Grandfather Will's Guitar

Here is a picture of me playing Grandfather Will's guitar. Family history has it that it was made in the 30's, and is one of the first electric guitars. Will lead music in his church, and they needed amplification. Imagine that, an electric guitar in the Nazarene church!

The guitar is an Epiphone. The design on the headstock suggests it was a mid-line guitar at the time. The pick-up suggests the guitar was made about 1939, which would substantiate the family history.

Grandfather Will died when I was one year old, so I never heard him play. Brother Dave did hear him, and says he was a fine front-porch player.

When Will died, his guitar was passed on to his only son, Padre. I grew up listening to Padre sing and play that guitar. He had a fine tenor voice, and used it well. In addition to "The Reverend Mr. Black", he also loved to sing "Tom Dooley" and "St James Infirmary". The song Brother Dave associates with Padre is "Blue Skies", which he sang at a local jazz club with friend Wally at the piano.

It would seem I came by my musical talent naturally.

As is traditional, the guitar was meant to be passed down to Brother Dave, the eldest son. But Dave doesn’t play the guitar, so he was willing to let the guitar come to my hands.

Grandfather Will wrote a song, "The Little Old Brush Arbor," copyright 1939. This song was also part of family legend. I don’t believe I ever heard Padre sing it. I thought I saw it once, in the family piano bench.

As I was recovering from Padre’s death, I kept thinking about that song. Wondering if the internet could help me find a copy. Hoping I could find it, learn it, and recover it. I did some tentative searches, but – to be honest – I didn’t have a clue as to how to hunt it down.

Then, I went to visit Brother Dave in 2000 – for the first time since Padre’s death. Dave pulled out a brief case, which held everything left from Padre’s estate. Sure enough, there among various curiosities, was a copy of "Little Old Brush Arbor."

I spent the next several months plunking out the tune on my electronic keyboard. Once I felt like I had the tune memorized, I transposed it. See, it was in the key of "G" — either a bit high or low for my range — so I transposed it to "D."

An interesting side-note to the sheet music is that it is in "shape note" format.

Here’s the first verse and chorus of "The Little Old Brush Arbor," by William James C—. It's the song I'm singing in the picture above.

In the little old brush arbor, where the people used to tell
How Jesus’ power can save you from your sins,
I can see my dear old mother where she used to kneel in prayer,
I can hear the choir sing those songs again.

CH:
There I gave my heart to Jesus and he satisfied my soul.
Oh, I love to tell of all he’s done for me;
And the little old brush arbor holds its mem’ries dear to me,
I will love them ’til my Savior’s face I see.