Walt Wilkins’ guitar is home!
Photo: Austin PD
In short, Walt Wilkins owned a really cool, custom Gibson Americana that was given to him in 2006. The guitar was stolen in 2009, then 5 and a half years later it made it back to Walt’s very grateful hands. Walt was gracious enough to answer a few questions about the guitar and its journey.
| Me: | What’s the story on this guitar, and how did it end up in your hands? |
| Walt: | It is a Gibson Americana model, which never went into full production by Gibson. Gibson made 3 of them for a benefit in conjunction with the public radio station in Marfa, TX. Willie played one at the show; there’s pictures of him with one of the guitars. It’s cool. The other guitar was given to Dan Rather, I don’t know why. I do know that one of my life-long friends found a way to contact Mr. Rather with a request to buy his for me after mine was stolen. His email in response was brief & definitive; not interested. The band began calling the guitar ‘Merica, because during a soundcheck somewhere I hit a big G chord through the house PA & my amp, and it sounded huge. I told the drummer Ray Rodriguez “that’s a big AMerican G chord, man.” He started calling the guitar ‘Merica. It was that goofy & simple. |
| note: The guitar was made from wood from an old Army Base in Marfa where Willie performed to raise money for the station (from Gibson.com) | |
| Me: | Tell me about when the guitar was taken. |
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