It's an odd mix of excitement and sadness when one of my guitars leaves the warm cozy comfort of the shop and strikes out its own into the harsh world. You build up a relationship with each guitar -- an endearing, sometimes contentious familiarity with these funny little boxes of wood that you'll (hopefully) never see again. On the other hand, rent is due and I enjoy eating every day so sell sell sell!
Here's one of mine at the 12th Fret in Toronto....
Since starting the shop, we inadvertently stumbled upon a rather profound and paradigm-altering method of music promotion. Perhaps this is being careless, but I'm going to share with you this sure-fire secret to success -- don't take any money for yourself. Through no fault of our own, the shop has developed into "Montreal's hottest new venue"1. A few months ago Michael Jerome Browne contacted me about playing in the shop. My position as object in the previous sentence should be of note -- people are now asking US to play. And not just any people; people like Michael Jerome Browne! Here's some evidence as to why this is good news....
1 So, I may or may not have been the one to say this.
If sitcoms have taught me one thing about addressing the public (besides imagining a less than fully clothed audience -- congratulations dear internet, you are now naked) it's to start with a joke...
What's the difference between a guitar maker and large pizza?
A large pizza can feed a family of four.
Bam! There we go. Now onto the business at hand, which is, well, business. One of the pleasant side affects of making guitars is the need to sell them. This provides ample excuses for extended "business trips" camouflaged under the guise of a "sales trip". So, part of my travels this past year were spent visiting various guitar stores and dealers in an effort to gently thrust my name into the public consciousness.
Passing through Asheville, North Carolina meant several things -- beer festival, roller derby, contra-dancing, old-time music, Dream Guitars, and the best restaurant in the world. Just north of Asheville the folks at Dream Guitars (dreamguitars.com) have an incredibly impressive collection of instruments and were rather smitten with one of my tenor guitars. It has since sold, but here's a video they posted to help in the effort...
So, what's the best restaurant in the world? SALSA'S. Hands down, no questions asked, it's SALSA'S.
I don't know what it's like outside where you live (where exactly do you live internet?), but in Montreal it's snowy. And cold. In nothing short of a heroic effort to delay my descent into said weather I decided to post another song from the Old Time for a New Year concert we had in the shop a few weeks ago. This time it's an original from our friend Mary Stockland. Mary is a wonderful person with a wonderful voice who writes wonderful songs. Enjoy...
We broke in the new shop with our grand re-opening concert a few weeks ago, so it's about time for another party! Come join us for a night of fiddle tunes, ballads, old time songs and original music performed by Montreal's finest ballad singer Mary Stockland and old time stringband The Bogghoppers. Mary has an absolutely incredible voice that'll leave you weak in the knees and the Bogghoppers burn through old time music like it's hot off the presses! (I know that metaphor doesn't really make sense -- just trust me that they're GREAT!). This is a pay-what-you-can event and doors will open at 8:30 with music getting started at 9:30.
Mile End Guitar Shop #712 5445 de Gaspe Saturday, Jan. 15th
A key item on the agenda of our first shop (re)opening party planning committee meeting was a serious discussion as to whom we should ask to perform. As per the by-laws, an exact transcription of the meeting was recorded -- a segment of which I've reproduced below...
"So we should probably throw a party, huh?"
"Yeah, maybe get Mike and a bunch of other people to play."
"Ok, sounds good."
Fascinating. Really though, there was no doubt in our minds that we should get Mike to play. He was a big part of concerts in the old shop and one of the best thrills as a guitar maker is to hear someone who can really play have a go at one of your creations. For the first song in his second encore Mike plays an original, 'Josephine' ...
