When guitarist Danny Cox joined the band last year, he brought us more than five decades of picking experience. And now he has introduced us to a witness to all those years of music: A venerable, mellow guitar he calls “Number One.”
“I call it Number One mainly because it was the first good guitar I had,” Dan says.
As reported in Flood Water earlier, Danny was not quite 13 years old in the spring of 1972 when his dad bought a guitar from a nephew for $3, brought it home and, with a big grin, handed it to his son.
That beginner’s box is long gone, but soon the youngster would meet the guitar that has been with him for a half century now.
Enter Number One
In 1972, Danny’s sisters moved to Dayton, Ohio, and “in the fall of ’73, one of my brothers-in-law took me to the Dayton Institute of Music music store, and the guitar was hanging on the rack behind the counter.”
The teen-aged Dan had been wanting a gut-string guitar because of what he was hearing his heroes Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed play, and the shiny new Yamaha appeared to more than fit the bill.
A few weeks later the Cox family traveled back to Dayton from Ironton to visit the sisters again. During that visit, their dad slipped back into Russell Moore’s music store on East 2nd Street, and, as a surprise, he bought the guitar Danny was admiring.
“It has been in my hands more than any other guitar I ever owned,” Dan says.
“It’s a great friend,’ he says. “The sound has gotten better over the years, and it has always played well.’
By the way, notice that worn spot on the guitar’s face?
“This is because of me mistakenly thinking Chet rested his finger there while he played,” Dan says with a chuckle. “I didn’t know any different until years later.”
The Flood Meets Number One
Last week the rest of the band finally got to meet Dan’s treasured old friend when he brought the instrument to the weekly rehearsal. The two of them rocked the night! Best of all, Pamela Bowen was on hand to record the playing.
This video features Danny and Number One on two tunes. (Incidentally, the history of both songs was covered in earlier Flood Watch issues. To read about “I Am a Pilgrim,” click here; for the story of “Deep Ellum Blues,” click here.)
And here’s Pamela video of a third song from the evening:
For the back story on “Corrina, Corrina,” click here.
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