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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 4, 2019)
Wednesday, September 4, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 11 Festival artist plays a Thompson Guitar By Ceili Cornelius Correspondent Peter Rowan, one of the headliners at this year9s Sisters Folk Festival, has a special connection to a local Sisters business: Preston Thompson Guitars. Late in the 1970s Rowan began a solo career writing and performing songs in the old bluegrass style. <I no longer had to play terrible bluegrass gigs when I went out solo because of what I had been involved with and was able to record my own music,= he said. Internationally, Rowan often performs as a solo singer-songwriter, while state- side, along with solo appear- ances, he plays in three bands: The Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, Big Twang Theory and its Texas cousin Twang an9 Groove, and rock band The Free Mexican Air Force. Peter Rowan9s connection to Preston Thompson Guitars is a special, longstanding one. Rowan has been writing and performing on the same guitar that the late Preston Thompson built for him in the 1980s. He met Thompson through the guitarist of bluegrass band Hot Rize, Charles Sawtelle. <He introduced me to this guitar, and believed in the ability of Thompson to build high-quality guitars,= said Rowan. The instrument is a vintage guitar that he has played and taken with him on his travels. <The whole joy has been its adaptability to bring blue- grass culture around the world. I brought this guitar to India and taught and wrote songs on it. It is my writing guitar and performing guitar, making it a special vintage guitar,= said Rowan. The Preston Thompson Guitars workshop sits next- door to The Belfry and there, craftsmen create vintage gui- tars for musicians and artists. Thompson died earlier this year, after a year-long illness. During Thompson9s illness, luckily for the busi- ness, he had trained and cre- ated skilled craftsmen to carry on the work of creating these vintage guitars. Thompson started build- ing guitars in the 1970s, lead- ing to a lifetime friendship and a passion for capturing a vintage tone based on the sound of old Martin guitars. Thompson studied 1930s Martin guitars hoping to learn the craft of creating the sound of those golden-era, big-bod- ied guitars. Some of the wood that he sourced was actually wood from those same gui- tars that inspired his build- ing: Brazilian rosewood cut in 1936 and lost in a shipwreck in 1937. Preston had access, and thoroughly studied Sawtelle9s collection of rare and famous pre-war vintage instruments, and built Charles a guitar that became one of his most trea- sured and the one he intro- duced Peter Rowan to. For three years in a row during the 1980s, his instru- ments were selected as a prize by the winners of the National Flatpicking Championships at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. As recalled by Rowan: <It was at Winfield, Kansas, the big festival. Hot Rize were performing and their guitarist, Charles Sawtwelle, had lent his Martin OOO45 to Preston to make a copy. That copy is the OOO42 Thompson guitar that I play. I bought the gui- tar from Preston at Winfield where I was playing with fid- dler Mark O9Conner.= In the guitar shop in Sisters sits a picture of Rowan with this guitar, honoring his friend and guitar builder, Preston Thompson. Rowan has played at the Sisters Folk Festival and at The Belfry. <I love it there and look forward to being back,= he said. 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OPB reported Wednesday that with all tax receipts for the just-ended biennium counted, state economists say more than $1.57 billion will flow back to personal income taxpayers in 2020, when they file their 2019 taxes. That compares to a <kicker= refund of a little more than $1.4 bil- lion projected in May, when officials last forecast overall revenues. The final tally, delivered to lawmakers in a hearing Wednesday morning, contin- ued a consistent trend over the last two years, as state tax rev- enues consistently outpaced economists9 expectations. PHOTO PROVIDED Legendary bluegrass musician and singer-songwriter Peter Rowan purchased one of the very first Preston Thompson guitars in the 1980s. Preston Thompson Guitars in Sisters carries on the tradition. Register Today For Larry's Popular RV HANDS-ON MAINTENANCE CLASS! Saturday, September 28 • 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. To register yourself or a group call 541-549-2091, www.sistersrecreation.com or at 1750 W. McKinney Butte Rd. 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