When guitar wizard Richard Bishop begins the story of how he acquired the “travel” guitar he used to record his upcoming LP release, Tangier Sessions, due out February 17th via Drag City, it’s hard to tell, at first, if he’s spinning a fable or recounting a “real” occurrence. Paced perfectly, and with all the familiar elements of a tall tale present, Bishop recounts shopping for a guitar in the back streets of Geneva, where he wanders into an instrument shop run by a strange man in a white lab coat. Searching for a small guitar he can use while touring Europe, he looks around the shop and finds nothing. He asks the owner if he might have such a guitar, and the man informs him that he doesn’t, but stops him just before exiting the shop to tell him he might, indeed, have an instrument he’d be interested in. Taking him to a back room, the owner pulls down an old guitar from off a high shelf, and Bishop tells us that once the guitar is in his hands, he can’t stop playing it. Inquiring about the price, Bishop finds out it’s way more than he can afford.
At home that night, he can’t stop thinking about the old guitar. Back at the shop on the next day, he finds himself, again, spellbound, unable to put the instrument down; and after playing it for some time, he asks the owner if he might lower the price, but the owner informs him that he cannot. Frustrated, the guitarist leaves the shop only to spend another night obsessed. Bishop resolves the next day to go back and put a deposit down, and when he arrives, the owner has a curious grin on his face, as though he expected his return all along–convincing the maestro he must be making a deal with the devil!
With Robert Johnson references now made explicit, you’re convinced this must be a story, until Bishop reaches over and pulls out this amazing 19th century guitar. With no definite markings on the instrument as to who made it, Bishop lovingly recounts it’s amazing features…spruce top, Brazilian rosewood sides and back, ebony fretboard and bridge, ivory tuners, ice cream cone heel, and a V-shaped neck: but the real magick happens when Sir Richard Bishop begins to strum and intricately pick the guitar, with fluid fingerings drawing a vaguely Spanish melody from the instrument. Bishop goes on to explain that this is the guitar used to record his upcoming record, Tangier Sessions. Living in the Old City in a rooftop apartment, while playing a gig in town, Bishop recorded the album at night, when the noise of the city had died down. He says:
“The room that I was recording in had these Moroccan tiles all around the room, so the sound bounced off the tiles, and it was just a very warm sound. It just had this nice ring to it.”
Can’t wait, Richard! We’re all ears!! The video for “Guitar Talk” was created by Climax Golden Twins member and Sublime Frequencies filmmaker, Robert Millis.
