The Taylor Pallet Guitar - A REAL Use for Recycled Pallets!

In response to Nick’s earlier post about the ridiculous movement of shipping pallet use in the home, I submit Bob Taylor’s pallet guitar!

Taylor, a well renowned guitar designer whose company manufactures many fine instruments, reportedly grew tired of the obsession with fine tone woods like Brazilian Rosewood and Adirondack Spruce.  In an effort to prove it was the builder and designer that made great tone in a guitar, he planed down the pallets used to ship that fine tone wood. What emerged were 25 Limited Edition “Pallet Guitars”.

According to the company’s website, the backs and sides are constructed of “pallet grade” oak, and “a top of pine, fir, or hemlock (who knows? it's a two-by-four)”.  

Word is, these sound really nice.  Maybe it’s the e.coli content…

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Jerod LeCompte lives in Auburn, and truly believes 

it is "the loveliest village on the plains".  He spends 

his free time critiquing other people's accomplishments, 

figuring out which beach his jet-setting wife is 

laying out on each weekend, and patching 

Jeep Cherokees together with bailing twine.

We are thankful to have Jerod as part of the Cupboards

extended family! 

RIP Wildman Steve

As I was fishing around in my car for a CD to replace the Elvis Costello that’s been on constant rotation, I realized it: I live in a college town, and THERE ISN’T A SINGLE REAL RECORD STORE IN IT!  

When I was a kid, in other words prior to that moment of realization that I was the old guy at the bar that I used to make fun of, there were FOUR independent record stores in my town.  My favorite was “Wildman Steve’s Record and CD Exchange“, but I’m sure a trip to any of them felt pretty much the same.

As I recall, Wildman’s was shoe-horned between a tattoo parlor and a florist, and I don’t recall ever seeing anybody go in either one.  To step in to Wildman’s was to be greeted by a tinkling bell and the overwhelming stench of patchouli.  If you stopped long enough to let your eyes adjust to the low light, you’d see the proprietor eying you over a pair of Lennon-esque glasses, his dashiki and jort uniform the same as the last time you came in.  

I always thought he was annoyed to see me…now I realize he was just judging the potential of any of my money staying in his store when I left. It’s got to be hard to make your living at $11.99 a pop…assuming nothing was sold out of the back of the store.  I never knew for sure…but I had my suspicions. We’ll leave it at that.

The music you could buy there?  Now that I think about it, the stock wasn’t that great…again making you wonder about back-door medicinal vending.  But I realize now that Wildman was my Dick Clark and my Casey Kasem all rolled into one chubby, gray-haired hippie.  He only sold what he liked, and in that way he was the single greatest influence on my musical tastes.  

I have him to thank for that.  I blame him, too…for an 8 year college career all too often spent driving to out of state Phish and Allman Bros. concerts. 

I’m sure digital downloads took him down.  It’s like I looked up one day and the store was gone…replaced by a generic chain Burrito restaurant.  In the end, his legacy lives in the musical tastes of about a decade’s worth of Auburn University students.  There could be worse legacies, I suppose. 

We could be listening to Lady Gaga or Kanye West…

Record Store Day 2011 is coming up April 16th.  If you’ve got an independent record store in your area, how about taking a visit for me?

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Jerod LeCompte lives in Auburn, and truly believes 

it is "the loveliest village on the plains".  He spends 

his free time critiquing other people's accomplishments, 

figuring out which beach his jet-setting wife is 

laying out on each weekend, and patching 

Jeep Cherokees together with bailing twine.

We are thankful to have Jerod as part of the Cupboards

extended family! 

#LetsBlogOff - Love and The Secret Sisters

I'm not about to get all mushy like some of my cohorts in this episode of the Let's Blog Off series- by nature, I'm not an overly emotional person(outwardly, at least) so it's tough sledding for me to talk about something like the L word.

Let's Blog Off - What is Love?



Rarely do I listen to music. As I've gotten a bit older, sports talk radio dominates my audio life more than anything else by a large margin. If you come in to the showroom, there a 9 in 10 chance that somebody is on the radio talking about football(yep, football... year 'round). Sports makes me happy- I like the games and the soap opera that sports often becomes. Yeah I said it... guys if I just ruined it for you with your significant other, I'm sorry. Most guys like the drama that comes along with sports... rivalries wouldn't be any fun otherwise.

Nevertheless, this post is about love... and in this specific case, music.

The Secret Sisters

The best music comes from the South. I'm biased and don't care. The Secret Sisters are from the great state of Alabama and I'm flat smitten. In just a matter of months, they went from local players to opening for Willie Nelson, recording with Jack Black and playing for national audiences on late-night shows like Letterman. I'm rarely trendy, especially with music, but I'm on this bandwagon all-the-way.

They are a flashback to a different time- both in sound and appearance. Sheer perfection.

Listen in... Here are a few of my favorites.

And just when you thought it couldn't be any better... A rockin' cover of Johnny Cash's Big River. It's the most perfect example of new Southern rock that's out there. Makes me want to go jump on my motorcycle and ride off to the sunset(or an ice cream parlor).

Hope this gives you the same rush of fantastic awesomeness as it does for me. Now that I've broken the rules of #letsblogoff(again), leave me a comment and tell me what you think.

Then, go to all these other fine posts and read the lovey-doviness that is sure to gush forth. It'll be fun!