cigar box fiddles, musical saws. I’ll be playing a bizarre musical instrument festival later this year down the coast. It used to be called the jaw-harp festival for years but now they include all kinds of strange and unique instruments.
(HotBands) How old were you when you started playing?
(Baby Gramps) I’m not into numbers, but I was just a kid. My first influence was my old man…he’d bring that National out at parties and play when I was wee little, and my mother used to play piano, so they both had an influence on me. My old man kept that guitar in the attic and one day I brought it down and laid it at the side of my bed. I used to daydream and strum my hand across the strings before I could ever play it. It was the first instrument I ever heard in my life. I used to buy old 78s because they were a nickel where 45s were 50 cents; so some of the first music I identified with had the National steel guitar in some old time blues songs.