Count Richard Buckner In On This One: Harmony Guitars

This week, singer/songwriter Richard Buckner releases Our Blood (Merge), his first new music since 2006’s Meadow. The nine-track LP was recorded by Buckner at his upstate New York home studio with pedal-steel guitarist Buddy Cage (New Riders Of The Purple Sage) and drummer Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth). Buckner kicks off a co-headlining tour with labelmate David Kilgour (the Clean) on August 16 in Los Angeles. In the meantime, Buckner will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

Buckner: Harmony guitars have been a constant in my collection and on my recordings over the years. As a kid, I borrowed a Harmony Monterey (f-hole acoustic) from a neighbor and only begrudgingly gave it back. Years later, my obsession has held intact. My Harmony Hollywood is the guitar that I’ll throw in the truck with a few other possessions when the news comes that an asteroid is heading toward upstate New York. One of my favorite recording guitars is my Harmony Plectrum, a four string that I usually string up as what I call “upside-strung”: to be played as mandolin chords, but with the gauges switched so that the low root-note string is the last to be accented within the strum. I used it first on “10-Day Room” from 1998’s Since. It also blends well with other guitars when layering tracks in the studio. Another great thing about Harmonys is that, generally, they’re not worth too much, so it does no good to sell them when money is tight. They’re always around like the welcoming and loyal friend you just can’t seem to lose during the highs or lows.

Video after the jump.