When I interviewed Robin Pecknold for United States of Americana, we had a brief discussion about his father’s work building guitars and basses. Ultimately, this had no place in the text, but while cleaning out files this morning I found a few photos of a guitar that Mr. Pecknold built for his now-famous son, and since Fleet Foxes are playing Seattle again the first week of September, I thought I’d share them here.

Actually, it does. Quite plainly. By positioning Boyd’s as a heritage brand (“Established 1900. Seriously.”), whomever is responsible for this marketing campaign is appealing to people who prize longevity over fashion (although heritage brands are certainly very fashionable these days). A can of Boyd’s might not be a status symbol in the money-money-money sense that an expensive sports car or a teensy-weensy dog is, but it definitely communicates something about the consumer’s status.

Then again, this whole campaign bugs the crap out of me. “Boyd’s Is Analog.” “Boyd’s Is Leather.” *sheesh*

My buddy Paul Hughes was just downtown at the offices of Hornall Anderson Design Works and noticed a certain someone’s book on their “Recommendations” shelf. Very flattering!

Images from “Era Messages” at Portland’s Museum of Contemporary Craft, curated by Garth Johnson from Extreme Craft. When Garth first told me about this exhibit, “works from the 1960s through 1990s that exemplify the moments in which they were made,” I imagined something more obviously “kitsch,” lots of macrame owls and upscale shop projects. Instead of a craft lady garage sale, the selection he arrayed actually walked a much finer line, although there were definitely some groan-inducers (such as my personal favorite, the wall of new wave glass nachos seen in photo #1).

It doesn’t appear that Garth’s essay on the exhibit is up online yet, but his lecture “Waste of Timelessness: Craft in the Present Tense” is streaming here.

This morning a colleague implored - that’s the word he used, “implore” - me to check out a new song from Amanda Shires. I was unfamiliar with Ms. Shires work, but the succinct pitch compared her forthcoming album, Carrying Lightning (out May 3) to breakthrough full-lengths by Neko Case and Lucinda Williams, both United States of Americana favorites. Ms. Shires has also been endorsed by Justin Townes Earle and Jason Isbell, two more USA faves, so I took 4 minutes to watch and listen to “When You Need A Train It Never Comes.” It was time well spent, and I hope you’ll agree.