| "FRANK GRAY"
Dear Dick.... wow... talk about making me reminisce... your article on 'More Canadian Guitar Twang'.. particularly Frank Gay... really got me going... Frank was a good friend of mine... I first met him in 1958. I was stationed in Fort Smith, N.W.T. with the R.C.M.P. (Air Division)... we had flown down to Edmonton, Alta, and I was in search of a small Fender Amp located at a music store... just before closing time I was in the midst of purchasing the fine Fender Deluxe Amp with Jensen Speaker...in the backroom of the store. The owner and I were writing up the papers enjoying each others company over a beer (if you please)... well one thing lead to another as we were having a bit of a jam session ... abit of singin' a whole lot of pickin' etc. At any rate, the owner ended up calling Frank Gay to come on over and hear me sing... Frank only lived a few doors up from the store... within minutes Frank arrived and the party was on..... I'll never forget that evening ... had a ball. After that we used to regularly gather at Frank's shop, which was a large garage, at the back of someone's residence. It was also his living quarters - he had a fantastic stock of guitars in disrepair... about 20 Roy Rogers guitars, which he would turn into classical guitars... dust, shavings, sanders, lacquers, etc. were the decor. Well, one night Frank and I were well into our cup. He had been entertaining me with country and jazz when all of a sudden I challenge him to a request "Tico Tico"... and his immediate response was "Would you like it on guitar? or lute?" I said, out of shear spite.... hee hee ... "Lute!:.... He rummaged around in the pile of guitars and came up with a dusty old lute... and oh my God... he blew the top off of 'Tico Tico'... his style was much like Charlie Byrd in some ways... I saw guitars that he had made for Faron Young, Hank Snow, but not the one for Webb Pierce as mentioned in your article... Well, later at a particular time, I was having to leave Edmonton and on the day of my departure, I surely wanted to say good-bye to my dear friend Frank so I hopped my 'black'n white' police car and drove to Frank's. In all of our jamming and goofing around that year... my career in the RCMP had never been let known... so you can well imagine the look on Frank's face when he opened the door... (There I was in full uniform with my b/w) ...I'm sure his voice rose two octaves that day because all he could say was: "You're a cop!" ... with me retorting "Yeah!" ... both giggling all the while... he was really taken back with that one.... I never saw Frank again until later in the 70's as I was transferred... and that was a great reunion too... and you can bet on it that Franks' first words were.... "Are you still a cop?" .... and of course by this time, I had left the force.... my response "Nope!"... but we did again have a laugh and a joke over that one. It was not too much later that he passed on... I do have a taped interview of Frank with the CBC which includes some terrific guitar work of his. What a small world it is... so thought I'd share that with you Dick...Thanks for bring back some great memories... as the song goes: 'The song has ended, but the melody lingers on'... Cheers for now... Pappy Written By: |