I have been fortunate to spend the last few years working in the boutique guitar world at three fabulous shops: The Music Emporium, The North American Guitar and Carter Vintage Guitars. Each shop offered challenges that gave me a musical outlet and hugely expanded my writing, speaking, creative marketing and customer service skills.
I’ve been positively spoiled with opportunities to play and demo some of the best guitars in the world, from sought after vintage gems to handcrafted modern masterpieces. Getting to deeply know the work of today’s finest acoustic luthiers was a huge part of my job, not only through playing their guitars but through interviewing and working closely with them on commissions.
My day-to-day involved writing descriptions and spec lists for e-commerce sites, creating content and curating social media feeds, and working with customers. I also regularly wrote articles and blogs, appeared in demos and videos, edited podcasts and video content, and photographed in-shop and at events.
Here I showcase a selection of my favorite content pieces from the last few years…
Videos
During my time at TNAG I had the incredible honor of working with videographer Thien Phan, whose artistic eye and production skills allowed me to focus on writing and delivering long-form educational videos and interviews like the ones below. (Our Parlor Guitar video has nearly 200k views…how wild is that?!)
From mid-2022 to 2023, the talented photographer and cinematographer Zane Dumont and I worked closely to produce content for the TNAG channels, focusing on demos and interviews in the shop and at the Artisan Guitar Show in April 2023.
While the bulk of my work in Nashville was done for TNAG, I also did the occasional Carter Vintage demo, and have recently done some work for Cedar Rock Studio & Guitar Gallery in Indiana.
And of course, my original guitar home is The Music Emporium in Lexington, MA, where I first immersed in this world and have done demos since 2016.
(Shot and edited by Andy Cambria & Jacob Kleinberg)
(Shot and edited by Jon Roncalto and Keith Cypert)
(Shot and edited by Alan Drake & Matt Thomas)
Photography
The pictures below were taken by me, most shot with my Sony A6400 and some with a borrowed Canon. I’m not a trained photographer by any stretch, but I’ve gotten to work alongside several talented folks, observing what they do and picking up what I can!
Talking Guitar Podcast
In 2022-2023 I took over hosting the Talking Guitar podcast for Seasons 3 and 4. Chatting with luthiers and getting their stories and perspectives was one of my favorite parts of the job - I learned a ton about guitarmaking! (Not to mention, having a radio show or podcast had always been a low key goal of mine, so box checked.)
Most were conducted via Zoom but some were done in person, chiefly the ones with Grit Laskin and Jeff Jewitt (click the blog links to see workshop photos).
In addition to hosting, I also edited most and released them myself on Spotify and Apple.
Articles
Martin 000s From the War Years to the Folk Revival (Connoisseur V1E6)
Gallagher Guitars: Shepherding a Legacy into a New Decade (Connoisseur V1E6)
Review: Wilborn Guitars (Connoisseur V1E2)
FAQs
Q: What guitar do you play?
A: Currently the one you’ll see most often in my videos is a 2014 A-2 model built by luthier Laurent Brondel! It’s essentially an OM, with a Carpathian spruce top and cocobolo back and sides. I also now have a 14-fret Blind B-26 in Indian rosewood and Adirondack spruce, and a mahogany and Alpine spruce 12-fret B-26. For rhythm stuff you’ll sometimes see me play a borrowed Collings D1 or Waterloo WL-14.
Q: Isn’t that a Collings in (insert video here from 2020 or earlier)?
A: Yes! For many years I played a Collings OM2H SS that I bought new in 2010. That’s the guitar I played on all my albums. In late 2019 I swapped it for a Collings OM1A-T…then I sold that to buy the Brondel. I miss both those guitars a lot!
Actually, all the guitar related questions are answered below…