Tones Behind The Tracks
The Philadelphian troubadour Steve Gunn shares more about his enigmatic alt-folk masterpiece The Unseen In Between
“There was a magical moment in that session because we had this upright bass from 1850 that had also belonged to Charles Mingus”
There was another guitar that was definitely greatly used, which was a D-28 Martin and I also have this custom guitar that was made in Pittsburgh by a luthier called Plainview. And that’s kind of like a Gibson L-00. The Plainview guitars are also kind of similar to the old Recording King guitars, but the bracing is a lot lighter. It’s more of a hollow, bluesy sound.
“But I think particularly for that song, I used my Martin, my trusty sort of ‘road’ guitar, which I really fell in love with. I had been playing D-35s and all kinds of different models. I remember the exact moment when I was in Nashville and my friend had a vintage triple-0 and came in and I just had one of those lightning-bolt moments about the style I play and fingerpicks… and I had this realisation it was the perfect model for me after playing all different kinds of things over the years. And so then I finally found one that wasn’t like an old one, but a well-made one. And I played that for five years straight. But since then I’ve gotten the D-28.
“But that particular song, Stonehurst Cowboy, there was kind of a magical moment in that session because the bass player, Tony Garnier, had this upright bass from 1850 and which had also belonged to Charles Mingus. And he didn’t tell us that until about day three. He just said, ‘Ah, yeah, check this out,’ and it had his name written on the side. Just the acoustic along with that bass created a really magical moment.”
What recording project do you plan on tackling next?
“During lockdown I ended up buying a classical guitar. And it’s funny because I’d never really had one or played nylon-string guitars much before. So I just kind of bought one quickly on a whim, a cheap one. I actually asked my friend, who works at Chicago Music Exchange, if he could recommend a cheap one, maybe a couple hundred bucks, just to have around the house. And he said, ‘You gotta get one by Córdoba – just buy one of those.’ He sold me one for a really good price and I’ve been playing that for five months straight.
“So I’ve been writing a new record that I was supposed to start recording in Los Angeles back in May and June 2020, but of course that got postponed. I’ve also been redoing demos, editing things and doing different versions of songs recently. So it’s been kind of interesting to slowly work on songwriting. [The enforced break from recording has] allowed me to really take my time with it and try different things.” [JD]
The Unseen In Between is out now on Matador www.matadorrecords.com