September 18, 2003

Augusta Chronicle

Vintage music never gets old

Guitarist plays oldies on period instruments

By Kamille Bostick—Staff Writer

Evans GA — Playing old songs to older audiences is a little like being Johnny Appleseed, guitarist Ken Lelen said.

   
“On one hand I'm throwing out songs like seeds, and then on the other hand I'm collecting stories," Lelen said about his vintage-music concert, which comes to Brandon Wilde in Evans tonight at 7:30.

Ken Lelen sings classic songs and plays
vintage guitars, including this Gibson L-0,
which sold for $27.50 in 1939.

"When I picked up a guitar from the late 1930s, it sounded better when I played the old songs," he said. He's been singing classic songs and playing his collection of vintage guitars ever since.

Tonight he's bringing six or seven guitars made by Gibson in Kalamazoo MI, including a Kel Kroydon, Kalamazoo and Recording King, budget-guitar brands from the 1930s.

"It's a little bit of an antique road show," he said of his hour-long performance that has a show-and-tell section about the vintage guitars he plays. Audience members can expect a mix of music, history and story, Lelen said. "There'll be music and what I call historical anecdotes as part of reintroducing a song," he said.

And he'll play the songs in the old way. "When I play, it sounds the way it would if people were on the front porch or back parlor," Lelen said, explaining that that is where most songs of the early 20th century were heard. "My goal is to re-create the songs for people," he said.

In doing so, he also revives memories. He hears stories of soldiers coming back from war and widows talking of their first crushes. "They tell me little stories about where they were when they heard a certain song and they tell me about the instruments that played back in the day," said. "Over the years I've learned that the older the song, the sweeter the memory."

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