Jimmy Brown

While we were celebrating Papa's 90th birthday, we all stayed at a little cruddy motel. Next to the motel was a little cruddy bar that we decided to take over. After a couple of hours a guitarist came by and set up. With four guitarists in the family, we were curious. I walked over and introduced myself. Turns out the guy was Jimmy Brown, the senior editor of Guitar World, a magazine I've been reading for twenty years.

He was brilliant. The way he approached the instrument, both by technique and equipment was revolutionary. His SG was battle scarred, coil-tapped and more versatile than that model has any right to be. He had a split signal between a Line 6 modeler and a Fishman acoustic pedal so he could sound like anything at any volume. Even small details like keeping a tamborine under his foot made the difference, filling out the sound without the need for any other musicians. That isn't to say he didn't have help. You see, my family can be overwhelming.









It was a hell of a night, and proved to me once again that the greatest guitar players are not the most famous. Sometimes they just play in little cruddy bars in the Poconos.