A fancy Guild from Jason Krekel!!!

I finally got to hang out with Amy and Jason from Mad Tea Party this weekend, it has been way too long! The are from Asheville, NC and play some awesome folky garage rock on ukulele and guitar. I have always known Jason to play a 1960s Silvertone, but on this trip he also had his father's Guild Starfire along. Jason's dad, Tim Krekel, was an amazing songwriter and guitarist from Kentucky. He passed last year and Jason inherited his main guitar. Here is with the Guild.
And here Jason is with the Guild and the Silvertone, both of which were made around 1964-1965, FYI.

Ok, now some pics. Notice the gold plated Bigsby Tremelo and Rotomatic tuners. Also, two single coil pickups and all original hardware, except for a missing finger rest. The whole thing is really awesome maple with a reddish sunburst. The neck is maple/walnut/maple and feels great. People pay the custom shops big bucks nowadays to fake the kind of mojo that Tim put into this guitar, but this is the real deal! Also, check out the two color pearl inlays and celluloid bindings!








It was really special to see Tim's guitar and learn more about him. I think for the next blog post I will feature Jason's silvertone!

Recording with Danielle Ate the Sanwich

My friend Danielle just took us into the studio to record a Lady Gaga song. I played electric guitar and had a great time. Peep it here:


We recorded at Macy Sound Studios, which is always awesome. I played my Epiphone guitar through a twin reverb and some fancy hand wired amp. Chris on fiddle, Carl on drums, Dennis on bass, DATS on uke and voice.

Just Crooked Enough

While driving through the snow tonight in the van, Neil pulled up "World's on Fire" by the Crooked Jades on the Ipod. This is one of my all time favorite records! The Jades are led by Jeff Kazor and have been around the Bay Area since '94. I saw the lineup that is on this record play in a hotel room at folk alliance in 2005 or so and it totally changed my life.

It is old time music that seems to skip right over the "party line" of the current scene and hits hard as the idiosynchratic music that it should be. Funky poly-rhythms, call and response vocals, odd song forms, modal melodies: all the good stuff.

Here is the link to download the record, its a must.

Camp Uke on Ebay!

My lovely Beansprout Camp Uke is up on Ebay. Check it out!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220686060040#ht_500wt_901

A Nice Review of The Beansprout!

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Quality Folk

Tonight we are in Centralia, WA playing at the Olympic, WA with

Steve Einhorn
and Kate Powers.

They play uke, banjo and guitar and sing great folksy harmony vocals. we heard about them from Gordon and Char from Myamoe Ukuleles and they were right, they are great.

A little bit of Cat Stevens meets Doc Watson, with harmonies that only come from singing together for 30 years!

Also, like all the venues on the great northwest music tour, The Olympia Club is totally haunted. it is a venue, bar, cafe, pool hall and hotel.

Mobile Blogging from here.

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40 year old port

Gordon and Char from Myamoe Ukuleles have been cooking for us for a couple of days while we hang out in White Salmon. Neil has been playing Grand Theft Auto while I help in the Myamoe shop.

We had two kinds of Port last night, 1970 and 1985!



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The Hoosier Hot Shots Kay Plectrum Guitar!

When we played in Eugene, OR the other day. The pickup on my electric guitar stopped working. We popped into Mckenzie river music with fingers crossed. It turns out they could fit me in that day, but we had to wait a few hours. Of course, Neil and I played all kinds of cool instruments and amps. When we were ready to go, I saw a flight case by the counter. I kicked it and asked if it was for sale. They said no, but it had a famous plectrum guitar in it. I asked to see it, and, HELLO! I recognized it as the plectrum guitar from a famous photo of The Hoosier Hotshots! The man who played it on all those great records was Ken Trietsch. This one was custom made by the Kay company and seams to be made of spruce and maple. Celluloid binding and pickguard, gold hardware, skinny maple neck, big body. A very nice guitar for a Kay! Check it out!





I have an autographed photo that belonged to my great aunt that has this guitar in it. I will post it when I get home from tour.

BAS'new CD!

Hey Friends and Fans! I just released a new CD with by band Boulder Acoustic Society. It was produced by Jefferson Hammer and I play banjo, uke, guitar and lap steel on it. You can download it and buy a copy here

Paul's Domino Banjo Uke!

My friend and mentor Paul Weidig came over this week with his trusty Le Domino banjo uke. It needed a new head, bridge, tuners and strings. This is one of the early ones that was made by the JR Stewart company. It has a nice black finish and little Domino decals all over! Its a real pro instrument and is part of a line of banjos, ukes, guitars, etc... all made with the same decoration. I just remembered Paul is a lefty, I better switch the strings around before I forget!