My Birthday Present
Last Saturday at the Fest, after Larry Potts played, somebody tapped me on the shoulder and told me to look at the stage. Laura was up there with Johnny and Adam and McNevin and I'm not sure who else, and Laura spoke into a mic and called me onto the stage. (You can hear the whole presentation here - it's about 3 minutes long. Check out McNevin on harmony!)
DHG with the ASAT.
I got up there and Johnny strummed the chord for "Happy Birthday" and everybody started singing. I stood there smiling like a monkey, taking it all in. Then I noticed something funny. Johnny's guitar had a tag on it, like a new guitar would. Then it hit me.
I'm glad I had my shades on, because I teared up a little bit.
When the song was over, Laura said, "I didn't get you what you wanted for your birthday...a whole lot of people did," and Johnny hung the guitar on me. It was a gorgeous cherryburst G&L ASAT Classic (see the right sidebar for details), which is something I'd been wanting for many years.
Later, Laura showed me the card, with the names of all the people who chipped in to get me the guitar. It had around 40 names (see the right sidebar for the list). I have to admit I teared up all over again.
I've played it every day since. It's a beauty, all right, and I'll have it the rest of my life.
The People
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
- Laura, Amos, & Guthrie
- Mom & Joe
- Jan & Diane
- Keston, Lani, Althea, and Chris
- Jane & Allan
- Ben & Pam
- Eric & Becky
- Johnny
- Adam, Becky, & Merle
- Rich & Finn
- Craig & Family
- Nate & Sonia
- Peter & Emily
- Barbara & Tom
- Mike Cygan
- Jim & Meryl
- Tall Paul
- Eliot & Wei-wen
- Todd
- Doug & Nancy
- Allegra & Sam
- Larry & Margaret
- Ginny
The G&L ASAT Classic
You might have heard of the Fender Telecaster. It was the first great electric guitar, and has remained one of the best in the years since. It was designed by Leo Fender. Leo sold his company in the 1970s, but in the 1980s, his friend George talked him into starting another one, and even bankrolled it.
They called it G&L, and Leo took everything he'd learned in decades of perfecting the Telecaster, and a few more innovations, and put them into a new design he called the ASAT Classic. (ASAT stands for After Stratocaster After Telecaster.) You might say it's like a Tele, but better. You'd certainly say it sounds badass.