Tuesday, December 11, 2007


This is Larry. I met Larry because he sat in the chair next to me in B terminal, Gate 89, yesterday evening. He and I had both missed the flight to Nashville that morning, and had been waiting for the 7:32PM flight all day.

Larry had two carry-on bags with him: a small, brown-leather messenger, and a cloth baby guitar case with the name "Taylor" stitched on the front. I took out my earbuds, and started the conversation. Eyeing the Baby Taylor case, and pointing with my finger, I asked, "How long have you been playing?" He gave a slight chuckle, which all long-standing guitarists do, and replied, "Oh, I started when I was about 16."

Larry had a playful baritone voice, which seemed to testify to the deep-set wrinkles on his face, the callused and knotted digits of his hands, and the nicotine flavored air of his presence; all while seemingly swinging from a single strand of amusement which ran through his life. I continued my questioning, "Are you a musician in Nashville?" "I was for 25 years", he sighed, "Now I live in Ha-waii." (The way he said the name 'Hawaii' told me he had either lived there a very long time (and had naturally adopted the native pronunciation of the state), or he was trying very hard to pronounce the name in a different way than most.)

The conversation continued for a few more minutes and including his excitement about visiting his grand-daughters (whom he hadn't seen in 2 years), a not-quite-healed-scratch on his left thumb (which he received while mountain climbing 7 years ago), and the fact that he used to play bass for Johnny Cash.

....that's right, the Man in Black himself.

Larry explained that before Johnny started touring with his solid set of musicians, he would call Larry up whenever he was playing in Nashville. After he told me this "no big deal" fact, I knew I had to hear him play. Apparently Larry was on a similar brain wave. He slowly unzipped the cloth case, and removed the Baby Taylor from her cradle. He handed her to me saying, "That's Koa wood. Ha-wiian wood." I cradled the small acoustic body and placing my fingers around the neck and attempted to play my best 'E' chord without making the Baby cry. Thanks to my 1 previous guitar lesson, I was slightly successful. As I handed the guitar back to Larry I asked, "Do you want to strum a few chords?" He replied with these:







Peace. - Caleb

3 Comments:

Blogger sara said...

wow caleb. this is incredible. you have this gift amazing gift of meeting people. thanks for sharing this. ~sara

December 12, 2007 at 9:59 AM  
Blogger Laura Reaux said...

Caleb, I found my way to your blog through Bryan's blog and started skimming... Wow. What an amazing random moment in your life. I would love to have been there, but your description painted a beautifully vivid picture for me. Thank you for sharing!

Off to check out the rest of your blog...

December 20, 2007 at 1:11 PM  
Blogger IrelandRomania said...

Caleb. You know you rock. I don't know how you do it, but everything you do seems to be beyond noteworthy. Great story and memory. I really liked watching the two women sitting behind Larry on the second song. Great "work."

December 21, 2007 at 3:31 AM  

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