Roger Deitz

1 month ago | acousticguitar.com | Teja Gerken |Roger Deitz |Karen Peterson |Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

From the outside, the Music Emporium looks entirely unassuming: a small strip mall storefront next to a bagel shop in the quiet, leafy town of Lexington, Massachusetts. But open the door, and the sight would widen the eyes of any acoustic guitar aficionado: a bright, airy showroom with scores of Martin, Taylor, and Collings guitars on the wall, along with Santa Cruz, Froggy Bottom, Lowden, Atkin, and other boutique builders.

Jul 22, 2024 | acousticguitar.com | Roger Deitz |James Rotondi

Back in 2022, I got a package in the mail with a new CD of 13 songs sung and played by Happy Traum and 18 of his friends and neighbors in the Hudson Valley region of New York, some of whom, like John Sebastian, he’d been making music with for 60+ years. “Damn,” I remember thinking, “he’s 84 years old and he sounds better than ever!” Not just the familiar, rhythmic fingerstyle guitar that he learned from Brownie McGhee and fused with the effervescence of John Hurt.