Musings

Reprinting Ward Meeker’s interview with Deke for Vintage Guitar magazine

Finally getting around to a project I’ve been putting off for years: restoring the Ampex 3-track machine! It basically works, but not up to snuff.

They started playing “Why Do I Cry” and the three of us bystanders looked at each other with disbelief. It sounded EXACTLY like their original record. It was freakin’ unbelievable!

If you’re of a certain age, you will remember the airwaves crammed full of advertisements for “Boxcar Willie” albums. Boxcar was one of the earliest investors in his own country music theater in Branson.

RIP to my friend Scott Kempner, aka “Top Ten,” who passed away today. Scott was a great guitarist who played with two of my favorite bands, the Dictators and the Del-Lords.

I spent the afternoon with my buddy Bill Turner, looking through old photos of his parents, who were country-western musicians in the 1950s through the 1970s. How many people can hold up a 1950s photo of Merle Travis holding a baby and say, “See that baby Merle’s holding? THAT’S ME!”

After several years of working on this project, the 1946 Fender “Woody” Pro is all together and working and sounding amazing! It will be picked up next week for an exhibit at the Fullerton Museum that you won’t want to miss, Leo Fender: Fullerton to the World.

I’m pretty sure Norman Petty had these speakers in the guest apartment at his studio, where the bands would stay when they came to record. The place is still pretty much exactly the way it was in the 1950s.

Ready to have your mind blown? In honor of Link Wray FINALLY getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tonight, enjoy these Link Wray home movies from around 1960–64

Check out the guitar Grady Martin is playing in this clip—never seen him with this one in any other video!