Old-Time Times

December 2003

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A Publication from your Nashville Old-Time String Band Association and Stratford Community Education.

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UPCOMING

ASSOCIATION EVENTS

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December 4, 2003

SLOW JAM

STRATFORD

6:30-8:30 PM

December 11, 2003

REGULAR JAM

STRATFORD

6:30-8:30 PM

There is NO 4TH SUNDAY JAM this month.

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Carl Myers

Office-262-6732

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Thanks to JANINE CHAMORRO for allowing us to come and share her home for a jam. 

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We need volunteers for all 2004 jams.

Contact Darlyne

Kent

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Tennessee Events

December 6, Saturday, 1-3 PM--Rebekah Weiler and Jewelia and Jim Lawrence will be playing the opening celebration called Whittlers and Fiddlers for a Tennessee Wood Carving Exhibit at the Discovery Center at Murfree Spring (Children’s Museum) in Murfreesboro.  It is located at 502 Southeast Broad Street.

December 6, Saturday, Second Show Dan Knowles, 2003 National Old-time Banjo Champion, is going to be the guest of Mike Snider on the “Second Show” at the Ryman Auditorium.

4^th Sunday Jams

Our fourth Sunday Jams are always great times to get together and jam with some who are not able to make the Thursday night jams.  To accomplish this, we really need folks to volunteer to host a 4th Sunday Jam.    Feel free to have the jam in your home, or if you wish, coordinate a jam at a park on that Sunday afternoon.  Some folks have hosted the jam in their work place.  

Please contact Darlyne Kent, 868-9951, or e-mail her at dkent@davidsonacademy.com if you would like to host a 4th Sunday jam.   January through November 2004, are available. 

Please remember that we do not have a jam this month because of the holidays.

Member Happenings

Jewelia Lawrence is a student at The Nashville School of Arts and was invited to perform old-time music at the second annual School Fair at One Hundred Oaks Mall on November 8.  Jewelia was spotlighted both for her talents and to emphasize opportunities connected with the school.  She did a terrific job at the Fair and was asked to play at Cheekwood in the near future.  Her dad, Jim Lawrence, accompanied her on the bass. 

Let me also add that Jewelia won 1^st  place in the Beginner Fiddle contest at Athens, Alabama, which is a big thing in these here parts.  We are very fortunate to have such a talented fiddler in our group.  I failed to include this in last month’s newsletter with the article that was sent in about the Athens contest.  My apologies. —Joy Andal

Rebekah Weiler was invited by National Old-Time Banjo Champion Dan Knowles and his Hot Band to be a guest artist with them on the stage of the River Explorer, a three-story luxury hotel barge where the group performs. She joined them on November 14 when the barge, which is based in New Orleans, was docked in Tennessee.

Additionally, Rebekah gave of her talents on November 13 to help raise funds for Candle Wishes, a Rutherford County charity that works with the Salvation Army to provide birthday gifts to underprivileged children.

During the later part of October, Jim and Jewelia Lawrence and Rebekah were in Berea, Kentucky for the Traditional Music Festival hosted by Berea College.  They helped with the afternoon entertainment along with Clifftop Fiddle Champion Jake Krack.  While at Berea, both Rebekah and Jewelia had the opportunity to study banjo with Carrie Norris, granddaughter of the late Lily May Ledford of the original Coon Creek Girls. It is interesting to note that Norris, who will soon give birth to her first child, never played the banjo until after her grandmother's death. —Patsy Weiler

 Back in 1974, a friend told me he had seen a wrecked 1939 Martin D-18 for sale at Gruhn’s for a mere $250.  More important, he said, was the fact that the guitar had once belonged to Clarence White (who, along with Doc Watson, helped popularize the high-quality flat picking we enjoy these days).

I went to Gruhn’s to see the guitar for myself.  The head stock was cracked, the fingerboard was damaged beyond repair, the bridge had been shaved down to almost nothing, the pickguard was gone, the upper side was missing altogether, and the lower side had a 3-inch by 6-inch hole in it.  Still, the neck was sound, the top and back had only minor cracks, and all of the handshaved braces were in place.  

As for the Clarence White story, the sales clerk said he had never heard anyone make that claim.  What’s more, the price was $275, not $250.  (The guy knew a fool when he saw one.)

At the time, I dreamed of becoming a luthier, I reckoned that I could buy the guitar and restore it later, once my skills reached a certain level.  I scraped together the money and took her home.

As the years slipped by, reality took its relentless toll, and I eventually found myself pushing 60 and no more capable of restoring my precious than I had been in ’74.  I decided to have her restored.

First, I took a pile of pictures, showing the guitar from every angle, and sent them to Roland White, Clarence White’s brother.  (Clarence had been killed by a drunk driver long before I bought the guitar.)  Roland was confident that my guitar and his brother had never met.  Oh well, I still loved the poor thing.

I packed her up and shipped her off to the Martin factory, feeling certain that they would happily restore one of their early masterpieces.  A couple of weeks later, a rude young punk called from Martin to say the guitar wasn’t worth repairing.  He snidely suggested that I trash the thing and buy a new one.  I sadly asked him to ship her back home.

My brother Harry (Sparky) is friends with Randy Wood.  Randy once operated The Picking Parlor down on 2nd Avenue and is a luthier of renown.  Harry called him and persuaded him to work on the guitar.  We asked that everything be kept as original as possible and agreed to give him as much time as he needed.

A year and several months later, she came home.  When I first opened the case, the sight brought tears to my eyes.  She looked like an old D-18 with a fresh coat of lacquer.  Randy had done the perfect restoration. 

A few weeks later, a couple of braces came loose, but Richard Starkey, a luthier in Franklin, reglued them for me.

Today, I’m the proud owner of a beautiful 1939 Martin D-18.  The cost was high, but nowhere near the guitar’s market value.  Besides, I love to play her, and I feel like I have saved a small treasure from oblivion.