In 2005 I played John Thomas's Nick Walker at Little Brother's jam in Georgia. It took all of two minutes before I knew I would have to put my name down on Kim's list. In November 2013 Kim finally tracked me down to tell me that my slot had come.
In February 2015, I booked flights from Glasgow to Boston via London to go and pick the guitar up, and that has turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. Flying into the USA always makes me excited, I guess because every time I've been, it has been to meet friends and play music and, yes, a few times, to pick up a guitar. I took the Amtrak down to Connecticut and it was an amazing journey, filled with excitement as I looked out over snowscapes and coastline, listening to Dark Side of the Moon on my headphones.
Kim picked me up and we drove to his place and, after 10 years of waiting, I got to try my Adirondack spruce and maple SJ. Being tired after the journey, I didn't get to appreciate fully just how amazing this guitar was, but I could feel its solid build quality and lightness straight away.
After a great night's sleep and a fantastic breakfast with Kim and Diana, I brought the guitar up to the living room and played it for a solid two hours. It was amazing. I worked on an arrangement of Auld Lang Syne in DADGAD for new year this year and had been worrying that I'd forget my arrangement, so I put the Walker into DADGAD and had the most amazing time figuring it out and getting it back under my fingers.
John Thomas came round to Kim's for lunch and we had a great time catching up before heading to John's for the night. There I got to play that Nick Walker guitar that started the whole thing off once again, as well as John's own SJ from the same batch of maple as mine, and his 1/3 century.
I'm still feeling the joy of that trip and it brings a wee tear to my eye when I consider what amazing friends I've made through a common love of acoustic guitars and music. It reduces us all to our bare souls and then we can join together without the social ball-and-chains of rank and fortune and play music together. It's the most incredible thing.