Doc Stevens

Tondeleo: For some reason Doc and Marilyn are really opening up about their Hawaii trip. I think the fact that I don't make fun of them is helping them to talk more freely. I love hearing their stories, and especially their stories about Hawaii, one of the many places where I have never been, but would love to go! 

Marilyn, how as the shopping in Hawaii? I know you two didn't have much money, but I'm sure you were able to do enough busking to buy a few things...

Marilyn: Other than the thrift shops, the only other place we went shopping was the swap meet...

Doc: Swap Meet!!! I brung some stuff to trade out  - I had my whole guitar case full - and they ain't about swappin' out there, Tondy! They're about swapping their stuff for MY money!

Marilyn: That part's true. They really aren't there to swap anything. But it is really nice! And huge! It's every Wednesday and Saturday and Sunday at the Aloha Stadium. You pay a dollar to get in and then there's hundreds of little stands and booths set up with everything you could want...

Doc: I wanted some things they didn't have...

Marilyn: Well, everything that a normal person would want...

Doc: But I got special needs...

Tondy: YES, we all KNOW that, Doc!

Marilyn: And the prices are really good! Like t shirts were 7 for $20. That's cheaper than a thrift shop! And they were brand new!  Might not be the best quality but you can ask for lower prices, it doesn't hurt and usually works!

Doc: We got to drink outta coconuts. That was pretty cool. Not cheap but it is a good memory.  They had about any kind of food you want. Plus some dried bugs and little dried up peppered crabs at some of the Chinese booths. I didn't get 'em. I got a big hot dog.

  Marilyn: OK, here's something that I didn't plan to eat, Tondy... Marinated squid! A little Korean lady named Ms. Patti  (Doc asked her if she was Hawaiian or Chinese, and she said she was Korean, which he had never heard of and told her he thought she was Chinese) with a red hat on was selling it. People were in line to buy it. The Korean lady lets people sample all the different kinds that she's selling Of Course Doc wouldn't eat it because he said it was fish bait and he is a man, not a fish. When Ms.Patti found out I'd never had it before, she rolled me a little a sample with rice, seaweed, kimchi and her marinated cuttlefish. I actually LIKED it, Tondy!

Doc: And I actually did not even want to try it! I ain't eatin' no dried up squids or fish or seaweed. Man was made to eat hot dogs and normal food what is found in nature.  But I did buy a bottle of Broke  Da Face hot sauce. I liked that. I wish I'd bought more.

Marilyn: We should have gotten an umbrella at the salvation Army before coming. It was hot as Anacostia [in Washington, DC] in July! We should have brought some bottles of water, too. But we had a really good time!

Doc: They had all kinds of stuff... shirts, stickers, magnets, food, them itty bitty guitars, stuff what they carved outta wood. And one thing that was the same as here, Tondy, is that most of it come all the way from China! That's why it was so cheap.   

Them itty bitty guitars was NOT cheap! They mighta come from China or maybe was made local, but they was not cheap, not unless you bought the toy ones... and I thought ALL of 'em was toys at first, but they wasn't.

Tondeleo: One thing about rural Americans is that they want the same things that other people have, but they usually can't afford them, well unless they steal or sell drugs. For the rest, they have to figure out how to make things themselves or fix things so they can have nice things that we all like. Doc and his friends say that they have made so much out of so little for so long that they can make anything out of nothing now.

Doc, Big Dave, Marilyn and I were standing out front of Doc's house, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather, and talking about how, all in all, life is pretty good. When you try to do the right thing, right things seem to happen for you.

Doc has an old Martin guitar  - 44 years old, to be precise - that he said just seemed to get worse over the years. It got to where it hurt his left hand to play it so he would use his old no-name guitar from the 1950's that he had paid $20 for ten or more years ago. 

Doc: A man needs several guitars for the different places he  plays. Like, out on the street you need a old beater guitar, because it might rain on you, or something might happen to it while you're walkin' from one place to another. You need a old beater electric and a old beater acoustic. but they still have to sound good. But they also can't look good enough that someone would try to steal them. You have to think about that. they have to LOOK like cheap garbage.

For a open mic, you need somethin' that might look a little better, and it's gotta sound good. For a paid gig, you need somethin' that looks pretty good and sounds real good. A 'lectric on for some, and a 'coustic for others. And that is what broke my heart with this old Martin gettin' worse over the years. Plus, after so many years, it's like a pet, like a friend. It gets all full of music from years of playin' and it wants to be played alot. But I could barely play it. It got to where it hurt my hands...

Tondeleo: And then, something happened!

Doc: Yeah, Tondy, I'm pretty excited about this! My Martin been getting worse and worse an' I all but stopped playin' it a few years ago. It didn't sound right, didn't feel right. The strings were too high, it was just gettin' issues. You know that I don't mind tearin' somethin' apart if I think I can fix it. but I am not dumb enough to tear an old Martin apart. I'd probably mess it up even worse. They definitely are not something I want to mess up.

That meant I needed to get ahold of some money and just find someone who can fix it. I know a couple old guys what can do that kind of work, but ain't neither one of 'em doin' it anymore, unless it's little things. They both are geniuses with wood and can make brand new acoustic guitars outta raw wood, so they ain't too interested in tearin' into somethin' like resettin' the neck on a 44 year old Martin. I don't blame 'em. I'm scared to do it too. So that meant I had to come up with two things.

I had to come up with some money and I had to come up with someone who could do the job. It don't do no good to have the money if they ain't no one what can do the work. I asked around and found out it was gonna cost at least $350 or $400 just to get it started bein' fixed, plus whatever else they found when they tore into it.

I sold an old Tele [Telecaster] to a boy down here and fixed a couple other 'lectrics for people what been buggin' me to do their work, and got some money in my pocket. Then I got Marilyn to look on the interweb for someone round here what could fix it. She found me a guy in Arlington over in Virginia, what is about an hour from here. Close enough.

Marilyn: You know how Doc is, Tondy! He's not scared of anything or anybody, but he's scared of computers! He's scared he'll mess something up, or that he won't know what to do - which is true. I think he's scared to admit that he COULD learn something like doing a Google search, but then if he DID learn how to do it, he wouldn't need me anymore - which also isn't true! He can't even balance his checkbook! 

Doc: I ain't scared of no 'puter and I ain't need a checkbook. I pay in cash. So what do I need a 'puter and checkbook for?

Marilyn: Well, when you don't know something, you're pretty quick to call me in a panic and ask me to find out for you! And every month when you're trying to figure out how to pay your bills you seem to need to balance a checkbook!

Doc: Anyway, Tondy, what I was TRYING to say was, Marilyn found this guy. I asked her a bunch of questions and she read me the answers off his interweb page and the answers sounded good. She gave me his number and I called.

Marilyn: I had to MAKE him call! Doc wanted to hop in his truck and just show up with his messed up guitar. Luckily the man didn't put his whole address and luckily we don't have a map of Arlington, and luckily I wasn't available to go anywhere - and Doc doesn't like to go anywhere alone!

Doc: Sure, Marilyn... Now here's what's crazy. Most these people ain't gonna do much work between Christmas and New Years, but I called this one on Tuesday, what was the 29th an' he said to bring it on over. I got my friend George Edelen who is the best guitar player I know round here, and we rode over there.

The guy's name is Daniel. You can tell by lookin' at him that he's smart and also by listenin' to him when he talks. He knows guitars inside and out. He looked at my Martin and pointed out a bunch of things that it needed, and said what it needed wasn't a neck reset which made me feel better right then, but it needed some other things, a lot of little things, and it would cost less than a neck reset.

He talked all about guitars he's made, and all kinds of different wood and what it does to the sound and a bunch of other stuff that was interesting and I learnt alot. Me and George left and both felt good about having Daniel work on it. I figured it's be a couple of weeks, but no! He called me the next afternoon, and it was all done! I couldn't get up there to pick it up right then, but it was done! I couldn't believe my ears, Tondy!

Tondeleo: That's fantastic, Doc!

Doc: What's fantastic ?

Tondeleo: It's fantastic that he took it in right away. It's fantastic that he knew so much, and that he didn't take advantage of you. It's fantastic that he got it done so quickly. It's fantastic that you actually paid someone else to do something for you that was beyond your capabilities...

Doc: Oh yeah. I guess it IS fantastic. I just don't use that word, Tondy.  Anyway, he got it on Tuesday, called me that it was done Wednesday and I got it on Thursday, the last day of 2015. He made it perfect again. For me to tell, because I don't have that much brains, I had to pick it up and close my eyes an' play it and feel what it is doing in my hands and how the vibes are. it was just like it was a long time ago! it was just right. I could not in my wildest dreams think it could be that good and be done that fast, but it was true. Plus he kept to his price what he had told me and didn't all a sudden jack it up when he saw how happy I was with it.

He taught me a few things about fixin' guitars so I could do better on fixin' the kinds I fix - cheap old pieces of crap! Well, that's about it, Tondy except this: He asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee that was better than any coffee I'd ever had, and I figured that he thought I ain't never been to a 7-Eleven before. But he was nice so I played along.

But guess what? We didn't go to no 7-Eleven! Daniel gets his own coffee beans raw off of some dude an' then roasts them right there at his house and then grinds 'em up right there, and makes coffee in a itty bitty little silver coffee pot what he screws together an' puts on the stove. Ok, he didn't lie about that coffee. It was the best coffee I have ever had in my life. I am thinkin' about breakin' one of my guitars just so I can go back over there for some more of that coffee. Seriously.

Oh, here's his info, Tondy. Put all of it on the blob what you type:
Daniel Carbone

Tondeleo: I'm back in the States after being gone for five months. I've been mired in work and have had absolutely no time to transcribe conversations with Doc, Marilyn and their friends. I feel dreadful about this, but life happens. Actually, life happens while you're waiting for life to happen. I'm learning that as I grow older! 


I'm in awe of the weather on the east coast here in the States! I have been here since the week before Christmas and it has been unseasonably warm and quite nice, even though it has rained a lot. It still isn't as damp as England. I love this! I'm outside with just a tshirt and even wearing short trousers!

Being New Years Eve, I'm wondering what Doc, Big Dave and Rick are going to do. Maybe tonight they'll break their teetotaling ways. Once can only hope. All three of them had had problems due to their drinking in times past and all of them come from families where alcoholism runs deep. I get that. But that isn't MY background! And here I am stuck out living in a cabin in the woods with these three tee totaling musicians and their dogs and instruments.

 Doc was just talking about how every year his father would drink up their Christmas and nobody got any gifts. His dad's head hurt so bad that everyone had to be quiet and tiptoe around the house. Doc's dad was big and acted like a bear with a headache. And Doc would've kept up the family tradition if not for a few miracles.

Doc said, "As much as I hated my daddy, I was growin' up to be just like him. When he would walk across a bar, other men would point to him and say, 'there's a dangerous man.' That's what I wanted to be, a dangerous man. And I was workin' on it pretty well, but like my daddy, I found out that no matter how dangerous you are, you're gonna run into someone more dangerous than you."

"Plus, it's better to go to an AA meeting if I want to get together with my old drinking buddies. They have sober parties, and it's easier to stay sober if everyone else is..."

Big Dave added, "Yeh, I grew up the same way. Daddy and mama was always fightin'  over his drinkin' and fightin'. It weren't no fun for us kids. Not at all. Far as I'm concerned, alcohol ain't good for nothin' but pourin' on cuts."

Doc agreed. "I ain't taken a drink in years. I don't go to no bars. You can have a few shots of liquor and start lookin' for a fight. Liquor makes a angry man more angry... Do y'all have AA in England, Tondy?"


I assured him that we did, which he marveled at. looked over to Rick, who'd been sitting over in the corner quietly. He said, "i'm more peaceful than these guys. My dad taught us that you shouldn't go looking for fights, because there's always a fight looking for you. And you shouldn't think someone is being mean just because he's running his mouth. It might just be that he's ignorant and doesn't know any better. We were raised to just quietly slip out and go home if we could... or go stand by someone like Doc - let HIM be the target!

Doc and Big Dave got into a discussion of the nice cars and pickups that they'd had but had wrecked them due to drinking. Both of them talked about miracles that happened to keep them from getting killed. Doc had a couple of guitars that were destroyed by his automobile accidents. 

"I broke a good Telecaster in a fight once, hitting a guy what pulled a knife on me. He never knew what hit him. A Tele weighs like 9 pounds. It's a pretty good weapon. But if we'd all been sober, I'd still would've had that guitar."

Rick added that he threw up into a harmonica once. Well, actually twice. 

I have a lot of catching up to do with Doc, Big Dave, Rick, Marilyn and all their friends. I look forward to taking more pictures, recording more conversations and doing more blog posts than I did last year! And I guess I'll get a good start, because none of them are going anywhere to celebrate. Marilyn and her husband David are going to church! She said they want to start the new year with God and with taking communion...  I almost went with them, just to get out of the house, but then she said the communion at her church isn't wine, it's just grape juice.

Ok. I'll stay home, be safe, get some sleep and wake up with a clear head tomorrow. Could be worse.


 

Tondeleo: This is a continuation of the discussion that Doc, Big Dave and I had about  open mics, and how to do them better, even WHY to do them in the first place, and any and every other tip that came up.

Doc: When you get a new song that you think people would like - and it ain't just you that's gotta like it, you got to be thinkin' about your audience. Are they gonna be able to like that song from the first couple of bars they hear? 

You don't never want to play a song that it takes people a while to figure out if they like it or not. It's got to be one that from the moment they hear it, they like it.

I got a lot of songs what I like and might sing by myself, or with a couple of friends, but I would never play
them in front of an audience. Like we play "downhome" music - that mix of blues and gospel and country and rockabilly. That's what I like and play in public. But sometimes Marilyn might want to sing some song what isn't that kind of music, She'll nag me and nag me 'til I play it along with her. It could be anything, of any kind of music. But we ain't playin' it in public.

Tondeleo: What would be an example of a song like that, Doc?

Doc: Well, she might like to sing that song "Blue Bayou" by that Linda Rondstadt girl. It ain't our kind of music what we play, but it's a good song. Marilyn been singin' that since she was maybe 12 or 13. She got it inside her, so she could sing that anywhere anytime.  But we ain't playin it as part of a show. But we could, 'cause we got it inside.

Tondeleo: So why don't you sing it in public? 

Doc: Well, whatever music you play, people think of you a certain way. You kinda got to stick with that. We pretty much don't play anything newer than about 1954. We do that "downhome" music.  We ain't a cover band. Anything from the sixties is too new, 'specially if it was a hit. Now there is some songs what was wrote in the 60's but sounded like they was old and if they sound right, we'll do 'em. Some of what we do is "B" sides of songs what was hits. But they had to be songs what I liked from the first couple of notes. Then if I start to play one of 'em in front of my friends, they had to like it from the first couple of notes. And it has to SOUND like something we'd do. 

Tondeleo: Are you saying that it has something to do with your image? 

Doc: I guess. Basically, you got to look like what you sound like and sound like what you look like. If you look like just regular workin' folk like we do, then you need to sound like that. It would be crazy to sound like Elvis Presley or someone smooth and sophisticated. We're down to earth. The way we sound is just the way we sound. People ask where did we get our sound. That is just what it sounds like when we play guitars and sing.

I think everybody sings and plays things that's from another kind of music than what they might play in public. Country guys might sing heavy metal, or hip hop or jazz or whatever. Hippety hop guys might sing smooth jazz or gospel or whatever in private. But not in public.

Tondeleo: Now, you mentioned that Marilyn sings newer stuff at home.Specifically you mentioned Blue Bayou. Say, if she got dressed up in city clothes, and you did, too, would that song measure up in terms of being a song that people would like from the first few notes?

Doc: Well, yeah. An' if we didn't use our real names! I ain't goin' out there with my real name and play some kind of pop music or somethin'! But as for that Blue Bayou song, as soon as you hear the first couple of bars of it, you like that song. It's got a good beat, got a good sound to it and is easy to sing along with. It's a simple song, good tune. It passes every test of a song what  person could do in public an' people would like it and sing along, tap their feet and clap their hands to it. It's a great song, if you got it inside you.

We sang that song in Hawaii an' people liked it.

Tondeleo: HAWAII??? Are you SURE? You went to Hawaii? Do you even know where it is? 

Doc: Yeah, we went to Hawaii. Last year when you was  out there in that England. Someone paid for us to go out there, not the whole band, just me an' Marilyn. We got on an aeroplane and flew there. It took like all day to get there. But there wasn't no girls in grass skirts and coconuts though. It was real nice over there, an' the people out there was real nice to us. We was out there a couple of weeks an' then came home. We met a lot of people an' played a lot of songs. Marilyn gots some pictures from there she can give you. We can talk about it later. Not now.

Tondeleo: Why didn't you SAY something about going to Hawaii? That's fantastic. 

Doc: I was sort of 'barrassed about it. I hadn't never been there before an' wasn't used to it. I was afraid you'd ask me questions what I don't know the answer to. Them people wear flip flops an' Hawaiian shirts all the time, but they just call 'em shirts. We can talk about it later, Tondy. Not now. Get back to open mic. I know a little about that.

Tondeleo: Ok, so how about stage fright, Doc? How does a person avoid that?

Doc: By bein' too dumb to be scared! That's one way. Another way is if you are nearsighted, don't wear your glasses. Then you can't see nobody. Third is to know what you're plain' well enough that you aren't using your mind, but just playin' out of your heart. Like, you have played it and sang it so many times you can do it all automatically without thinkin'. That's what we done in Hawaii. We ain't know nobody out there, an' they all looked at us like we was from outer space or somethin'.

But, like, if you know the song is a good one and people are gonna love it, and you've done it so many times you can do it with your eyes closed, then they ain't nothin' to be scared of.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Don't try to sound like the person who made the song famous. You'll never sound like them, all you will sound like is you tryin' to sound like someone else. Then who are you gonna sound like for the next song? You wanna listen to the original just enough to kind of learn it. Then start playin' it and never listen to the original. By and by, you'll have changed a bit here and a bit there, and soon it will sound like you and not like the other person. Now, nobody has anything to compare you with, like "hey, on the second verse, you forgot to sing out your nose like Bob Dylan did when he sang that song."

Well, if I learnt that song 20 years ago and ain't  listened to it since then, I aint gonna sound like him on ANY verse! I'm gonna sound like Doc Stevens and Marilyn is gonna sound like Marilyn. And nobody is better at that than us! 'Specially over to that Hawaii.

Tondeleo: As you know, I get fascinated with the resourcefulness of people who have a desire, some skills and not the money they need to get what they want. They overcome their obstacles through sheer determination. Doc and his friends are able to make almost anything our of almost nothing. I admire that and wish I had the creativity and the skills that they have.

Only recently, I realized that while they are very creative and can make almost anything, they have their own heroes and people whose skills they aspire to. Doc showed me a couple of pictures of homemade guitars that he thinks of as works of genius.

To him, a "work of genius" may not be something that is beautiful, but is something that serves a specific purpose and reveals the heart and soul of it's maker. He has some pictures of some things that to me are just plain ugly, until he points out all the details of why the maker is a genius.

Doc: Look at this, Tondy. This is a guitar made from an old MGB. That's a car from your country! I didn't even know that Brits made guitars from old cars and garbage like we do. That's really cool, Tondy!
 Marilyn found this on the interweb and got it to me.  

It's a work of genius. I don't know who made it, but he's a good body and fender man - and a genius. I'm a body and fender man so I can spot someone who's good at it and this guy is good.

His welds are clean, and he's got the top of it arched out just like it was a wooden guitar. I like how he's got metal wrapped around the headstock up top, too. It just ties it all in together.

He's only got 17 frets on the neck, but he's got room for at least 3 more. I bet he ran out of fret wire and will finish the neck when he gets some more money together. 

I just wish I could play that thing. My guitars look like they were made by a cave man compared to these. I mean mine sound real good, but they ain't even in the same ballpark as these.

Tondeleo: That really is a nice guitar, Doc. I must confess that I've never seen one of those before. It may have been made in England. Or in America, where they might not appreciate the value of a fine old English sports car. That car would be at least 25 years old! it probably was a classic sitting in someone's barn who didn't even know what he had!

Doc: Well, he knew he had something that you couldn't play music on. That would be enough for me if I had one of them Brit cars and the idea to make a guitar out of it.

Look at this other one, Tondy. It's made from a Volvo! That is a good use for an old Volvo. If you can't drive it, play it. I like this one better than the MG one. It just looks like something I would like to make. I might make one of those. I ain't got no Volvo's around here, but there's plenty of junk cars out back, and I could make something like that out of one of them.

Look how he put a fork on the trapeze that holds the strings. I'd like one like that. I'd make a fork on it and a spoon, too. I'd put magnets on 'em so I could take them off when we play at places what has a lot of food. That's what I'd do.

I already started makin' a guitar out of metal, 'cause these pictures inspired me. Mine is a flat top one and I got the top and sides done. I gotta get the neck supports done. It ain't gonna be as nice as these cause I ain't that good. 

It's gonna be a steel guitar, Tondy. you know why? Because it's made outta steel! I'm gonna probally finish it over the winter. Then I'll trade it for something. I don't know.

If a Brit made it, maybe you can ask around and find out who it is.

Tondeleo: I will, Doc. Since he MAY be from England , I am sure that I would know him.

Doc: Well, you MIGHT. You never know til you ask.

Tondeleo: One thing that Doc and Marilyn and the band are very strong about s getting along well with other musicians. Some musicians I have met have an "I don't care what they think; they're not coming to our shows or buying our merch" attitude. And while that may be true, and while musicians definitely can have attitudes towards other musicians and bands, I have found that Doc and Marilyn and their band aren't at all like that. They don't seem to comprehend the idea of competitiveness.I quizzed them about why they don't compete with other musicians and seem to like everybody...

Doc: Well, first of all, a man needs all the friends he can get...

Marilyn: So do girls, Tondy...

Doc: ...and we ain't competin' with nobody. Alot of bands and players are competin', an' that is where they can get an attitude toward other people.

Tondeleo: Competing for what, Doc?

Doc: Well, depends on what kind of music they're playin. Mostly, competin' for gigs, bookin's. Like, if you and five other bands are all tryin' to play at, say, the local bar or club, and you know only one's gonna get it, amd another band is undercuttin' you, you might get mad or ...

John Hungerford from Hometown Band inspects one of Doc's homemade guitars. Bill Hull from The Roadhouse Band looks on benevolently. In the background is Paco Blake from Hometown Band.

 Marilyn:  At least get your feelings hurt...

Doc: Yeah, or feelings hurt if someone else takes your gig away. Especially if they's not as good as you. Even more if they play the same kind of music you play. So, you got your set list and you're good at it, an' then the place stops callin' you so you go down there since NOW you got nothin' to do on Friday night, an' they're pretty much playin' your set list. And not as good as you. You might decide right then and there you don't like them.
You prob'ly need the money to keep the lights on or to pay some bills, and now these other people are playin' your show, and you feel like they're takin' food outta your mouth.

Marilyn: That hurts. Especially when you need some new shoes or jeans or something. Money's tight for everybody.


Doc: So that's one reason you might not like the other band. Another reason is just because they might have an attitude or something like that.

Marilyn: Like a pre-Madonna attitude. 

Doc: We're pretty lucky 'cause we aren't in that situation so none of it matters to us. We play what's in our hearts, and we play it how it sounds in our hearts, and we're already broke, so ain't nobody playin' what we play... and we don't have a set list.

Marilyn: Me and Rick have a list of a couple hundred songs we might pick from, but we never know what is coming next. Doc basically just sings what comes up in his spirit, and that might bring something to my mind, so I might sing that next...

Tondy: Marilyn, why is it that only you and Rick have song lists and nobody else in the band does?

Marilyn: Well, me and Rick need them 'cause we play harp and we need to know what key the different songs are in. Brian is the drummer, so he doesn't need to know any of that. Jerry on lead guitar doesn't know what key he is playing in and neither does Jay on the bass. They just play. But me and Rick need to know, because you have to have the right harp for the right key.

Doc: Yeah, we pretty much go by what the crowd is responding to, and then change it up as we find out what they really like. We might get booked as playin' blues, and then find out what they really like is old country music. Or rockabilly. Or even Gospel. Or rockabilly Gospel! You can't never tell up front. So how you gonna have a set list for that? I cain't read and play guitar at the same time anyway.

When it comes to other bands, once they look at us and hear us, they know we aint any kind of competition for them, and we could not steal their bookin's or their audience, so it's a lot easier to get along.

Some of the bands we are friends with heard us somewhere, or heard us busking or playin' out on the streets, and invited us inside to play with them. You're not gonna be a mic hog when people have been good to you.

A lot of these bands can sound just like the records. We can't do that. we have a hard enough time just sounding like us. So we think real high of a band that can sound like a whole lot of different groups and singers. People don't even realize how much work that is and how much talent it takes.

They can tell we look up to them, and that helps a lot. Most of them have good equipment, which we don't. Plus, we don't even play the places where most the bands play. We mostly do festivals, conferences and conventions... community events...

Marilyn: Civic events, church anniversaries, fish fries, barbecues...

Doc: and pig pickin's and family reunions. I like playin' wherever they feed us. So's the band.

And since we don't play what the other bands are playin', we don't sound like anyone, we don't look like anyone, it just makes it easier to get along, play a lot of music and be friends. And, we feel the songs we sing and we let it show. If we're feeling a song, you're gonna know it, and were not gonna hide it. I cry sometimes when singin' a sad song, 'cause I feel it in my heart. Marilyn does too. Sometimes if I'm singin' and cryin', she starts cryin' 'cause she feels sorry for me up there cryin'! She's a good girl, Tondy.

But whatever we play and however we do it, it ain't never a threat to other bands and singers. so we all get along. We like everybody, Tondy. you know that.

Tondeleo: One thing that I  have learnt by hanging around with poor people is that they tend to fix things when they break, rather than throwing them out as rubbish like some of us tend to do. 


Doc: Yeah, Tondy, I heard about that guitar and drove over to look at it. It wasn't much, but it wasn't wore out. It was sort of like me. Not much, cracked and broke but not wore out.

The guy I got it from said it had belonged to a friend of his dad's back when his dad was about 20. This guy was about forty, I guess. His dad's friend left it there and was never heard from again. The old man put it in the attic in like 1965 and it was there til I got hold of it a couple years ago. The guy who had it said it had been there all of his life, and his dad was going in a nursing home and the guitar had to go!

It's a '63 Gibson LG0, which means it is smaller in size than a big guitar. Like a nylon string guitar size. But it has steel strings. It had only been used a couple years, and not very much, and then throwed in that attic.

You might think that's a good thing, but it isn't. Fifty years of being real hot and dry in the Summer and then cold and freezing in the Winter did a number on the wood and the glue. It did "Number Two" on them, if you know what I mean.

The wood was dried out and the glue was dried out. You could hold it up to the light and see right through where the back was joined in the middle. The braces inside were dried and coming lose. But the guy let me have it pretty cheap, and that was better than him tossing it in the trash.

Tondeleo: So, did you bring it home and fix it, Doc?

Doc: No, that one was beyond me. I knew better than that. I took it over to my friend, Paul Cunningham. He makes acoustic guitars from scratch. I mean, he takes a tree, cuts it down, cuts the wood real thin, and makes guitars out of them! Then he just puts them upstairs in his house and starts making more of them. He just loves making guitars! He's a genius at making guitars. He has made them out of oak. I have played an oak guitar that he made, and it sounds as good as a high end guitar you could buy in a store. He said he made it because he had never seen one made out of oak, and he wanted to know what that would sound like.

He had a cedar tree in his front yard and had a guy cut it down so he could make a cedar guitar. He can keep it in his closet to keep the moths away.

I took that little Gibson straight to Paul's house and showed him what I had. He said he could fix it. He first of all took the back off without breaking it, and re-glued the middle joint.He had to put a TINY little sliver of wood in the crack. He reglued the original braces on the back.

Paul had to flatten the top of it, because it had arched a bit from having strings on it up in the attic for fifty years. Then, he had to make three new braces for the top, and put them in. He handmade a new bridge for it out of rosewood and braced it from the back. Gibson looked like they had used a scrap of wood under the original bridge.

You can tell now why it was beyond me! I ain't got that kind of surgery skills.He got it all back together and set it up. That little guitar got a new life. I brought it home and made the finish look right without sanding it or taking it off. I have a way that I do that, and I don't tell people what it is. A man's got to have a FEW secrets, Tondy.

One my friends bought me a brand new case to put it in, so it's got a good home and is protected. I don't take it out of the house much, but it's good to keep around for playin' in the livin' room with friends. 

I traded Paul some tools and other stuff I had, so I didn't have to spend anymore money on it. Now he has some tools he needed and I have that little guitar.  Here's what it looks like now. The finish has a depth to it, as far as looks, but it still lets the grain show through. And, it could have ended up in a dumpster somewhere, if it wasn't for Paul Cunningham. He's a good man, Tondy. You got to make good friends. 

Tondeleo: I find myself ever so fascinated by the creativity of rural Americans. I think it is part of their DNA. If they want something badly enough, they are not going to let something like a lack of money keep them from trying to have it anyway. For those who won't steal what they want, and who can't get what they want any other way, there is inner creativity that they draw on. 

I have seen and heard many home made musical instruments in the rural areas of the States. Most of them sound as good or at least as interesting as their commercially made massed produced counterparts. One example is Doc Stevens' fishing tackle box guitar. Doc says that several years ago, when he was traveling on foot and by hitchhiking, he wanted a strong guitar that would take abuse, was small enough that he could travel with it, and that sounded good. One more thing, he wanted to be able to carry a sandwich or two in it. The result is the tackle box guitar that he made about a decade ago.

Doc: Yeah, I made that one about ten years or so ago. I wsa on the move a lot, and needed somethin' I could carry around and wouldn't get torn up. Needed it to be smaller than a regular guitar. I had a old tackle box. I measured it out an' found out you could make one that would work.

Tondeleo: What do you mean by measure it out. Do you need specific sizes?

Doc: Well, yeah. What I learnt was you have to have the same length from the nut, the part at the far end of the guitar to the twelfth fret, as you have from the twelfth fret to the bridge. If you don't have that, it will never sound right. I don't know if that is really a true fact, but it is what I learnt. The tackle box worked out to be long enough.

Then, I did what I always do in a guitar which is put a two inch board on the inside, and seal it to the edges. That is what the neck bolts to, and the pickups are mounted into. It gives the guitar more sustain, and also balances the weight. What I don't like about cigarbox guitars is the neck is usually heavier than the box part, and they don't feel right, well don't feel right to me. Some boys what have 'em love 'em like a bear loves a picnic. I like a guitar to have some weight to it, like 6 pounds or a little more. 

 Tondeleo: What else is involved, Doc?

Doc: You gotta get a neck. Make it or take an old one and trim it to the size and thickness you like. Mount it to the wood inside the box. Put pick ups in it. I picked out three that I had in a box of old parts, and got it so the neck one sounds like a jazz guitar, the bridge one sounds twangy like a Tele - that's a Telecaster - and the middle one just is in between the other two. With that, you can play any music you like - and still look like a broke man while doing it.   

Tondeleo: What do other people think of your guitars when they see them?

Doc: I don't know what people think. I hardly know what I think. But I get a lot of pictures tooken. 

Some people want to pose with me holding the guitars. Like last week, Jimmy McWilliams, the lead singer from The Hometown Band got his picture tooken with me. Not because of me, but because of the tacklebox guitar. He liked how it looked and wanted to be seen with it. He liked that you can put things in side of it. I can get two sandwiches, a bag of Doritos and a Capri Sun in it... and still play it. 

People think these guitars will sound like garbage because of how they look. They are amazed when they sound as good as a decent store bought guitar. Heck, I ain't surprised. I make 'em to play 'em, not to look at 'em.  But I have found out that people like to look at them, and when I play it, people always come up to take pictures of it. They don't do that when I play a regular guitar. I have a couple store bought guitars, what people have traded me for my home made ones. That always surprises me.

Tondeleo: Why is that, Doc? 

Doc: It surprises me 'cause if I could afford a store bought guitar, do you think I'd be makin' these guitars out of garbage and whatever parts I can scrounge from other peoples' old guitars? I make these pieces of garbage, and get them to sound as good as I can, livin' out here in the country. Then, someone who can afford a real guitar comes and trades it to me for one of my home made ones. It just seems weird to me, Tondy. I can't explain it.

Other guitar players see them, and then ask to play 'em and are always surprised at the sound and tone and how well they play. Then, a lot of times they want that guitar, right then and right there, and trade me whatever they had been playin' that night. That makes a poor man feel better. But it don't help pay the rent.

Here is something cool, Tondy. Last Saturday night, after me and Rick did a set, with some other guys from other bands playin' with us, Troy Peterson was commenting on how good it sounded. That made me feel pretty good. 

Troy's a real good guitar player. I let him play it a while and he played it on stage for a long time. He was shakin' his head at how ugly it is, but that it plays well and is well balanced and all that. He was likin' the tone and weight and size - plus it's built like a tank.

Troy Peterson plays in a couple bands  - I know he plays with Sara Gray and he does a solo act too, I think. That was pretty cool, him playin' it and likin' it.Well, to me it was, anyway.

Tondeleo: Do you ever sell your home made guitars?

Doc: Yeah, I sell 'em. I trade 'em more. More people got extra guitars than extra money. That's why I'm still poor! Sometimes I trade 'em, and then later one of the boys down here wants to buy a store bought guitar, so I do end up makin' a couple dollars here and there.

I had a guy who lives in Orlando, Florida. He had a 50's lap steel in the case, with the three legs and all that. He played my tackle box and decided he had to have one. I like lap steels pretty good. I already had one from the 40's that I'm not that good on. So I figured maybe I needed one from the 50's that I'm not so good on. 

I made him up a tackle box guitar almost just like mine and we swapped even. I think he takes it out on his boat with his fishin' buddies, I'm not sure. I brought his lap steel home and set it up on the porch and that got me to play it more than havin' it tucked away in a case out in the shop. So it was a pretty good deal.  I'm just as poor now as I was before - but I got more stuff now!