Mule

This story is unbelievable enough to be true.

I started music when I was six. The violin. I played in a college orchestra in grade school but after a disastrous chair audition I quit.

I picked up the guitar casually in high school. Eventually I tried to sell it, a blue Peavey Predator I spray painted silver, but no one bought it.  Then a friend was in a car accident and while she was recovering I played a song I wrote for her while my class visited her at the hospital. I connected with people emotionally through music for the first time - I kept the guitar.

I met Austin at the NAMM convention in Anaheim in 2020. This grade school kid from California looked me in the eyes while he shook my hand and looked like it was Christmas morning as he played the guitars. I’ve coached 300 kids in my life and Austin’s presence was special. I asked his mom if we could build him a resonator. He’s been to the shop here in Michigan and we catch up every time I’m in California.

Last yearI was talking with Austin and my dad was talking with his mom, Kim.  Kim mentioned to my dad that her grandfather lived in Michigan.  My dad asked where.

“Alma,” she said. My hometown.
“What was his name?” My dad asked.
“Paul Sobel.”
 
I didn’t see my dad’s face when she named him but I can imagine the shock, the smile, and the tears.

Paul Sobel was my next door neighbor. We shared a fence. Kim had been there numerous times. He played in the orchestra I eventually played in.

And he gave me my first violin when I was six, starting me on the road to where I am now.

I think this moment deserves a reverential pause. I’ve been really vocal during my career that making guitars is about connecting people through music and not the gear-centric industry it can feel like. This story is proof that music connects people across cultures and across time and an example of the depth it can create in our stories.

We didn’t make Austin that guitar-his great grandfather did. The same man who gave me the gift of music gave it to the great grandson he never knew.