Tut Taylor

This is a nice tribute to Tut Taylor and John Hartford from this year's Merlefest.

Prompted by the recent death of Tut Taylor, Chris Jones featured classic dobro in this week's TrueGrass show on Sirius/XM's Bluegrass Junction. The 3-hour show aired this afternoon (Friday 4/17/15), is rebroadcast over the weekend (Sunday?) and is available on demand.

Plenty of Tut, of course (both his own recordings and those with John Hartford's band), plus lots of Mike Auldridge, Josh Graves, Jerry Douglas, Gene Wooten and others. Since Chris's show showcases classic bluegrass that has "aged" at least twenty years, Rob Ickes (who actually lived with Chris and his wife when he first moved to Nashville) was aired on just one song off the first Blue Highway album. In addition to spinning the music, Chris discussed some dobro history including the invention by the Dopyera brothers and Uncle Josh being responsible for our instrument making its way into bluegrass. Hardly anything I hadn't heard before, but assembled in a wonderful program. Definitely worth a listen!

Made it over to Gryphon Stringed Instruments this afternoon for a test run of their latest selection of resonator guitars. They have three that I'd buy right away if I needed one: A Beard Guitars model R, a Scheerhorn/National Rob Ickes model, and a 2000 Tut Taylor Virginian.

I'd be really happy prednisone with any of them (especially if I'm paying with YOUR money), but the Beard really spoke to me the best. It's fascinating to be able to sit down and play three great guitars side by side and hear the very subtle differences that differentiate each builder's approach.

Check out their website for more:
http://gryphonstrings.com/inventory/instrument_page.php?I=1&T=8