Me & My Telecaster

I know the day that my love affair with the Telecaster started. It was at a wedding in 1977, with a band of California friends booked to play the reception, and we were desperately trying to be like our favorite country musicians (see photo at left-the actual gig!). A friend of the lead singer lent me a pristine, 50's era Fender Telecaster that was housed in it's original tweed case. I wasn't enamored with the age of it (I was clueless!) as much as how it felt when I picked it up and held it in my hands. It was a match!

I have been reading a biography about Buck Owens and, just today, read the account of Buck's lead guitar player/ harmony singer's death. Don Rich was a necessary ingredient in the Bakersfield sound that Owens made popular in the 60's. With Don's fatal motorcycle crash in July of 1974, the importance of his Tele picking was proven crucial. Don was gone and so was the "sound." I followed Rich's twang as a kid, albeit subconsciously, as I listened to Tiger By the Tail and Act Naturally on a local, southern California country radio station.

My teen years were filled with dreams of joining the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt's band, or Souther-Hillman-Furray; their country roots were exposed to impressionable wannabes like me. I loved the steel guitar and the way Clarence White 's b-bender emulated it. As I grew into my twenty's, I was mesmerized by Emmylou Harris and her Hot Band with James Burton and Albert Lee providing the twang. When Ricky Skaggs busted away from Emmylou's band and went out on his own, the skillful Ray Flacke joined him. His playing took a new turn and it blew my mind! It still amazes me that two of the best country pickers--Lee and Flacke--hail from England.

I will never attain a thimble-full's worth of Tele virtuosity that my heroes possess. I can only dream and strive for the ultimate tone as I fasten on my Telecaster and plug it into my favorite tweed amplifier. I swear, there's nothing better than a bare-naked Tele through a tremolo and a tube amp. It gets me every time.

Photo-lower right: Me & my "most recent" Telecaster, Fall, 2010