Hello fellow players,
Well here we go rapidly coming up on anniversary number thirty. Going back through all our records and probing the dusty corners of my memory, it seems as though May first of this year will be our thirtieth anniversary. Where does time go?
I remember how I got started. I’ll have to thank or blame the Emmons Company for getting me stopped and aimed in the right direction. I had been walking down the street in Goodlettsville, a close suburb on Nashville, getting my car repaired and while just wandering down the street and waiting for my car to be fixed, I walked by a beautiful little space for rent with a great big picture window and a Dairy Queen next door.
There was a guy watching me come up the street and when I got to him he asked me if I’d be interested in renting the building. I had just sold my 1963 Shelby Cobra roadster and had a pocket full of money so I said, “Sure. I’ll rent your building.”
He said, “What are you going to do with it?”
I replied I didn’t know, however it would be legal and fun. I gave him the first and last month’s rent. He gave me the keys and I wandered on down the street not knowing what I was really going to do. That quandary was soon answered by a phone call from Ron Lashley who said he was coming to visit and wanted to borrow a car to get around town.
After asking him where he was going to go in town, he replied he was looking for someone to be a dealer for the Emmons guitar. I said, “Great. I’m your dealer. Come up and get your car and some money.”
A month later I had twelve new Emmons guitars on the floor. He promised me that I could never sell them as fast as he could build them. We all know that wasn’t true. However, I sold a lot of Emmons guitars in the next two years. I then took in the Sho-Bud line in addition to Emmons and Steel Guitar World which it was called then never looked back.
I hired a good crew including several employees from the Sho-Bud Company. They ran the business while I toured around the United States with the famous hillbillies of the era.
Over the years there have been many changes but the craziness has pretty well settled down to a calm, dependable world including a name change and some other changes. Probably this has been the best move I’ve ever made in the world of steel guitar. It has been a dangerous move at times according to my bank account fluctuations, but I always had my playing life to keep pumping into the business.
I got much help from competitors in the beginning. Shot Jackson and his sons, Ron Lashley and his sons and other dealers helped me in many ways to keep my doors open. Many people have been very good and I will always appreciate my friends around the United States and in Nashville itself.
Steel guitar people are about as good as it gets. Anyway, we’ll probably be throwing a big anniversary deal around the first of May. So get ready for big sales and big parties.
With much grief, we received an email from the president of our local union, Dave Pomeroy. Larry Butler died early Friday morning in his sleep. He was 69. In 1975, he won a Grammy songwriting award for “Hey, Won’t You Play Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” which was a hit for B.J. Thomas. Butler co-wrote the song with Chips Moman.
In 1980, Larry won the Grammy for Producer of the Year, the only Nashville producer to win the award for his studio work with artists ranging from longtime friend Kenny Rogers to Johnny Cash. He also became Johnny Cash’s in-house producer, pianist and musical director. His closest Nashville relationship was with Kenny Rogers and the two remained close throughout his life.
We also lost Larry Nutter. Larry played lead guitar for Kitty Wells, Jack Greene, Jean Shepard, Jeannie Seely and was an in demand session player.
One of the greatest selling items we have amongst professionals and other players that maybe have not spent as much time, is the Bobro that makes your steel guitar sound like a Dobro. These items have sold very well over the past years. We have the Bobro on special now with free shipping and a free nylon bar that makes it sound even more like a Dobro than ever. See it here: www.steelguitar.net/bobro.html
I’d also like to remind everybody that for the rest of this month and for all of February we have free shipping on any guitar.
Check out our monthly specials at http://www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html and we’ll try to save you a lot of money.
Your buddy,
Bobbe
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour
Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday