As long as I have been aware of and played guitars, those made by Martin Guitars have always caught my ears and eyes. My 90-year-old great aunt is the same way
Darlene Andreoli (I’ve always called her Aunt Dee) is the last living of my grandmother’s siblings, and she studied guitar at Cuesta College in the late 1960s, learning with a cheap one she bought after saving up green stamps. There was a student in class who always sounded light-years ahead of everyone else, she said, and one day she approached him to offer a compliment.
“Finally I had the nerve to go up and say, ‘Gosh, I just love to hear you … you sound wonderful,'” she said. “And he says, ‘It’s not me, it’s my guitar–it’s a Martin.’
“And that was the beginning of my hankering for a Martin,” she added, “because I thought, ‘Anything that can make me sound that good, I want it!'”
Pretty soon, my great uncle, Andy Andreoli, learned of her hankering for a Martin as well.
She saw one hanging from the wall in a second-hand store. It was only $35 at the time because it had a hole in the side, she explained. My Uncle Andy, longtime truck driver and World War II Air Force veteran, went to check it out.
“He came back and he said, ‘I don’t think so babe, you don’t want a guitar with a hole in it,'” she said. “I thought, ‘How cruel!’ I never thought he would be so mean and not let me have that because I really wanted it.”
But when Christmas came around that year, there was a “great big package underneath the tree.”
Beneath all the wrapping paper was a brand new Martin 00-21.
“I opened it and I think I just about tackled him,” she said. “I just couldn’t believe it. He had gone out and ordered one.”
That style of Martin is beloved by a century of artists, from fingerpicking aficionados to flatpicking folk singers like Bob Dylan.
The guitar’s serial number says it’s from 1970. It cost around $600 at the time, Aunt Dee said.
“I had never had anything so wonderful in my life,” she added. “Just tuning it sounded good!”
Earlier this year I visited my Aunt Dee one day at her home in San Luis Obispo, and as soon as I got there she asked me to sit down.
“I have something for you,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.
After she yanked a hard shell guitar case from a closet and set it in front of me, I began to understand. She was giving me her Martin.
It’s hard to explain the feeling, getting a Martin guitar, period, let alone a vintage one. But this meant much more as a gift from family, becoming an heirloom in that instant. To say it was an emotional moment is an understatement.
Growing up on a SLO-area ranch as one of 11 siblings with my grandmother (my mother’s mother), my Aunt Dee ended up being “adopted” by an aunt and uncle who lived in town. Her “Aunt Villa,” she said, played guitar and sang. That love of music was passed down by several family members, she said, and so were a guitar (reportedly a gift from the king of Spain) and a mandolin that got handed down through the family, but not to her.
That’s why, when she got her own prized instrument, my Aunt Dee took fantastic care of her guitar.
I took the Martin to my guitar guy right away–Gene Betts over at Owen’s Music. He hardly had to touch the thing, but he changed the strings for me, buffed the body and neck, and dabbed the rosewood fretboard down with lemon oil.
I told him how the guitar came my way and he couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear.
“That’s the best way to get one of these,” he said.
I had the new strings and everything done so the guitar would be ready for my Aunt Dee’s birthday party in late September, when she turned 90. At a shady spot in Cuesta Park in SLO, she danced with her son Tony as I picked away tunes by Jim Croce, The Eagles, and The Beatles. We all sang songs like “Pretty Woman” and “Hey Good Lookin'” to her. And, of course, “Happy Birthday” when the candles were lit.
Well, now is the time of year when we celebrate, give gifts, and reflect with family on what we’re thankful for. I’m incredibly grateful for the guitar–it’s also the most wonderful thing I’ve owned. But I think I’m most thankful for having family like my Aunt Dee, who celebrates with gifts, joy, and music all year round.
“I love it that you have it; I can’t think of another person I’d rather have it than you,” she told me. “I’m just so thrilled that you love music. It’s wonderful, isn’t it?”
Managing Editor Joe Payne can’t stop playing his Martin. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 22-29, 2018.