Jim T's Friday Story - Elvis Presley and Red

This week's story is about the king of rock, Mr. Elvis Presley. This is the true story of how Elvis used his Karate skills to take Red's gun away from him. The ending isn't pretty...but it's cool!

The Barncaster - My Hand Built 150 Year Old Tele

 The 150 Plus Year Old Barncaster - Telecaster - By Jim T.
I started really getting into barn wood telecasters a year ago. I love the idea of real barn wood being used for a Tele. I would spend my night doing Google image searches of barncasters and I decided I had to have one. I contacted a great body wood crafter. His company is called Wildwood. He cuts great bodies. He had a few pieces of barnwood left over from another project.

The description of the wood:
That is actually wood from a barn. It is wormy chestnut from one of the chestnut barns in the Cuyahoga Valley in Ohio. Chestnut barns are rare. The wood was stored for about 15 years in a climate controlled room to make picture frames and the builder decided that he was not going to use it. It is 150 plus years old and could be much older. The marks on the horn are saw blade marks from way back when. Lots of nice worm holes and more!












I put the guitar together from all my favorite parts: 
Neck PU - Lollar Imperial Standard wind heavy relic. Thee hand wound humbucker!
Bridge PU - Rio Grande Muy Grande (purchased on TDPRI)
Bigsby - B17 (GRRRRREAT)
Bridge - The stock was good but the Compton has more sustain. He custom made it to fit the B17 bridge.
Knobs - I made these out of 12 gauge shotgun shells and a .45 acp for the switch.
Control Plate - That is a black GFS tele control plate. I just scrubbed it with a green Scotch pad. They may not make this anymore. I had this one laying around.
Wiring - Toneshaper for the Tele. The cool part here is that I can switch from a 500k to 250k pot depending on where I'm at with my switch.
Neck - That is a CEG Hardtail Mighty Mite. I tried many things to get the color right. Plays great. No complaints. I drilled it with a hand drill and everything is straight.
Body - This was custom made and he cut the neck slot with the 4mm angle in it. I bolted on the neck and it was ready to rock!
Nut - Earvana - I love em.
Tuners - GFS Gotoh locking knockoffs. These are great tuners and drop right in. I have put these on several guitars with no issues and they kick ass. I ordered the black ones and scrubbed them with a green scouring pad while watching Smokey and the Bandit. Nicely aged!
String Hold Down - I was popping the strings off the bridge and wanted something to hold them down. I contacted Trussart and he was nice enough to reply to me but he doesn't sell his separately (I knew he wouldn't). I looked over and saw some .357 shells and an hour later I had a killer home brew string retainer!  

This guitar plays and sounds as good as my high dollar Fender Tele, in fact I like it much more. If you have never built your own guitar I highly suggest it. It's fun, rewarding and you get the exact guitar you want.

Here is video of Sam Eakins from Taylor Guitars taking a spin on the Barncaster de Hell:
 

Friday Story - The Tater

I thought I might start telling story every Friday. Here is my first about my Dad and a Tater!

The Christmas Caddy - A Caddy Miracle!

To celebrate Christmas I was out putting lights up on the house. The weather was so nice I got the Caddy out and put some lights on it. I thought it would make for a good Christmas photo. Within the hour cars were stopping and taking photos. Those photos made it to Facebook and people were demanding I leave the car in the front yard lit up! The wife wasn't so happy about this because I used the tree lights on it, but she also wanted to leave the Caddy out.

Fast forward to a few days ago. I heard my girl dog Billie barking. It wasn't the "Mom's here!" bark, or the "Kids in the yard! Kids in the yard" bark. I thought it was the "UPS TRUCK!" bark. I ran upstairs and saw a car from the local government in my driveway. I've been around long enough to know that car isn't usually a bearer of good news. I pondered whether I should lock the door or go outside. I opted for a leap out the door and with a hardy "Hidy!"

As the local govt. official walked up my driveway he was eyeballing my car. I immediately knew what he was about to say. "What's happening!" I asked the man. "Well sir, it seems one of your neighbors has an issue with your car in the yard and called to have it removed." What the neighbor didn't know was just the day before it was raining pretty hard and I had already decided to put the Caddy back in her covered area. "I'll move that car, I don't mind", I said. Then something very Christmasy happened. The man said, "Well I'm going to have to make you move that car by January 11th." Then he smiled, a lot like Santa might smile, and told me to, "Have a good one!"

Now I'll be the first to admit I like be contrary. It just seems natural to me. I called my wife and told her about our Christmas miracle. We both decided there was just one thing to... decorate the living tar out of the CADDY! I'm on the hunt for a Santa for the drivers seat. If I score that then there has to be reindeer pulling the Caddy!  I have added more lights tonight and as I was pulling out the LEDs and replacing them with old yellow lights it dawned on me that we are all like Christmas lights. Singularly we can put off a little light but when are all get together and "plugged in" we all shine!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidaze from Jim T's Caddy!

Jim T's Caddy - Rolling Stones Sax Player Bobby Keys Interview

 Jim T. Graham and Bobby Keys sporting "Team Hell" shirts!

BOBBY KEYS

In this podcast I interview my old friend and sax player for the world's most notorious band - the Rolling Stones. You might know Bobby's work from songs like "Brown Sugar" but did you know Bobby got his start with Buddy Holly? This fellow Texan found a sax as a kid and proceeded to change the sound of rock and take a ride most of us could only dream of, and few of us could survive!
I know Bobby from the airfield and we were friends before I ever knew what he did for a living. He has always been nothing but a great guy and I'm proud to call him a friend. Be sure to download this first of a series of 3 podcasts and hear first hand about the rock and roll exploits that myths are made of. Also be sure to go get Bobby's new book, "Every Night's a Saturday Night: The Rock 'n' Roll Life of Legendary Sax Man Bobby Keys.http://www.amazon.com/Every-Nights-Saturday-Night-Legendary/dp/1582437831" It spans the early days of rock and really gives you a behind the scenes look at the formation of rock as we know it.

I also have an epic guitar story about a drunk, a gun, a bullet and a Les Paul! This story was so good I broke out the recorder and had to include it. It teaches a lesson we all should already know - a guitar can save your life!!

Check out this episode!

Davis Raines - The Adventures of Big Boy

Last night I had a dream. I was in a foreign country and I walked up on Davis Raines and his band playing. I yelled to the stage, "DAVIS!!!" He smiled, nodded and kept blasting out the real country music. Then I walked past and there was a wall. It was a wall filled with a variety of cowboy boots (I approved of them all), old jeans, snap button shirts, old straw cowboy hats and Telecasters all made of barn wood (one was in the shape of Oklahoma). I remember thinking to myself, "Holy hell, how have I never been here before? It's like heaven." 
When I woke up I went down stairs, flipped the switch on my 57 Tweed Deluxe and laid down the song I heard in my dream. Too damn cool.

Here is the good news for you fine folks, Davis has a new album out called "The Adventures of Big Boy". So far "Jump Back Midnight" is my favorite but if your looking for real life country music you don't need to look any farther than Davis. He is the real damn deal.

Stay tuned for my next interview that will be featuring Davis. Hell, He literally lives 4 minutes away from me. I could yell the questions to him and he could yell them back. We probably won't do it that way though!

Go check out "The Adventures of Big Boy" here...right now!

The Avett Bros. Meet Randy Travis

 

The earliest memories I have of country music are going to my Uncle Kenneth's bluegrass shows that he held in his aircraft hangar in Sadler, Texas. I got my proper country music education from a 20 record set that spanned the progression of country music from the early 1920s to the then current date of the 1970s given to me by my Grandpa. I was 5 years old at that time. I distinctly remember singing "Hey, Good Lookin" to a girl in first grade. That song convinced her to "go with me." My Dad always liked to ask where we were going...HA!

I'm not sure when I became aware of Randy Travis but I do remember the song that got me. It was "He Walked on Water." That song will actually give me chills. I was pretty close to my Grandpa growing up, and that song takes me back to that time. I miss him a lot. So I "get" Randy Travis, and man he was huge back in the day.

A few years ago after the Nashville flood the wife and I were just about over the edge with getting the house back together, spending money we didn't have and trying to put things back to normal. Each night that summer we would sit on the porch, drink a little wine and listen to Pandora. Every so often a song would come and I would say, "Who is that!" It was always the Avett Brothers. So we decided we needed to own their music and that was the Avett Bros. summer. We listened to them every night. We went to see them at the Ryman. Then we started traveling to see them. This was an actually living, breathing band that was alive and writing new songs that I loved. A rare thing for me.

 Fast forward to last week. A good friend of mine that I went to college with and later art directed country music videos for, invited us to the taping of CMT's Crossroads. This episode featured The Avett Brothers and Randy Travis. I knew the wife was going to be excited. She clapped her hands, jumped up and down and said, "oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" So I guess she was excited about getting up close to the Avett boys.

I had just finished redoing the interior of the Caddy, and it was just days before the weather changed into being too cold, so we dropped the top and headed to Franklin, TN. About half way there I realized that Ang really wanted to see the show, and taking the Caddy might have been a risky choice. I just had tons of mechanical work done on it but I was still concerned. What if she blew a hose, or threw a belt? I tensed up. The good news is that the Caddy did fine, and we made to the show.

 

Ang admitted she was pretty nervous. "Nervous about what? Watching a show?" She couldn't really explain why she was nervous, she just was. We met Thom and Beth for drinks and dinner. I got lucky; the restaurant, Saffire, had chicken fried chicken, and they knew how to do it. 5 stars!! I also had a martini. I think a good martini should make you want to cry...just a little. This was one good but no tears were shed.

 Luckily we had VIP passes. The line was long but we slid in and took our seats. It was great to get to see Randy and the Avetts be themselves between songs. The first 3 or 4 were Avett songs. The last 3 or 4 were Randy songs. I'm not sure if Randy actually learned the words to the Avett songs but he did seem to know how they went, so that was good. Seth and Scott seemed natural and friendly on stage and laughed at the stories Randy told between songs. Randy said that due to recent events he was petty sure they pulled the sign down that said "Home of Randy Travis" in his home town. The Avetts said their sign was down as well, but probably because it was made of cardboard and they had put it up themselves. They were having fun up there.

It was interesting hearing Randy try to use his 80s vocalizations on the Avett lyrics. I will say that when he sang in his natural voice he sounded pretty damn good. It made me want to hear a Randy Travis album with no super low/super high notes. I know that is his signature sound but I think he would sound good singing in his own voice. He blew a few lines but joked with the crowd telling them he was doing pretty good for a guy that had 7 concussions!

 

At one point Randy was trying to figure the key of a song on his guitar. Scott Avett walked over and took Randy's capo off the head of his guitar and clamped it on Randy's guitar two frets from the top. Randy smiled and Scott smiled. They genuinely seemed to get along.

The mood shifted gears when Randy's band came on stage for the second part of the show. Randy was in his element and they blew most of his classics with one take. I know some folks would say the Avett Bros. are country but they are not on any country spectrum that radio would consider. Scott Avett sounded great singing to Randy's songs. I'd hate to see it happen, but if he had to, I think he could sing "country" music with the best of them.

The show concluded with "Forever and Ever, Amen." It was at the end of this song I realized I was going to get to hear Randy Travis do the ending of that song live. When the time came he worked it! I mean he he took the "Amen" up and down! He took it North, then he ran it South. I never knew you could get so much out of such a small word, and then...it was over. Randy shouted, "GOOD NIGHT!" Everyone was big smiles and we left the building.

PS - Here is one of my favorite Avett Youtube videos.