FEATURE
Bluegrass Authenticity:
GALLAGHER
Guitars
BY JOHN COOK
Cities and regions are often unavoidably
linked to styles of music. When you think of
New Orleans, you think of jazz and zydeco.
When you think of New York City, you
think of bebop and jazz. When you think
of Memphis, you think of blues and R&B.
And of course, when you think of Nashville,
you think of country. But what happens
when someone mentions Southern Middle
Tennessee? Anything come to mind?
It could be argued that Southern Middle
Tennessee is the porch pickin’ jam capital of
the world. In a beautiful region full of rolling
hills, plateaus and lakes, there lies a thriving
community of acoustic musicians who enjoy
playing bluegrass and Americana music. In
towns and communities like Lynchburg, Bell
Buckle, Flat Creek, Wartrace and Shelbyville,
you’ll find a number of porch pickins’ and
jams held in grocery stores, churches, parks
and often times, on front porches of homes
out in the country. These towns have built
a sense of community and tradition into
their music that in turn has created a vibrant
scene bubbling over with talent. This region
has raised national flatpicking champions,
fiddle champions, fingerpicking champions
and bluegrass champions. In fact, the youngest person ever to win the national flatpicking championship in Kansas (Cody Kilby) is
from Southern Middle Tennessee. So is the
IBMA’s two-time best guitarist award winner,
Kenny Smith.
Right smack dab in the middle of all this
intensely musical, yet bucolic southern culture is a friendly little guitar builder’s shop
in a town called Wartrace. The shop itself is
unassumingly nestled in a small row of busi-nesses. No gaudy guitar-shaped sign out
front, just “Gallagher Guitars” in worn
