Jeff Senn
Ask a hotshot chef at a high-end restaurant to name his or her favorite meal in town, and the answer is frequently something along the lines of a burger at a greasy spoon, or maybe something from the local taco stand. When you spend all day doing the painstaking work of creating a culinary masterpiece, you just want to dig into something down and dirty.
If Nashville luthier and musician Jeff Senn is any indication, that principle has a corollary in the world of guitars. Senn, who runs Original Senn Guitars with his wife, Chris Markferding, is one of the most respected guitar builders in the undisputed guitar capital of the world. His instruments, inspired by classic Fender designs, are owned by some of the biggest names onstage and in studios — folks like Bruce Springsteen, John Fogerty, Kenny Chesney, Joe Perry, Steve Wariner, Peter Stroud and Audley Freed. A new Original Senn will set you back around three grand, par for the course in the world of boutique guitars.
But when Senn takes the stage with his surf-and-more band Crazy Aces, his weapon of choice is typically some sort of vintage Teisco guitar, many of which you can buy for about one-tenth the price of an Original Senn. What Teiscos lack in precision and craftsmanship, they more than make up for in vibe and kitschy appearance, which is why they're a favorite instrument of surf bands and collectors. It doesn't hurt that Senn has the skills to tweak them to maximum playability.
Frankly, Senn could play the hell out of any guitar. Though he earns his living "building guitars in a cave in my house," as he says, playing music is still his ultimate passion — one that he's indulged professionally accompanying artists such as Wynonna Judd and Jewel. Not that there's anything wrong with mainstream country or pop, but staying at home sanding wood and filing frets has freed up Senn to play only music that he loves.
On their 2012 debut album, Greatest Hits Volume 2, Crazy Aces both pay homage to and send up classic instrumental surf, spaghetti Western, '60s psychedelia and Japanese eleki music. Of the record's tongue-in-cheek title, Senn says, "Obviously we have no hits, although we're big with the 3-to-7 age group."
After "Chainsaw Dance" — a 40-second lo-fi intro that sounds like an outtake from the soundtrack sessions for David Lynch's Wild at Heart — the album gets fully underway with "Invasion of Malibu," which, as the title suggests, is an ode to classic surf rock, complete with whammy-bar shimmer and Dick Dale-style staccato picking. But before long, it's clear there's a lot more to Crazy Aces than waxing boards and hanging 10. "Eastwood Outlaw," as you might guess, is an homage to the great Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who scored many of Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western classics — complete with a reverb-drenched, whistled melody as the track winds down.
One of my favorite cuts is "Attention Shoppers," which sounds like the sort of mod-London dance track Austin Powers might disrobe to as he beds his latest conquest. "Arigato Terauchi" is a fiery tribute to Takeshi Terauchi, one of the greatest purveyors of eleki, the Japanese version of American surf and instrumental music that exploded after The Ventures visited Japan in 1962. And before the cultural-appropriation police get riled up, keep in mind that Crazy Aces' other guitarist, Kiwamu Stewart, is half-Japanese, his wife is from Japan, and his children spend their summers there.
All of the players are seasoned pros: Stewart, bassist Justin Cary and drummer Tom Hoey have a collective résumé that includes stage and session work with Counting Crows, Sixpence None the Richer, Olivia Newton-John and Jonell Mosser. But unlike some pro-player side projects, Crazy Aces never let their formidable skills get in the way of good music.
As Senn puts it, "We are more about good, catchy melodies that rock or make you laugh than 'look and listen to my command of the classic modes and use of the diminished scale in a flurry of notes that is so fast your eyes melt' kind of playing."
And though Crazy Aces may be more of a hobby than a vocation, the world is taking notice. The band was recently featured in a full-page spread in Guitar Player magazine, and will be the subject of an upcoming story in Vintage Guitar, the ultimate in six-string porn. Meanwhile, Senn's guitar-building business is thriving, and he's developing a new model — based on the Japanese and American mail-order catalog guitars of the '60s. Naturally.
Email music@nashvillescene.com.
