There are a few blanks.

Seven years ago I woke up in the San Luis Obispo ICU after a bicycle crash. I didn’t play guitar much for a year. It took 2-3 to remember my repertoire. I still have short term memory problems. In the blues band, I remember how to play the songs, but I can’t remember the titles. Song lists are useless to me. I have the other band members help me out.

Matt:

You mentioned the name Matt Mustapick in your post. What ever became of Matt? At one time I was exploring buying one of his guitars. His website is no longer active. Did he stop building guitars?

Very cool. Thanks for sharing. I think a lot of us can say some of our best memories involve music and friends made playing music. Whether anyone else knows the music or the people matters not. It's our soundtrack.

Matt gave it up a few years ago. His guitars were superbly built with wood choices other luthiers seemed to pass by. His Baritones were especially nice.

Where it all started:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RcA4rm...SCPzNQ&index=1

I played in the smaller outskirt ad hoc groups. My 100$ Yamaki didn't exactly get too many solo rounds... : ). A remarkable time for warm memories.

Dang banjo players.....

Very enjoyable read, and how cool to have DeGrassi and Skye at your wedding!

Nice thread, Matt. I've enjoyed reading it.

I took a different musical path than yours, but there are some similarities. When I was in my early twenties and just starting to gig out as a performer, I was playing only mountain dulcimer and mandolin. But I had a good friend a few doors down from where I lived named Dave who was a serious country blues fingerpicking guitarist.

He was a huge fan of Yazoo Records, which had these great recordings of early country blues players like Charlie Patton and Blind Lemon Jefferson. I think he must have bought an LP from them by mail order every month, because Dave built an astonishing collection over the years that we knew each other.


Dave was teaching himself a lot of the songs off those albums, and I seem to recall that he got tablature books for some of them through Yazoo or some other source.

I was already on a different course, in part because my singing voice sounds Irish no matter WHAT I sing. To see some pale blond guy singing blues songs sounding like he's a member of the Clancy Brothers is just too absurd, so I never pursued blues playing in performance.

But during the years I was hanging with Dave was also the time that I finally picked up and started playing guitar, and he was able to teach a couple of rudimentary fingerstyle blues songs like "Hesitation Blues" and "That'll Never Happen No More."

Then I took it from there, and have continued to explore the guitar in the forty years since.

Again, nice thread, Matt. Thanks for posting.


Wade Hampton Miller

Thanks for sharing your history

Wade, do you know Rick Brooks? I’m hoping to take the Alaska trip in the next few years. I would love to meet you and see Rick again.

Yes, Rick’s a great guy and a very fine musician. If you do manage to come up for the guitar camp, please let me know a couple of weeks in advance so I’ll know to be around. Augusts tend to be fairly hectic up here, but if I’m in town when you’re going to be around we’ll have a music party potluck in your honor. I can even restring a guitar or two for you if the strings I normally use on them are wildly inappropriate for the tunings you use.

Most of my guitars are strung with either mediums or bluegrass gauge strings, but I can cobble together different string sets if needed. That’s one of the benefits of being an artist endorser for a string company!

Hope to see you then.


whm

I remember waking up after a Dead show and a night of better living through chemistry. That was, however, in 1968. In those days after coming to I was likely to put Dave Van Ronk or Rev. Gary Davis on the turntable. Some things never change. I have to admit that to this day though I have never listened to Aex DeGrassi.

Back in the day I was surrounded by Harmony and Gibson guitars all purchased used because I could not afford anything bright and shiny new. That has also not changed. I guess what was once a necessity has become a habit.

And yeah, it has been a great ride!

I loved the reference to Alex DeGrassi as I was also inspired by him in a profound way.

Seattle was a key town for Windham Hill as they had some radio contacts at KZAM-FM which was a huge booster. For more than a decade Seattle was always on Windham Hill artists tour schedules.

In 1977 Will Ackerman played at Bumbershoot, a well-known arts festival. I attended the concert since I heard his first album in 1976. At the end, Will said he was completely out of songs, but if we didn't mind, he'd like to bring out his cousin to play a few tunes. I'll admit I was skeptical.

Alex DeGrassi came out and proceeded to slay the audience with a short five song set from his still unrecorded debut album. I can still remember sitting in the second row marvelling over the cascade of notes and realizing this was a new style being born. I instantly became a huge fan.

Cool stuff - thank you for sharing. Now tell us stories about your encounters with old guitars! I want to say I recall posts you've made where at various points you've hung out with original OM-28's and other prewar wonders - am I remembering correctly?

Yes. I have a friend here who has been in the vintage market since 1980. He had not one , but two 1930 OM 45s. I played them both in his studio. The better sounding of the two may have been Stefan Grossman’s. It had the best neck, playability, and tone of any vintage Martin I ever had the pleasure and luck to play.

One day I was at Eric Schoenberg's Shop. He knew that the owner of the OM45s was a friend and former bandmate of mine. He pulled a guitar from an old case. It was an OM 45 Deluxe, one of the 14 made. Of course my friend had to have it and after selling the wonderful OM 45 I had played, he got the Deluxe, which I never got to see or play.

In 2016 I stopped at Mass Street Music in Lawrence, Kansas. The owner, Jim Baggett, was a close friend of my buddy with the 45s. Since there wasa connection, I was invited up to the Inner Sanctum to play an extraordinary 1930 OM 28. It hadthe widest Sonic soundscape if any Martin ever, eclipsing the 45s. At $38,000 due to cosmetic disarray, it was 50% less than one in perfect condition. But the Tone was exquisite. Playing it was like meeting the older woman with a few wrinkles but the magic most men dream of in guitars orthe fairer sex, Jim also had some early 30s OM 18s and-a ‘37 OOO 18 that was the little sister of the 28 at half the price.

I left that day feeling worn out with guitar crushes but keeping my credit cards intact. I could have walked out with any of those guitars, but I didn’t want to spend the next 5 years paying off two cards.

Wonderful - thanks for sharing!