Goodbye
One side of my departed JEM S10 pedal steel case.
The strangest thing has happened - I’ve sold a guitar. Not just any guitar, but the JEM pedal steel I bought from Instrumental As Anything in Lismore over 20 years ago. I restored it, changed it’s visage from sky blue to Ford engine black and subsequently played it on everything that called for an E9 steel guitar - that’d be hundreds of gigs and countless sessions, including this one time JJJ regular that I heard on a playlist recently - www.youtube.com/watch?v=07HdnWNrP8I I deployed it on every Re-mains album except for the first EP, this track being a particular fave - https://re-mains.bandcamp.com/track/is-it-ever-gonna-rain - and more recently as a primary atmosphere generator on Of Stars and Stones - open.spotify.com/album/4CPQ5TnhCuEvVK5TLLvPgE - The JEM pedal steel is one of what I believe was only a run of 20 to 30 instruments completely scratch-built by Mr. Hoedown himself, John Minson. John was one of the main progenitors of the Tamworth Country Music Festival. He made the castings, did the machining, the design - everything. John’s wife embossed the leather that wrapped around the end-plates. Their son Lawrie is one of the few old school Tamworth musicians who still live and work out of the so-called capitol. I considered telling him about this sale but I feared it might have me change my mind. In the previous journal entry I mentioned the universal 12-string steel I’ve just acquired. After a bit of time on it’s deck, literally, I really wish I’d found one years ago - it makes so much more sense to my way of thinking. Aside from that, I have to admit there’s a secondary agenda in all this. It’s an attempt to divest from the disease of guitar ownership. It’s an ailment that can be expressed as a formula - n+1 - the number of guitars one has, plus one. Then reapply the formula. It seems a bit sad, but I have to get rid of that emotion. You just can’t take it all with you. And I know it’s going to a good place. Here’s another cut I used it on. I feel it defines it’s sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkoE4s2aGpM