“The best
learning curve you can get yourself on is being on stage trying not to suck.”
- Bill Kirchen
Every now and then we pass along a posting from the Fretboard
Journal blog, but you should know that FJ is a magazine, too. It comes out
quarterly. The printing is first class, the
photography is beautiful, and the stories are varied and interesting.
I just picked up the Spring edition. There’s a profile of Bill
Kirchen, the top-drawer Telecaster picker who first came to light in Commander
Cody’s Lost Planet Airmen. Michael Gurian, perhaps the godfather of the current
generation of small-shop independent luthiers, has an extensive story as well.
The cover story provides every detail you’ll ever need about Tony Rice’s legendary
1935 D-28, except how to get your hands on it. (Did you know the tuners don’t
match? Or that Clarence White once shot the guitar with a pellet gun?)
There’s much more, starting with players Taj Mahal and Jordi
Savall, luthiers Stefan Sobell and Bill Nash, and short pieces on the oldest
gigging musician around and the surf band The Neptunes, where everyone plays a
double necked guitar.
And, unlike all those other magazines you buy, you won’t mind leaving
this one out on the coffee table until the next issue comes out.
[TJH]
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