Thursday, July 29, 2004
What Scott Conley can do with a guitar starts with a tree and winds up on stage
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Greater Portland's Entertainment Weekly.
Weekends begin on Thursday. In Go.
The Ossipee Valley Bluegrass Festival begins today in Cornish and runs through Aug. 1.
The festival features many guitarists, banjo players, singers and dancers. One of the performers is Bowdoinham resident Scott Conley, who not only plays guitar but makes guitars. Conley will perform with the Muddy Marsh Ramblers, a local bluegrass band.
Q:How did you come to make guitars?
A:I apprenticed with a master luthier, and worked in a small guitar factory.
Q:What types of guitars do you make and how do you make them?
A:I make acoustic steel-stringed guitars by hand.
Q:Would you tell me a bit about the Muddy Marsh Ramblers?
A:We are a lively five-piece band who play traditional and original bluegrass music. I play guitar, my wife Rebecca masterfully handles the upright bass, Shawn Davis sports the mandolin, Eric Pariseau operates the five-speed banjo and Craig Hensley evens us out with his counterpoint guitar. We have been putting up with one another for about five or six years. It's a bit like family.
Q:How long have you played?
A:I have been messing with the guitar since the age of 8.
Q:How did you get interested in playing?
A:My neighbor, Mr. Gammon, had a ukulele. I thought it was so cool. I was 4.
Q:Did you take guitar lessons or did you study guitar formally somewhere?
A:Nothing I would call formal.
Q:How did you get involved in the Ossipee Valley Bluegrass Festival and what will you be doing at the festival?
A:For one reason or another the promoters like us and we like them. This year is exciting for us. We have a new self-titled CD to promote. We'll be doing that as well as playing on Saturday at 12:40 p.m. and on Sunday at noon. I'll also have a guitar booth.
Q:What advice would you give anyone thinking about learning how to make guitars and what advice would you give anyone thinking about learning how to pick?
A:If anyone wants to learn to make guitars, they should drive to the bookstore and buy "Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology," by Cumpiano and Natelson. Then plant themselves in a workshop for a month or two.
If anyone wants to learn how to pick, they should drive to Cornish and buy a weekend ticket to the Ossipee Valley Bluegrass Festival. Then plant themselves in front of a campfire jam for the weekend. Either way, sore fingers. But you'll make more friends at Ossipee.
News Assistant Stephanie Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6455 or at: sbouchard@pressherald.com