{"id":4229,"date":"2020-09-03T02:40:06","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T02:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/?p=4229"},"modified":"2021-01-19T14:14:39","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T22:14:39","slug":"blogpostkensmith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogpostkensmith\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Ken Smith, guitarist, guitar-builder, and singer-songwriter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a guest post by Nancy Friedman<\/a>, an AMN volunteer, who writes:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\u201cI\u2019ve known Ken Smith as a friend and a photographer for many years, and I\u2019ve enjoyed his Instagram posts and music videos. When I learned that he\u2019d posted a listing on the AMN website<\/a>, I saw an opportunity to learn more about his musical life and to share our converstion with the AMN community.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your listing says you\u2019re a singer-songwriter and rhythm guitar and fingerstyle player. What led to these interests? Did you grow up in a musical family<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My father was in the US Air Force, so we traveled around a lot. My family wasn\u2019t musical, but there was music in the house\u2014mostly Big Band records and country-western radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was in fourth grade, in Hutchinson, Kansas, students had the opportunity to learn a musical instrument. I thought it would be cool to play drums, but my mother said no. I ended up with a clarinet, but I hated the taste of those reeds! I switched to French horn, but carrying it back and forth to school was too much for me, so I gave up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time I was in high school we were living on the air force base in Newfoundland, Canada. Some guys I knew had formed a band, which sounded like fun. I bought a $13 guitar from the Sears catalog and taught myself to play some chords. But the guys needed a bass player, so I went back to the Sears catalog, bought a bass guitar, and told the guys they\u2019d have to teach me how to play it. We got good enough to play Saturday nights at the teen club on the base. The four of us made $55 a gig. So I guess I was a professional musician for a while!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you mostly self-taught? Have you taken any formal lessons?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In high school, we taught each other. It was like the famous story about the Beatles traveling across Liverpool to learn the B7 chord. Wow, a new chord!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the late 1990s I started taking individual and group classes in jazz guitar and lead guitar at the Blue Bear School of Music<\/a> in Fort Mason. My teachers there included Jim Peterson<\/a>; Joe Cunningham<\/a>, a great guitarist and quiltmaker;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and the late Johnny Nitro<\/a> of the San Francisco band Johnny Nitro & the Doorslammers. More recently, I\u2019ve twice traveled to Portland, Oregon, to take workshops from the fingerstyle blues guitarist Mary Flower<\/a>\u2014a wonderful musician and generous teacher. Mary introduced me to the music of Duke Robillard<\/a>, Albanie Falletta<\/a>, Guy Davis<\/a>, and other terrific blues guitarists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did you start writing your own songs? What inspires you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started writing lyrics in 1974 or 1975, when my first marriage was breaking up. But it took me more than 40 years to put them to music. I learned by listening to songs I liked and studying their structure. I have a limited vocal range\u2014maybe an octave at most\u2014so I pick keys I can sing in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, we were displaced for 10 days by the fires here in Santa Rosa. During that time I started writing about the experience, and what came out was \u201cFirefighter in the Smoke.\u201d For the lyrics, I wrote down every word I associated with fires and firefighting, and then started putting them into couplets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I earned a living for many years as a corporate photographer and videographer, so it was only natural that I\u2019d start making music videos\u2014my own songs, like \u201cRaven Blues<\/a>,\u201d and traditional songs, like the Irish folk tune \u201cDrill You Drillers<\/a>,\u201d which was inspired by the soil-sampling crew in my Santa Rosa community!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about the guitars you\u2019ve built and restored.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve made five guitars from scratch and repaired about 35. I\u2019m self-taught in that area, too\u2014I watched a bunch of online videos. My first guitar was made from Adirondack spruce, mahogany, and, for the neck, pau ferro. I made another guitar from Tennessee sweet gum, Engelmann spruce, walnut, and rosewood. I don\u2019t do inlays\u2014it\u2019s too persnickety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there are all the guitars I\u2019ve repaired and kept. In the room I\u2019m sitting in right now there are 31 guitars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t yet made the perfect guitar, and I don\u2019t think I ever will. But that doesn\u2019t keep me from being obsessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n