Last weekend I heard the news that Los Angeles area oud master John Bilezikjian had passed away just days before on January 19th. The news brought back memories of some unusual musical moments in my life. Though I didn’t really know John, I ran into him from time to time in Los Angeles, which wasn’t […]
No, not exactly a “harp”-something, but a cool hollow arm American invention all the same – and a Harwood I’d never encountered before! I was excited to see this wonderfully weird lyre-shaped Harwood “Harp Bandurria” in a c.1907/1908 J. W. Jenkins’ Sons catalog sold two months ago on eBay. Fortunately, the seller helped me track […]
I’ve never been one to pay too much attention to awards…mainly, I suppose because I’ve never won anything. But I’m of course happy for any friends and colleagues who do manage to snag some “official recognition.” For example, Muriel Anderson, whose Nightlight Daylight CD won 10 various awards last year, and John Doan, crowned in […]
To kick off 2015, we didn’t have a New Year’s Eve party…my wife Jaci threw her own “I refuse to grow up” milestone birthday party. This was last night (Jan 3, 2015), and Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest voters will remember that the final votes were tallied at this time. The winner (by a nose): Augustine […]
Having a wonderful December…wish you were here! < < < The fine print… (click to expand) Won’t you vote? Tally as of 1/2/15 AUGGIE: 22 MAEZI: 23
My own personal “Ghosts of Christmas Past” are coming back to haunt me… They are the two captivating women (mother and daughter?) on the cover of my 2006 harp guitar compilation CD, originally from a beautiful c.1920s photo I bought on eBay specifically for the purpose. My genius artist friend Tim Baker helped me […]
OK, I’m exaggerating – there were no actual explosions or Santas turning into giant robots. The most violent action seen was just me dodging errant snowballs flung about by innocent toddlers. Still, the Paramount Studios annual Christmas Tree Lighting Party for their employees was quite the spectacle (and yes, Michael Bay was there). This is […]
The current Harp Guitar of the Month – another one-of-a-kind instrument – got me thinking again of Albert Shutt, a truly interesting footnote in the history of Gibson mandolins and guitars (and harp guitars). Those in the know – which presumably include many early Gibson instrument fanatics – have probably read my original 2008 article […]
I hope you all enjoyed seeing some of the very latest harp guitar projects in last week’s blog. Not unsurprisingly, I run across some pretty interesting new “harp guitar relatives” as well. While this first instrument could probably be re-strung as an electric harp guitar, it’s not quite that. Aaron Grad tells me he built […]
Time to catch up on several months of new instruments out there! Turns out there’s so much, I’m going to split this into 2 blogs… First, a reminder to everyone commissioning or building a new harp guitar project to please send me photos and info (or a link) for inclusion on Harpguitars.net. It’s hard to […]
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