Like most geeks, I’ve plowed through a variety of guitars and banjos over the years. The following contains a list of my current lineup, along with several of the incredible stories that have bound me to them in various ways:

Guitars
-1939 Gibson made Recording King, Carson J Robison “Model K” purchased from Annapolis-based artist, musician and guitar-cheologist Neil Harpe in 2009. Made by Gibson for Montgomery Wards. Mahogany sides and back, spruce top, rosewood fingerboard and bridge, ladder-braced, 16.25″ wide body with 14-fret, 24.75″ scale. The Recording King Carson J Robison Model-K was offered in several incarnations prior to going to this jumbo size in 1939. Neil had a two-way adjustable truss rod installed to make it easier to set up. The bridge is a slightly oversized reproduction of the original bridge. Oozing with bluesy, punchy character, I love this for ragtime, country blues and jazz.

-1960s Harmony Sovereign H1260 purchased from Annapolis-based musician and Harmony-lover Gary Wright. Mahogany sides and back, spruce top, ladder-braced, 16.25″ wide body, 14-fret, 25.25″ scale and adjustable truss rod. Best known as Jimmy Page’s guitar, these large jumbos are beasts and can be obtained for a fairly decent price (albeit this is rapidly changing). Mine is endowed with a K&K pure mini internal pickup. Great for both flatpicking and fingerpicking, it has a huge, rich sound – deep, and soulful in the bass yet crisp and clear in the treble.

-2021 Big Hollow 000 size. Made for me by my friend Bevan Frost in Frisco, Colorado. Lutz spruce top, Honduran rosewood sides and back, 14-fret, 24.9″ scale, slotted neck with bird’s beak maple, matte oil varnish sunburst, pick guard, bloodwood and bold herringbone trim, ebony fretboard and bridge, scalloped bracing, Rubner tuners, etc etc! This absolute gem of an instrument is the product of several years worth of discussions between Bevan and me. I first met Bevan during a trip to Colorado in 2015, during which I was performing at a festival in Breckenridge with Groanbox. After discovering a broken peg on my gourd banjo (see below), I desperately began a frantic google search for luthiers in the area. Bevan’s name popped up, I gave him a call, and he said “sure, come on by”. I was soon to discover that Bevan is not your average luthier, but a legend, having survived several life-threatening illnesses as a young man to turn around and become an expert builder of high end acoustic guitars. He and I hit it off with our mutual musical interests (old country blues, ragtime, African guitar, etc), and the fact that we are both married and raising two rambunctious boys. It quickly became clear that a Big Hollow guitar would end up connecting us for good!

-2006 National Estralita Deluxe. Laminate grained maple top, walnut sides and back, rosewood fingerboard, 12-fret, 25″ scale, slotted neck, single cone with Mike Dowling “hot plate”. I purchased this guitar in the back of a Holiday Inn lobby in Chantilly, VA in 2007 for $1600 cash from a guy who needed money for alimony payments. I felt bad for him, but the fella needed cash asap and I was eager to obtain this guitar, having played my friend Parrish Ellis’ and loved it. It became my workhorse for years (particularly with the band Groanbox), until it was stolen along with my Enoch Tradesman banjo in December 2015 out of the back of my car, which was parked on 14th Street, NW in Washington, DC. In the summer of 2017, I got a message from Kevin Enoch who said I needed to call the good folks at Atomic Music in Beltsville, MD (where Kevin lives) about instruments that “turned up” there matching my description. By some bizarre serendipitous twist of fate, the thief had sat on the instruments for a year and a half and then tried to flip them in the very town where my banjo was made! Eric of Atomic Music described a fairly amusing scenario: Guy walks into a store with instruments the provenance of which he knows not (nor does he know how to play them). Eric smells something fishy and says he needs to check the police database, giving the guy the option of waiting there while he did so or leaving without the instruments. The guy hightailed it! Eric then called Kevin Enoch asking about these instruments, and Kevin contacted me right away. When I got them back I found that absolutely nothing was missing from the case, down to all the extra strings and little accessories (capos, picks, you name it) I had stored in the pockets. So fear not ye victims of instrument theft, your babies may come back!

-1939 Martin 000-21. Rosewood sides and back, spruce top, ebony fingerboard, 14-fret, 24.75″scale. This is a family heirloom. My great uncle George Thackray “Bee” Weems, a larger-than-life figure who died in a test pilot crash in the Delaware River in 1950, purchased this guitar in a music store in Annapolis in 1939. Check out a great adventure story about a trip from the UK to Australia in a de Havilland Dragon Rapide, edited by my sister here. After his death the guitar remarkably remained in the family, spending most of its years at Pleasant Plains Farm in St Margaret’s, Annapolis. As a result, it is in excellent condition. Because of its intrinsic as well as monetary value, it does not leave my folks’ house (very often). Probably the nicest guitar I’ve ever played even if I’m willing to concede that part of my feeling might stem from its sentimental value. A tremendous instrument. I have overwhelming gratitude for those who helped keep this in the family (you know who you are!).

–1967-69 Kent 740 Cherry Sunburst Electric. Made in Japan. 25.25″ scale, 2 single coil pickups, solid body, funky tone switches. I fell in love with the look of these slick guitars and when Gary Wright mentioned to me that they were endowed with a bridge mute I thought it could be a great electric to own for some of the African stuff I’ve been playing.

Banjos

–Kevin Enoch Dobson made with Hollywood Farm walnut that I cut myself. I’m a big fan of Kevin’s banjos, having started with a Tradesman (stolen-but-recovered along with my Estralita Deluxe…see above). His marquetry work is stunning. When my instruments were stolen, the first order of business was to take the insurance money (which I ended up having to pay back after the instruments were returned to me!) and put it towards this beauty. A 12″ diameter, 7/16″ thick 2-ply maple rim finished in black with a Dobson style tone ring, 25.5″ scale, black richlite fingerboard, Renaissance head, antique brass hardware, and a moon bridge. Rich, plunky tone, everything you’d want in an old-time banjo!

–Pete Ross Jubilee “Mande Banza”. Cherry neck (that I cut at Hollywood Farm and brought to Pete), wenge fingerboard, goat skin hide tacked on to a red stained gourd, nylgut strings. Pete is one of the pioneers in gourd banjo making, which seems to be all the rage now. I originally owned a lovely Bob Thornburg gourd banjo, but wanted to upgrade to an instrument with superior tone all the while supporting a Maryland luthier. A huge fan of west African music, I opted for his “mande banza” as it resembles traditional instruments like the kora, ngoni, etc. Pete makes beautiful instruments (and is now working with Kevin Enoch and starting to make his own gorgeous “classic era” old-time banjos). With a rich, deep, smokey tone, I’ve used this instrument in a number of different projects including with my Ethiopian band Damakase

-“Crabjo” gourd banjo made with Philippe “Milou” Farges. Philippe, who very recently passed away, was one of the more generous and uplifting characters I’ve met in the trad scene here in Paris. He had a whole workshop in his house in Colombes where for years he’d been tinkering with amateur instrument-making. He made beautiful instruments of various kinds, eventually developing a serious interest in gourd instruments. I’m one of several musicians who’ve made the trip to Colombes to make a gourd banjo under his tutelage. I had had the idea of making a small travel/kid’s instrument for a little while so we naturally settled on a small gourd and short scale. The crab motif came as an homage to both my Maryland and Breton roots (and particularly my love for crabbing off the docks of the back creeks of the Chesapeake Bay). We put a “claw” in the headstock, and carved a crab sound-hole into the side of the gourd. Philippe basically guided me through the entire process, showing me how to properly cut the gourd, how to cut and sand the neck into shape, how to attach the skin, etc. It was a wonderful experience, and hope I can do more of this in the future. There’s nothing like playing an instrument you labored over yourself! Merci pour tout Milou !

Other instruments in my possession include an ngoni I bought in Bamako, Mali off of Gande Tounkara (a world-famous ngoni player), a charango I picked up in Bolivia, and a krar from my time in Ethiopia.