COLLECTIONS

Yesterday Brooke and I went to Queens to visit my friend Lane and his family for dinner. Lane used to play guitar in one on my favorite bands from Louisville called Ennui. Now he works as a lighting director at CNN. A few weeks ago, he gave me a tour of the facilities inside the Time Warner building up on Columbus Circle. I'd never been in a television studio before and was very impressed (from a technological standpoint).

When we arrived at Lane's house, his wife Jolyn and daughter Jordana entertained Brooke while Lane showed me several of his guitars in the basement. Lane is an accomplished luthier who also rebuilds amps in his spare time. Every single guitar he showed me played great and sounded amazing. Because Lane has his own house, it was also great to be able to play loudly for a while.

I came away from the evening feeling like I need to take more interest in collecting instruments of quality instead of simply using an instrument as a writing tool. On the road, I've usually been concerned about the practicality of my guitars rather than their price or pure acoustic sound. Since they were all being sent through an amplifier, it wasn't imperative that they possess superior acoustic quality. But I know that these things matter. So I'm starting a new collection as soon as I can.