Mid-South Tour — June 2014

                                                                              PHOTO: Melanie Jones

Ken Lelen in October 2013 at Bermuda Village in Advance
NC, where he played a 1941 Gibson L-00 guitar, one of 28
that was built with a natural finish and retailed for $42.

I'm excited to announce my June concert tour through the Mid-South begins in a few days.
     Between June 9 and June 21, I will play six Vintage Music Concerts in central North Carolina, south-eastern Virginia and mid-state South Carolina. As usual, I'll also visit several vintage guitar dealers and luthiers along the way.
     My concert hosts all are long-time sponsors, including a pair of senior villages that have presented my concerts twice a year for nearly ten years. Audiences at these venues are great groups to play for since they love the music, enjoy seeing and hearing acoustic guitars from back-in-the-day and appreciate the concert themes I present.
     In addition to In The Mood, an audience favorite, this month I'll deliver two new programs for the first time: Radio Ramblers, which honors the songs, singers and shows of radio's heyday; and Broadway's Song Souvenirs, which offers hit tunes spawned on the Great White Way during the 1930s and 1940s.
     Here's the line-up of senior communities (linked) where I'm performing:
          •     June 11     —     Cypress                         —    Raleigh NC
          •     June 12     —     Springmoor                    —    Raleigh NC
          •     June 13     —     Lake Prince Woods          —    Suffolk VA
          •     June 16     —     The Oaks                       —    Orangeburg SC
          •     June 17     —     Stewart Health Center     —     Charlotte NC
          •     June 18     —     Bermuda Village             —    Advance NC
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Sadly, three long-time concert sponsors — Arbor Acres of Winston-Salem NC, Heritage of Raleigh NC and Glebe of Daleville VA — cancelled their June concerts.

     Arbor Acres skipped this year's concert "due to budgetary cuts," one community official said. "We have so many local resources [that] we are not using as many traveling groups as we have in the past."

     In March the 480-resident facility announced a $10-million nursing and assisted-living building project. This caps the recent completion of a five-year, $32-million multiphase expansion.
     Meanwhile, Heritage, a unit of the 600-facility Brookdale Senior Living, cancelled due to a spate of logistical difficulties, personnel problems and unresolved resident issues. In my opinion, these problems arose because the facility does not provide sufficient staff on premises to adequately manage its Saturday evening events for residents.
     Meanwhile, one Glebe official cited "conflicts in scheduling and other unforeseeable circumstances" when it abruptly pulled out in late May. This cancellation by the Blue Ridge facility was particularly vexing for me, since the program coordinator in December had requested the creation of a new Vintage Music Concert theme for its June event.
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However, over the past dozen years of concert touring on the East Coast I've had the good fortune to meet many vintage guitar dealers, players, collectors and luthiers. I expect to visit the following vintage guitar sources (linked) on this month's tour. Each holds a special interest for me.
     For example, Tom Wentzel of Vintage Blues Guitars in Lititz PA near Lancaster is holding a 1920s Oscar Schmidt guitar for me. The back, sides and top of this grand concert-sized instrument are made with beautiful Hawaiian koa wood. Its long scale length (26-1/2 inches) helps produce a huge volume. Now nearly 90 years old, the guitar has a deep thumpy bass and sparkling trebles that are perfect for the classic ragtime and speakeasy jazz I perform at my concerts.

Luthier Greg Hanson of Durham NC
inspects a 1939 Gibson KG-14.

     This month I'm planning to bring two guitars for inspection and repair estimates by luthiers Greg Hanson and David Crawford. Their Durham NC firm, Hanson & Crawford, has repaired, restored and set up most of my vintage guitars since my initial concert tour across the Southeast in September 2002.
     Picker's Supply, a downtown Fredericksburg VA instrument dealer, has been tempting me with vintage guitars for years. Owned by Bran Dillard, the shop currently has five vintage Washburn guitars, a 1930 Larson Brothers guitar and at least three Gibson guitars I'm eager to play.
     Finally, at the tour's conclusion, I plan to visit the twice-annual Great American Guitar Show held in Oaks PA near King of Prussia. Among the show's many guitar gurus, I look forward to meeting dealer Alex Whitman of TR Crandall Guitars, New York NY and luthier James Burkett of Burkett Guitars, Dothan AL. Both have been helpful with my research on recently converted (x-braced) vintage guitars, a subject I'm investigating for a forthcoming blog posting. Stay tuned!

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