Delta-Slider

Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:53:00 +0000

A feature-length documentary on the extraordinary life and visionary music of the American guitarist and singer Robbie Basho.

Before his bizarre death at the hands of a chiropractor, Robbie Basho was sure that his compositions would not outlast him. Orphaned during infancy, diagnosed with synaesthesia (a union of the senses that caused him to interpret sound as colour) and claiming to be the reincarnation of a 17th century poet - the Baltimore-born guitarist and singer's musical output was equally as outlandish as his persona.

In his brief and troubled life he laid the foundations for radical changes to the musical landscape of America during the 1960s and 70s but reaped little more than a sparse (if fervent) following during his lifetime.

Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho is a journey into the heart of an artist's lifelong struggle - designed to illuminate and satiate existing fans while serving as a perfect starting point for the uninitiated.

Featuring interviews with Basho's former students, contemporaries and few close friends; the documentary will integrate new information and anecdotes on Basho with previously uncovered visual material, abstract employment of archive footage and photography of the natural phenomena and landscapes that informed his work.

With the resurgence of interest in Basho growing and a more widespread revival a tangible possibility, it is surely an auspicious time for his unique music and life story to be evoked through documentary.

Visit the Kickstarter page

BOB BROZMAN - Finland radio Session 1 July 1996

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Sun, 05 May 2013 14:28:00 +0000

It is with great sadness that I post this set of Bob Brozman music. What a great musician. He will be missed.
NYT obit
Bob Brozman site

BOB BROZMAN
Finland radio Session 1 July 1996
"Ulvovvat Sudet" ( Howling Wolf) radio program

1 intro
2 Bob talks
3 Ovious Blues with Natinal Tricone
4 Bob talks
5 Carabian Blues With national Style
6 Bob talks
7 Bob talks
8 Love in vain
9 Bob talks about his book
10 Bob plays
11 Hula girl
12 Zonkie
13 Bob talks
14 Hawaina Blues on Lap Steel
15 Bob talks about Weissenborn
16 Whoopie Blues with Weissenborn

Download the MP3

Download the FLAC files

A Robbie Basho Tribute Concert and Documentary Film Benefit

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 23:17:00 +0000

Berkeley Arts presents

A Robbie Basho Tribute Concert and Documentary Film Benefit

When: May 8, 2013 8PM
Where: Berkeley Arts, 2133 University Ave. Berkeley, CA
Cost: $10-20 Suggested donation

Details
Berkeley Arts presents a concert in tribute to the late guitarist and Berkeley resident Robbie Basho. The event is also a benefit to raise funds to complete the first ever documentary film about Basho - titled Voice Of The Eagle: The Enigma Of Robbie Basho - currently in the works by London-based filmmaker Liam Barker.

The lineup includes several Bay Area performers whose work has been inspired in some way by Robbie Basho's music, including two guitarists who personally knew Basho: fingerstyle guitarist Rich Osborn and renown improvisor Henry Kaiser.

The concert will include short sets by:

Henry Kaiser
Rich Osborn
Bill Orcutt
Chuck Johnson
Danny Paul Grody
Aaron Sheppard
Andrew Weathers

We think this will be an historic event, and a fitting tribute to Basho's legacy - in the same spirit as the John Fahey memorial concerts that took place at the Freight And Salvage in 2002.

About Robbie Basho
Robbie Basho (1940 - 1986) was a Berkeley-based composer, guitarist, and vocalist and one of the foremost proponents of steel string acoustic guitar as a solo concert instrument. Along with John Fahey and Leo Kottke, Basho was part of the triumvirate of pioneering guitarists on the Berkeley-based Takoma label in the 1960s. Basho went on to record for Windham Hill, and was an important influence on the label’s founder, guitarist William Ackerman. His innovative guitar compositions incorporated American folk, European, and Eastern influences, and he is credited for developing the improvisational “American raga” style.

About the Film
Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho is a journey into the heart of an artist's lifelong struggle - designed to illuminate and satiate existing fans while serving as a perfect starting point for the uninitiated. Self-funded entirely to date by director Liam Barker, Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho features interviews with Basho's former students, contemporaries and few close friends; interspersed with abstract employment of archive footage and photography of the natural phenomena and localities that informed Basho's work. Basho claimed to paint America with music; the film will attempt to transfigure Robbie Basho with sound and images.

Principal photography began on Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho in October 2012, with the filmmakers shooting (and intermittently battling superstorms) in Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, Colorado and California. A Kickstarter campaign is set to launch in spring 2013 to enable the film's continuing production and subsequent post-production costs.

Liam Barker - Writer, Director, Producer, Editor
Justinas Vabuolas - Director of Photography
Robbie Basho Film.com

John Fahey - Aurora, Oregon 1999

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:57:00 +0000

This is from Fahey's electric phase, not eclectic, that would be his whole career, eh? Death Don't have no Mercy in This Land has some classic Fahey chatter just before the tune. So actually at the end of track two, where he starts off telling us how he stole this song (sound familiar?) but recants on a technically, hilarious Then tells us the difference between spirituals and gospel songs concluding with, "...hardly anybody knows that, I hardly know it myself." Ha!!
Another gem from Damian.

01 Untitled
02 Song By Route 99
03 Death Don't Have No Mercy In This Land
04 Juana
05 Son House _ Marylin _ My Prayer

Download

John Fahey - Louisville 1977

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

01 Steamboat Gwine 'Round De Bend
02 How Green Was My Valley
03 Worried Blues
04 Poor Boy Long Ways From Home
05 The Red Pony
06 Ann Arbour _ Death By Reputation
07 It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
08 Stomping Tonight Fantasy _ In Christ There Is No East Or West _ Beverly
09 The Dance Of The Inhabitants Of The Palace Of King Philip XIV Of Spain
10 Some Summer Day
11 Medley_ Candy Man _ Brenda's Blues _ Spanish Dance
12 St. Louis Blues
13 Mark 1.15

Thanks again to Damian for taking so much time to get these files to me. Are your ears exploding yet?

Download

John Fahey - Blind Joe Death Unreissued 1959 Versions

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:08:00 +0000

On Doing an Evil Deed Blues
In Christ There Is No East or West
The Transcendental Waterfall
Desperate Man Blues
West Coast Blues.

Here are some notes on these titles from JohnFahey.com
Rather than simply repressing the original "gas station" edition of the album, Fahey felt his playing had improved enough to warrant recording anew several tracks he was no longer satisfied with, which he did in April of 1964. Though the cover of the reissue would declare that Fahey had newly recorded five songs for the second edition ("On Doing an Evil Deed Blues," "In Christ There Is No East or West," "The Transcendental Waterfall," "Desperate Man Blues," and "Uncloudy Day"), a comparison of the tracks made in '59 and '64 reveals that "Uncloudy Day" is the same recording. "St. Louis Blues" was slightly edited from the 1959 original, eliminating the song's opening verse. Dropped altogether was Fahey's version of Blind Blake's "West Coast Blues." (John was never pleased with his recordings of the song. He later claimed he couldn't use the original version because the only surviving copy of the album had a bullet hole through the track!) To compensate for the missing song Fahey recorded a nearly 11-minute take of "The Transcendental Waterfall," expanding the length of the original version by some four minutes. This song is important as an early example of Fahey's stretching of musical form and harmony. His experimentation with noise and meaningful dissonance was still coming into focus. "'...Waterfall' was premature," notes John; "only now can I play that kind of stuff."

Download

Once again Damian has sent these files my way, thanks!!!

John Fahey - Live at Stoneybrook 1972

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 20:51:00 +0000

John Fahey - Live at Stoneybrook 1972
01 Medley - Sunflower River Blue - Revolt of the Dyke Brigade - Requiem for John Hurt
02 Steamboat Gwine 'Round de Bend
03 The Death of the Clayton Peacock
04 Fare Forward Voyagers
05 On the Sunny Side of the Ocean - Spanish Two Step
06 Lion
07 The Dance of the Inhabitants of the Palace of King Philip XIV of Spain
08 In Christ There is no East of West Fantasy

Download Stoneybrook

Another one from Damian!! Thanks!!

John Fahey Guitar TAB

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:46:00 +0000

Back with some more guitar TAB! Too bad it takes me 300 years to learn one song! How about you? I know some people learn this stuff quickly so here's a couple more from MTW !!

Today it's a duo of open D tuning!

Steve Talbot on the Keddie Wye
From the liner notes: First he worked on the Espee, later the Western Pacific. He used to tell me hair-raising stories about running down out of the mountains and hitting the Wye and the tunnel at Keddie, California going west. Feather River Route. Now, I hear the whole town's for sale. Nevertheless, the Union Pacific bought the W.P. Something's up.

Really nice to get some Fahey TABs that you just don't see out there on the internet.

Dianne Kelly is from one of my favorite titles in the long and impressive list of Fahey titles. Old Girlfriends and Other Horrible Memories.

I was just reading where Woody Guthrie said to collect titles, good titles and save them up. Funny, cause I think I've come up with some good ones in the past, and they are around here some where. But there's so few of my own songs that I've composed that each one has about three titles!

John Fahey - Live at the Record Plant 1973

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:00:00 +0000

Folks, there's friends of Fahey and of Delta-Slider coming out to help us all enjoy more Fahey in our lives! Got a couple new shows showing up in the email box. Damian is the guy sharing these, be sure to say thanks!

There's more to come and more guitar tab from MTW too! Stay tuned for a bit of an extended Fahey week. Quite unexpected and a pleasant surprise!

Record Plant 1973
1. Fare Forward Voyagers
2. 02 The Dance Of The Inhabitants Of The Palace Of King Philip XIV Of Spain
3. 03 Medley_ Stomping Tonight Fantasy _ In Christ There Is No East Or West _ Beverly

Download it!!

Scott Wolf - All Strings Considered Podcast

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:07:00 +0000

Guitarist Scott Wolf is being widely recognized for his versatility as a performer, teacher, and arranger for classical guitar. Scott most recently received his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Southern California, where he studied classical guitar with renowned pedagogue and Los Angeles Guitar Quartet member Scott Tennant. He earned a Master of Music from New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Eliot Fisk and received his Bachelor of Arts at UC San Diego with Dr. Randy Pile.

So begins the bio of Scott Wolf. Good stuff! He's also got a nice little podcast going, they are focused on classical and I find the interviews with the flamenco guitarists especially exciting. Go check it out, but there's one with Adam Del Monte and one with Grisha Goryachev. The podcasts are really well produced, absolutely pro quality.

All Strings Considered

John Fahey - Bucktown Stomp & Dalhart, TX 1967 Guitar TAB

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:30:00 +0000

John Fahey and guitar TAB. I expect your heart is racing. Mine is! If you were drooling over the FFV tab posted early this week, you may have noticed a few comments about TAB sharing.

Well MTW has very generously offered to share some Fahey TABs of his own. These are his hand-written works. Part of a life-time of playing and TABing Fahey's works.

So what have we got? Well we've got a couple pieces that aren't really found out there on the internet so dig in and start picking! It's Fahey's birthday!!

Bucktown Stomp

&

Dalhart, TX 1967

If you benefit from these like I will, be sure to drop a Thank You in the comments!

John Fahey - BBC Night Ride 1969

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:08:00 +0000

Well look here! We gots us some Fahey on the radio! I posted this show back during the 2011 Fahey week. However, if you prefer a little more feel for how it was broadcast, this version has a little banter on either side of the tunes by John Peel.

Thanks to Damian for sending this along and encouraging me to share it.

Here's the setlist

Bucktown Stomp
The Death of the Clayton Peacock
Sunflower River Blues
In Christ There is no East or West
Steel Guitar Rag

Download it now!!

John Fahey - Fare Forward Voyagers Tab

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:00:00 +0000

Just the other day a message pops up on the Fahey board saying, hey I did a tab of Fahey's FFV and here it is if anyone wants it. Wow, that's a 20 minute song! That's a lot of tab. That man is Nikita K. and to add to it he has a YouTube of it as well. I encourage you to check it out. Fantastic.

You can download the full tab (all 43 pages) HERE It's a great lookin' tab from one of the computer TAB programs, very readable.

Going to be very light around here this week. Normally I run a Fahey week but I've been rather busy lately and didn't work up a week's worth of material. But, today in 2001, Fahey left this world but also left us his music. So have a seat, download the tab and pay tribute by playing Fare Forward Voyagers.

Listen Hear! - Fingerpicking

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:32:00 +0000

Listen Hear! is a periodic (probably irregular) feature covering what I'm listening to these days. Feel free to comment and let me know what you are listening to these days.

Here's a few of the new CDs I've been spinning lately. At least...fairly new. I don't always get stuff right away, but that's ok!

Michael DeLalla is a local guitarist. You can visit his site, Falling Mountain Music. Looks like he is working on a new tour. He does tour pretty regularly and I would suggest you go see him, very entertaining. His new CD, this is how i disappear is available at his site or CDbaby.

I'm so glad to see Mike Fekete put out another album. I love his playing and his compositions. Great to see his piece, "The Sacred Monster Blues" committed to this new effort. I've heard it live a time or two, good stuff. Check out Dakota Territory Blues at mikefekete.com.

Ah, and then I have a duo of Tompkins Square releases. TS has been busy lately and I'm behind on releases. But these are the two that are spinning furiously in the player at the moment And furious might be an apt description of some of the playing here! Imaginational Anthem hits a surprising volume #5! Who'd a thunk it? It's not quite the line-up of newbies and unknowns that we were treated to in the initial IA. But then isn't that to be expected by Vol. five? Bill Orcutt gets the best song title award for "John Fahey Commemorative Beer Can."

Rounding out the duo is Daniel Bachman's Seven Pines. Bachman is touring like a madman, even making two stops here in Colorado to my surprise, very exciting!! So dig up his schedule and watch for him. You can get the TS releases at http://www.tompkinssquare.com and widely at your favorite shop.

That's it for now. I plan on this being a regular feature and I hope you dig it!

Don Bikoff - Celestial Explosion

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 05:26:00 +0000

Celestial Explosion due out on Tompkins Square on Feb 26th, 2013

"Actually John Fahey and I met on a few occasions and also corresponded sporadically. He did , in fact, record a number of my tunes but would not give me writers credit. That was John!"

Chuck Johnson: September 7, 2012 Hopscotch Festival

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 03:23:00 +0000

Chuck Johnson
2012-09-07
Three Lobed/WXDU Day Show
Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Tracks
01 [intro]
02 On A Slow Passing In Ghost Town
03 Across White Oak Mountain
04 [tuning]
05 A Slender Thread/Dissevered
06 The Flying Spire Don’t Have No Mercy

Buy A Struggle Not a Thought at EMUSIC

Kelly Joe Phelps - Joe's Pub, NY, NY

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Kelly Joe Phelps
Sept 7, 2012
Joe's Pub, NY, NY

1 River Rat Jimmy
2 Hard Time They Never Go Away
3 Sometimes A Drifter
4 Down To The Praying Ground
5 Spit Me Outta the Whale
6 Hope In The Lord To Provide
7 God Don't Ever Change
8 The Singing waterfall
9 ?
10 Pilgrim's Reach
11 Brother Pilgrim
12 Encore: Good Night Irene

Download HERE
BUY Kelly Joe Phelps from EMUSIC

Glenn Jones 2012 Hopscotch Festival

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 22:59:00 +0000

Like me, a lot of us weren't at the Hopscotch Festival, but you can listen to Glenn's set HERE
Streaming only, courtesy of:

BUY Glenn Jones from EMUSIC

The Surfdusters - Save the Waves

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Any regular reader of this blog will know that Ragtime Ralph is a staple here at the Delta-Slider. Posting his fingerpickin' goodies for all to hear has been a pleasure for me. Ralph loves sharing his music. Ralph also has a very diverse taste in music and in his playing history. Surf music for instance, is a part of his musical history.
So I thought I would post a little of it here. This is a great collection, here's the blurb from CDBABY:

The Surfdusters, Canada's primo west coast surf band, presents their CD 'Save The Waves' on Fireball 008. What you get here is reverbed up Fender guitars, drivin' Farfisa organ and piano, rumblin' bass, crashin' drums with grindin' sax added to the mix on 27 rockin' instrumentals written by the band - including all 11 tunes featured in the world's #1 cartoon 'Spongebob Squarepants'. Liner notes give you the story behind these tunes from The Surfdusters 'Raincoast Rumble' and 'Surf After Dark' CDs; out of print vinyl, cassette and compilation CDs, and unreleased cuts.
During the 1990s and into the 21st century, Vancouver, B.C.'s The Surfdusters played the west coast of North America - including sharing the stage with legendary Dick Dale and The Ventures - and were the only Canadian band featured on Rhino's 'Surf Box' compilation with their signature 'Save The Waves' instro included on this CD.

Get a TWENTY SEVEN song collection from Amazon for only $8.99 on MP3
CDBABY has the CD for a good price, compared to Amazon, and you get all the liner notes mentioned above.

Cian Nugent - 15 September 2012, Tilburg, Netherlands

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Bio from his bandcamp page:
Cian Nugent is a guitar player and composer from Dublin, Ireland who combines personal passions, such as suburban/coastal blues, traditional musics, late 1960s & '70s singer-songwriters, jazz ambitions, 20th century composition and the Takoma school into a deeply personal style. His music boasts an orchestrated and fully instrumented sound that is playful and eerie at the same time.

Cian Nugent
Saturday 15 September 2012
Incubate Festival
Pauluskerk
Tilburg, Netherlands
Setlist:
01 intro
02 Grass Above My Head
03 tuning / banter
04 ...
05 tuning / banter
06 My War Blues (Black Flag cover)
07 tuning / banter
08 Double Horse

http://ciannugent.bandcamp.com

Recording is very low but Nugent's playing is great and very nice tone.
Download it HERE

BUY Cian Nugent from EMUSIC

Glenn Jones

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Happy birthday to Mr. Jones!

BUY Glenn Jones from EMUSIC

The Hired Hand by Bruce Langhorne

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 02:22:00 +0000

Bruce Langhorne’s film score to Peter Fonda’s 1971 cult classic “The Hired Hand” was Bruce’s first solo album and Peter Fonda’s directoral debut and it’s just now seeing it’s first and limited appearance on vinyl and fittingly Scissor Tail Editions inaugural vinyl release. Bruce Langhorne is most known for his session work with artists in and around the Greenwich Village folk scene during the 1960’s.

Out September 1st - in Limited Edition of 1000 Hand Numbered 180gram Vinyl

The Hired Hand by Bruce Langhorne

The 78 Project - Rev. John Wilkins

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 04:22:00 +0000

The 78 Project on the Road: Reverend John Wilkins - "I Want Jesus to Walk with Me" from The 78 Project on Vimeo.

KING OF THE 78S - Joe Bussard

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 03:04:00 +0000

Interview here with Mr Bussard. Maybe nothing real new but I do love this line from the exchange:

Q: Tell me about a record you still regret not picking up?

A: I don’t have any.

Haha! That's fantastic. And that's an obsession, not a hobby.
Best part of the article are the pictures so be sure to check it out
Read it over at Dust & Grooves
Looks like a cool project to keep an eye on.

C. F. Morrison Guitars

delta_slider@yahoo.com (J Scott Moore) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Chuck Morrison started building guitars in 1974. In Boulder Colorado. Two years later he added mandolins to his production and named them after the flatirons which overlook the city. In 1979 he moved to Bozeman, Montana where he partnered with Steve and Maxine Carlson to build and market the mandolins. While Chuck sold his share of the business the following year and moved to Vermont, Flatiron continued on, spawning a strong musical instrument building tradition in Montana.

In Vermont, Chuck spent 12 more years building guitars of all types, a few other instruments and performing many different styles of music. He earned a B.S. in Environmental Science and returned to Colorado in 1992 to begin a new career in computing. 25 years later, having designed and built his own solar powered workshop and home, he turned is attention back to designing and building guitars.

I didn't know any of this a few months back when I started going to a new guitar society meeting in the area. I think it was my first meeting that I saw a very unique guitar. Chuck Morrison is the president of the Guitar Society of Northern Colorado and he was toting around this guitar and letting everyone try it out. What I didn't realize was that he also designed and built the guitar.

As you can see below it's not a typical guitar. Notice the sound hole, the cut-away and there's more that isn't readily apparent; a sound port in the lower bout that can be opened and closed, an adjustable neck and Morrison's Offset Keel neck design that allows great access to the upper frets.

Chuck is gearing up to market a line of his acoustic guitars based on features used in the guitar you see above. It's such a unique guitar I had to ask him if he would be kind enough to talk about his work for the blog. Not only was he gracious enough to do so but he even accepted my self-invitation to tour the shop and hang out for a bit to learn more about how he builds his instruments. It was a great visit. Check out the interview below to learn more about Chuck and the instruments he builds.

You were a student at CU when you left to start building instruments. What was so compelling for you at that time?

In retrospect, I have no idea. We all feel things strongly when we're young and later on we ask "what was I thinking ?" It was an exciting prospect and I made the leap.

One of your bridge configurations is a nod to NBN guitars, a Colorado company. How has NBN and other Colorado influences affected your instruments over the years?

I credit Reb, Andy and Monte for motivating me to start building guitars. Aside from building great playing and beautiful instruments, they turned out to be great people. How could I not try to emulate them ? They did some different things on their guitars, so it never felt wrong to change things up on an instrument in pursuit of a better result. Other influences from that time were Max Krimmel and Pete Nightingale. I'll always credit Dave Goodrich for driving me to understand what quality means.
The obvious NBN influence on my steel string guitars is the staggered bridge pin configuration. The rationale is to reduce the chance of the bridge wood splitting between the pins. It has an interesting visual quality as well, but it's primarily functional. I redesigned the bridge shape long ago and it fit the pin configuration nicely, so I kept it. The other thing I do is carve the neck heel and peghead on the classier guitars. This came directly from the NBN Limited Edition series, which in turn came from high end banjos. Reb and Monte built banjos at ODE before becoming NBN and you can see some of that influence in those guitars.
I should mention that I am proud to be a part of Colorado's lineage of instrument building, which I've traced back to 1959. There have been some outstanding builders in this area and that continues to this day. The rosette I designed and use for my Classical and Flamenco guitars honors the Colorado connection.

Your Keel neck design is your own invention. It has its obvious purpose, but what do you hope is the result of players having improved access up the neck of an acoustic guitar?

Ultimately the hope would be that the repertoire of the acoustic and classical guitar would expand to include the greater range. It takes a while to get out of first position playing, but once you make that leap, you shouldn't be limited by the instrument your're playing. I'm removing the physical block to the upper notes. Actually using them is up to the players/composers.

Your site is full of what you call technobabble, you have a very scientific approach to building, like your examples of Chladni patterns. How has that affected your approach over the years?

I started looking at Chladni patterns in the 70s. At the time there was very little published research regarding how this related to guitars. It was primarily violins and even that was not in great depth. So it was completely guesswork. Over the decades various people started publishing on this subject. Alan Carruth's work published in American Lutherie in the 90s and Trevor Gore's recent design book are good examples.
My own approach changes all the time as I try to relate what I see in spectral analysis and chladni testing to what I hear. It's a very complex subject that is complicated by the fact that hearing is such a limited sense in humans. In the end it's all about how a guitar makes you feel as to whether you want to play it again and again.

Your site mentions a philosophy of improvising in your building, comparable to that of a musician improvising in a song?

I view building an instrument in the same category as composing a piece of music. Many builders make their guitars all the same, copying some well known pattern. But that's the same as playing the same piece of music over and over again. Aside from being boring to do, it's boring to everyone else. I'm improvising with the wood as I build. In the process I learn a lot that just copying a pattern can't teach me. The instrument is more interesting and has it's own identity because of this. That scares a lot of people who think that guitars should all be the same.

I get the feeling you don’t build anything very traditional. You are drawn to the new and innovative?

The way I see it, every "traditional" instrument was just someone's experiment that ended up being successfully marketed. The joy in building for me is in creating something that has it's own identity. Why would I want to make someone else's instruments? For that matter, why would I want to make two the same? I'm not a factory and my instruments aren't clones.

The steel string guitar you've been displaying lately has an adjustable bolt-on neck, a sort of pie-slice shaped sound hole in the upper bout and a voicing port in the lower bout. How did you arrive at all of this?

The upper bout sound hole was to be able to access the neck adjustment. The shape of the hole was entirely based on the shape of the area involved and the voicing port was based on my understanding of the properties of resonant air masses and my desire to adjust the sound of the instrument dynamically. It all does what it was designed to do. There are many variations on these themes and I'm exploring them in newer guitars.

New design for the upper bout sound hole.

Is everything done in your shop by hand?

That is a matter of definition and most people don't have a clear one. That's why companies get away with calling instruments that are obviously built on factory production lines "Handmade". So in commerce today, the term is meaningless.
However, to answer the spirit of the question, compared to how a guitar would be built in a factory, absolutely yes. Compared to how Antonio Torres built guitars in 1860, not so much. I've done it both ways and I lean towards the latter.

You are planning on employing a small team to start building soon and making your guitars available. Will there be a focus on a specific design and when and where can people start buying these instruments?

Employing is perhaps the wrong term to use. I'm attempting to combine the skills of a few experienced builders to create a new line of instruments based on some of my design principles. We will be going in together on these instruments and see if some of the variations we come up with speak to people enough to justify further efforts. The marketing strategy has not been fully vetted yet, so if anyone is interested they should probably just email me directly.

Folks, you can browse Chuck's site, C. F. Morrison Guitars for a ton of interesting stuff and find his email there if you are interested in contacting him about his work.