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00:00:40Hey, I'm here at Songbirds this morning.
00:00:43Before anybody got here, it's our last day.
00:00:45And I haven't really dealt with my own emotions yet, I don't think.
00:00:49I haven't spent a lot of time crying, and I'm a crier.
00:01:00You know, COVID can go suck one, as far as I'm concerned.
00:01:03It has destroyed not just what we're doing here, but it's destroyed lives, and it's a very real thing.
00:01:18It's been as busy as every other day was this week.
00:01:21This has been three times busier than that.
00:01:24And we started the day with ten people at the door waiting to come in.
00:01:27And it's been non-stop the whole day.
00:01:30We were supposed to be limited on our vault tours, and we've had to turn people away, which stinks.
00:01:35We've had a lot of people back there on the hour, and now it's just sort of riding it out
00:01:42the last few minutes here.
00:01:43It's hard to believe that it's coming too close.
00:02:00I can't imagine in my wildest dreams that there could possibly be a collection of the magnitude of what I
00:02:07saw.
00:02:08And I know I only saw the tip of the iceberg.
00:02:11You know, the notion of trying to curate the world's greatest guitar collection.
00:02:16I don't think there will be a collection like this ever publicly displayed again.
00:02:23Every color of Telecaster and Firebirds and the whole collection from the 1966 NAM show, or things like that.
00:02:33You know, I mean, one of the reasons we're shutting down, obviously, is COVID.
00:02:36We had a lease coming up.
00:02:38We've got a lot of money in this place, and we'd have to put a lot more money in it
00:02:41to keep it going.
00:02:42And with the lease then on the horizon, you know, it was the reason that we just had to make
00:02:47a decision to go ahead and end it now.
00:02:50We just couldn't afford to go into it deeper than what we already were.
00:02:52Songbirds has been such a huge part of my life the past few years, especially through the coronavirus, and having
00:03:04this as a venue to come before we went into shutdown.
00:03:09And then when we opened up to be able to come here, just, there really aren't words.
00:03:18Can you just cancel them all out?
00:03:19Yeah.
00:03:19Since you're our last customer, that's a gift from us to you, you can have it all.
00:03:23Yes.
00:03:25Just take it.
00:03:27But you're our last customer.
00:03:29Thank you.
00:03:31We wish everyone at Songbirds well, and we thank everyone, all the artists that we've seen, because live music is
00:03:43just so good for, um, it's good for the songbirds.
00:03:47So I love Songbirds.
00:03:50The love that we've received from the thousands and tens and thousands of people has just, I didn't realize that
00:03:55was even a thing.
00:03:55I didn't realize that, um, I didn't realize that this place had reached that many people.
00:04:00I mean, I kind of did, but I didn't really know.
00:04:02You know, you don't, you don't ever know.
00:04:16You know, you don't, you don't, you don't, you don't.
00:04:34Songbirds is a, uh, honestly, a labor of love that, uh, was kind of a culmination of different people's passions
00:04:41and ideals, uh, to create an awesome place for people to appreciate music in a new light in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
00:04:49Uh, Songbirds is, uh, well, it's, it was probably the largest vintage guitar museum in the world.
00:04:55Uh, it's the finest collection of mainly, it's got all types of guitars, but the strong point for Songbirds was
00:05:02truly to solid body.
00:05:03guitar, uh, guitar is designed between 48 and 65.
00:05:08What's neat about this collection is it's not just about quantity.
00:05:13What I've, what I've been really astounded by is, is the quality of the pieces they've collected over the years.
00:05:19You're seeing, uh, great examples of, of great instruments, not, not things that have had things done to them.
00:05:26And they're, they're all in pretty astounding condition.
00:05:39So many may ask, when did these guitars go from being cheap, inexpensive, used instruments to suddenly becoming highly collectible
00:05:47vintage guitars?
00:05:48Uh, they were going for tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands of dollars, uh, some even hitting the million
00:05:54dollar mark.
00:05:55These instruments in the forties, fifties, into the early sixties were pretty much handmade guitars.
00:06:011964, the Beatles go on Ed Sullivan, and that's a huge turning point.
00:06:05Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles!
00:06:08The day after that performance, every kid in America suddenly wanted to play guitar or get a drum set or
00:06:14be in a rock and roll band.
00:06:16Everything changed almost overnight.
00:06:18So the demand for an electric guitar just suddenly went up like tenfold.
00:06:23And suddenly these manufacturers had to ramp up production to meet those demands.
00:06:29Fender would sell his company to CBS, a large corporation that knew nothing about building guitars.
00:06:35So Gibson was also sold in 1969 to a large corporation, much like Fender.
00:06:40And the trouble with, with this was these companies really knew nothing about building guitars.
00:06:45But again, how to show profits to shareholders.
00:06:47And so now cost cutting design changes were being implemented.
00:06:51By the early seventies, the quality of an American guitar was, it was actually pretty poor.
00:06:57And if you were a guitar player in the know, you knew better than to go buy a new one.
00:07:01And you went looking for these older guitars.
00:07:03They were cheap.
00:07:04They were affordable.
00:07:05It was just the used guitar.
00:07:06They may have been scratched up a little bit, but they played great and sounded great.
00:07:11And what started to happen by the late seventies is with the, as people became more and more hip to
00:07:16this fact,
00:07:17the demand for these used guitars started to go up.
00:07:20And suddenly with the demand, the price went up.
00:07:23The Sunburst Les Pauls like Eric Clapton played, Peter Green, Mike Bloomfield.
00:07:28Those guitars were the first ones people really began to seek out.
00:07:32And by the mid eighties, they were up to $5,000 already.
00:07:361958 to 1960, Sunburst Les Paul.
00:07:39They only made them for three years.
00:07:41Those guitars today start at a quarter of a million dollars.
00:07:47I started to build the collection for one of my clients.
00:07:51I have a store in New York.
00:07:52One of my clients wanted to build a collection and that started about 23 years ago.
00:07:57And we started to build a collection, never thinking that it would ever turn into anything besides a private collection.
00:08:04And this collector basically built up this collection over 20 years of just amazing pieces, one after the other.
00:08:12And then I think just one day he woke up and said, I got all this.
00:08:15What do I do with it?
00:08:16You know, and he felt it would be great to show it and share it, you know, instead of keeping
00:08:20it hidden.
00:08:21I immediately started dedicating a lot of my time to trying to find what would be a location that would
00:08:26be ideal for something like a guitar museum,
00:08:29because that's what it was.
00:08:30The beginning was a guitar museum.
00:08:32At one point we had discussed possibly putting a kind of a storefront museum in Manhattan in New York,
00:08:40but the $25,000 a month rent was pretty scary and we didn't really want to do that.
00:08:45So we were looking at cities that might be able to accommodate this from a business economic standpoint.
00:08:51And, you know, of course that's the usual suspects, Nashville, Austin, Texas, even Seattle, New York,
00:08:56all the places that have the density of tourism that would make it make sense.
00:09:00They started a little scouting mission and they bounced around from city to city going from Austin to Seattle to
00:09:06Nashville.
00:09:07The investors just said Chattanooga.
00:09:09And then I started kind of changing my thought process about Chattanooga in terms of being able to support it,
00:09:16because I thought they need this.
00:09:18The opportunity presented itself in Chattanooga with this beautiful historic building,
00:09:23and we just felt that it kind of suited what we wanted to do.
00:09:26And we figured that if we came in here, it may take the town a little bit of time to
00:09:32catch up to what we were doing,
00:09:34but we figured within a few years we would be there.
00:09:37And then at the end of the night, around the 8 o'clock hour, just so you know,
00:09:43we're going to take a visit upstairs.
00:09:44And we've got something very, very special for you up there to see.
00:09:47I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, but trust me, you want to stay and see what
00:09:51we've got when we go upstairs,
00:09:51which will be our space.
00:09:53So we got more of a review.
00:09:54So we did a launch party that was really, I could say it now, was really more of a pseudo
00:09:58-launch party.
00:09:59We didn't even have any connections to really make this thing an announcement for real, for real.
00:10:02But I thought if they started making an announcement, it went public, we did some demo work,
00:10:07then it was going to be more real than it had been in the past.
00:10:12And I was right, it became very real.
00:10:15I mean, we weren't exactly kamikazes, but we were darn near close on what we were trying to do.
00:10:21None of us had ever started a guitar museum before.
00:10:24I don't think what we did has ever been done.
00:10:32I spent a lot of nights in here sleeping on a cot, for real, and waking up the next morning.
00:10:39And, you know, I knew all the workers' names that were here, every contractor that was on this place,
00:10:44every subcontractor that was in this place.
00:10:46I remember them.
00:10:47I got to the point at that time, I knew their kids' names.
00:10:51And, um, we built it.
00:11:04So we're coming to you from my shop here on Long Island in New York,
00:11:08where all the guitars that went over to the Songbirds Museum made their first stop.
00:11:13We would go out and procure them, bring them here to the shop,
00:11:16to authenticate and go through everything to make sure everything fit the bill.
00:11:19And then we would transport them en masse to Chattanooga to go to Songbirds.
00:11:28So this is the guitar that started it all.
00:11:331954 Fender Stratocaster that I sold on eBay for $25,000 at the time.
00:11:41And what's cool about the early ones is this is a one-piece ash body.
00:11:47And, uh, it doesn't have the vibrato arm or the whammy bar or so-called.
00:11:51This is called a hardtail and it's drilled through the back of the guitar more like a Telecaster.
00:11:56But you can see the beautiful grain of the ash.
00:11:59The other thing I love about this particular guitar, and that moved me about it,
00:12:03was the size, the sheer size of the neck.
00:12:06It is absolutely huge, but super comfortable.
00:12:10Allows you to wrap your thumb over the top when you play.
00:12:13Some people love that style.
00:12:16You know, the headstocks on the early guitars are super thin.
00:12:20And the logo that's up there just says Fender Stratocaster,
00:12:25usually would say with synchronized tremolo.
00:12:27But since there's no vibrato arm built into this bridge,
00:12:31it simply just says Fender Stratocaster.
00:12:34And they call this the spaghetti logo,
00:12:36basically because it looks like somebody laid spaghetti on a table to form the word Fender.
00:12:42I happen to think it's just the greatest looking logo I've ever seen.
00:12:46I wish they never got away from it.
00:12:48You know, one of the things that makes this a vintage guitar is that it was,
00:12:51this is the first year of production, 1954.
00:12:53And usually we stick along that pre-1970 line for vintage guitars,
00:13:02although some people will say 1979.
00:13:06Pretty much anything made before 1970 would be considered vintage guitars in the store.
00:13:14You know, interestingly enough, there was a pretty good rivalry between Gibson and Fender.
00:13:19They were competitors. You know, Gibson and Fender are still competitors.
00:13:24Not to slight Gibson, but Leo Fender got it right the first time a lot of times.
00:13:31Fender had this advantage of using lesser materials and a bolt-on neck and getting products out cheaply.
00:13:41They, you know, the Fender was the Craftsman wrench, you know, and Gibson was the dental tool,
00:13:48the dental instrument, that fine, delicate instrument.
00:13:52Gibson really started to really flourish on the electric side with Ted McCarty.
00:13:57It took Gibson a few tries on the Les Paul to get it to where that's the classic Les Paul.
00:14:03You know, it was, and all versions are classic in their own way.
00:14:07But the one that they ended up with, the Sunburst Les Paul,
00:14:12which is the flame top with the Sunburst and the, you know, finish and the humbucking pickups.
00:14:18It took them literally almost six years and four or five different variations of that.
00:14:25Leo Fender came out with the Stratocaster in 54 and the Stratocaster looks identical.
00:14:30That caused problems at some point between Gibson and Fender,
00:14:35where Fenders were trying to upscale their guitars to be more like Gibsons,
00:14:40by adding things like binding on the neck and block marker inlays made of pearl in the neck,
00:14:46where Gibson was trying to cheapen their guitars to be more price competitive with Fender.
00:14:52So they took this great guitar, the Gibson Firebird,
00:14:55and they made a new version of it starting in 1965.
00:14:58That became basically the new Coke of the Gibson world.
00:15:03And then throughout the 60s, you'll see Firebirds come in,
00:15:06SGs come in in response to Strats and then Tellys and Jaguars and offsets, you know.
00:15:12And, you know, if you look at Fender's custom color chart and Gibson's custom color chart,
00:15:18they kind of had the same, different names for kind of the same colors, you know.
00:15:22They were constantly trying to outdo each other.
00:15:26So, you know, one of the things that I always look at is, you know, which is better, Gibson or
00:15:31Fender?
00:15:32And honestly, they're both amazing guitarists, but for completely different reasons.
00:15:41In the late 50s, Gibson sales started to drop.
00:15:45The Les Paul was not selling as well as he did before.
00:15:48Partly because rock and roll had kind of killed Les Paul's career.
00:15:52He wasn't as popular anymore on the radio as he used to be.
00:15:56And Gibson guitars, the Les Paul was an expensive guitar.
00:16:00It was $250, $275 at that time.
00:16:03And it was a heavy guitar.
00:16:05It weighed about 9 pounds around your neck.
00:16:07It was a little weight there.
00:16:08But your average Fender guitar weighed 7 pounds and probably cost about $175, give or take, in that age.
00:16:15These started to outsell Gibsons by the late 50s.
00:16:20But the real key was also Fender had a very aggressive marketing team.
00:16:24Fender would advertise this as the modern, hip, youthful guitar.
00:16:29And they would also, underneath that in their ads, they would write, Gibson is your old man's guitar.
00:16:34Because if you looked at a Sunburst Les Paul or a Goldtop Les Paul, it looked like an old arch
00:16:39-top jazz guitar, like maybe a dad played.
00:16:42So Ted McCarty, having enough of that, figured he'd fight back.
00:16:46In 58, he would design three new models he would refer to as his modern series.
00:16:51He designed the Flying V, the Explorer, which have both become very popular in recent years.
00:17:00And there was a third model called the Modern.
00:17:02We don't have one.
00:17:04As far as I know, there was at least one prototype made that I believe was destroyed by Gibson later
00:17:10on because it was never used.
00:17:12So in 1958, he would show these at the 1958 trade show and start production on these Flying Vs.
00:17:20Later on in 58, they would start production on the Explorer.
00:17:24By early 59, feedback from their dealers would inform them that they couldn't give these guitars away.
00:17:31These guitars were so radical in shape, design, and look, way ahead of their time, they could not sell them.
00:17:38They also found out in 59 that anybody in a factory working on these guitars was having health issues, breathing
00:17:45issues.
00:17:45They discovered that with this wood, when you sanded it or sawed it and breathed in the dust, it was
00:17:52almost carcinogenic.
00:17:54So they immediately halted production, got rid of the wood.
00:17:57The wood they used on these guitars, unlike most Gibsons, which were mahogany and maple, this is a wood called
00:18:04limbo wood.
00:18:13So how I started off at Songbirds was I was a member.
00:18:18I came and did a vault tour here with Irv Berner one week after we opened.
00:18:23I'd heard that we had this brand new vintage guitar museum in Chattanooga.
00:18:27I live on the south side, very close to the museum, and I came here on a Saturday and did
00:18:32a vault tour
00:18:33and then immediately left from here and went to the front desk and bought an annual membership for my entire
00:18:38family
00:18:39and then proceeded to come back here every free chance I got for that first year that I was around
00:18:47here at the museum.
00:18:47There's always that thing in life, quantity versus quality, and we've been fortunate in that we really have kind of
00:18:54both.
00:18:54We've got an enormous amount of wonderful guitars, but the quality of this collection and the uniqueness,
00:19:01there are so many prototypes, one of a kinds, again, that tell a story from beginning to end.
00:19:07You could see how certain models would evolve over time.
00:19:10I know how it is sometimes when they come up with an idea and you see it for the first
00:19:14time and you hold a prototype
00:19:15and you know, and the next thing you know, thousands of them are out there, you know,
00:19:21and these ideas don't just come from nowhere. I think they were inspired.
00:19:26And so when I see that, it's kind of like a spiritual experience. It really was.
00:19:33The Songbirds collection is my kind of stuff. It's a lot of solid bodies, 50s and 60s Gibsons and Fenders.
00:19:42You know, I always tell people, I collect solid body electric guitars from about 1950 to about 1965.
00:19:52Those are the 15 years that I really like. Yeah, it was incredible. I mean, it was overwhelming and inspiring
00:20:00because you just go, you know, somebody did this. Somebody went out and said, I'm going to do this and
00:20:08I'm going to commit to it.
00:20:08You know, when we first started to put this collection together, it was a few Blackguard Fender Telecasters made from
00:20:151952 to 1954.
00:20:19And the collection started to grow and then it became Stratocasters and then all of a sudden it became ES
00:20:25-335s and Les Pauls.
00:20:27And then one day when this idea for a museum came up, I had to put a stop to everything
00:20:35we were doing.
00:20:36It was literally stop the presses because now we're not just buying for a collection, we're buying for a museum,
00:20:41which is very different.
00:20:43And we had to make sure that we scratched every itch. So if you grew up and you were a
00:20:47Beatles fan and you played a Rickenbacker,
00:20:49we suddenly realized, wow, we didn't have any Rickenbackers or if you were a Gretsch player, we didn't have any
00:20:54Gretsches and we didn't have a whole bunch of flat top guitars.
00:20:57We didn't have a whole bunch of arch top guitars. So it was literally in many ways like having to
00:21:02start over again.
00:21:04But thankfully, we already had the really good Fender and Gibson stuff already. So we were in a good place.
00:21:10I became fascinated even more than I already was with guitar history. And it occurred to me like if I
00:21:16had been an art history person or somebody who really enjoyed art,
00:21:21this was like living next door to the Louvre in Paris. This was for me Valhalla, the most awesome place
00:21:27that I could be around.
00:21:28And it was right here in my own backyard. So I started getting books on vintage guitar history and I
00:21:34would sit on the couch right behind us right here
00:21:36and bring those in on Saturdays and read those vintage guitar history books right here in the midst of the
00:21:41collection.
00:21:42And about four guitars in, I remember seeing a guitar that looked like one that we had on display here.
00:21:47And I thought, man, that's really similar to the one that I'm looking at right here.
00:21:50And as I walked up from the couch to the case and looked at it, realized it wasn't a guitar
00:21:54that looked like the one that was in the book.
00:21:56It was the actual guitar that was in the book. And that kept happening over and over and over again.
00:22:01And my love for this place kept growing.
00:22:03We had some great programs where you could pay a little extra and get to play them.
00:22:08It was like getting the keys to a Ferrari, being able to drive around the track a few times.
00:22:13It's called the Players' Experience. We just did one this morning where a young teenager came in and he played
00:22:20a 1959 Sunburst Les Paul.
00:22:24It's considered the holy grail of the electric guitar. Most people in their lifetime won't get a chance to play
00:22:30one.
00:22:31Well, it's hard to get your head around it, actually. And everybody I ever tried to talk about it with,
00:22:38I would say that. You just have to see it.
00:22:41And not only was it because they were worth so much, you know, the value of them, but it was
00:22:49the attention to detail.
00:22:50I mean, this is a labor of love. These guys are into this. It was like something I'd never, ever
00:22:58seen before.
00:22:59There is a certain nostalgic feeling whenever you can go back to a simpler time.
00:23:09And for a lot of teens growing up, Fender and Gibson was part of their lives.
00:23:15And they went to go play in a garage band after school and guitarist made you popular with the girls.
00:23:22You know, it was a, it was an incredible time.
00:23:26One of the great things about Songbirds is we have all these guitars where people could walk in and experience
00:23:34or maybe be brought back to that very moment in time like we were just discussing, where just like seeing
00:23:41an old car can remind you of your honeymoon.
00:23:44And the great thing about it is that, you know, although the guitars, many of the guitars were behind glass,
00:23:49it didn't mean you couldn't play cool old guitars. You could. We would literally take guitars out of cases and
00:23:54put it in people's hands.
00:23:56That was one of the great things about Songbirds was the fact that as a guest there, you could really
00:24:04be involved.
00:24:08Once the idea of Songbirds was announced to the public, the first thing, the first response we started to get
00:24:14from everybody was whose guitars do you have?
00:24:16Do you have Elvis's guitars? Do you have this guy's guitar? That guy's guitar?
00:24:20And that was really not what Songbirds was about. Songbirds, the heroes of this, of this museum, were really the
00:24:27guitars themselves and the guys behind the original classic designs.
00:24:32People like Ted McCarty, Leo Fender, George Fullerton, Freddie Tavares, Don Randall.
00:24:39These were guys that really helped design these guitars, get them out to the public.
00:24:43And of course, you know, well of course the great musicians that played them, but it was really about the
00:24:48instruments themselves.
00:24:49It wasn't about who owned them. That being said, we got so many responses like that.
00:24:55I think there was a little sense of panic early on and we went out and acquired a bunch of
00:25:00guitars just to satisfy that need for some people.
00:25:03So we do have one showcase here filled with some celebrity owned guitars.
00:25:08That being said, we do have guitars throughout this collection that were owned by famous guitar players that we never
00:25:14advertised or put a sign up.
00:25:16Because when we bought them, we didn't buy them with that intention.
00:25:18And we wanted to do the right thing by the performers. We weren't trying to make money off their name.
00:25:23So we did have instruments, did not speak about it.
00:25:28But over here, we've got a guitar owned by Roy Orbison at one point, a Strat that was owned and
00:25:32signed by Buddy Guy.
00:25:34One of my favorite bands growing up was The Doors.
00:25:36This was a Les Paul owned by Robbie Krieger, early Les Paul with the SG body style, owned by Robbie
00:25:44Krieger, signed by him.
00:25:45A Jazzmaster signed by Bo Diddley.
00:25:49And on the other side, we've got some more we can take a look at.
00:25:53And on this side over here, we've got one of our prized possessions, one of Chuck Berry's ES-355s, father
00:26:00of rock and roll.
00:26:02Paul Burleson was in a group called the Rock and Roll Trio.
00:26:05They did the original version of Train Kept a Rollin', an early rockabilly group.
00:26:09This was his 52 Les Paul, signed by him.
00:26:14Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys, his Epiphone 12 string.
00:26:18You know, again, earlier we spoke about the influence the Beatles had on everybody and the Beatles using that electric
00:26:2412.
00:26:24And shortly thereafter, the Beach Boys would use a 12 string on many of their hits.
00:26:29Carl Wilson would play those parts.
00:26:31A beautiful 1960 faded burst that was owned by John Fogarty.
00:26:38And one of Dick Dale's original Stratocasters, the father of surf rock.
00:26:43The amazing Dick Dale.
00:26:51The notoriety and probably thing most recognizable about Songbirds was the museum.
00:26:56But it doesn't put aside the fact that it was an amazing venue, both upstairs and down.
00:27:02The person behind booking all the talent, both nationally and locally, was Chattanooga's unsung hero.
00:27:08And that is my very good friend, Mr. Mike Dewar.
00:27:12My role at Songbirds has been talent buyer.
00:27:16Initially, it started out putting some small shows in the museum space, leaning towards great guitarists.
00:27:27And then it sort of expanded into other people and other styles of music.
00:27:35And then it expanded even more to Songbirds South, where we could do larger shows down there.
00:27:41How do you have instruments and not have music surrounding them, live music?
00:27:45I have played thousands of bars and venues across the country as a musician.
00:27:52And there was a lot of bad places and a lot of good places.
00:27:56That is made up of a cool vibe in the venue, but the staffs treat you poorly.
00:28:02Then there was other venues that the venue was really poor, but the staff treated you great.
00:28:06You know, there was all these hybrids of those.
00:28:08And I thought if we're going to do this, based on my experience, we're going to try and check every
00:28:13box.
00:28:13And that's how it got here.
00:28:16Used to be you'd never catch me on my knees, praying to anyone or praying for anything.
00:28:31Just figured I was down here on my own, just another lonely soul, kicking dust down a lonely road.
00:28:44But you showed up and made me a believer.
00:28:51That there's something big around there that's looking out for me.
00:28:59Cause without your love, I know I wouldn't be here.
00:29:06Don't know what you see in me that makes you want to see this through.
00:29:14But thank God you do.
00:29:17Thank God you do.
00:29:20Well, that's the other end of this museum.
00:29:22I mean, one thing was the guitars, the museum, and what we were bringing in that respect.
00:29:26The other thing is the live music scene we brought to Chattanooga.
00:29:37All the showcases in the middle of the room would get moved over into the timeline.
00:29:41We would put 200 seats out.
00:29:44And it was like seeing a show in a big living room.
00:29:57There is no greater collection.
00:29:59To be able to work in the middle of it, for artists to come in and play in the middle
00:30:04of it,
00:30:05They would come off stage saying, I knew I had to bring my A-game.
00:30:08Because I could feel and sense the history in the room.
00:30:12And I had to step up to meet the challenge of all those guitars.
00:30:17It's pretty cool.
00:30:28Playing at Songbirds, knowing you're surrounded by the single most impressive collection of guitars in the world,
00:30:38was an amazing thing.
00:30:41I am delighted to have played on that stage, played in that room, played in that air.
00:30:48Thank God you do.
00:30:55We've had everybody play here from Vince Gill, to Dick Dale, to Tommy Emanuel, to John Five.
00:31:03Keith Carlock, Dennis Chambers, Billy Cobham, Dave Weckle.
00:31:08We kept building up.
00:31:10We would bring in an artist and then that would give us an idea to bring in a,
00:31:15maybe a better or more important or more interesting artist.
00:31:19We went from someone like, oh, say a Dick Dale, to having the courage to bring in John Five from
00:31:30Rob Zombie's band.
00:31:32Which terrified me to no end.
00:31:43He was debating whether to play Nashville, which he normally would do, or come here.
00:31:49The reason he played here was because of all of the wonderful guitars that are here.
00:31:56What a tool to have.
00:31:58It's like, yeah, do we have a green room?
00:32:00Yeah, it's worth about four million dollars, so don't spill your beer on anything.
00:32:04My impressions of Songbirds as an entity, from the collection to the foundation to the venue,
00:32:12has always been music friendly, musician friendly, you know?
00:32:17And the live venue was just an extension of that.
00:32:20Now, one of those things about Songbirds that always struck me was the attention of detail,
00:32:28and they wanted the audience to have a great experience, they wanted the artist to have a great experience.
00:32:33You know, when you see a guy like Joe Bonamassa be impressed, then you did something good.
00:32:41And if there's ever any affirmation needed, I checked that box off a while back with Joe.
00:32:48But I hate to mention too many bands independently.
00:32:52Jerry Douglas, I know he was a big one, but you know, there's, to me, I think the coolest part,
00:32:57and I'm not saying this to be correct, I'm not saying this to be anything other than truthful,
00:33:02seeing all the local bands have a place to play was cool.
00:33:16You don't want to know that I've been falling apart
00:33:19Waking every day with a broken heart
00:33:22The kind that doesn't waste any time cutting through you
00:33:28You don't want to know that I've been feeling this bad
00:33:32It's all that I know and it's all that I've had
00:33:35And so long it's something I'm starting to get used to
00:33:41Longer ago, the more than I might get
00:33:44All of the pain and all the regret that I've got
00:33:50Everyone around me thinks that I'm fine
00:33:53Nobody's asking me to find out that I'm not
00:33:59Now I keep pretending I got it all together for your better friend
00:34:05You don't even know that what you're looking at is counterfeit
00:34:09You say he's defeated, it's just me here alone at this fight
00:34:17But I can't be the only one this lonely tonight
00:34:23Working with the local musicians is always important to me
00:34:30I think it's part of our mission to include them in everything that we do here
00:34:36So we can bring in Steve Earl or someone like that
00:34:41And then also bring in Campbell Station or the Afternooners
00:34:46Because they need to know how to act professional, dress professional
00:34:52How to do a sound check, how to learn all of those steps to be a better band
00:34:57And we really believe deeply in helping the young bands learn how to be better
00:35:03We can lead them all the way up, at the end of the day they've got to do their good
00:35:07work on stage
00:35:08How did I'm not? Now I keep pretending I got it all together for your benefit
00:35:18You'll never know that what you're looking at is counterfeit
00:35:23When it sees the beating, it's just me even though it's fine
00:35:30And I can't be the only one this lonely tonight
00:35:37The people in Chattanooga were always aware that they had a chance to come play here
00:35:42And it's a big deal, I mean we're a professional outfit, it's a big deal to come play here
00:35:52I don't think it would be a stretch for me to speak for all the artists here in Chattanooga
00:35:56By saying that the opportunity that Mike and Songbirds as a team gave us
00:36:01The platform, the stage to perform on, the things that we were able to be around
00:36:06We will be eternally grateful for that
00:36:09And this is a stamp on the music scene that won't ever go away
00:36:41So we're out here on Station Street, we're about to close down our final show here at Songbirds
00:36:45And we can't help but feel an enormous amount of gratitude to the fans
00:36:49And to the people that have supported us over the years
00:36:52And we're really grateful for that opportunity to be able to meet new people
00:36:56And it's been an amazing ride and we're very grateful for everything that everyone's done for us
00:37:14Back in the late 1940s, Leo Fender had a company called Radio and Television Equipment
00:37:19And he basically did radio and TV repairs and came out with a lap steel guitar
00:37:26The electric Spanish guitar would come later
00:37:28Starting in late 1949, the development for what is basically the guitar I'm holding right here
00:37:34Which is the Telecaster started
00:37:36It started as the Broadcaster
00:37:38Until they received a cease and desist letter from the Fred Gretsch Manufacturing Company
00:37:43Who made a drum kit called the Broadcaster
00:37:45Leo was forced to change the name
00:37:48At that time, they took the Broadcaster decal off
00:37:51And started to call the guitar the Nocaster around the factory
00:37:55Until they came up with a new name for the guitar
00:37:57When a new name was decided upon, it was called the Telecaster
00:38:01Based on the fact that television was now the new rage throughout the country
00:38:06These are wonderful playing guitars
00:38:07They feature solid rock maple necks and ash bodies
00:38:11With truly unbelievable tone
00:38:15And although they made thousands of these instruments
00:38:19They're still one of the most sought after instruments
00:38:22That collectors look for today
00:38:39When I hear guys like Joe Bonamassa, I mean I get it, I get that
00:38:42And John Five, John Lowry is his name, he's a good friend of mine
00:38:46But he genuinely loves, loves the guitar
00:38:50And when you're there, it's like I can't wait to tell my friends about this
00:38:54When you walk into Songbirds, it was packed with premium Fender, Gibson
00:39:02A lot of like interesting custom order Gibsons
00:39:07That have somebody's name in the fingerboard
00:39:10And, you know, strange colors
00:39:13And very, very cool stuff
00:39:16And then you got to the back room
00:39:21That's when all the funny shaped guitars start coming out
00:39:24The Flying V's, Explorers
00:39:26And stuff that I'd only seen in books
00:39:30I mean the Rosewood Strat
00:39:34You know, that would have went to Hendrix
00:39:53This is a solid Rosewood
00:39:55It's the only one Fender ever made
00:39:58It's dated 1969
00:40:00Though they didn't finish making this until 1970
00:40:04This came about when they decided to do a limited run
00:40:07Of solid Rosewood Fender Telecasters
00:40:10In 1968 they would start to build these Telecasters
00:40:14And the very first one would go to George Harrison of the Beatles
00:40:17If you have ever seen a film clip of the Beatles on the rooftop
00:40:21Playing Get Back from the movie Let It Be
00:40:23George is playing his solid Rosewood Telecaster
00:40:26They decided to make us some Strats
00:40:29This was the only one that was ever finished
00:40:30And this first one was intended to go to Jimi Hendrix
00:40:34He passed away before it was ever finished
00:40:37So it never left the factory
00:40:39It stayed at the factory
00:40:40And it ended up in the...
00:40:42I believe Fender had a guitar museum for a short while
00:40:44In the early 80s
00:40:47And then it was eventually sold by Fender
00:40:50So this is a one of a kind
00:40:53Initially intended for the great Jimi Hendrix
00:40:59What you get when you come here that's different than any other collection in the world
00:41:04Is you get to see the actual building of history
00:41:07As far as the electric guitar is concerned
00:41:09From the very first prototypes of Leo Fender
00:41:12To many employee built guitars from Gibson
00:41:15To see how their own takes may have been on certain instruments that came into production
00:41:21We hold the prototypes and we hold the history much more than the manufacturers do
00:41:26They destroyed so many of their records
00:41:28But we have their living records here
00:41:30And the idea that when you can walk through this place
00:41:33For most people
00:41:36The main reaction we get is
00:41:37Wow, we didn't even know they ever did that before
00:41:39And it's like we have not just a piece of paper saying they did it
00:41:43We have the actual instrument
00:41:44That's important to us
00:41:45I always said
00:41:47I always told everybody
00:41:48Who was going here we're going to go to Songbirds
00:41:50And they're like
00:41:51What's it like?
00:41:52I go
00:41:52They make me look like
00:41:54A hobbyist
00:41:56And it was
00:41:57It was the greatest collection I've ever seen
00:42:00And I was just happy to see it in my lifetime
00:42:02Because you know
00:42:03The fact that it was
00:42:04So complete
00:42:05And so
00:42:08Like
00:42:08Absolutely
00:42:10100%
00:42:12You know
00:42:13Curated to the highest order
00:42:15Spare no expense
00:42:16And
00:42:17Nobody's ever going to do that again
00:42:18That's a once in a lifetime
00:42:21Opportunity to see that
00:42:22Well I hope people will remember it
00:42:24And will be talking about it
00:42:25I think anybody who was
00:42:26Who was
00:42:27Who was
00:42:27I don't know if that's the right word to use
00:42:29But smart enough to make it here
00:42:31Early on
00:42:32And get to experience it
00:42:33I think they'll be talking about it forever
00:42:36Again
00:42:36There's nothing else like this anywhere in the world
00:42:38And I don't think
00:42:39That
00:42:39I hate to say never
00:42:41But
00:42:42It'll be
00:42:43Probably a long time before anything else
00:42:45On this kind of level pops up again
00:42:46Though I hope it does somewhere
00:42:48Well this collection is super special
00:42:50Because there's nothing like it in the world
00:42:51Nobody's going to be probably dumb enough
00:42:53To put something like this together again
00:42:54Truth be known
00:42:55I mean this is like
00:42:57This is
00:42:57This is
00:42:59Vulnerability meets passion
00:43:00Meets having a lot of money
00:43:02I mean that's
00:43:03At the end of the day
00:43:03I don't know how else to say it
00:43:05With all due respect
00:43:06It's
00:43:06It is those things
00:43:07And you will never see
00:43:10In my opinion
00:43:11Anything like this again
00:43:13At least for the foreseeable future
00:43:15It's
00:43:17It's
00:43:18It's just a phenomenal collection
00:43:19And
00:43:19The opportunity to
00:43:21Be a piece
00:43:23Of
00:43:23Letting it be seen
00:43:25And been responsible for the home that it's living in
00:43:28To a degree
00:43:29Is
00:43:29You know
00:43:30It's an overwhelming honor
00:43:33We were really hitting our stride
00:43:35To where I felt like we were reaching a level that had never been reached before in Chattanooga
00:43:40That's
00:43:41That's one of the sad parts of
00:43:42Of leaving all this
00:43:43Is because
00:43:44Um
00:43:45My goal here was to create this
00:43:48The
00:43:49The best small venue in the country
00:43:52I had all these wonderful guitars
00:43:55All these amps
00:43:56All these wonderful tools
00:43:58And so
00:43:59With that
00:44:00I was able to bring in all these artists
00:44:02And
00:44:03Each time we brought in a certain level artist
00:44:05It allowed us to go
00:44:07A little higher
00:44:08And a little higher
00:44:09And a little higher
00:44:10And a little higher
00:44:10And
00:44:11Uh
00:44:11I think as people look back on us
00:44:14They'll realize
00:44:15Just how incredibly high we got
00:44:18With the talent level that we brought in
00:44:20It's really hard to do to get that
00:44:23That level
00:44:24To come in on a consistent basis
00:44:26In a town the size of Chattanooga
00:44:28It just is
00:44:29When they can play Nashville if they want
00:44:31Or Atlanta
00:44:31So to kind of steal them away
00:44:33Was part of our goal
00:44:34And I think we did a good job
00:44:36With that
00:44:36I mean their focus was
00:44:38Was beyond
00:44:39A guitar collection
00:44:41But to be able to pass it on to the generation
00:44:44Not only
00:44:45Uh
00:44:46The love
00:44:47Of the
00:44:48Of the instruments
00:44:49That changed music
00:44:50Like the Stratocaster
00:44:52And the Les Paul
00:44:53All that type thing
00:44:54And some of the Gretsch guitars that the Beatles played
00:44:56And all that kind of stuff
00:44:58But
00:44:59Uh
00:45:00It's one thing to know the history of it
00:45:02It's another thing to know how to play one
00:45:04And
00:45:05That's where I was so impressed
00:45:07To put in the hands of a young person
00:45:09That would never be able to even
00:45:11Touch a guitar
00:45:12We need to continue to promote the guitars
00:45:14So the next generation understands that these are more than just sticks of wood
00:45:19Because if we fail
00:45:21They're just firewood
00:45:22And if we succeed
00:45:25Then a whole new generation goes forward playing these beautiful instruments
00:45:28And
00:45:29We always let people play instruments here
00:45:32These
00:45:32They look like they're all just locked up behind glass
00:45:34But we have always let people play instruments here
00:45:37There is no thrill
00:45:39Better for me
00:45:40Than having a young guy who plays guitar
00:45:42And putting a half million dollar guitar in his hand
00:45:44And just seeing that photograph
00:45:46When the wife is standing there ready to take that iPhone pic
00:45:49And he's mugging for the camera
00:45:51Like
00:45:52He's Jimmy Page
00:45:53That is just the best thing I can tell you
00:45:56And that makes it all worthwhile for me
00:46:04So earlier this year
00:46:05My father
00:46:06My dad passed away
00:46:09And
00:46:10It was a really special time for our family
00:46:12Because I got to be with him
00:46:14Got to hold his hand
00:46:16And
00:46:17Be with my family whenever he passed
00:46:19And
00:46:20It went peacefully
00:46:21But I had to go away
00:46:23Had to be away from here
00:46:24For
00:46:25For several weeks
00:46:27And
00:46:28When I came back to Chattanooga
00:46:31After being there that whole time
00:46:34The
00:46:34The first thing I did
00:46:37Just didn't make my wife very happy
00:46:39Who
00:46:40Was
00:46:40I dropped her off
00:46:41At the house
00:46:43Everything
00:46:43I'm packed
00:46:44I dropped her off
00:46:45And drove right over here
00:46:48It was on a Sunday afternoon
00:46:49The place was open for 10 more minutes
00:46:51But
00:46:52I had to come here
00:46:53I had to come be here
00:46:54Because this is just such a special
00:46:57Place
00:46:57That I love so much
00:46:59And
00:46:59After losing
00:47:00Having that great loss
00:47:01The first thing I wanted to do
00:47:03When I got back to Chattanooga
00:47:04Was to come here
00:47:05And
00:47:06To know it's not going to be here anymore
00:47:08And
00:47:08It sucks
00:47:09There was a young lady
00:47:11That was in Siskin
00:47:12That we worked with quite a bit
00:47:15And
00:47:16She was terminal
00:47:16And we knew it
00:47:18But
00:47:18Music and guitar
00:47:19Brought her a lot of joy
00:47:20And
00:47:22She was released from the hospital
00:47:24So she could live her last days
00:47:27And
00:47:27She was turning 16
00:47:28And she chose to spend her birthday here
00:47:31So we brought her in
00:47:32And
00:47:34We
00:47:34Kind of
00:47:35I don't remember how it worked
00:47:36But we all pitched in
00:47:37And bought her an additional guitar
00:47:38Like an electric guitar
00:47:39I think it was
00:47:40And
00:47:40We gave it to her as her birthday present
00:47:42From Songbirds
00:47:43And it just so happened
00:47:44The same day
00:47:45That Marty Stewart
00:47:46And the fabulous superlatives
00:47:47Were playing in town
00:47:48And they came down
00:47:48To check out the museum
00:47:49And so all the guys came in
00:47:52And
00:47:52And surrounded her at her 16th birthday party
00:47:54She was having here
00:47:55Um
00:47:56And they
00:47:56Uh
00:47:59Whew
00:48:03They sang the song
00:48:04Let us have a little talk with Jesus
00:48:07Let us tell them all about our troubles
00:48:09He'll hear our famous cry
00:48:10He'll answer by and by
00:48:14So that was a good one
00:48:19I may have doubts and fears
00:48:21My eyes be filled with tears
00:48:23My eyes be filled with tears
00:48:23But Jesus is the friend who watches day and night
00:48:27I go to him in prayer
00:48:29He knows my every care
00:48:31And just a little talk with Jesus
00:48:33Makes it right
00:48:34Now let us
00:48:35Have a little talk with Jesus
00:48:37Tell him all about our trouble
00:48:39He'll hear our faintest cry
00:48:41And he will answer by and by
00:48:43When you feel the prayer will turn
00:48:45He'll know that the fire is burning
00:48:47You will find a little talk with Jesus
00:48:49Makes it right
00:48:50One more down
00:48:53Tell him all about our trouble
00:48:55He'll hear our faintest cry
00:48:57He'll answer by and by
00:48:59When you feel the prayer will turn
00:49:02He'll know that the fire is burning
00:49:04You will find a little talk with Jesus
00:49:06Makes it right
00:49:08Find a little talk with Jesus
00:49:10Makes it right
00:49:11All right
00:49:15All right
00:49:17I'll take a hug
00:49:18I'll take a hug
00:49:23This place, and I don't
00:49:25I don't say this with any amount of hyperbole
00:49:27This place is the coolest place in the universe
00:49:29Being the curator of something like this
00:49:32And being an officer here
00:49:34Is something that
00:49:36It's bigger than life to me
00:49:38You know
00:49:38I really looked at my life as
00:49:41Simply as peddling sticks of wood
00:49:43For the last, you know, 35 years
00:49:45And having something like this
00:49:49Is just the cherry on top for me
00:49:50Everybody in the community
00:49:52And the, you know
00:49:54The local cities
00:49:55That would come here on a regular basis
00:49:56People that traveled from around the world
00:49:59Everybody that came here
00:50:00For shows
00:50:01To see the museum
00:50:02Or for whatever
00:50:03We couldn't thank you enough
00:50:05For your support
00:50:05And for the praise
00:50:07And the great reviews
00:50:09We would get all the time
00:50:10We can't thank you enough
00:50:11Yeah, I want to, you know
00:50:12Obviously thank everybody
00:50:13That came through Songbirds
00:50:14Anybody that dropped one nickel here
00:50:16Or, you know
00:50:18Made one post on Facebook
00:50:20Or made one post on Instagram
00:50:22I mean, you guys made us
00:50:23The fans are who made us
00:50:25We built it for you
00:50:26We had a great team
00:50:28And we did great work
00:50:31I walk away from this
00:50:35Extremely proud of what we've accomplished
00:50:37Extremely proud
00:50:38It's only three years
00:50:40We were knocking them dead
00:50:41Pretty happy with that
00:50:54David, are you ready?
00:50:56I got the thumbs up!
00:51:23C'est parti.
00:51:51C'est parti.
00:51:55C'est parti.
00:52:09Hey, Irv Berner, how you been?
00:52:11Dave Davison.
00:52:12Good to see you.
00:52:13Good to see you too.
00:52:18What's been going on in Chattanooga over the past few months?
00:52:21The cases are all empty.
00:52:22All the guitars have been shipped out, as you know.
00:52:25And yeah, it's kind of strange.
00:52:28Yeah, it's hard to even know that it happened that way, you know.
00:52:32But, you know, mounting expenses, it costs a tremendous amount of money to run a place like that every month.
00:52:37I mean, when you think about everything from the security to the electrical to all the employees and all the
00:52:44health care costs and everything else, the rent.
00:52:47When you're done, you're spending probably $20,000, $25,000 a month just to keep the place open.
00:53:07So let me ask you a question.
00:53:08As the museum's closed, what's the process with these guitars?
00:53:12You know, some of them are being shipped now over here to New York.
00:53:15When you get them, where does it go from there?
00:53:19When the decision was made that the museum was going to close, one of the biggest questions we had to
00:53:25answer is, what happens to all the guitars?
00:53:27This was not an easy decision for anyone.
00:53:31I mean, for me personally, my personal involvement of putting this collection together for more than 20 years really came
00:53:39into play.
00:53:40And could I really even fathom the idea of breaking it up?
00:53:47Initially, we drove out, brought home 300 and something guitars in one trip.
00:53:52But then we decided to get down to a fact where, you know, now we ship several guitars a week,
00:53:59you know, through different carriers to keep it, you know, spread out a little bit.
00:54:04And we receive the guitars here.
00:54:07And then once the guitars are set up, out on the wall, we decide, you know, through our social media
00:54:14mostly, we get the word out about which guitars are available for sale.
00:54:18And people come through and, you know, call about what they're interested in.
00:54:23It's a pretty smooth process.
00:54:24So every guitar you get, you basically set up, restring, and...
00:54:30Every single guitar goes through a re-authentication process, and I'm going to tell you why.
00:54:37Okay.
00:54:38Certain standards have changed within our business over the past 20-some-odd years, okay, and it makes us always
00:54:45want to go back now where we take everything apart and photograph all the internal components of every guitar.
00:54:51Okay, that was something that really wasn't done back then.
00:54:54We kind of took a look, and we put it back together.
00:54:56But the customers have become more savvy, and they want more proof, which is totally fine.
00:55:02So what we're going to do now is we're going to look here, and we're going to see a body
00:55:07date.
00:55:07And then if you look closely, it'll say TG for Tadeo Gomez, okay, who did a lot of early production
00:55:15work for Fender.
00:55:16And you'll see the date, 10-31-51.
00:55:20So October 31st, so this is a Halloween special right here, okay.
00:55:26On the neck, we look at the neck date, and the neck date, usually very close by, says TG for
00:55:32Tadeo Gomez, 11-7-51.
00:55:35Now we're going to try and give you an angle of that so you can see it.
00:55:40Hopefully you can get that on the camera.
00:55:43Okay, so that is your neck date.
00:56:09There's something I think that this was a sad story.
00:56:11It's, in fact, anything but.
00:56:14For this was the story of something that probably never should have been, something far beyond most people's imagination.
00:56:20This museum was one of those rare moments in time.
00:56:23For a short while, we had something truly special here.
00:56:27The guitarists spoke to you.
00:56:29They took you on a journey to a more innocent time in music, American history, and, for many, their own
00:56:35life.
00:56:36Though it was cut short, the life of this museum is something that should be celebrated and remembered.
00:56:43Though the museum itself will not reopen, the space is being taken over by the Songbirds Foundation, where it will
00:56:50reopen later this year as an educational center.
00:56:54The classic instruments that were on display here have once again gone back to their owners, where they continue to
00:57:00be maintained, restrung, and set up.
00:57:03At that point, they are once again ready to be played and appreciated as they were intended to be from
00:57:09the beginning.
00:57:10At the end of the day, these instruments were the tools to let guitar players sing through their fingers.
00:57:16You could say, in the right hands, these were Songbirds.
00:57:45You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:05You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:06You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:06You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:06You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:06You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:06You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:06You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:06You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:08You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:08You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:11You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:11You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:12You could say, in the right hands.
00:58:17You could say, in the right hands.
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