6/15/2023 0 Comments Music collector buddy holly![]() I hadn’t heard those big acoustic-guitar sounds on the rock-and-roll records I was first drawn to – Chuck Berry doing the duck walk with his ES-345 was very different from the Everly Brothers and Peter, Paul and Mary. My brother, Mike, got into the folk boom with “Hootenanny” and the Kingston Trio. What type of music pushed you to pick up an instrument? Now 75, Hanna sat to discuss events leading up to it, revealing untold tidbits along the way. In May, NGDB released Dirt Does Dylan, which falls in line with a long-standing tradition of paying homage to its musical heroes (see sidebar). As a songwriter, Hanna won a 2005 Grammy as co-writer (with Marcus Hummon and Bobby Boyd) for Best Country Song for “Bless the Broken Road,” recorded by Rascal Flatts. The two formed what would eventually become Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and go on to record 22 albums that produced 15 Top 10 hits including four number ones accompanied by three Grammy awards, including Best Country Instrumental (2004), a Country Music Association Award award for Album of the Year (1989) and a 2003 International Bluegrass Music Association award for Recorded Event of the Year. “When I was a kid, I turned up my nose at any Fender that wasn’t pre-CBS, but now we know there’s a lot of good guitars from that time.”Ī sophomore at the time, on the first day of school he met Bruce Kunkel and they bonded quickly over music and guitars both burgeoning players, Kunkel showed Hanna how chord melodies came together in folk songs. “It’s a great instrument,” says Jeff Hanna. Jaime Hanna played his ’73 Telecaster Custom on the majority of his electric tracks for Dirt Does Dylan. Jeff Hanna’s high-mileage ’51 Gibson Southern Jumbo (right) known as “Scrappy” is heard on much of Dirt Does Dylan. Once I saw the beach, though, my attitude changed (laughs).” Ray Kennedy’s 1935 Gibson L-00. ![]() “Our new house was inland, and I remember waking up the first day and seeing a layer of fog and all the concrete. “I was a little bummed at the idea of moving away from the mountains, trees, and blue skies,” Hanna chuckled. “Duane, Eddy, Eddie Cochran, and the Everly Brothers became part of my musical DNA.”Īt 15, Hanna was given “…a funky Harmony Monterey that hurt my fingers,” at first reading sheet music for tunes like “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Shortly after, his family moved from Colorado to Long Beach, California, when his dad was hired to work on the Apollo program for North American Aircraft. “I loved that music – it changed my life,” he says. By age 10, the middle child, Jeff, was hearing rock-and-roll on 45s and the radio in his big brother’s Ford hot rod – Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Duane Eddy, and Buddy Holly. Jeff Hanna’s parents loved Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, which helped embed great music deep in the brains of their three sons. One’s taste in music usually starts in the home, where immersion can fuel the subconscious. Jeff Hanna with Ray Kennedy’s 1950 Gibson J-45.
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