Blue Eyes

by JJ Probasco
Hey, friends and neighbors! And especially family, because this is my father-in-law’s old Kay guitar. It’s a model K-37, a “super grand auditorium”-sized archtop acoustic, made from mahogany with a rosewood fretboard, one of that company’s more popular models. It sold new for a whole $39.50 in 1953, which my research concludes is probably when this one was made. So we have something in common – we’re the same vintage. Ralph’s wife, Minnie Lee, bought it for him early in their marriage. Ralph loved his guitar, but as so often happens, life has a tendency to let some passions take a back seat when other priorities take over. The Kay had found a place of honor hanging on the wall in his bedroom, but hadn’t been played for at least the 20 years I knew him, and apparently far longer. Ralph and Minnie Lee are both gone now, and the family agreed with me bringing it home when I promised to fix it up and play it and make sure it was loved. That process also took a back seat for a few years, regrettably, but I made a few small repairs and adjustments, and Ralph’s guitar lives again. It isn’t a Gibson, or Martin, or Gallagher, but in a remarkable stroke of coincidence, it turns out that I’m no Chet Atkins, or Mason Williams or, well, Gitarzan, for that matter, so we have another something in common and we fit together just fine. This came at a good time because I’d been getting the urge to leak a little love out into the electronosphere; it’s been quite a while since I’ve gotten around to it and it seems like the last dose might be wearing off a little. There’s a heap of anxiety and discord and ill will floating around out there, so I figure if I make a valiant effort to dribble a little love out into the middle of it, and maybe get my friends and neighbors to pitch in a little of their own, in any little way they’d like...even an impromptu back-porch concert like this is just fine -- totally amateur, flubs and warts and all, no makeup, no safety net, no talent -- and if I can do it, you can do it... maybe we can tone all that ugliness down just a tad and make the world at least a tiny bit better place to live. So what better way for me to do some love dribbling than with Ralph’s guitar, a gift that was given to start out a deep and enduring love? And the only fitting song to be the first played on it in decades would have to be the first song I ever wrote for his daughter, a song I played for her on her birthday in 1999, and two months later we danced to it at our wedding. Another gift that was given to start out a deep and enduring love. This is “Blue Eyes.”
Your turn!