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The Fretboard Journal Guitar Podcast

Each week, the Fretboard Journal interviews some of our favorite musicians, instrument builders and historians.
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The Fretboard Journal Guitar Podcast
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Now displaying: December, 2016
Dec 29, 2016

On today's Fretboard Journal Podcast, we talk to singer-songwriter Paul Burch, who went from performing in rock and indie bands in the Midwest to working the honky tonks on Lower Broadway. Burch tells us about his years performing at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, focusing on “post-war, pre-Elvis” music; his classic country music influences; how his songwriting and singing evolved; and his latest project, Meridian Rising, an imagined, musical autobiography of Jimmie Rodgers.

Read about Burch on fretboardjournal.com here: 
https://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/blue-ode-paul-burch-channels-inner-jimmie-rodgers/

This episode is sponsored by TR Crandall

Dec 23, 2016

Yet another fun session from the 2016 Fretboard Summit! This week we hear John Thomas (Kalamazoo Gals), TJ Thompson, Mark Stutman (Folkway Music), Jim Baggett (Mass Street Music), Robb Lawrence (The Les Paul Legacy) and David Sheppard (Lowe Vintage) field questions on vintage Gibson acoustic guitars.

Topics include: the many variables found in most vintage Gibsons; solid linings versus kerfed linings; converting ladder-braced models to X-braced; repair headaches; finish thickness and much more. 

Sponsored by TR Crandall.

Use the coupon code FJHoliday when you check out at https://shop.fretboardjournal.com and get an additional 15% off any order. 

Dec 16, 2016

The wait is over!

Back on our 100th episode, we introduced you to T. Drew Heinonen, a young luthier who attended the first Fretboard Summit. We ended up ordering a guitar through Drew, using woods and materials we sourced through some of our favorite suppliers. Ever since, we’ve been checking in with Drew on the podcast as he builds the instrument. Well, the wait is over and at the second Summit (held in October 2016 in San Diego), Drew presented us with the finished guitar, a fine sounding koa/Lutz OM with surprising tone (for a koa instrument) and plenty of personal touches.

On today’s episode, we talk to Drew about how the guitar came together, how it’s opening up and what his plans are for 2017 and beyond. We also discuss the sister OM guitar that Drew built using Black locust and Red spruce. That instrument is currently for sale via Drew. 

Dec 9, 2016

Law professor, author and Fretboard Journal Field Editor John Thomas joins us once again to discuss some recent updates to CITES and the impact they will have on musicians, instrument collectors and builders. Specifically, beginning January 2017, all remaining species of Rosewood (beyond Brazilian, which was already protected) will be added to CITES Appendix II. This may not affect you at all if you keep your guitars in United States but if you ever plan on taking an instrument with rosewood across the border (or selling one to someone outside the country), you may have some work to do.  

We discuss the various steps that collectors, luthiers and dealers should take if they want to transport guitars with rosewood internationally; how builders can protect their wood stockpile; the expenses and timing needed to file all this paperwork; and a lot more.

Subscribe to the Fretboard Journal podcast for free via iTunes: 
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fretboard-journal-podcast/id394447340?mt=2 and please consider leaving us a review or sharing the podcast with friends. 

If you’re holiday shopping and want to give the Fretboard Journal as a gift this year, use the coupon code FJHOLIDAY when you check out. You’ll get 15% off any order: https://shop.fretboardjournal.com

Intro/Outro music by Jon Rauhouse. 

Links Mentioned:

Today’s podcast is sponsored by TR Crandall:
http://trcrandall.com 

US Fish & Wildlife Link for Musical Instrument Passports:
https://www.fws.gov/international/permits/by-activity/musical-instruments.html

NAMM on CITES Updates: https://www.namm.org/issues-and-advocacy/regulatory-compliance/cites-update-action-rosewood-has-broad

The Fretboard Journal’s Guide to Musical Instrument Passports: https://www.fretboardjournal.com/columns/musical-instrument-passports-new-cites-provision/

The FJ’s Guitar Lover’s Guide to CITES:
https://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/guitar-lovers-guide-cites-conservation-treaty/ 

League of American Orchestra’s CITES Protected Species Travel Tips:
http://americanorchestras.org/advocacy-government/travel-with-instruments/endangered-species-material/protected-species-travel-tips.html

Dec 1, 2016

On December 5, 1927, the day after Blind Willie Johnson recorded some of his most influential blues sides at an impromptu Columbia Records recording studio in Dallas, in walked an equally mysterious and haunting musician, Washington Phillips. Phillips carried a homebrew instrument - later described as a “dulceola” but, as we learn on today’s podcast, actually two zithers he fabricated together. The otherworldly music coming out of those zithers, combined with Phillips’ powerful singing and songwriting, created some of the most awe-inspiring and mysterious sounds ever recorded. It’s no wonder Phillips has been covered by Ry Cooder, Jorma Kaukonen, Will Oldham and others.

On today’s podcast, we talk to writer Michael Corcoran, whose research helped fill in the gaps of who, exactly, Phillips was, where he lived and when he died. We also talk about Phillips instrument of choice and how the dulceola theory was finally debunked.
 
All of Corcoran’s findings on Phillips can be found on the new Dust to Digital book/CD recording called Washington Phillips and his Manzarene Dreams. It’s great music and great writing (the liner notes are actually a 76-page book)… we can’t recommend it enough.

“Where did this come from? That still remains the mystery,” Corcoran concludes. “I still don’t know that… you really will never know the motivation of the artist…”

Discussed in this podcast:
http://www.pickaway.press/fz/wp.html (page dedicated to Washington Phillips’ instrument)

http://www.dust-digital.com/washington-phillips/ (Washington Phillips and his Manzarene Dreams)

 
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