THE TOP - Martin Gitarren

T H E J O U R N A L O F ACO U S T I C GU ITAR S
TIME IN A
BOTTLE:
FROM VINTAGE GLOSS
TAKE IT FROM
TO THE VINTAGE TONE SYSTEM
THE TOP
A WORD FROM CHRIS
LAURENCE
JUBER’S
STRING THEORY
WORKING
WOMAN:
A PROFILE OF VALERIE JUNE
VOLUME 4 | 2015
SET LIST
8.
TAKE IT FROM THE TOP
A Word from Chris
10.
LINER NOTES
From the Community
12.
TIME IN A BOTTLE: FROM VINTAGE
GLOSS TO THE VINTAGE TONE SYSTEM
By Jonathan R. Walsh
26.
LAURENCE JUBER’S STRING THEORY
By Matt Blackett
32.
NEW RELEASES
40.
NORTH STREET ARCHIVE
42.
WORKING WOMAN: A PROFILE
OF VALERIE JUNE
By Melissa Faliveno
52.
ROOTING FOR THOMAS RHETT
By Rebecca Bicks
58.THE 1833 SHOP ®
60.
IN MEMORIAM
Stan Jay
VOLUME 4 | 2015
THE JOURNAL OF ACOUSTIC GUITARS
PUBLISHER C. F. Martin & Co., Inc.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Amani Duncan
DESIGN & PRODUCTION Lehigh Mining & Navigation
ART DIRECTOR Denis Aumiller
DESIGNER Laura Dubbs
ACCOUNT DIRECTOR Joe Iacovella
COPYWRITER Scott Byers
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Pat Lundy
PRINTING Payne Printery
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dick Boak, Jonathan R. Walsh,
Matt Blackett, Melissa Faliveno, Rebecca Bicks
PHOTOGRAPHY John Sterling Ruth, Mandee Taylor
MARTIN ® | THE JOURNAL OF ACOUSTIC GUITARS
Business Office
C. F. Martin & Co., Inc.
P.O. Box 329, Nazareth, Pa. 18064
P. 610.759.2837
F. 610.759.5757
www.martinguitar.com
© 2015 C. F. Martin & Co., Inc., Nazareth, Pa.
All rights reserved.
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
7
A WORD FROM CHRIS
TAKE IT FROM THE TOP
Dear Martin enthusiast,
I’ll be celebrating my 60th birthday at the
has a great deal of experience managing
summer NAMM show this year. If you haven’t
businesses that make and sell high-quality
been to Nashville, you should plan a visit.
co ns um e r go o d s. S he i s ea ger to l ea rn
The city is booming. It still is the home of
about the musical instrument business and
country music and some great food.
meet the colorful characters who are part of
Speaking of turning 60, I’m in pretty good
it. I have assured her that we will help her
company. Steve Earle, Jeff Daniels, Reba
try to understand the grand traditions and
McEntire, Sterling Ball and Dee Snider, all
specific language that we know and love.
artists whose work I enjoy, are also turning
60 this year.
I hope you enjoy reading about our favorite
artists in this issue of the Martin ® Journal.
Older, even than I am, by about a thousand
years, is a process called torrefaction. When
applied to wood, it results in a more dimensionally
Sincerely,
stable product than traditional kiln- or air-drying
provides. The end result for us is guitar parts
that are remarkably similar to older pieces of
wood. We believe this allows us to approximate
C. F. Martin IV
the tone of a vintage guitar.
Chairman & CEO
I’m proud to announce that Jackie Renner
has joined the company as President. She
8 | TAKE IT FROM THE TOP
C. F. Martin & Co., Inc.
Nashville thought Hank Williams was trouble.
Here’s his partner in crime.
Whether writing legendary songs or becoming country music’s original outlaw,
Hank Williams always had a Martin by his side. Find yours at martinguitar.com.
FROM THE COMMUNITY
LINER NOTES
Dear Martin & Co.,
I cannot thank you all enough for making the great Little Martin guitar.
From the moment that our package arrived, everyone here in Afghanistan
was excited to get their hands on it. Your company has certainly brought
some joy to deployed personnel. Some of the guys said that when they
buy their next guitar, it will be a Martin. The fact that your guitars are
of the highest quality and sound amazing might also have a little bit of
influence o n so m e of u s ! From the bottom of my heart and on behalf
of th e men and women of the Combined Joint Special Operations Air
Component who will get to enjoy the guitar, thank you. You wouldn’t
b e l i eve th e s m i l es an d l au ghte r th e gu i tar h as b ro u g ht a lrea d y !
Sincerely,
SSgt. Marvin Rodriguez
Senior Weapons System Coordinator
United States Air Force
SSgt. Marvin Rodriguez
Senior Weapons System Coordinator
United States Air Force
10 | LINER NOTES
Dear Friends at Martin,
I thought you might like to see my wife Debbie Baer’s
most recent acrylic painting, titled 1931, of my 00-18 12-fret
Martin Guitar made in that same year. The photo does not do
justice to the painting, but she has certainly captured the
vintage spirit of this special guitar, including a variety of
Pennsylvania products made during the same era. Of course I
am biased, both for my wife’s artwork and for Martin guitars!
Thanks again,
Barry Baer
Hunlock Creek, Pa.
Upon Goro Takahashi’s passing in 2013, Eric Clapton
wished to honor his friend with a special tribute guitar.
This 000-42K Edition was offered in January of 2014 as
a design collaboration between C. F. Martin & Co., Goro’s
family in Japan, and Eric Clapton. “Goro” is highly revered
both in Japan and throughout the world for his exquisitely
crafted gold and silver jewelry and his leather work in
the Southwestern Native American artistic style. Goro’s
daughter-in-law, Mito Yamamoto, helped coordinate the
000-42K Goro Custom Tribute Edition, and she joined Dick
Boak for its introduction at the 2015 Winter NAMM Show in
Anaheim, California. All 39 guitars in the edition sold to
dealers instantaneously.
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
11
TIME IN A
FROM VINTAGE GLOSS TO
THE VINTAGE TONE SYSTEM
BY JONATHAN R. WALSH
FIFTEEN MINUTES
The goal was to catch time in a bottle. To reach back through years and uproot
all the uncertainty; to skip over every misstep; to know then what was known
now. To drop an acorn and command a mighty oak; to go to sleep one moment
and wake the next with a lifetime’s worth of wisdom. To best centuries of
alchemists and scientists and storytellers and be the one who came stumbling
out from the smoking, strobe-lit laboratory holding it: a Mason jar full of liquid
time. Once they’d done it, says Jeff Allen, Martin’s General Manager, Custom Shop,
the funny thing was: “If anyone would just sit down and really think about it for
15 minutes, they would figure all of this out for themselves.”
OM-45 DE LUXE
AU THENTIC 1930
TWO YEARS
Fred Greene, Martin’s Chief Product Officer, has an office located deep in the heart of the
factory, nestled behind a pair of Packard-sized machines used for preparing guitar tops. It’s easy
to overlook on tours: from the outside it resembles a bunker, a stout rectangle made of cinder
blocks. Inside, though, it is a cross between a rehearsal space, a punky teenager’s bedroom, and
an artist’s studio. The walls are painted blood-red, warmly lit with lamplight and the glow of
a neon sign that appropriately reads “PUNK,” which gives it the feel of some of Brooklyn’s better
bars. In one corner sits an old Slingerland jazz kit; in another is a modern stand-up desk stacked
with books and papers. Guitars hang on every wall: a ’52 Fender Telecaster, a Gibson SG, more
than a few beloved Martins. A Clash poster hangs over the drum set, and from time to time the
throb of London Calling (or Sticky Fingers, or the James Gang Rides Again) can be heard as you
walk down the stretch of factory that leads from the Custom Shop to the finishing department.
Tying it all together is a 25-foot-high graphic of a crowd scene at a rock concert, hands in the air
defiantly. It is the dream of every kid who’s ever fallen in love with the guitar, what the most diehard music fan would do if a guitar factory was his playground.
Greene isn’t a kid. Much like Martin, guitars have been the great constant in his life, and he’s
been working with them going on 40 years. His lungs no longer mind the sawdust, and he can
spot the great guitars hidden in a batch of good ones by instinct. Experience guides the way
Greene moves through the factory, focused but friendly; a cross between a sage and a softball
coach. He is tall and lithe, a sharp dresser with swarthy features that suggest somewhere in his
lineage some of southern France’s more mischievous sons. But his eyes are both tender and tense
with concern as they inspect an instrument. Reviewing the work of one of the many luthiers he
oversees, he speaks the language of bracing and dovetail joints before cracking a joke or plucking
a few bars of “Brown Sugar.” For all the responsibility, he seems not to have forgotten that wood
doesn’t make guitars, people do. Perhaps one of the most obvious signs of that was in his hiring
of Jeff Allen to run the Custom Shop two years ago, in 2013.
Like Greene, Allen worked at Gibson early in his career (the two overlapped for several years
back in the 1980s). And like Greene, since getting his start, Allen has devoted his days to making
guitars ever since. He worked his way up to General Manager at Gibson before moving on to become
Vice President of Manufacturing at Fender and ultimately landing at Martin’s Custom Shop. In
the intervening years between their time together at Gibson and now at Martin, both Allen and
Greene continued to grow into their tastes in their own ways. Both have spent decades developing
vision and a master’s palette for tonewoods—the rich, dark sound of rosewood or the spectral
shimmer of Alpine spruce, the snap of cocobolo and the bark of koa .
14 | TIME IN A BOTTLE
OM-28 AUTHENTIC 1931
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
15
“I know where Fred’s going,” Allen says with a laugh. “I know where he’s going
had more of a sheen to them than the
and what he’s getting ready to do.” It’s Saturday morning on one of January’s
ones that were a 41-style or below.
more mercifully mild days, and I’ve been drinking coffee and reviewing notes,
A n d I couldn’t figure out why.”
trying to prepare for our talk about Martin’s newest innovations, the Vintage
Allen bought a microscope for
Tone System (VTS) and Vintage Gloss finish. “Fred’s heading over to a
t h e purpose of examining v intage
cigar bar about an hour’s drive from here, a really cool place where you can
Martin tops, and while this told him a
sit and have your favorite scotch and smoke cigars. He asked me to go with
lot about old techniques, it couldn’t
him, but I had too much to do today,” he says laughing. “I couldn’t do it. But
explain the finish. He needed to find
he’s gonna have some fun.”
the recipe. While other manufacturers
Allen is having his own kind of fun, taking the day to work on one of the latest
kept roomfuls of documentation that
projects that will give him the opportunity to connect his mind with his
laid out every pro du c t i on change,
hands: restoring a 1967 Ford Galaxie 500. “The car’s done except for the
every step-by-step process, Martin’s
engine, so I pulled that out about a month ago, and probably spent three or
history as a family-run business meant
four Saturdays—maybe a partial Sunday here or there—getting the motor
that those kinds of records w e re
completely disassembled. Now that it’s all apart, the only thing I’ve done
never saved. With two or even three
to it so far is ported and polished the heads. I still need to take it and have
generations of a family coming up
the block machined and crank jacked, all that stuff. I’m getting ready to start
through the factory, techniques
putting it back together.” All in all, he says, “The car—the body, paint, interior—
passed directly from craftsman to
all that took maybe a year so far. It’s been a lot of fun.”
craftsman, which sometimes left a
This is Allen’s idea of a good time, and to hear him talk about it, there could
hole in the written record. Working
be no better way to spend a weekend—or weekday, or lifetime—than reaching
with Dick Boak, Martin’s Director of
into the guts of a machine to figure out how it works, to understand it, to get
Museum and Archives, Allen began
close enough to see how to make it better. It wasn’t long after he arrived at
sifting through thousands of pieces of
Martin that the gears began turning for one of Allen’s first big projects at the
correspondence—written to dealers,
company, a cross between detective work, science, and art that would lead to
manufacturers, and customers, some
rediscovering Martin’s Vintage Gloss guitar finish.
dating back over a century—until
The idea started forming as Allen was studying guitars from Martin’s golden
he fo u n d wh at h e wa s l ook ing for :
era: the 1930s. “I’d look at those instruments—visit other dealers like Fred
“I started finding these things that
Oster down in Philly or George Gruhn in Nashville—and anytime they get those
spoke a bo u t l a cqu er o r var nish or
guitars in, I’ll go by and photograph them, look at them, even take smell
s h e l l a c , a n d why t h ey switche d. I
samples of the inside of the guitar to try to get a vibe for those instruments.”
spent weeks go i n g t h rough these
Just as spending enough time examining tree rings can reveal when a shift
l ette rs u nt i l I found the ones that
occurred—this dark ring marks a forest fire, that fat one a flood—Allen started
I was really hoping I would find,
to see a line running through the history of Martin guitars. Certain guitars, after
which really specified the difference
years of playing, developed a patina that seemed almost to glow. “I noticed
between 41-style and below and
that instruments that were 42-style and above, even though they were old,
42-style and above.”
16 | TIME IN A BOTTLE
Eventually, Allen stumbled upon a letter to
a customer written in 1936 that gave an
overview of Martin’s finishing techniques.
Contained a b o u t halfway through was
“SO I JUST SET OUT
TO TRY TO FIGURE OUT,
a clear, step-by-step explanation of the
FOLLOWING THOSE
technique that gave certain guitars from
DIRECTIONS, HOW TO
that era the special luster that went
DO IT MYSELF. BECAUSE
on to age so well. It turned out to be a
NO ONE ELSE WANTED TO
multistep and labor-intensive process,
impossible to replicate by machines
DO IT – I MEAN, IT’S NASTY,
or spray guns. “So I just set out to try
IT’S MESSY, AND IT’S NOT
to figure out, following those directions,
VERY REWARDING UNLESS
how to do it myself. Because no one else
YOU’RE JUST REALLY
wanted to do it—I mean, it’s nasty, it’s
INTO THE GUITARS.”
messy, and it’s not very rewarding unless
you’re just really into the guitars.” With
license from Greene to disappear for
days at a time inside the factory, Allen
got to work. Eventually, after a few
sticky weeks, says Allen, “We finally got it
looking like what we saw in the museum.
Something that, if we could go back
about 50 years, this would’ve been about
the way they would’ve left the factory
here. So we kinda stopped and said,
‘We think this is it.’” The Vintage Gloss
finish was reborn.
– J EFF ALLEN
CS-0 0 0 41-15
“YOU PUT THE WOOD UNDER TEMPERATURE, SO THE SUGARS ARE COOKING AND THE
RESINS ARE COOKING IN THERE, AND IT [STARTS] BROWNING IT UP—SORT OF LIKE
TAKING SUGAR AND MAKING CARAMEL O U T OF IT. SO WE WERE THINKING AROUND
THAT TIME: CAN WE DO THIS PROCESS, AND CAN WE GET THE TOP TO BE LIGHTER?
AND THAT’S THE PROJECT THAT I REALLY PUT TIM TO WORK ON.”
– FRED
18 | TIME IN A BOTTLE
GREENE
114 YEARS
Tim Teel’s workshop feels like it could be home to either a mad scientist or very avant-garde
woodsmith. As Manager of Instrument Design, he is both. Sawed-off guitar parts wait on shelves
to be used in some future project; wiring harnesses and soldering irons hang on hooks; a
dusty, trusty Peavey practice amp lies beneath a bench until it’s required to test the latest set of
electronics. Prototypes abound, and it’s likely that many of a Martin player’s favorite features
from the past 10 years were born here. It is also where Martin’s foray into the curing process
known as torrefaction likely got its start.
Torrefaction, for the uninitiated, is the process of heating wood in the absence of oxygen.
Depending on how you look at it, it dates back to anywhere from about the middle of last century
(as a way of creating fuel during the petroleum shortage that followed World War II) to 114 years
ago (as a patented technique for roasting coffee beans) and, among other things, can create a
piece of wood completely free of moisture. The resulting lumber has a condensed cell structure
that is both hydrophobic (a.k.a. water-resistant) and more stable. As wood ages, it continues to
dry, partially breaking down the sugars—cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin—in its cell walls. If
this happens at a different rate in one part of the wood than another—as can happen as a guitar
ages—the wood can bend (or, in the case of guitar tops, crack). Completely drying the wood at
an even rate means it won’t shift down the line, and because it’s hydrophobic, water won’t seep
in to warp it. This makes it ideal for certain types of construction—most torrefaction ovens are
industrial-sized—and a few years ago it naturally piqued the interest of guitar makers.
It was back in 2013 that the first piece of torrefied wood appeared on Teel’s crowded workbench,
according to Greene. “Tim and I were talking about what to do with it, and we decided to go
ahead and try this new top on the 2014 Custom Shop model,” Martin’s annual concept piece.
Their first traditionally torrefied spruce top was used in what would ultimately become the Martin
CS-00S-14. It’s a notable guitar for many reasons: ornate cocobolo binding, a slotted headstock,
and a slope-shoulder 12-fret design. But two things stand out: first, the tone. The torrefied wood
provided a sparkle that Greene hadn’t heard on a fresh guitar before. To their surprise, the new
guitar had the natural projection of one that someone had spent decades breaking in, yet it
hadn’t worn its first set of strings for more than a few hours. Second was the color. Torrefaction
had given otherwise pale spruce a leathery tint that called to mind cappuccino or a baseball mitt.
“You put the wood under temperature,” says Greene, “so the sugars are cooking and the resins
are cooking in there, and it [starts] browning it up—sort of like taking sugar and making caramel
out of it. So we were thinking around that time: Can we do this process, and can we get the
top to be lighter? And that’s the project that I really put Tim to work on.”
Teel and Allen are office mates at the Martin factory, and you might say that seating arrangement
deserves credit for the leap from traditional torrefaction to what would become Martin’s Vintage
Tone System (VTS). “They sit right beside each other, so they constantly go back and forth with
each other on things,” says Greene. This is because Teel, Allen adds, “is one of those guys who
speaks my language—he gets harebrained ideas and will chase those down.” By the end of 2013,
both were chasing ideas: Allen was after Martin’s Vintage Gloss finish, and Teel was working to
crack the torrefaction problem.
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
19
150 YEARS
Shine a light through a new guitar top, and you’ll be able to see the light come through the other side. Put it
under a microscope and you’ll see why: Water in the wood’s cell walls transmits the light like a fiber optic cable
from one side to the other. Remove that water and other materials through torrefaction, and the properties that
allow light transmission are diminished. One day, Teel was working on torrefied wood and decided to show the
flashlight trick to Allen. “He was showing me that trick, and I kind of put it in the back of my mind. Then I walk
over to this microscope I was using to look at the old lacquer. I was looking at a top from a 1934 000 that had
been removed—one I had in my little library of parts. And I’m just looking at the lacquer till I flip the guitar top
over and I look at the inside, and I start to notice something in the cell structure. And I thought, Where have I
seen this cell structure before?” The pattern of spruce cells in the vintage top, it turns out, was a near-perfect
match to the torrefied piece of new wood over at Teel’s desk. “So I go back over and I pick up a piece of torrefied
wood, and I put it under the microscope and said, ‘Wait a minute, this is it.’”
It was then they realized that torrefaction didn’t just make the wood become dryer—in a way it mimics old wood
cell structure. “That kind of was the aha moment,” says Allen. “To say that the reason torrefaction makes the
guitar sound better straight out of the box, versus a green guitar, is because it replicates some of those properties
that make a properly aged old guitar sound so good.” But using traditional torrefaction on a guitar top can be a
bit like doing needlepoint with a shotgun: overkill, to put it lightly. They found that applying the same techniques
intended to treat support beams for homebuilding to guitar tops just a few millimeters thick had two notable results.
First, a darkening of the wood, as Greene observed back in 2013. More importantly, in terms of aging it, says
Allen, “The original torrefaction process created wood with the cell structure of a guitar that had naturally aged
for over 150 years”—older than almost every Martin in existence.
20 | TIME IN A BOTTLE
“SO I GO BACK OVER AND I PICK UP A PIECE OF
TORREFIED WOOD, AND I PUT IT UNDER THE
MICROSCOPE AND SAID, ‘WAIT A MINUTE, THIS IS IT.’”
– J EFF
ALLEN
Torrefaction is an intimidating word. It conjures images of flame-licked ovens, chemical treatments, beakers and
burners. The truth is more basic. “I am not a scientist, Fred is not a scientist, and Tim Teel is not a scientist,” says
Allen. “It’s very simple; what we’re doing, all of the guitar guys could do themselves. It’s just that we stumbled
on it accidentally, and then we said we’re not gonna let this go; we’re gonna chase this down and see if it goes
somewhere.” As they chased the torrefaction process, the team found they could hit the century-and-a-half mark
with increasing reliability. The challenge, then, became hitting the sweet spot: the 1930s. “I thought, If we’re going
to go after the ’30s, I wonder if we can play around with the process, or maybe include other processes before
or after torrefying that would help us get to the right cell structure,” says Allen. “We spent another year and a
half getting the process down to where we thought we really had it”—’it,’ in this case, being the Vintage Tone
System (VTS). They expanded the process to include bracing and bridge plates—both integral to how a guitar
top vibrates—and built their first prototypes. The result was a batch of guitars that not only replicated older
guitars—at the cellular level, they were essentially vintage instruments.
It was enough to fool the most expert ears on the planet when it comes to Martin guitars: the men and women of
the Martin factory. In blind listening tests, everyone agreed Martin’s newest instruments were unmatched by
anything else coming off the line. “The result was unanimous that these not only sounded the best—a lot of
the people thought that these were the old, original ’37s,” says Allen. Having hit their sweet spot, the Vintage
Tone System was ready to go public.
At the summer NAMM show, America’s largest sales show for instrument makers, the new guitars with the new
Vintage Tone System were a huge hit. “The new OM-28 Authentic was played all day, every day at our booth at
the 2015 Winter NAMM Trade Show in Anaheim, California,” says Allen, laughing. “It was never on the wall-hook
display.” According to Allen, Martin sold more of the new Authentics with VTS at that show than they had
i n h i s previous two years at Martin combined.
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
21
181 YEARS
One of the most beautiful things about guitars is that they age; that, like us, the years change
them. For some, the years bend them; for others, the years even break them. For most, like us, life
is about finding a voice. Sometimes this takes years, sometimes decades. But the goal is to find
out who you are, to be forever in the act of becoming yourself. Some want to share that journey
with a new Martin by their side. Some are looking for a partner that’s already gotten there.
“These guitars are for people who are comfortable with what they want and what they like,” says
Greene. “These are not for people who are unsure—who aren’t sure what kind of music they want
to play, what kind of player they are, who don’t know where their standing is in the world yet, so
to speak—that’s not who these are for. These guitars generally have relatively big necks on ‘em
because they’re old school. They’re non-adjustable—sort of how we get as we get older. The way
we become less willing to change who we are and learn to accept the flaws that come with how
we’re built as people; guitars are sort of the same way. And so instead of worrying about what it’s
not, it’s way more proud of what it is. And what it is, is just a great sounding guitar. It’s a 1937
D-28, and it has a big neck on it, and it has a T-bar in there, and it’s got an Adirondack top. And
if you don’t want to play it this way, or you don’t want a guitar that sounds really big and huge
and loud, that’s okay. It’s not a guitar that’s trying to please everyone. It’s just saying, ‘This is
who I am.’ If you like it, and this is what you like, then you can believe this is the best example
of it in the world. And, honestly, that is the way we approached the VTS thing—we believed in
it. We’re trying to make guitars that we believe in.”
Adds Allen, “We’re doing the things that we believe, as guitar freaks ourselves, make the guitar
better, or we would not do it. The motivator was to get these guys a guitar that sounds closer
to an old ’37. If you can’t afford a vintage one—and I cannot—the closest you can do is try to
make one. And that really was the goal.”
At 181 years in, Martin is not unlike these VTS guitars: at once wise with the experience of a lifetime
and still young, ever restless. The company has survived the Civil War, the Great Depression, even
the 1980s. The awkward years, the teenage years, are over. Martin does not need to reach out blindly
to try to find out what it isn’t, and, because of that, it can focus on what it is. “We don’t get hung
up on things that are trivial, or don’t matter, or seem fleeting,” says Greene. “We’re able to pick
out paths that make sense for us going forward. We don’t waste time; we realize time is precious.
You know, we only have so much time here. And we’re really proud of where we’re at right now.”
22 | TIME IN A BOTTLE
“I T ’S N O T A GUI TAR T HAT ’S TRYING TO
PLEASE EVERYONE. IT’S JUST SAYING, ‘THIS
IS WHO I AM.’ IF YOU LIKE IT, AND THIS IS
WHAT YOU LIKE, THEN YOU CAN BELIEVE
THIS IS THE BEST EXAMPLE OF IT IN THE
WORLD. AND, HONESTLY, THAT IS THE WAY
WE APPROACHED THE VT S T H I NG—WE
BELIEVED IN IT. WE’RE TRYING TO MAKE
GUITARS THAT WE BELIEVE IN.”
– FRED
GREENE
SS-GP42 -15
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
23
BY MATT BLACKETT
LAURENCE JUBER’S
STRING THEORY
It’s pretty amazing when being in a band with a Beatle isn’t your biggest
claim to fame, but for Laurence Juber, that might just be true. Not that
his stint in Wings with Sir Paul McCartney doesn’t loom large on his
résumé—how could it not? But Juber has also done high-level session
work (both before and after Wings), tons of TV dates, movie soundtracks
(The Spy Who Loved Me anyone?), worked as guitarist and producer for Al
Stewart, and won a couple of Grammys. It’s his work as a solo fingerstyle
acoustic pl aye r, h oweve r, that will undoubtedly prove to be Juber ’s
greatest accomplishment. From his first solo album, Standard Time, in
1982 to this year’s Fingerboard Road, he has firmly established himself
as a world-class guitarist who fearlessly tackles classic songs like “Let
It Be” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and has the guts to place his
own compositions right next to them. And whether it’s a timeless standard
or a brand new tune, Juber brings the same attention to detail, the same
touch, tone, and nuance that have defined his style. And he does it with
a dizzying array of multiple parts going on: Chords, melody, bass, lead
fills, and percussive elements all happen simultaneously—woven into an
astounding arrangement that seems almost impossible until you see him
pull it off live. Then it seems totally impossible.
Fingerboard Road not only documents the evolution of Juber’s musical
and interpretative style, it also marks a big change in his technical
journey, as it is the first album where this longtime Martin guitar player
has exclusively used Martin guitar strings. After trying the Martin Retro ™
Monel strings, Juber worked with Martin to create a custom set to suit
his unique musical needs: Martin Retro ™ LJ’s Choice. It’s interesting
how this state-of-the-art acoustic artist found new inspiration in Monel,
an almost-forgotten musical metal of the early 20th century. He spoke
about the process, the results, and why he never stops listening to and
searching for the sound in his head.
26 | LAURENCE JUBER’S STRING THEORY
You have your style and sound pretty well-established. Why change your strings at this
point in your career? Well, I’m constantly examining things. For example, even though I
have my stage rig kind of set, I’ll always take some time in the woodshed to double-check it,
and if some new piece of gear comes along, I’ll give that a go too, just to make sure I’m not
missing anything. I’m kind of a relentless experimenter. To be honest, though, I really had no
intention of changing guitar strings. Guitar strings are like razor blades. You find something
that works for you and you stick with it. I had been given a couple sets of the Martin Retro ™
Tony Rice Monel strings, and initially I didn’t get it. The gauging was wrong for me. But
because I tend to be kind of persistent if I think there may be something to be learned,
I started a dialogue with the string department at Martin about getting some gauging that
would suit me. As I got familiar with the strings, I started to realize that they were actually
occupying a different sonic space. Once I got gauges that I was comfortable with, I found I
was really enjoying the sound that I was getting out of these strings.
And that’s when you made the switch? My criterion is, if I’m going to use something, I really
have to use it. It took well over a year for me to truly commit, but when I did, I said, “Okay,
I get it—this is working for me.” I was doing some recording with regular phosphor bronze
and then with the Monel strings, and I found that I was starting to like the sound better. I
was also very happy to find that they were lasting longer. In fact, after they had been on
for a while, I liked the tone even more.
You said that these Retro strings occupy a different sonic space. Describe what you mean
by that. For me, it’s really about the stronger fundamental that I hear with these strings.
There’s less harmonic activity, so you don’t get the same kind of sizzle that you get from a
phosphor bronze. When the strings go on, you might find that they’re actually a little bright,
but they tone down quickly and become really warm with a very robust note. And because
of the way that I express myself musically—there’s a lot of counterpoint, a lot of inner
voices—I felt that having that strong fundamental tone was making a difference.
28 | LAURENCE JUBER’S STRING THEORY
“I WAS ALSO VERY HAPPY TO FIND THAT THEY WERE
LASTING LONGER. IN FACT, AFTER THEY HAD BEEN ON
FOR A WHILE, I LIKED THE TONE EVEN MORE.”
- LAURENCE JUBER
How did you settle on the gauges, and what are the advantages for you? My set is .013,
.017, .024, .032, .042, .056. They’re basically the same gauges I had been using in phosphor
bronze. The advantage has to do with the fact that I tune in DADGAD a lot—it’s become a second
guitaristic home to me—and because the top two strings and the bottom string are tuned down
a whole-step, having a slightly fatter string in those gauges gives me a more evenly balanced
tension across all the strings. Going to standard tuning, there’s a little bit more meat, and
you especially notice it on the upper strings, because .013 is a medium gauge, as is a .017.
You’ll also play in C, G, D, G, A, D, dropping the low strings even further. Yes. It’s really about
keeping the integrity of the tone, and the .056 on the bottom does give me a nice, strong low C.
That’s the same note as the low string on a cello. And having the .042 on the fifth string works
fine to drop down to a G. I could go bigger than a .056 on the bottom, but it’s nice to be able to go
from lowered tunings back to standard tuning and still be able to do string bends and stuff like that.
Your latest record has a fair amount of string bending on it. Yes it does, and I find these
strings very articulate and very responsive to that kind of playing. They also seem to hold
the tuning very well. They can take a pretty aggressive attack and stay in tune. That’s helpful
because I find that the older I get, the more sensitive I become to pitch issues.
What other facets of string construction did you talk about? Part of the experimentation was
playing with the core of the strings, especially the G string. We made the G string with a .014
core, where ordinarily they would use a .013. But I found that I needed just a little bit more
articulation out of it—a cleaner articulation—and that slightly larger core did the job. The
ratio between the core and the wrap is important. Some strings have a thinner core and more
wrap, and others have a fatter core and less wrap. I seem to prefer a string with a slightly
bigger core in general. I’m not really sure about the physics of it, other than the fact that it
seems to give me the sound and the feel I’m looking for. Mayb e that makes a difference
in the bendability of the string, but I can’t say for sure. You get to a point where it’s hard to
quantify exactly, but I do find that the bigger core seems to help.
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
29
“I FEEL THAT WHAT THEY’VE DONE WITH THESE RETRO STRINGS
IS EXACTLY WHAT I LOOK TO IN MY MARTIN GUITARS: 180 YEARS
OF TRADITION, BUT BROUGHT INTO THE MODERN ERA. THAT,
FOR ME, IS JUST A GREAT SPACE IN WHICH TO MAKE MUSIC.”
- LAURENCE JUBER
It’s inspiring to see how you’re still searching, listening, and
refining, and these strings seem to be indicative of that.
I l o o k a t t h e s e t h i n g s a s i n c re m e n t a l s h i f t s. I d o n’ t h ave t h e
expectation of quantum shifts in my self-expression. I always teach
people that you don’t experience a lot of huge improvements. You
make subtle improvements, and then one day you realize that you’re
at another level. I think these strings did that for me. They liberated
something. I found I could express myself a little more succinctly
because of that tonality. That’s why I see them as a game-changer.
Guitars themselves are almost erotic in their appeal. There’s just
something very sexy about them, and there always has been. Strings,
on the other hand, are decidedly unsexy. You don’t have the same
relationship with them as you do with instruments, and yet they’re the
interface. They’re the tactile part of it. The first level is the vibration of
the string itself. That’s why this experience has been something of
a revelation for me, because it made me realize that there’s another
dimension there. And the fact that that dimension harkens back to a
previous era sits very comfortably with me. I feel that what they’ve
done with these Retro strings is exactly what I look to in my Martin
guitars: 180 years of tradition, but brought into the modern era.
That, for me, is just a great space in which to make music.
30 | LAURENCE JUBER’S STRING THEORY
Laurence Juber | Fingerboard Road
www.laurencejuber.com
Now available
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
31
LIMITED EDITION
NEW RELEASES
HD-35 CFM IV 60 TH
Martin’s 14-fret Dreadnought model celebrates our Chairman
& CEO Chris Martin IV’s 60 th birthday. Limited to a quantity of
60, the HD-35 CFM IV 60 th model is truly a unique instrument
with European spruce top with Martin’s torrefied Vintage Tone
System (VTS) and herringbone pearl inlay. The three-piece back
consists of siris wings with an East Indian rosewood wedge;
the fingerboard and bridge are beautifully inlaid with infinity
hexagon outlines. Chris Martin has personally signed each label
i n these Limited Edition guitars.
www.martinguitar.com/new
32 | MARTIN ™
LIMITED EDITIONS
D12-35 50 TH ANNIVERSARY
We continue to celebrate t h e 50 th Anniversary of our iconic
D-35 model with the introduction of the D12-35 50th Anniversary
Limited Edition. This celebratory edition is a 12-string, 12-fret
Dreadnought limited to a quantity of 183, the quantity of the
first 1965 production run. A solid headstock is used to facilitate
easier re-stringing. This modern interpretation of the original
model includes a European spruce top with Martin’s torrefied
Vintage Tone System (VTS) and three-piece East Indian rosewood
back and sides. Martin 12-fret rosewood Dreadnought 12-string
models (not quite rare) possess incredible power and warmth
of to n e. Martin enthusiasts worldwide will wa nt to add this
special instrument to their collection.
www.martinguitar.com/new
LE-COWBOY-2015
William Matt h ews is widely kn own for his
beautiful watercolor portrayal of the working
cowboys from the great ranches of the American
West. Mr. Matthews created original artwork for
us that will debut at the 2015 Summer NAMM
Trade Show. The LE-Cowboy-2015 is a 000 12-fret
with a Sitka spruce top finished with Martin’s
torrefied Vintage Tone System (VTS). The top
is inlaid with a multicolor rope design, and the
back and sides are made of goncalo alves, a
tonewood used by C. F. Martin Sr. in Martin’s
earliest de ca des. Th i s unique collector’s
guitar will only be sold in 2015.
www.martinguitar.com/new
CS-D41-15
The CS-D41-15 is a 14-fret, non-cutaway
Dreadnought featuring a Sitka spruce top
with Martin’s new torrefied Vintage Tone
System (VTS). The East Indian rosewood
back beautifully showcases a unique ribbon
inlay of cocobolo and flamed mahogany.
This enticing r i b b o n design is mirrored
on an elegant headplate, which is further
enhanced by a mother-of-pearl-bordered
rosewood logo. The ebony fi n ge rb oa rd
d i s p l ays e l e ga nt l y d eta i l e d mahogany
LIMITED EDITION
a n d pearl i n l ay patterns that follow the
36 | MARTIN ™
ribbon theme. Flamed mahogany binding
visually completes the CS-D41-15, making
this Limited Edition model one that is both
visually beautiful and powerful in tone.
The edition is limited to no more than 115
special instruments.
www.martinguitar.com/new
2015 SUMMER NAMM SHOW SPECIAL
SS-0041-15
The 2015 Summer NAMM Show Special
is a beautiful small-bodied model, with an
Adirondack spruce top with Martin’s torrefied
Vintage Tone System (V TS) and finished
with a gorgeous cinnamon teardrop burst.
The SS-0041-15 has Guatemalan rosewood
back and sides, featuring unique and ornate
inlay designs: a n alternate torch on the
headstock and Martin’s tree of life pattern
on the fingerboard, both inlaid in a select
abalone pearl. Equipped with Fishman Aura
VT electronics, this Limited Edition stage
and studio guitar will be cherished for years
to come. Orders will only be accepted from
dealers in attendance at the 2015 Nashville
Summer NAMM Show.
www.martinguitar.com/new
RETRO SERIES
38 | MARTIN ™
00-15E RETRO
The 00-15E Retro is the first short-scale 00 14-fret Grand Concert
instrument in the popular Retro Series product family. This acousticelectric, non-cutaway model features a solid mahogany top, back and
sides, and the top is finished with a visually distinctive 15-style burst.
Equipped with our popular SP Lifespan strings and Fishman F1 Aura+
electronics, the 00-15E Retro will appeal to players at all levels who
are seeking clean, brilliant, bluesy tone and easy playability.
www.martinguitar.com/new
MARTIN ARCHIVES
NORTH STREET ARCHIVE
ERNEST TUBB AND THE TEXAS TROUBADOURS | CIRCA 1946
Over the years, Ernest Tubb (center) and his Texas Troubadours featured
many different band members. We know that the bassist on the right is
Jack Drake. The others — we’re just not so sure—but the three Martins are
easy to identify: Ernest played Jimmie Rodgers’ original 12-fret 000-45 that
Jimmie’s widow, Carrie, loaned to him for many years. The other Martins are
a 000-45 14-fret (left, with an odd contraption near the soundhole) and a
000-28 herringbone (right). Not a bad collection!
40 | NORTH STREET ARCHIVE
GENTLEMEN WITH 2 ½-17 MARTIN | CIRCA 1888
The economical Style 17 Martin guitars were
first seen in the 1850s. They had spruce tops until
the changeover to mahogany tops in 1921. This
seate d ge ntl e m an fro m th e late 1 8 8 0 s h a s a
2˙-17, which, during the last half of this decade,
was Martin’s most popular model. We assume
the man standing is also a gentleman, perhaps
even a preacher with a Bible. A most exciting duo!
BASHFUL JOE | CIRCA 1939
This unlikely duo combined the comical
Bashful Joe (on the right) with his cowboy-clad
companion playing a lovely Martin 000-28
herringbone. WJR was a Detroit radio station
that began broadcasting in the early 1920s.
JUDY LYNN | 1950
The cowboy craze was alive and well in the 1950s
with western stars like Judy Lynn and her impressive
Stetson-hatted band. Originally a teenage star from
Boise, Idaho, Judy toured nationwide with a group
of Grand Ole Opry performers before becoming
a staple act on the Las Vegas strip. It looks like
a post-1946 000-28 (no herringbone) under her
fancy leather cover that certainly preceded Elvis
Presley’s. Perhaps she inspired him?
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
41
Working Woman: A Profile of Valerie June
By Melissa Faliveno
Valerie June
a cold Friday night in mid-February, the lights of Carnegie Hall make the hard snow
packed along Seventh Avenue seem to sparkle. It’s late, and the city is quiet, most of
its eight million people hunkered down inside their homes, trying to keep warm. But
outside the hallowed concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, the energy is palpable—and
those waiting to get in don’t seem to mind the cold. The show, a late-night performance
by Martin Ambassador Valerie June—a singer-songwriter born and raised in Tennessee
who’s a little bit country, a little bit soul, a little bit rock ‘n’ roll, and who has created
a sound entirely her own—is sold out. Beyond this storied corner of New York City and
throughout the country, emerging musicians dream of booking a gig like this. And as the
doors open and the swell of people push in, it feels like we’re a long way from Memphis.
Inside the theater, the seats fill quickly. The lights go down, and on the darkened stage,
an acoustic Martin guitar and banjo wait. In a minute or two, Valerie June will take the
stage, harking back to her Southern roots, a voice recalling Bill Monroe’s high lonesome
sound, Dolly Parton’s swagger, and Billie Holiday’s soul, but with something altogether
new and unique. She will fingerpick her way through country ballads, rock songs,
and hard-driving blues. She’ll be Appalachian folk, gospel, Motown, and funk, Afrobeat,
indie, and Sixties pop. Her performance will still the crowd to silence, then send
them into a foot-stomping frenzy, erupting into whoops and hollers, her dreadlocks
flying wildly as she strums. Her father will dance his way to the stage, his hands in
the air like prayer, then give his daughter a kiss between songs. June will play the
breadth of her debut record, Pushin’ Against a Stone, and those of us listening will
feel, for at least a while, what it means to be a working woman in the music world—to
be a girl from small-town Tennessee who learned to sing in church, who taught herself
how to play guitar, who’s pushed past her share of struggle, and who’s trying to make
her way in the world by creating the thing she loves.
But for now, the stage is still dark, and the Martin leans against its stand, waiting.
44 | WORKING WOMAN: A PROFILE OF VALERIE JUNE
Valerie June didn’t grow up playing guitar. Her grandfather gave
her an old imported acoustic when she was 1 5, but she wouldn’t
learn how to play until she wa s 22. June grew up in a small town
between Humboldt and Jackson, Tennessee, about equidistant from
Nashville and Memphis. Her music education began in church, where
she sang gospel songs and Southern spirituals, keeping her ears finely
tuned to the different kinds of voices around her. Not everyone was a
good singer, she says, but everyone had their own unique sound. There
was no choir, just that congregation, and the only instruments were those
voices—hundreds of them, singing together three times a week—and
June became fluent. “I had one art teacher who played acoustic guitar,
and I loved hearing him play,” she tells me. “So I knew that if I ever did
play an instrument, I wanted to play an acoustic guitar.”
Growing up at the intersection of the country’s two most storied musical
epicenters, June learned about more than just gospel. “My parents
would take us to Nashville, and we would hear country music,” she says.
“That was the country music capital, and everybody, from the time you’re
born, you know that’s what Nashville is. And then in Memphis, it’s rock ‘n’
roll and soul and blues.” Living down the street from Carl Perkins, the King of
Rockabilly, didn’t hurt, either. “Where I was raised, we had so many different
genres of music coming down that interstate, I was influenced by all of it.”
After high school June left home and moved to Memphis, got married
at 19, and started singing in a band with her husband, who wrote the
duo’s music and played guitar. When the band—and the marriage—
broke up, June found herself without a musical outlet and nowhere to
play. She realized that to make it on her own as a musician, she needed
to learn how to write songs and play guitar. So she listened to a lot
of music. “I knew that it was going to take me a very long time,” she
says, laughing. “I had terrible rhythm. I was just really terrible at keeping
time. I was also terrible at being able to distinguish what instrument I
was hearing, whether it was a bass or a trumpet or anything,” she says,
laughing again. There’s an easy air about Valerie June, a sense that while
she takes her job as a musician seriously, she doesn’t sweat the small
Valerie June
things. But one also gets the sense that it’s taken some hard work to
get here: that she’s faced enough challenges in her young life that now,
in her early thirties, she knows how to meet them. “So I had to just
listen to a lot of music and teach myself—like okay, that’s the bass.”
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
45
She fell in love with old-time country
“little ol’ sound,” and her fans helped her
a small seed,” June says. “When you’re
of the 1920s and 30s, citing Mississippi
raise nearly $16,000. She teamed up with
little, you have this vision, you have this
John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotten, and The Carter
co-producers Kevin Augunas—known
hope; you have this thing you want to do.
Family as influences—not least because,
for his work with Sinéad O’Connor and
That little creative seed starts to grow
in the case of Hurt and Cotten, they weren’t
The Lumineers—and The Black Keys’
when you’re young, but as you get older
discovered until later in life. “I was like,
Dan Auerbach; she and Auerbach sat
and you have to balance real life, it can
‘Well, I’m probably gonna be 80 before I
down for two songwriting sessions,
slowly begin to die. And so just to be able
learn how to play one song,’” she says.
and a partnership was formed almost
to be a creative being and have that last
“But at least I did it, right?” It took some
immediately. The result, Pushin’ Against
your entire lifetime, whatever it is that
time, but she eventually taught herself
a Stone, recorded in part at Auerbach’s
you’re passionate about, that you hope
not just guitar, but also banjo and ukulele.
Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, was
to do, that, right there, is beautiful. And
“I was in it for the long run.”
released in August 2013.
that’s pushing against a stone.”
With a few songs under her belt, June
Watching Valerie June perform, one gets
For June, that kind of tenacity meant
started playing gigs around Memphis,
the feeling that she’s bringing something
working multiple jobs in Memphis,
in coffee shops and libraries and bars.
not just unique, but also very real and
uprooting her life and leaving her family
While she played, she worked—odd jobs,
very human, to the stage. Part of that may
to move to New York, and, once she got
mostly, and a lot of them—trying to make
be that while her fingerpicking is nearly
there, being diagnosed with diabetes, a
enough money to live on while playing
flawless, perfection was never part of her
disease that not only sapped her energy
music. It was a hustle, she says, and it
plan. She admits to making mistakes, and
but forced her to restructure her life.
was hard, but she made it work. Soon she
those mistakes have helped shape her
Through it all, though, she has pressed
was playing gigs throughout the South.
philosophy as a musician. “Even now I
on, putting her music—what she now
She released two homemade records to
can’t play a song all the way through,”
considers her only work—first. “You’ve
sell at shows, and after opening for Old
she says, laughing. “I mess up all the
just got to say, ‘I’m going to create this. I
Crow Medicine Show, she was invited
time. But I push through it, because I’m
don’t know where it’s going; I don’t know
by the band to Nashville to record an EP,
a living being and that’s what we do—we
what it’s going to do, but it’s something I
Valerie June and the Tennessee Express.
make mistakes, and it’s not about that;
enjoy doing, and I want to keep that beauty,
After about 10 years in Memphis, June
it’s about the process of creating, and
and that magic, in my life because I need
packed up her guitar, along with her
that’s a magic thing that needs to happen
to,’” she says. “I keep this little seed of
banjo and ukulele—her babies, she
in people’s lives. It makes me sad that
creativity in my life, and allow it to grow
calls them—and headed to New York.
creativity gets pushed aside, that it doesn’t
and nurture it in my own way, for myself.
get the light that it needs. And you have
That side of ourselves gets pushed
interest from labels, but was reticent to
to struggle so hard, if you’re creating
away, gets beaten out, and to be creative
give up artistic control. So in 2010 she
something, to get it out in the world.”
you need to just believe in it, and
launched a Kickstarter campaign to make
That’s where the record’s name comes
a full-length record of what she called her
from. “I think about creativity as being
Around the same time, she started getting
water that seed regularly, and give it
the strength to grow.”
Valerie June
June plays a 000-15M, a utilitarian acoustic stripped of
So he went upstairs and dug out two more 000s. “He put
any bells and whistles. It’s a sturdy guitar without a lot of
them each in my hands and made me play them,” she says.
flair—no binding, a single-ring rosette, a satin finish that
“So I played each one, and one of them—the 15M—I felt very
gives the wood a feeling of rawness; just a strong, beautiful,
connected to.” She played each one again and again, just to
and hardworking instrument that gets the job done—much
be sure, but she had found her guitar. “‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘This is
like June herself. On stage, she and her guitar seem not
the one.’ And he said, ‘You see what I mean? Don’t you feel
just a good fit; they seem to be part of one another. And
connected to it? If you don’t have that connection from the
that connection, it turns out, wasn’t an accident.
start with whatever instrument you buy, then you probably
June didn’t always play a Martin. Her first working guitar, a
don’t need to be getting it.’”
Gibson L-style modeled after blues legend Robert Johnson’s,
But the story doesn’t end there. As the man prepared the
was destroyed on a flight from New York to Tennessee. “I had
sale, he asked June to read the serial number to him so he
two gigs on the calendar,” she says, “and that was how I was
could write out the receipt. She read the numbers aloud, but
eating at the time. I was suddenly out of work. And I thought,
stopped short when she got to the end: The last four digits
Oh my god, what am I going to do? I’m out of work! I have to
of the serial number matched the last four digits of her cell
find another guitar.” She had a small budget coming from
phone number. “And I was like, ‘Oh my god. This is mine,’”
the airline, so she went to Auerbach for advice. He told her
she says, the disbelief still apparent in her voice. For June, it
to get a Martin. “But Martin’s the best company there is!”
seems, fate is something you listen to when it calls. “It was
she said, certain she wouldn’t be able to afford it. But she
like it had my name on it. So that’s how I got my Martin.
went to Nashville’s famed Gruhn Guitars anyway and tried
And I feel very connected to it. I love that guitar.”
out a 000. “I played it and walked away,” she says. She went
June calls her music “Organic Moonshine Roots,” a name
home and visited her family, and on her way to fly out the
that suits her singular sound, which can’t ot he r wise
next day, she decided to go back to the shop. “I was just
be easily classified. Her songs tell a story, and Pushin’
going to buy the guitar,” she recalls. “I didn’t feel too much
Against a Stone is no different. “I’m really into stories,”
passion about it.” But she had a flight to catch and shows
she says. “I always want to know what the story is.” The
on the books and needed a new guitar. “The guy who was
record’s story is a familiar one: that of a woman trying
selling it said, ‘Oh, you’re back. I see you like that guitar,’ and
to find her way, leaving her family and heading out into the
I said, ‘Yeah, just give it to me. I’m gonna get it.’ And he
world on her own; a woman who’s drifting, who’s trying to
said, ‘Sorry, I can’t sell it to you.’ And I was like, ‘Why not?
make something she believes in, despite the world often
I’m ready; I don’t have a lot of time. What do you mean you
suggesting she can’t. At the heart of it, it’s a story about a
can’t sell me this guitar?’ And he said, ‘I want you to really
hardworking woman who’s following a dream, and who’s
feel connected to whatever instrument you buy, and I
looking for her home in the world.
don’t feel like you’re madly in love with this.’”
Valerie
June
June says the record’s narrative wasn’t planned,
Rolling Stone ranked Pushin’ Against a Stone
but that it grew out of the songs organically. The
No. 44 on their 50 Best Albums of 2013, and American
album’s first track—and June’s first single—“Workin’
Songwriter ra n ke d the album at No. 21 on their
Woman Blues,” is a country-blues anthem, whose
American Songwriter’s Top 50 Albums of the same
hard- driving rhythm recalls June’s ea rl y days of
year. In 2014, the record was nominated for a Blues
piecing together paychecks in Memphis, working long
Music Award in the Best New Artist Debut category.
hours, and playing gigs at dive bars in between: “I
But June isn’t one to linger in the glow of awards
ain’t fit to be no mother,” she sings, “I ain’t fit to be
a n d accolades. Since the Carnegie Hall show—
no wife yet / I been workin’ like a man, y’all / I been
arguably one of her most high-profile shows to date—
workin’ all my life yeah.” From there the record moves to
she’s back at work in Brooklyn, writing new songs.
the mournful, ghostlike wails of “Twined and Twisted”;
A second album is in the works, but June doesn’t talk
the slow Sixties funk of “Wanna Be on Your Mind”; the
too much about it. For now, it’s all about the work.
Appalachian acoustic ballad “Tennessee Time,” a love
“We just have to keep pushing,” she says, recalling
song to her home state; to the distorted electric guitars,
the record’s title like a mantra, reminding herself as
staccato organ, and Motown-style backing vocals of
much as anyone who’s listening that it’s not about
the title track; the soaring fiddles and plucky ukulele
the end product, but the work that goes into it. “We
of “Somebody to Love”; and finally “O n My Way,” a
just have to keep doing the thing we love, and keep
quiet little hymn that both laments the past and looks
believing and creating amazing work and sharing
with hope toward the future—a song that feels like a
it with each other in the circles that we have, no
fitting end to a story, and only just the beginning.
matter what the world might want us to do.”
Since the record’s release, June has performed
“No matter what,” she says, “as a creator, that
throughout the U.S., U.K., and Europe, including a spot
talent is given to me for a reason, and I need to do
on Austin City Limits, and has been featured on NPR,
it. I just need to do it.”
PBS, and in the New York Times and the Washington Post.
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
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Back at Carnegie Hall, June stops between songs and sets down her Martin. She looks
back at her band with awe, and asks the audience to give them a round of applause.
Fo r a moment then she looks out into the crowd and shakes her head, smiling, the
wonder and gratitude of the moment visible on her face. She seems as surprised to be
here, making this music for a packed house in New York, as the crowd is moved by
her performance. Her voice soft, she says that people often ask where she gets ideas for
her music. “You know,” she says, her gold dress glittering in the blue lights of the stage,
a stray dreadlock hanging in her eye, “these songs come in dreams.”
When she talks, as when she sings, Valerie June feels somehow otherworldly: like
she’s here among us, but exists on a slightly different plane; that she’s propelled by a
higher purpose, and she’s got big places to go. But for now, it seems, she’s happy with
where she’s come, and what she’s made so far—and that whether she’s in New York or
Tennessee, she’s found a place for herself in the music she creates. “This world is not
my home, y’all,” she says to the crowd, smiling. “I’m just passing through.”
Valerie June plays a 000-15M and uses
Martin Acoustic SP Phosphor Bronze Extra Light strings.
50 | WORKING WOMAN: A PROFILE OF VALERIE JUNE
Valerie June | Pushin’ Against a Stone
www.valeriejune.com
Now available
52 | FACTORY STANDARD
OCTO B E R
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17 THOMAS
RHETT
SAT U RDAY
BY
R E B EC C A
BICKS
The th in g a b ou t roots is that, though you can’t see them, they’re as broad and
complex as the trees they anchor. Roots are a tree’s life source, its nourishers,
and what feeds the roots ultimately feeds the soul of the maple, the oak,
the sycamore. It’s no surprise, then, looking at the roots of newlyminted Martin Ambassador Thomas Rhett, that, at only 25 years
old, this country singer-songwriter is quickly on the way to
becoming one of this era’s biggest country music stars.
JUNE
“ G E T T I N G TO B E A K I D O N A TO U R B U S,
3
2015, 9:04PM
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TRAVELING
Rhett’s deepest roots lie in Valdosta, Georgia. A small, swampy, Southern
It was a few years into college,
town known mostly for a historic Main Street and humidity, it is where
though, when Thomas Rhett started
he was born to mother Paige Braswell and father Rhett Akins—a country
to feel his country music roots start
star in his own right. Thomas Rhett’s family lived in Valdosta until
to tug at him. Unsure of what he
he was a toddler, when they eventually moved somewhere strikingly
wanted to do academically, he began
cosmopolitan i n co nt ra st: Nashville, where his father could further
playing in a band, until one day they
pursue his burgeoning music career. There, the elder Akins would sign
were asked to open at a showcase in
with Decca Records (home for a time to the likes of Kitty Wells and a young
downtown Nashville. The show would
Roy Rogers), release a string of successful country hits, and eventually
ultimately change everything for him. He
become one of the era’s most prolific country songwriters.
remembers: “I was opening for this guy,
Growing up in Nashville as the son of a working artist, Thomas Rhett was
and I was in some really horrible cover
steeped in the world of country music. He describes it as the focal point
band singing a bunch of Tracy Chapman
of his early years, making for what he calls “definitely not your normal,
and Jason Aldean songs—the most
ideal childhood.” According to R h ett, h i s unique upbringing had both
random mix on the planet. But there
drawbacks and perks. “When a lot of kids’ parents were taking them to
were a bunch of publishers there that
Disney World, we were going to some county fair in the middle of Kansas.
night, and there was a guy there named
It was just a different life,” he explains. But “getting to be a kid on a tour
Ben Vaughn, who’d signed my dad to
bus, traveling with your dad and watching him sing was a really cool
a publishing deal a few years ago, and
way to grow up. I feel like I got to be really cultured at a young age.”
he walked up to me after the concert and
For Thomas Rhett, though, an early start in Nashville did not mean a
said, ‘Dude, do you want to write songs?’”
straight path to country stardom. Rather, his route more closely resembled
Thomas Rhett jumped at the opportunity.
a branch of Georgia’s state tree, the Southern live oak, which twists and
Soon he was commuting into downtown
turns on a meandering course from trunk to sky until finally bursting
Nashville from school three days a week
into a brilliant spray of green leaves at its end. Growing up, he thought
to write songs for other artists. Thomas
he wanted to become anything but a musician. In high school, he was
Rhett says he was “terrified at first,”
a serious athlete; he played football and was considering a college
but deep down he “felt like I knew how
soccer career until he was permanently sidelined by an ACL injury. After
to write a hit song.” Eventually, he says,
graduating, he chose to go to Lipscomb University, and struggled to
“Big artists started putting my s o n g s
find a career trajectory that felt right for him, though nothing seemed
on their albums and singing them at
to stick. “I really just went to college because all my f ri e n d s did, not
their concerts.” Those artists included
really having a clue what I wanted to do,” Rhett says of his years at
the likes of Jason Aldean, Lee Brice,
Li psco m b. “I thought about doing something in physical therapy,
and Florida Georgia Line, all of whom
business, or even in medical sales.”
released hit singles penned by Rhett.
54 | ROOTING FOR THOMAS RHETT
RHETT
W I T H YO U R DA D A N D WATC H I N G H I M
S I N G WA S A R E A L LY C O O L WAY TO
G R OW U P. I F E E L L I K E I G OT TO B E
R E A L LY C U LT U R E D AT A YO U N G AG E.”
About a year and a half after Thomas Rhett began writing, Ben Vaughn
came to h i m , sat him down, and said, “I really think you could be
an artist.” It didn’t take much convincing for Rhett to say yes. “We got my
guitar, and I went around and visited about nine different record labels,
got a few offers, and ended up signing a deal with Big Machine Records.”
Since emerging from behind the scenes of country music to take
center stage, Thomas Rhett has released his first full studio album, It
Goes Like This, which reached the number two spot on the Top Country
Albums charts, and featured three number one singles: “It Goes Like
This,” “Get Me Some of That,” and “Make Me Wanna.” He’s gone on to tour
with country stars Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, and Florida Georgia
Line (with whom he is currently out on the road through October 2015).
Thomas Rhett’s roots come through in the music he writes, and
this, perhaps, has been one of the keys to his rapid and widespread
success. His songs are a little bit Valdosta, Georgia—with lots of
backcountry, salt-of-the-earth, Deep South references, like in the
upbeat “Front Porch Junkies”: “Swamp air comin’ through the screen
door, bare feet stompin’ on the wood floor. We’re just diggin’ it, finger
lickin’ pickin’ out in the country,” he sings. At the same time, though,
his music betrays a Nashville twang: a polished, more polite sound
and feel, like his most recent chart-topper, “Make Me Wanna,” which
features a catchy refrain, staccato drum, and what Rhett likes to call
a “Bee Gees” vibe. Influences from Thomas Rhett’s childhood also
appear in his work; while undoubtedly a country record, Rhett’s
album has strong hints of ’90s pop, alt-rock, even hip-hop—all of
which combine to reach an audience well beyond what charts call
“traditional” country fans. This broad appeal has helped him take
off quickly, garnering nominations for Country Music Association
New Artist of the Year and Academy of Country Music New Artist of
the Year, among others, all in the last year.
Thomas Rhett | It Goes Like This
www.thomasrhett.com
Now available
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
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D I F F E R E N T.”
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56 | ROOTING FOR THOMAS RHETT
F RI DAY
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DONE ANYTHING
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“AT T H E E N D O F T H E DAY, M U S I C
WA S J U S T K I N D O F A LWAY S AT
Thomas Rhett’s new smash single
“Crash and Burn”
Now available
An eve n ra re r a cco l a d e, a n d on e Thom a s Rh ett says he is m ost exc ited about, was
becoming a Martin Ambassador in late 2014. Thomas Rhett says he’ll never forget the first
time he played a Martin guitar and became enamored with the company. “It was my first
time out with Miranda Lambert, and Martin Ambassador Dierks Bentley was o pening for
her. I walked out on stage with my Taylor, and I remember Dierks had his Martin—the old one
that his dad had given him,” Rhett recollects. “He let me play it, and I just remember how
awesome it sounded, and I remember Dierks saying, ‘You need to get a Martin—Martin’s
the man’s guitar.’” After that, he got in touch with Martin and bought himself his first
Dreadnought, an HD-16R Adirondack, and then his second, because he “loved the first
one so much.” Recently, Rhett acquired his first custom Martin: a Custom Shop Koa HD-16R,
which has his name on it. “B e i n g aske d to become a Ma r t i n Am ba ssa d o r wa s one of
the coolest things i n th e world , ” says Th oma s Rh ett. “Martin’s a very hom ey, family
environment, which is cool, because once you’re in the family, you’re always in the family.”
Luckily, Thomas Rhett has another family to keep him grounded during his rapid ascent
to stardom: his wife, Lauren, and their dogs, Kona and Cash. These days, Lauren and their
dogs often hit the road with him, and help maintain a sense of normalcy. “We have a pretty
healthy balance, keeping everything normal on the road. We do things like eat McDonald’s
at two o’clock in the morning—the kind of fun stuff we would do at home.” On tour with
Florida Georgia Line, Rhett and Lauren have been able to ex pa n d their to ur i ng family,
becoming close with the band’s frontmen, Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard, as well as their
wives. “They’ve become really good friends of ours,” he explains. “We get to hang out, goof
off, and have fun all day, and then go play for 10,000 people every night. It’s just a very
cool thing to be able to share together.”
When asked about what’s next, Thomas Rhett exudes a sense of mystery and excitement.
He’s finishing up a second album, which will come out later this year. He’ll also finish up
his tour with Florida Georgia Line, after which he says he’ll focus more on his own music.
He adds, “There’s also some cool stuff on the horizon as far as headlining goes, maybe
getting o u t t h e re w i t h a n ot he r b i g a r t i st…but we’ll see.” Right now, though, Rhett says
he is trying hard to enjoy the moment he’s in, since it’s all happened so fast. He explains,
“Everything we’re doing right now is just a lot of fun. I’m in a tour bus touring with one of
the biggest bands in the country—it’s really just been a wild roller coaster.”
When he was growing up, Thomas Rhett may not have recognized the role that music was
playing—and would continue to play—in the roller coaster of his own life. But looking at things
today, he is not surprised to have ended up where he has. “At the end of the day, music was
just kind of always at the root of my heart,” he admits. “Looking back now, I don’t really
think I could have done anything different.”
Thomas Rhett plays a Koa Dreadnought Custom, CEO-7 Martin and uses SP Lifespan strings.
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
57
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D-35 TURNS 50
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M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |
59
THE UNFORGETTABLE
IN MEMORIAM
STAN JAY 1943-2014
The entire music industry is saddened
who often went considerably out of their
proprietor of Staten Island’s landmark
way to sample his inventory of high-end
music store, Mandolin Brothers, Ltd.
and vintage instruments. His customers
Mandolin Bros. was founded in 1971
included celebrity musicians like Bob Dylan,
as a partnership with Hap Kuffner, but
Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Joni
Jay bought out Kuffner’s share in 1983,
Mitchell, and Crosby, Stills and Nash, but
and ran the business successfully for the
you didn’t need to be famous to receive
next thirty-plus years with the help of his
Stan’s courtesy and expertise.
wife, Bea, his daughter, Alison, his son,
He was an acknowledged expert and
Eric, and his extended professional staff.
advocate for Martin guitars, both past
Stan brought a rare passion to the
and present. Though the store continues
stringed instrument business. His regular
his legacy, Stan will be missed by his
newsletters benefited from his writing
customers and his many friends at Martin.
skills and his vast knowledge of guitars,
mandolins, and banjos, but he always
took it further, peppering his descriptions
of the instruments with his keen humor.
60 | IN MEMORIAM
He catered to a remarkable clientele,
by the passing of Stan Jay, founder and
imitation is the highest form of flattery
MARTIN D-35 TURNS 50
D-35 Brazilian
50th Anniversary
Limited Edition
martinguitar.com
C. F. Martin & Co., Inc.
VOLUME 4 | 2015
510 Sycamore St., Nazareth, PA 18064
www.martinguitar.com
meet the family
New Look. Six Envelopes. Long-lasting Tone.
The same Martin Strings you fell in love with in the first place.
Learn more about the family of Martin strings at martinstrings.com.