Mariel Buckley‘s brother plays guitar, and her dad plays guitar. Guitars were always in the house growing up. Her dad’s siblings—seven, by her count, out in New Brunswick—all grew up playing classical music in the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra. He himself played upright bass, but the other kids included two cellists, a viola player, a couple of violinists. When her dad, a big John Prine fan, moved out west, he got into playing songs around the campfire and bought a Simon & Patrick acoustic guitar, and one of the Yamaha FG series which she hopes to inherit someday. But she didn’t really feel equipped to pick one up herself until around 12 years old.
« My parents split up, and for Christmas that year, they got me what I called ‘the divorce guitar,’ » Buckley says over the phone from Nashville, Tennessee. « Like, ‘Okay, we have to get you something really awesome because we know you’re sad.’ It was an electric blue sparkly Segovia, which I think is a Canadian brand, and a dreadnought. It just had this really kind of rock star vibe about it. So that was my first guitar, and I played the shit out of that thing. Ever since then, I was always playing guitar one way or another. »
She is, indeed, still picking away. Based between Edmonton and Nashville nowadays, Buckley’s recent Strange Trip Ahead continues to cement her reputation as one of the country’s most compelling roots songwriters. But a reputation as a tireless road dog and rowdy performer comes along with it. For both endeavours one needs a solid instrument they can put their trust in. Sometime in 2020, Buckley found hers in a 1953 Gibson LG-1, which has been her main axe since she laid hands on its ‘baseball-bat’ neck. But she’s also not precious about it. Why be precious?
« In many ways, it’s irreplaceable, » Buckley says. « I also travel with it all over the world. It’s in a safe case. But a lot of people have told me it should never leave the house, and I don’t agree with that. I think my instrument is to be played, and that, for me, means I take it on the road. But I don’t typically get super attached to stuff. If something happened to it, I would be devastated, and it would take a while for me to figure out what I wanted to replace it with. But at the end of the day, it could also just be a part of the story where that was the chapter with that guitar, and it’s time to move on to a new one. »
What drew you to guitar originally?
When I was younger, we both got put in piano lessons. That was definitely a rite of passage in the house. I don’t know if it was the fact that there was a set meeting time and a teacher coming to the house, but I just had terrible anxiety about it. My mom recalls that I quit by hiding under the bench being like, ‘I’m not doing this anymore.’ And the guitar, you know, aside from seeing Tim and my dad play it, it felt like a really confidential way for me to learn about the kind of songs I wanted to sing, or learn songs I liked in private. And that’s kind of always how I’ve been. I’m very, very shy about showing a skill until it’s super ready or I’m feeling confident. It was a nice way to ease into it without people watching over me.
How has your relationship to playing changed over time?
When I was learning and younger, I was just playing in private, and obviously now it’s my full-time employment. So I’m playing it a lot and playing it a lot in front of people. I think I’ve just gotten more comfortable with the instrument in the last few years. I’ve just become really painfully aware that there are certain things on the guitar that are probably just not within my reach or not things that I need to strive for. Like, I’m never going to be a shredder, and that’s completely okay. I think leaning into things like practicing with a metronome, being really comfortable with alternate rhythm patterns, and just doing the basics really well has been the focus of my growth as a guitar player. So now, the older I get, the more I just want to expand my knowledge of theory and get really, really good at doing the essentials.
That sounds to me like a continuation of the kind of private refining you did as a kid.
Totally, yeah. The guitar is my instrument, because I don’t have any skill really on any other ones, but it’s also a utility instrument for me to write and sing, which I think of as really more of my primary disciplines. I’ve been writing in journals ever since I was super little. So with the guitar, I just need to be adept enough to get my thoughts out.
What’s the deal with your 1953 Gibson LG-1?
I got it from a musician in Vancouver who was selling it off. He’d been touring with it for years. I know that resellers and vintage collectors are always concerned with original parts, but it doesn’t really have any of those. The tuning pegs have all been replaced. The pins have all been replaced. It needs to be re-fretted. But I didn’t play it. I knew what I wanted. I was looking for a B-25 and then after some more conversations with folks, they were like, ‘B-25s were made in the ’60s, and Gibson took a pretty notable turn for quality in the early ’60s.’ So some people were like, ‘If you want a parlour that’s going to give you that same kind of boxy vintage quality, you should look at the LG, which stands for Learner Guitar series.’ Then I reached out to Jasper, who was selling his, and he shipped it to me from Vancouver, sight unseen. And as soon as I started playing it, I just felt really comfortable. It’s just such a great guitar.
Why were you looking for a guitar like that in the first place?
For years, I was working with a Simon & Patrick, which was a great guitar. I still have it. Canadian-made, super inexpensive. But to be honest with you, I came into some money for the first time in my career. It wasn’t an exorbitant amount to spend on things like that, but I said to myself, ‘Okay, I have like, four grand, and I want to buy my tool of the trade.’ I would love to be one of those people that has a collection one day. But you know, that’s not the focus, the business right now. So I was just really ready to make the investment into my instrument. And the Simon & Patrick I’d been playing was a parlour as well, and I just feel really comfortable on the smaller bodied guitars. I did have a dreadnought in my early years, but I found it not as comfortable to play.
Did you notice a change in your writing, with the different feel and sound?
The Simon & Patrick has a really small neck, and it’s quite bright. I would say that most of my EQ issues on stage with that one were getting it to be less nasal and sparkly. And then as soon as I picked this one up, I mean, the neck is like a baseball bat, which I now love. But at the time, I was like, ‘Holy shit, I can barely fit my hand around it.’ And it has a way darker, more mid-rangey sound, super bass-heavy. A darker sound in general. And I don’t remember if it immediately became that way, but I do remember finding my voice pairing with it a lot better, and so I was more comfortable, maybe, writing some more intimate stuff, because I felt so properly partnered with an instrument for the first time.
