continues
to evolve and astonish. And with Stuff Like That
There, Yo La Tengo may have made their most
surprising move.
A lot of times [making music] is just a matterof listening and being open to things rather than
having a concept to follow, Kaplan says. Thats
whats so unusual about doing this sequel ,
because this time, we did have a concept. AG
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26 December 2015
The David Rawlings Machine
returns with the Southern-Gothic-
influenced album Nashville Obsolete
By Kenny Berkowitz
HENRY
DILTZ
MACHINEWELCOME TO THE
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Thirteen years after their breakthrough as a
duo, David Rawlings and Gillian Welch
decided to switch places. OnFriend of a Friend
(2009), credited to Dave Rawlings Machine, he
became the frontman and she became thebackup, and theyve been alternating roles ever
since. They write slowly, so following Welchs
The Harrow & the Harvest(2011)which took
eight years to record, with her next album still
nowhere in sighttheyve returned to the
Machine, performing pop-up gigs around the
country and, in July, anchoring the 50th anni-
versary Bob Dylan tribute at the 2015 Newport
Folk Festival.
On Nashville Obsolete (Acony), the latest
offering from the Dave Rawlings Machine,
Rawling has taken another leap, building a set
of new songs around his strengths as a singing,songwriting, guitar-slinging folkie. Hes found
his voice as a lead singer with a rich, lonesome
twang thats halfway between Dylan and Neil
Young. Rawlings has grown into a relaxed, ram-
bling confidence as a storyteller, with songs that
lean toward Southern Gothic, like the ten-min-
ute-long sojourn The Trip, which opens with a
handkerchief, a hatchet, and a warning that
whistles blow and people get on trains without
knowing where theyre going.
Best of all, backed by Brittany Haas (fiddle),
Paul Kowert (bass), Jordan Tice (mandolin),
Willie Watson (guitar), and Welch (guitar), Raw-
lings is exploring new ways to accompanyhimself on guitar, in a perfect balance of rhythm
and lead that emphasizes quiet, unanswerable
mysteries.
How do the seven songs on this record
feel different from Friend of a Friend?
That first Machine record was constructed hor-
ridly. Wed been a long time between records,
and I felt there was just too much pressure. We
tried to record, but things were breaking under
that weight.
So I realized there were songs Id written,
like To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)[with Ryan Adams] or I Hear Them All [with
Old Crow Medicine Shows Ketch Secor], songs
that Id sung, that Id liked, and some cover
songs that wed been doing, and I thought we
could make an album out of them. The turning
point was when we started to write Ruby,
which we thought was a strong song, and it felt
like the wise thing to do was to make a record.
There was no thought that this was something
we were going to keep doing, but it reflected
the shows we were playing, and I thought it
would pay off when we made the next Gillian
Welch record.
And then you recorded another Machine
album. Are you more satisfied with this one?
WithNashville Obsolete, we had material and
songs, artistic things we wanted to explore, but
they felt strange to me. I didnt know how acces-sible they were, and I still dont. But it was art,
and we liked it, and when we started working on
it in earnest, some of the stuff didnt end up quite
as strange as it seemed like it was going to be. We
road-tested these songs on a little pop-up tour,
and the audience responded really well. It didnt
feel like the songs were obtuseit felt like wed
focused them in a way people could understand.
Does that mean your
writing process has changed?
Its developed. Like To Be Young, we wrote
that very quickly, at a party when we werentexactly in our right minds. Ryan forgot wed
even been working on it, and a couple of days
later, when I said, We should finish that song,
he was like, What song? So I played it for
him, as well as I could remember it, and he
remembered parts that Id forgotten, and we
cobbled together what we could, and then he
put it onHeartbreaker(2000). Thats a different
process, for sure. Even a song like Ruby,
which was close st in process to these new
songs, was a change for us at the time, the way
we kept pushing it forward, kept working on it.
When you and Gillian write together,
how do you divide the work?
Its different for virtually every song. Both of us
start songs, and on this record, its pretty well
split. We tend to be working on a lot of material
at most times. Songs can be around for a period
of years, and often they get retooled and refo-
cused, and then theres an intense period of fin-
ishing. There are songwriters I know that if they
dont get something they like in that first initial
burst of inspiration, they move on to other things
and never come back. Were in the other camp.
How do you start writing aten-minute song like The Trip?
It started with the feeling; the emotion of the
groove. It was a long, long piece of work ini-
tially, and we looked for a way to focus it into
what felt like a single thought, a single line, a
single emotional landscape. When youre
dealing with something thats going to be as big
as that, its not useful to do any editing while
youre writing it, or to judge it too much. Its
funny, because you might think that if youre
writing a really long song, the hard thing is to
make it long. But its very easy to make it long.
The hard thing is to give it emotional focus.
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28 December 2015
DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE
How do you know whether youre writing a
song for Gillian or a song for the Machine?
We both sing the songs as were writing them,
but I think weve gotten a little more adept over
time. Ive come around to being a little more
familiar with my own voice and the kind of
song that we enjoy playing when Im singing. In
general, theyre in the minority, because Gill is
a much better singer, and I would rather listen
to her than listen to myself. But one of the fun
things weve learned over the last few years is
there are kinds of songs we can do when Im
singing, and we both enjoy that. When we starta song that we feel is in that camp now, were
usually pretty aware of it.
What goes into a good solo?
When Im playing a solo that I find satisfying, I
tend to get tugged along. I play something, and
then I play something else, and then something
starts to pull me. I know what I want to hear
next, and I just try to find it. I go along until I
can see the end coming, and I know what it is,
and I try to do something to close it down. But
you know, if my eyes are closed and Im in the
middle of some of this stuff, I have no ideawhere I am on the neck or what Im rea lly
doing. I lose the thread, and it isnt until later,
wh en I l is te n ba ck , th at I kn ow wh at s
happening.
Did you know you could
write string arrangements?
Id never done an arrangement in my life. The
two that I did here are my first and second. It
took five days, where I slept maybe two or
three hours a night, and the last night I didnt
sleep at all. We scheduled the session for
Monday in Memphis, and I started the string
WHATDAVIDRAWLINGSPLAYSThe first time David Rawlings
played his 1935 Epiphone
Olympic, he fell in love. I was 24,
he says. I wanted an instrument
that would do the tonal work of
a mandolin or a Dobro, so Gillian
Welch and I could create a two-
person sound where there would
be bass and rhythm comingout of Gills guitar, while Id be
playing an instrument that sat
in the middle. I came upon this
archtop, but it didnt have a
bridge, so I asked a luthier
friend to make me one.
And when we went to make
the first [Gillian Welch] record,
I had just gotten the guitar back,
but had never played it. So I did,
and as soon as I heard it on
tape, I was like, This does
exactly what I want. It has a
voice. It has personality. Its a
long-scale instrument with a tinybody, which no other manufac-
turer ever made, and it gives the
guitar this sort of pianistic,
straight harmonic sound. I can
play it more aggressively than Id
be able to play on many other of
the small archtops from that era,
because theyd all be shorter
scale and the strings would be
less tense.
And gradually, as I learned to
play it better, I found it was a
pretty useful tool, even in a little
string band like the Machine.
arrangements on Wednesday night, wrote the
worst stuff youve ever heard in your entire life.
It was just awful. And I finally came upon one
little thing for The Weekend that I thought
was good, so I chased it down and I wrote thispart that I thought sounded pretty good. Then I
had to do it all again on Short Haired Women,
which was even more complicated, and I just
wrote garbage. Finally on the last day, we had
to go in at 10, and I was still working, still
sitting in the same chair. Id kind of overwritten
it, but it was time to go into the studio, so there
it is. I told the string players, This is my first
chart, and they seemed to like it.
What do you love about
playing with Gillian?
The way our timing works together. We have away of settling back into the vocals and letting
the time relax there, and we have a way of
driving into lead parts and picking up the time
weve lost. Theres definitely an organic musical-
ity, the feeling that were one when we play.
Thats why we played as a duo for so long, and
thats part of what makes the Machine different.
Were adding other people who have that kind of
feel, expanding a bit tonally, bringing different
personalities. That brings a different emotion to
the music, and exploring that stuff is one of the
great things about playing music.
And life in general. AG
RICK
DIAMOND
THERES DEFINITELYAN ORGANIC MUSICALITY,THE FEELINGTHAT WERE ONEWHEN WE PLAY.
Rawlings and Welchperforming at the 2015Americana Honors &Awards Show, wherethey were honoredfor their songwriting.
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30 December 2015
HOMEWARDBOUND
ass County, the long-awaited new
album by Don Henley, is a kind of
homecominga return to Henleys
rural roots in northeast Texas, and to the country
music that filled the radio waves of his child-
hood. Some of the songs he covers on the album
date from his formative years in the 50s and
60s, like Ira and Charlie Louvins When I Stop
Dreaming (performed as a heart-rending duet
with Dolly Parton), but most tracks are new origi-
nals. At 68, Henley is stepping into the spotlight
as an old-school country singer and songwriter in
the tradition of George Jones or Merle Haggard.
By Jeffrey
Pepper
Rodgers
C
THE AG INTERVIEW
The direction of the album, Henleys first solo
release in 15 years, does not come out of the
blue. With the Eagles, Henley was the song-
writer (with Glenn Frey) behind such country-
folk strummers as Tequila Sunrise and Lyin
Eyes. Henley checked out of the Hotel Califor-
nia in the 90s and has been living with his
family in Dallas ever since. But stylistically, Cass
Countyis a thousand miles from the synth-heavy
sounds of Henleys last solo album,Inside Job,
and his pop hits like Dirty Laundry and All
She Wants to Do Is Dance. Cass County does not
attempt to fit in with the pop-, rock-, and
rap-influenced productions coming out of main-
stream Nashville today, either. With songs like
Waiting Tables, a portrait of a struggling single
mother, and The Cost of Living, an older and
wiser reminiscence sung as a duet with Haggard,
Henley focuses on storytelling, simple melodies,
and accompaniment you can strum along with
on first listen.
Henleys fellow architect for Cass Countyis
his longtime friend and collaborator Stan
Lynch, former drummer with Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers, who served as Henleys co-
writer and co-producer. Though Henley wrote
Don Henleyreturns
to his country roots
on Cass County
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AcousticGuitar.com 31
these songs on acoustic guitar and is playing
rhythm guitar on tour, he relegated all the six-
string parts on the album to othersespecially
to latter-day Eagles guitarist Steuart Smith (see
The Guitars of Cass County, page 34). Smith
also helped write several of Henleys new songs
and even pays tribute on piano to Floyd Cramer,
whose tinkling lines made an indelible mark on
hits by Patsy Cline.
In late summer, as Henley was going into
rehearsals for anAustin City Limitsperformance
and subsequent tour, he spoke at length about
making the new album. Thoughtful and down
to earth, he came across as quite content in this
phase of his songwriting and life, and uncon-
cerned that Cass Countyhardly fits into current
commercial trendsin Nashville or anywhere
else. Father Time is a friend, he sings in
Where I Am Now, the closing track. I feel at
home in my own skin.
In keeping with the album title, do the
lyrics of these songs have a lot of direct
references to your childhood?
Some of them do. The most autobiographical
song on the album is Train in the Distance.
Thats about my boyhood in northeast Texas
and my grandmothers house that I went to,
which was in a town 21 miles west of my home-
town, where my dads auto parts shop was. In
the summers when I wasnt in school, he would
drive every day to work and I would go with
him and hang out at my grandmothers house.
The people next door had a grandson who was
my playmate, and we used to go put nickels
and pennies on the railroad tracks and watch
the train run over them. That was a big deal.
The only other song thats a glancing nod or
reference to my hometown is Waiting Tables.
DANNY CLINCH
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32 December 2015
DON HENLEY
The first verse references a timber town, and
the timber industry is just about the only indus-
try left in and around my home countyexcept
the chicken business. A lot of people have
chicken farms now.
Stylistically, how do these songs connect
to the music you heard as a kid?
Im sure youve read the story that I tell about
listening to a radio program called The Louisi-
ana Hayride,which was like The Grand Ole
Oprybut a little more oriented toward musical
rebelslike Elvis and Johnny Cash and Hank
and George Jones. It was broadcast on a radio
station called KWKH out of Shreveport, Louisi-
ana, and my dad and I would listen to that in
the car driving to his shop.
So that had some influence, especially in
the cover tunes that I did, like [the LouvinBrothers] When I Stop Dreaming. That song
was published in 1955, so Im sure I heard it .
Dolly Parton knew that song well. When she
came to the studio, she said, Me and Porter
[Wagoner] used to do this song, and she just
killed it. I think she did it in about three takes.
Shes a force of nature. Her voice contains
within it the history of a people, and it contains
suffering and joy and love and compassion.
Theres nobody quite l ike her.
Is your cover of She Sang Hymns Out of
Tune a tip of the hat to the Dillards?
Yes, it is. The Dillards put out a brilliant album in1968 that was a real pioneering effort. It was
called Wheatstraw Suite, and it changed my life.
Elton John has said in the past thats his favorite
album of all time. On that album was She Sang
Hymns Out of Tune, arranged by Herb Peder-
son, who was the banjo player at the time. Back
in, I think, 69, the Dillards played some small
joint in Fort Worth, and I drove through a snow-
storm from Dallas to see them. Herb Pederson
was very congenial and talked with me for a
while. I was just thrilled and never forgot that.
Our version of that song is so faithful to the
Dillards version that I actually gave Herb anarrangement credit on my album, even though
he wasnt there.
Turning to your new original songs, the
melody of That Old Flame reminds me
of Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Did you
think of that similarity as you wrote?
No. Im glad you mentioned that, because Ive
been trying for months, since we wrote that
song, to think of what it sounds like. Will the
Circle Be Unbroken also sounds like a lot of
Protestant hymns that we used to sing in
church, and there are some rockabilly songs
that are similar. So I think that melody and that
chord progression go way back to some foggy
time in history. All this stuff goes back to Scot-
land and Ireland and England. Thats where
most of my ancestors came from, so I think
some of it is just genetic. I think were all pro-grammed in some ways with music in us that
dates back for centuries.
A LOT OF WHATTHEY CALLCOUNTRY MUSICNOW ISUNRECOGNIZABLETO ME.MAYBE WE WERERESPONSIBLE
IN PARTFOR SOMEOF THAT.
in the way. I know a lot of extraordinary musi-
cians who have trouble with songwriting because
they know too much. So were a good team, Stan
and I, and Steuart Smith is part of that team. Hes
a hundred times the musician that either of us is
when it comes to stringed instruments or even thepiano. So Steuart is the secret weapon. Between
the three of us, its a good process.
You opted not to play guitar on the album,
though youll be playing on the upcoming
tour. Why?
I didnt play drums either, because if someones
better than me, Ive got no ego problem step-
ping back and letting them do what they do
best. Im content to write songs and sing them.
Do you think of guitar primarily
as a songwriting instrument?
Yeah. Im not a whiz kid on the guitar. Im profi-
cient. I know more than three chords, and what
I dont know somebody can show me and then I
can play it. Ive developed pretty good finger
flexibility over the years. Capos help, of course.
The songs on Cass Countyare filled with
breakups, heartache, regret, looking back.
Do you think of the album as having an
overall theme?
Well, Im a big fan of traditional country music.
George Jones and Merle Haggard are my
heroes, so their music had a lot of influence on
these songs. A lot of traditional country musicis about heartache and regret, looking back,
which is what a man tends to do when he
reaches my time in life. But the album ends
with a song called Where I Am Now, which,
after all those heartache and regret songs, kind
of comes full circle and says I actually like
where I am now. Its a song about perspective,
which I think next to health is probably the
most important thing a person can have.
The interesting irony with Cass Countyis
that the Eagles helped establish a pop/
rock/country blend that a lot of countryartists ultimately adopted. And now youre
putting out an album thats way more
traditional than what typically comes out
of Nashville these days.
I know what you mean, and I dont want to
comment. As the old saying goes, if you dont
have anything good to say, dont say anything
at all. But yeah, a lot of what they call country
music now is unrecognizable to me. Maybe we
were responsible in part for some of that, but I
dont know. I think there are a lot of other influ-
ences now, including metal. I hear metal music
coming out of Nashville now.
Stan Lynch plays a big part in the songs
and sound of this album. How would
you describe your roles in co-writing
these songs?
We dont have specific roles. I really enjoy
writing with him because I enjoy hanging out
with him. You cant write with just anybody. I
have to be comfortable with the person, and I
have to know them really well and vice versa.
Songwriting is a very personal process. You phi-losophize, and you talk about your inner hopes
and fears and your ideas about life in general.
Stan and I have been able to do that. His dad
was a psychology professor down in Gaines-
ville, so Stans a smart guy, and hes a funny
guyhe brings a lot of humor to the process.
And hes a damn good musician.
We just get in a room and pick up acoustic
guitars, and we strum those and talk and laugh,
and we pace around sometimes. We usually
start with a title.
Who would come up with the titles?I usually come up with the titles. I would say
that I have a larger role in the lyric writing
department than Stan does, although Stan does
contribute gemssometimes hell just spit
something out, off the cuff, and itll be the thing
thats needed to fill a certain space. And we
both do the music. Hes a little better at con-
structions. He helps me with the form. Hes a
little more capable on the guitar than I am,
even though hes a drummer, too.
Thats another thing: Were both drummers
who can play a little guitar, just enough to write
songs. You dont want to know too much. It gets
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34 December 2015
DON HENLEY
IM NOT A WHIZ KID ON THE GUITAR.IM PROFICIENT. I KNOW MORE THAN THREE CHORDS,
AND WHAT I DONT KNOW SOMEBODY CAN SHOW MEAND THEN I CAN PLAY IT.
DANNY
CLINCH
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36 December 2015
THE GUITARS OFCASS COUNTYOnstage, Don Henley plays a Takamine TF77-PT,
amplified with the CTP-2 Cool Tube Preamp
through a Genz Benz Shenandoah Acoustic
100 amp. The guitar is set up with Ernie Ball
Regular Slinky acoustic strings, .012.054 gauge.
In the studio, a prime selection of flattop
guitars was used in the making of Cass County.
Heres a complete rundown, by player:
STEUART SMITH
1934 Martin 00-17
(owned by Rodney Crowell)Bramble RoseNo, Thank YouThe Brand New Tennessee WaltzToo Much PrideShe Sang Hymns Out of Tune
1939 Gibson J-35
(owned by Rodney Crowell)The Cost of Living
1957 Martin 00-18
Waiting TablesWords Can Break Your Heart
Collings C-10
(owned by Henley)Too Far GoneWhen I Stop DreamingPraying for RainA Younger Man (strumming part)Where I Am Now
1960s Martin 00-17
(owned by Henley)
A Younger Man(fingerpicking part)
STAN LYNCH
1970s Martin 00-18
Nashville high-strung tuning
1960s Gibson B-25
1960s Gibson J-200
Take a Picture of This
BRYAN SUTTON
1948 Martin D-28
That Old Flame,Train in the Distance
J.T. CORENFLOSLarrive 09 Series
The Brand NewTennessee Waltz
VINCE GILL
1928 Martin 000-45
Praying for Rain
PAT B UCHANAN
Vintage Martin
Too Much Pride.
DON HENLEY
DANNY
CLINCH
At your album sessions, was there a sense
among the Nashville studio players that
this project was in a style they dont get
asked to play much anymore?
Yeah, we got comments to that effect, which of
course made me feel really good about what we
were doing. Several of the players said, Man,
this is such welcome stuff to hear.
Working with the guys in Nashville was a
real pleasure for us. Being in Nashville is very
much like being in my native east Texasits
the same culture, really, the same vibe and the
same accents and the same food. Its just verycomfortable working there. And all these musi-
cians have wicked senses of humor. I mean we
worked hard and took our work seriously, but
there was always a lot of laughter involved in
these sessions, which makes the work more
pleasant when it can sometimes be grueling.
In the past youve been fairly critical of
your songwriting abilities, sometimes
saying you dont consider yourself a real
songwriter. Do you still feel that way?
I think Ive changed my mind a little bit. Ive
learned you can be too self-critical. I know peoplewho are so critical of what they do that they get
writers block. So I realized that once I lightened
up on myself a little bit, I actually wrote better.
Theres a delicate balance between being too criti-
cal and not being critical enough, and you have to
find that middle ground and then work from
there. With the completion of this album, I think
Im a songwriter, although I do best when I col-
laborate with other people.
I still hope that my best work is ahead of
me. Id like to evolve. I aspire to be like Randy
Newman or Paul Simon or Leonard Cohen,
within that league. Im not there yet. AG
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38 December 2015
Because
sometimes an
acoustic guitar
is a canvas of
wood & steel
By Greg Cahill
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40 December 2015
peace, etc.) from this period. He also wants to
picture the influence of other Beatles to John.
My client was the he in that quote, not the
speaker, Laskin continues. His wishes were
conveyed through a translator because his
English wasnt up to the task. That was the sum
total of my instructions. Because of the language
barrier there wouldnt be the opportunity for
further clarification, not to mention my chance
to hear tone of voice and emphasis during a
phone discussion. Despite these limitations, I
wasnt concerned. I, too, was a fan of John
Lennon, and admired Lennon for many of the
same reasons my client expressed. My very first
reaction was that this was going to be a pleasur-
able design challenge. Still, there is an oft-times
incremental process I take to crawl my way to a
design. I do get there, but the road is some-
times rocky. This inlay, happily, was an excep-
tion. One of my all time favorite songshappened to be Lennons Imagine. The fact
that my foreign client cited that song title spe-
cifically, coupled with his request for me to rep-
resent Lennons conviction, love and peace. . .
made it obvious that the now-iconic song title
itself could be my overarching themeit met so
many of my clients criteria.
Excerpted from Grit Laskins
upcoming book Grand Complications.
ART OF THE AXE
GRIT LASKIN
IMAGINE
ARTIST: GRIT LASKIN
How much direction does an inlay artist get
from a client? Well, that depends, but the artist
usually has a free rein, as on the Imagine
guitar (the headstock is seen on pg. 39) that
took builder and inlay artist Grit Laskin 125
hours to complete.
Laskin relates his conversation with the
client: As we discussed, the theme is John
Lennon. He likes John, especially from toward
the end of the Beatles (Let It Be, Abbey Road,
etc.) to the beginning of his solo period
(Imagine). He wants, not only the music, but
also Johns lifestyle, conviction, ideas (love and
heir palette can include mother of
pearl and ancient ivory, shells and
gems, exotic woods and precious
metals. While the guitar is a tool for players, for
inlay artists it is a canvas upon which to create
personalized images that can help to fire the
imagination, serve as status symbols, or cele-
brate a milestone. Few guitarists can afford to
commission custom inlay, but most can appreci-
ate its beauty. With the one-year anniversary of
the passing of one of the industrys most tal-
ented young inlay artistsPete Davis Jr. of
Taylor Guitarsand on the eve of a new book
by one of the arts true visionaries, Grit Laskin,
AGis spotlighting the stunning work of nine
inlay artists.
T
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AcousticGuitar.com 41
MCPHERSON GU ITARS
PICASSO
ARTIST: ERIC PELTON
The Picasso was the first major inlay project of
my career, master luthier Eric Pelton says. The
main inlay on the back is an actual Picasso
painting titled Guitar, painted during the
winter of 191213. The inlay was a huge
undertaking, all done by hand and taking
70-plus hours to complete. The guitar itself has
Brazilian rosewood back and sides, an Adiron-
dack spruce top, and a Spanish cedar neck (a
nod to Picassos heritage). The woods used for
the inlay include: maple, koa, ziricote, bubinga,
pau rosa, ebony, redwood, walnut, sassafras,
and myrtle.
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42 December 2015
ART OF THE AXE
MCPHERSON
GUITARS
1776
ARTIST:
BOB HERGERT
This detailed
headstock depicts
the signing of
the Declaration
of Independence
(scrimshaw on woolly
mammoth ivory).
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2014PRSGuitars/PhotosbyMarc
Quigley
PRS Acoustics
The PRS Guitars Acoustic Team.
A Culture of Quality
Born in our Maryland shop, PRSacoustics are heirloom instrumentswith remarkable tone and exquisiteplayability. A small team oexperienced luthiers handcrafall o our Maryland-made acousticinstruments with passion andattention to detail.
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44 December 2015
ART OF THE AXE
C.F. MARTIN & CO.
THE MILLIONTH MARTIN
ARTIST: LARRY ROBINSON
Martin Guitar & Co. historian and archivist Dick
Boak writes: Work on the millionth Martin
began in early 2002, when master inlay artist
Larry Robinson submitted drawings for the
various inlay elements. After selection and parts
preparation in Nazareth, the various pieces
were shipped to Robinsons shop in Sonoma
County, California. Nearly two years of cutting
the inlay pieces (by hand, with a jewelers saw),
fabricating the designs, gluing them into care-
fully incised wood and flat-sanding followed.
Robinson was assisted by world-class engraver
Dave Guilietti, who engraved all the gold ele-
ments as well as the angels, cherubs and portrait
of C. F. Martin Sr. on the back. The jewels were
tube set by Jewelers Warehouse. The various ele-
ments were returned to Martin in late 2003. Thejewels were placed in their settings and the final
assembly and finishing was completed in mid-
December 2003 in anticipation of the guitars
unveiling on January 15, 2004, at the NAMM
Show in Anaheim, California.
Crafted from C.I.T.E.S. certified Brazilian
rosewood, Adirondack red spruce, black African
ebony, and genuine mahogany, Serial No.
1,000,000fittingly, a dreadnought, one of the
Martins most influential designsis the most
elaborate instrument in the companys history,
surpassing even the D-45 China Dragon
(#700,000) and the D-45 Peacock (#750,000).Intricate inlays of abalone, mother of pearl, sea
snail, 18-karat gold, white gold, and precious
gems, including diamonds, emeralds, rubies,
sapphires, and aquamarines, cover the back,
fingerboard, headstock, rosette, pickguard, and
inset soundhole rose. Similar inlays accent
the sides and neck.
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AcousticGuitar.com 45
The inlays feature Victorian and Baroque
imagery as well as some uniquely Martin ele-
ments. Tendrils of vines and leaves frame the
top, back, sides, and neck, and more elaborate
inlays in the same style are set into the back of
the neck and the sides. A grand trellis rises
from an urn at the base of the fingerboard. A
golden eagle peers from a flourish of leaves on
the headstock. The pickguard features a guitar
top with Martins innovative X-bracing as well
as tools of the luthiers trade.
Most spectacular of all is the guitars back.
An urn near the center supports an arbor of
vines and leaves on which four angels play
guitars, a mandolin and a ukulele, while near
the top, two more angels place a wreath on the
neck of an early Martin of the sort the founder
C. F. Martin Sr. made in his early years in the
United States. Framed by cascading tendrils,
#1,000,000 is followed by the familiar C.F.Martin & Co., Est. 1883 logo in abalone. Near
the bottom, an engraved portrait of C.F. Martin
himself completes the inlay.
C.F. Martin
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46 December 2015
ART OF THE AXE
LARRIVE GUITARS
ACOUSTIC GUITAR 10TH ANNIVERSARY
ARTIST: WENDY LARRIVE
The AG10th anniversary Larrive guitar, one of
two created by Wendy Larrive (one was given
to a reader, the other resides in our office), has
a rich origin. It began with a live model, then-
Larrive employee Hollie Mackie, captured in a
series of sketches and later immortalized inabalone and wood.
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AcousticGuitar.com 47
KATHY WINGERT
STEAMPUNK
ARTIST: KATHY WINGERT
Ive always loved classic lit, and grew up with
Jules Verne, says Wingert. The biggest design
problem was how to do something that was
unmistakably steampunk, which usually has a
nice patina and rough look, with something that
wouldn t be out of place on my guitars . The
biggest challenge was in having the design run
all the way through the headstock. I had a lot of
fun using metal and jewelers tools, and assem-
bling parts out of whatever I could find.
MCCONNELL GUITARS
TOMAHAWK
ARTIST: JORDAN MCCONNELL
The tomahawk inlay was commissioned by aclient in New York state, McConnell says. We
were throwing around ideas for the guitar and
he had seen the Avett Brothers guitars so asked
if I could do something similar with a toma-
hawk as the central theme. Nothing too big,
I believe he said. The design kept getting bigger
and bigger and the outcome is what you see. It
was a fun challenge trying to lay things out so I
could capture as much motion as possible in the
visual field available. The inlay is composed of
spalted maple for the blade of the axe, quilted
walnut for the handle, and satinwood, spalted
maple, ebony, abalone, and mother of pearl forthe details on the feathers.
KATHY WINGERT
ANGEL
ARTIST:
JIMMI WINGERT
(KATHYS
DAUGHTER)
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48 December 2015
TAYLOR GUITARS
LIVING JEWELS (RIGHT)
ARTIST: PETE DAVIES JR.
Bob Taylor remembers: Inlay art is akin to
tattoo art. Pete Davies Jr. had a flair for it and
filled our manila folder with pages of options to
inlay on guitars. Koi fish, sea turtles, hot-rod
art, and so on. Liberty Tree art. Wow! That one.His designs were impactful, yet each detail
within them purposeful. He treated each guitar
as a canvas of limitless possibilities in design
and materials.
JOHN KINNAIRD
SITTING BULL(BANJO)
ARTIST: CRAIG LAVIN
Materials: Black pearl, fossil mammoth, ebony,
white river pearl. Being asked to create one-of-
a-kind inlays on a full-time basis means con-
stantly growing and pushing my limits and
abilities, says Lavin. Each new work is a new
story, relationship, idea, and challenge. While the
techniques are repetitive, the outcome is always
unique, and that constant creative process, as
I inlay dreams into reality, is why I love my
profession.
ART OF THE AXE
TAYLOR GUITARS
LIBERTY TREE
ARTIST: PETE DAVIES JR.(19772014)
Taylor Guitars crafted 400 limited-edition
instruments with Sitka top and tulip-poplar
back and sides. The poplar, which since
Colonial times had grown in Annapolis,
Maryland, was the nations last
Liberty Tree, a symbol of
the new nation.
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50 December 2015
Cole Clark Australian Eco Series
Cole Clarks Australian Eco Series guitars are
built from 100% sustainable or non-endangered
timbers including Bunya, Californian Redwood, and
Blackwood, all grown in Australia and responsibly
harvested from private land. They feature
Black Bean fretboards, Blackwood bridges, the
companys trademark integral neck design, and its
patented 3-way pickup system - the most
natural sounding pickup in the world.
coleclarkguitars.com | musiquip.com
The Christmas Songbook
This beautiful keepsake book
contains over 100 holiday classics,
a color insert, histories of
select tunes, and 12 solo guitar
arrangements. The CD contains
performances of the guitar solos and
printable lyrics for every song! The
Christmas Family Songbookfeatures
piano/vocal/guitar arrangements and
a CD with MP3s, lyrics, and software.
alfred.com/christmas
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