The Grey Goddess

12 o’clock – Keith Richards Gibson Flying V Prototype Guitar
1 o clock – Elvis Presley  Harmony H165 Mahogany Acoustic Guitar
2 o clock – Jimi Hendrix  1967 Electric Guild Starfire V Cherry Guitar
3 o clock – David Gilmour 1984 Fender solid-body 57v Stratocaster
4 o clock – David Gilmour 1955 Gibson Les Paul Solid Body
5 o clock – Jerry Garcia Martin D-28 Acoustic Guitar
6 o clock – David Gilmour 1954 White Fender Stratocaster #001
7 o clock – Jerry Garcia D’Angelico Style A Archtop Acoustic Guitar
8 o clock – Duane Allman Fender Coronado II Guitar
9 o clock – David Gilmour 1957 Ex-Homer Haynes Solid Body Stratocaster
10 o clock – Eric Clapton 2006 Custom Taylor T5 Thinline Honey Sunburst Acoustic-Electric Guitar
11 o clock – Lindsay Buckingham Rick Turner Custom made Renaissance Electric Guitar

I have always been enamored by guitars (and guitar players).  No one appreciates the irony of this more than me, since I am someone who can barely keep rhythm with a tambourine. And while I have been blessed with many artistic talents the ability to dream of music and turn that vision into a reality is definitively not one of them.

My favorite musicians all belong to the blues and rock worlds. Their bands still provide me with endless listening pleasure decades later but it’s the pickers themselves I really love. Robert Johnson. T-Bone Walker. Buddy Holly. Dick Dale. Duane Eddy. Scotty Moore. Les Paul. Johnny Winter. Peter Green. Eric Clapton. Muddy Waters. Jimmy Page. John Lennon. Hubert Sumlin. Robert Fripp. Duane Allman. Jimmy Hendrix. Steve Cropper. Mick Taylor. Frank Zappa. Buddy Guy. Billy Gibbons. Jerry Garcia. David Gilmour. Keith Richards.  These cats are responsible for some of the greatest formative rock ever recorded and they couldn’t have done it without a Lucille, Blackie, or Flying V at their fingertips.

As a woodworker’s daughter I appreciate the workmanship that goes into creating a guitar and view custom guitars as true works of art. Maybe that’s why when I stumble upon an instrument auction I always get pulled in.  Clapton’s 2011 auction to benefit his Crossroads Centre in Antigua, Guernsey’s 2017 treasure trove of rock instruments, and David Gilmour’s 2019 epic sale benefitting the Climate Earth initiative have all left me wondering if I should place a bid to own a piece of rock history.  Taking a look at the prices most of these beauties sold for probably means the answer is probably ‘no’, but hey, a guitar girl can dream…AND listen.

12 o’clock – The Rolling Stones Out of Our Heads
1 o clock –  Elvis Presley Girls! Girls! Girls!
2 o clock – Jimi Hendrix Axis Bold as Love
3 o clock – Pink Floyd Smoking Blues
4 o clock – Pink Floyd Atom Heart Mother
5 o clock – Grateful Dead Workingman’s Dead
6 o clock – Pink Floyd The Wall
7 o clock – Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band Almost Acoustic
8 o clock – Allman Brothers Idlewild South
9 o clock – David Gilmour About Face
10 o clock – Cream Disreali Gears
11 o clock – Fleetwood Mac Rumours