Hello all, I’m Reid, from Athens GA. Rolled into town in '89 as a Pete Buck wannabe, Rickenbacker in hand, to “go to college” and never left. I’ve been playing for 35 years, give or take, gigging and making records and picking up a degree on the side. I love amps, instruments and recording gear as much as I love music; I put in a dozen years at a music store and two years on the road as a guitar tech before succumbing to reality and taking a job at the university
My path here has been a little odd, I guess. When I started, I didn’t necessarily want to play a guitar, I wanted to wear a guitar. I didn’t care about being great at playing guitar; I wanted to write songs and be great at being the guitar player in a band. I joined that band six months after I bought my first guitar and haven’t looked back since.
These days, after three decades of making music and collecting records, things look a little different. The young me would be appalled to find out my current favorite band is Derek and the Dominos (hating on EC was a requirement in the '80’s if one wanted to get their punk rock union local card). My current favorite guitar players are JJ Cale, Norman Blake, Kenny Vaughn, Ronnie Wood, that sort of thing - guitar players who use their powers in service of song, and who then melt your face off when they take a solo.
I never took lessons or tried in any methodical way to improve my playing until the last couple of years; this latest burst of enthusiasm led me to justinguitar.com, which led me here. After years of strumming like Townshend on stage and not bothering to use a pick when I’m writing or noodling at home, my right hand is a mess. Forget shredding, I’m basically learning to pick and strum all over again. A pick feels weird to me right now. Going from a strum to a fiddly bit, I’m lucky if I hit the correct string 50% of the time, I’m constantly hitting an adjacent string when I pick, blah blah blah.
My ambitions are modest, I think. I have no illusions about developing Norman Blake-esque skills. I want to develop a solid flat-picking boom-chuck rhythm on the acoustic (that shit only looks easy), learn to strum from the wrist instead of the whole damn arm, and cleanly pick the right string. Good times!