Stella by Bobby Lee

Imagine a guitar player in a room with 10 different guitars. Nice ones. You tell him (or her) to try them all out. In my experience, the guitarist will almost certainly play different things on each guitar.

A Les Paul might inspire some power chords, a Telecaster some twangy picking, an archtop might inspire some jazz licks, a nylon string might bring out some flamenco riffs. What happens is, the instrument has as much to do with what is played, as the guitarist does.

When Bobby Lee sat down with Stella (the 50 year old guitar that he acquired earlier this year) the songs that came out covered a wide spectrum of sounds.

There's the mournful Hank Williams train song, Merle Travis in an Appalachian coal mine, a defiant but heartbroken Bob Dylan, songs from Hawaii, some originals, and a tune about a sailor returning to his island sweetheart (Louie Louie!).

Clearly, Bobby grew up a child of the 1950's and 1960's (like myself) and was surrounded by diverse musical sounds. I picture lots of record albums in Bobby's childhood home; Martin Denny to Hank Thompson and lots in between...

Bobby Lee has made a Musical Selfie!

Much like how folks take pictures of themselves in unique places, the songs on Stella are Bobby's snapshots of what came out of this wonderful meeting of a man and a guitar.

-Doug Jayne