Many thanks to Lauren Price Napier of The Price Sisters for allowing us to publish this remembrance of hers.
Most of us know the fascination with some ideal that seems impossible to obtain. It could be a vintage Mustang, or some other prized collectible, and it’s sometimes an item of no actual monetary value that means a great deal to us. In the bluegrass world, it’s typically a musical instrument that seems beyond our reach.
In this reflection, Lauren shares how this is just as true for professional entertainers as it is for weekend pickers. We considered calling it, “A girl and her Gilchrist.” Thanks Lauren, and congratulations!
I’ve debated for a while on how exactly to share this, just because I’m very sensitive to a “look at me” sort of thing; It’s hard for me to sit with my thoughts and write them down in the best way I’d like to sometimes, so two things — that’s not the way I wish this to be perceived, and it feels too incredible for me to not share, either. I’ll try to be to the point:
I’m generally pretty good about not “wanting” something that I don’t truly “need,” but the exception has always been a Gilchrist mandolin. My Buckeye will always be the incredibly special, wonderful mandolin that it is, and I have been extremely fortunate the last few years to get to play an antique Gibson mandolin which I love, owned by a dear friend of ours… but still, I’ve always wanted a Gilchrist, too. When it comes down to it, hearing a Gil is one of the biggest reasons I wanted to play when I was really getting into mandolin study, because of my favorite players who had them.
The first Gil I ever saw in person was Mike Compton’s #536 at August Bluegrass week in 2010, and that’s the first one I ever got to play. At Augusta in 2012, Mike turned me loose with it for a couple hours after I’d asked him if he thought someone would let me borrow a mandolin to cross tune for Get Up John in the student showcase that afternoon….I couldn’t describe what a thrill of a feeling that was. Mike has been one of my greatest mentors since then. Later that fall, our parents bought us tickets to a Del McCoury band concert for our 18th birthday; we got to meet the band after the show, and a few minutes later to my excited surprise, Ronnie handed me his Gilchrist for a few tunes. All this time, I’d never dabbled with a way to buy one for myself, but always someday hoped I would get one if the time was right.
Fast forward to just over a year ago now, May 2nd 2024… I left Owensboro after my lunch break to drive to Nashville and meet Leanna at the Violin Shop so we could go on from there with the band to play in Georgia that weekend. Leanna called me about an hour down the road asking when I’d be there; I told her not for a couple hours and asked why. (Not unusual for a celebrity musician or someone to pop in the shop there for work so I was thinking there was someone there she knew I’d like to meet, etc.) She said I wouldn’t miss anything by the time I got in a couple hours later, but that it had just been a pretty cool day … kinda vague, but that’s all there was to it at the time. When I arrived later that afternoon, Leanna had me follow her to the back workrooms before we headed on down the road — there was a mandolin I needed to see (again, it’s a “fiddle shop” but not uncommon for another cool instrument to pass by from time to time.) She handed me a case, and I opened it to what looked like a brand new Gilchrist mandolin. As I picked it up and took the pick out of the strings to play something I asked “whose is this?” … she and a couple of the other employees just said, “it’s yours” … I was speechless.
I had never met or spoken to Steve Gilchrist, but as it turned out, he had just flown in for his yearly mandolin batch delivery, and dropped this mandolin off at the Violin Shop when Leanna called me a few hours earlier that afternoon. He said that this was originally a mandolin to be built in 2010, as a “second” for its original owner. Sometime in the winter of 2023, the owner (who I know and respect very much, but wishes to remain anonymous) passed it back onto Steve as they just hadn’t played it as much for a while as they felt it deserved. Somehow, the idea of a “scholarship” sort of donation was thought of, if Steve saw fit, to gift the mandolin on to me from there. Steve took the mandolin back and felt that it needed a few modifications including a new top, so in ways it almost is brand new again. And while Mike Compton says he did not have anything to do directly with this happening, I know he endorsed the idea to Steve beforehand as well, which means the world to me.
Both Steve and the original owner give most credit to the other person, but as I have said to them both, it truly is one of the most incredible gifts I could have ever imagined, yet one which I never ever would have expected. Oh my goodness. I wish I had better words…but I am humbled, and so excited to be the owner of Gilchrist #665. We still have a lot of getting to know each other to do, but I am just thrilled to see what we can do together from here on.
The first photo is of Steve and me in Hugh Hanson’s workshop Thursday afternoon when I picked it up after a quick checkup on my way to the airport to start our California tour last week. The remaining photos are from the day after I got it last year, playing it backstage at the festival in Georgia, and from a few moments after hearing the words “it’s yours.” … albeit I was a little teary-eyed.
