acoustic guitar 276.pdf

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DECEMBER 2015 | ACOUSTICGUITAR.COM

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Hear Me Lord

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Walk Away Rene

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AcousticGuitar.com 5

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


6/100

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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10 December 2015

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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Sales ManagersAmy-lynn Fischer,

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Stringletter.com

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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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The pickguard graces

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Kentucky. p.38
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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


16/100

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


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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


23/100


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


24/100

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


25/100
http://www.radialeng.com/


26/100

26 December 2015

The David Rawlings Machine

returns with the Southern-Gothic-

influenced album Nashville Obsolete

By Kenny Berkowitz

HENRY

DILTZ

MACHINEWELCOME TO THE


27/100


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.


28/100

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.


29/100

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30/100

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


31/100


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


32/100

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


33/100

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34/100

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


35/100

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36/100

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


37/100

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38/100

38 December 2015

Because

sometimes an

acoustic guitar

is a canvas of

wood & steel

By Greg Cahill


39/100



40/100

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


41/100


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.


42/100

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).


43/100

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.


44/100

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.


45/100


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


46/100

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.


47/100


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)


48/100

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.


49/100
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50/100

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

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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.

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51/100


Faith Guitars Now In the US!

Voted the UKs Best Acoustic Guitar for the

past 3 years, Faith guitars are now available

in the states. This acclaimed UK based line

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New Deering Goodtime Banjo Ukulele

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DIY Stocking Stuffer: Zero Glide

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DAddario Clip-On Headstock Tuner

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