Lucinda Williams and the Lost NEWMAN

Lucinda Williams had commissioned an acoustic guitar to be made by Ted Newman Jones.  When Ted passed away, I recovered piles of items from his shop.  One item was a Brown Calton flight case with Lucinda Williams stamped on the metal badge. I opened the case and there was a black small body Brazilian Rosewood acoustic with Spade inlay on the fretboard nestled in rare Rose colored velvet lining.  It was a beautiful sight.  

After researching Ted’s memoirs, I found out that he made it for her in 1993.  I even had the journal of where she made payments up into 1994 in Ted’s handwriting.  It had apparently come back for a repair due to the missing portion of the Ebony fretboard and was never returned.  So, I set out to finish the task and have the guitar restored for return to Lucinda.

I reached out to Jacob Harper and we discussed the restoration.  He had been working with NEWMAN and was completely trusted and best option for the task at hand.  On August 7th, 2017, I gave the guitar back to Lucinda Williams at a Buskirk Theatre in Bloomington, IN.   She was astounded and excited to have the guitar back.  It set off a flurry of stories of life in Austin, TX during the period of when the guitar was being built.  It was a great feeling to put an artist back in touch with a lost article as relevant as a custom guitar.  Lucinda and I discussed many things ,relevant things, in the basement of the Buskirk that night until the bus loaded and they rolled out of town.  The experience was well worth the cost of restoration. 

I have had many fun times chasing the  whimsical tales of this company and the way it seems to bush up against Rock N’ Roll history.  So much history yet to unfold and so much work yet to be done.