Uncle Pete Hatton with his 1929 0-18 Martin Guitar. Ruler layed across the top to show damage to guitar.
“The damage to this 1929 Martin 0-18 guitar was caused by the increased tension of metal strings. These guitars are very lightly braced and made to resist the pull of gut strings or very light gauge metal strings. When the heavier modern strings pulled the bridge off and cracked the top, the owner used a trapeze type tailpiece to hold the strings as seen in the old photograph (see above). I have seen this same scenario in hundreds of old guitars.” - Marty Lanham
New photos of guitar courtesy of Marty Lanham - Nashville Guitar Company.

“This old guitar ain’t mine to keep, just taking care of it now, It’s been around for years and years, just waiting in this old case.”

– From “This Old Guitar” by Neil Young

The story of this old Martin guitar begs for me to tell it. This is a tale not only from my past, but about Mom’s family, the Hatton’s past.

The legend starts around 1929 when my great-uncle Pete Hatton purchased a ‘29 0-18 Martin guitar. At that time, C.F. Martin was already almost a century old, having been established in 1833. I have no doubts; Uncle Pete knew the superb quality of the guitar he had recently purchased.

To back up for a minute, my grandpa was Roy Orvel Hatton. He was born in September 1896, the oldest of 10 boys and two girls. My Uncle Pete was the third sibling in line. In 1929, the year he purchased the Martin, Pete was still a young man. In 1930, my Grandpa and Grandma Hatton got married on Valentine’s Day and promptly moved to Hammond, Ind.

While in Hammond, my grandpa and his brother Pete found work at the Sinclair Oil Refinery. Tough work, but they were hard working men with family members to feed, especially during the tough economic times of the 1930s. About this time, Bill Monroe also started working at the refinery. My grandpa drove the tractor and Bill would ride behind on the wagon, picking up barrels. These two men were assigned to work together. I wish I knew a larger portion of the many stories from that work pairing that will forever be lost.

Bill Monroe knew about my Uncle Pete’s Martin guitar. One day, with a playing job in the works, Monroe asked my Grandpa if he thought Pete would loan him his guitar. Pete, being a very congenial guy, was happy to oblige. Monroe brought the guitar back to Pete in a couple weeks. Pete’s response: “You didn’t have to bring it back so soon, I wanted you to play it for a while.” Bill Monroe replied with, “I was afraid something awful would happen to it and besides, I liked it so well I went out and bought one just like it.”

Now you understand why this guitar is so important to me and the Hatton clan. Somewhere around the same time, Bill Monroe left the Hammond area for the road life of a musician and my grandparents and Uncle Pete moved back to southern Indiana.

My recollections of Uncle Pete are from back in the 1960s when my grandpa would take my siblings, cousins and I down to Pete’s gas station in Fritchton, Ind. In that station, we would plop ourselves up on the stools at the counter and Grandpa would tell Pete to get us whatever we wanted. He would serve us ice cold pop from an old water cooler, dream sickles and the greatest tasting candy in the world. It was nothing but sheer joy to go with Grandpa for a Sunday visit to Uncle Pete’s station.

My knowledge about the old Martin never surfaced until years after Pete’s death. I was familiar with the story about my grandpa working with Bill Monroe, but had no inkling of the guitar. This all changed at a family reunion years about 10 yeas ago while talking to my cousin, Ray Hatton.

Ray is the son of my Great-Uncle Bill, the youngest of the 12 boys and girls. My grandpa and Uncle Pete were several years older than Uncle Bill. Ray, knowing I was a big music fan, proceeded to tell me about the history of the guitar he possessed.

Ray farmed the land that Pete and his lovely wife, my Great-Aunt Eva, owned. Pete and Eva had one daughter, Phyllis, who died at the early age of 37. After Pete died and their daughter passed as well, Aunt Eva presented Ray with the prized instrument. She knew Ray loved music and had been in bands throughout the years. Ray was hesitant to take it, but finally caved in under the persistency of Aunt Eva.

The guitar has been virtually unplayable all these years. The bridge on this old Martin kept rising and consequently raised the strings to the point of making it difficult to play. It became so difficult for Uncle Pete to play that he turned it into a “Hawaiian guitar”, an instrument that could only be played with a slide.

By the time Ray acquired the guitar, it was virtually useless. Ray kept it in the old case, only getting it out occasionally to show someone who might be interested in the instrument and its wonderful story. Ray, being a fine musician, always wanted it fixed, but didn’t know who he could trust to restore the instrument.

This brings the story to today. As we speak, the guitar is in the hands of Marty Lanham, owner of the Nashville Guitar Company and one of the premiere guitar restorers in the world.

This article is meant to be the beginning of a work in progress. In future installments of the story, we will discuss how Marty was chosen for the restoration of this project. We will also observe a behind-the-scenes look at a detailed restoration of this old Martin.

Share This

Pat Flynn

The public is invited to attend an evening of country, bluegrass, and rhythm and blues in an all-star musical concert hosted by Pat Flynn to benefit those in Williamson County affected by the tornados. The event is Saturday, April 12 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Fairview Recreation Center at 2714 Fairview Blvd.

Flynn, a guitarist, singer, songwriter and member of the musical group New Grass Revival will be joined by Danny Flowers (best known as writer of Tulsa Time for Eric Clapton), as well as Davis Raines, Amber Leigh White, Tyler Flowers, Doug Gill and others.

Donations will be accepted at the door. For more information, contact Brad Spain at 615-385-4135.

United Way of Williamson County established a Western Williamson County Tornado Relief Fund to help residents in that portion of the county with their recovery efforts due to the recent tornadoes in middle Tennessee. More than $15,000 from the fund hasbeen distributed directly to those affected by the tornados to help rebuild their lives.

Share This

Nashville, Tenn. — Business leader and cultural arts activist Steve Turner, the founder of the Nashville-based investment firm Marketstreet Equities Company, was recently elected as the new chairman of the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum’s Board of Officers and Trustees. Singer-songwriter-guitar-chieftain Vince Gill was voted president for a seventh consecutive one-year term.

Retired Gaylord Entertainment CEO E. W. “Bud” Wendell, who has served seven consecutive terms as the Museum’s chairman, and Brookside Properties founder and chairman Nelson Andrews, a trustee since 1997, were honored as trustees emeriti.

Turner joined the Museum’s board in 1997 and has served as a trustee since 2000. Widely known for his philanthropy and civic leadership, he is a member of the board of trustees of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, which opened in a new downtown facility a few weeks prior to the Museum’s nearby opening in 2001. As a member of the Nashville Symphony Association board, he chaired the building committee for the multi-million dollar Schermerhorn Symphony Center, which opened one block from the Museum in September 2006. He also serves on the board of trustees of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D. C.

E. W. “Bud” Wendell

Wendell served his first two terms as a Museum trustee from 1973 through 1979, when he resigned to focus on his growing professional responsibilities as CEO at WSM. Following Gaylord Entertainment’s acquisition of WSM and other entertainment interests in 1983, Wendell spearheaded the company’s launch of TNN. Wendell was named president and CEO of Gaylord Entertainment in 199l, and led the company through the acquisition of CMT and the launch of CMT Europe. He expanded the Opryland Hotel into Nashville’s largest convention facility and established the Opryland Music Group, which acquired and revitalized the massive Acuff-Rose publishing catalogue.

In addition, Wendell oversaw Gaylord’s $8.5 million renovation of the Ryman Auditorium and the opening of the $7.5 million Wildhorse Saloon. In 1994, Gaylord opened new corporate offices in the appropriately named E. W. Wendell Building. Wendell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1998.

Following his retirement from Gaylord in 1997, and having already raised millions for the Boy Scouts of America and United Way, Wendell volunteered to lead Bringing America’s Music Home, the $l5 million capital campaign that would partially finance a new Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, also to be located in downtown Nashville near the Ryman Auditorium and the Wildhorse Saloon. Including a $4 million “founding partner” contribution from the Ford Motor Co., which gave the Museum the green light to break ground, Wendell surpassed the campaign goal by more than $2.6 million.

Re-joining the Museum’s board in 2000, Wendell was elected chairman in 2001.

Nelson Andrews

In addition to building one of the most successful real estate firms in the southeast, Andrews has spent a lifetime contributing his business acumen and visionary leadership to numerous charitable and civic causes. He was founding president of the Nashville Better Business Bureau, Leadership Nashville, Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and the Canby Robinson Society of the Vanderbilt Medical Center.

Andrews has chaired the Tennessee Tax Structure Study Commission, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Tennessee and the Tennessee Board of Education. Currently, he chairs the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and serves on the boards of the Middle Tennessee YMCA and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

Last year, the Community Foundation honored Andrews with the prestigious Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award, recognizing his long-term dedication to making Middle Tennessee a better place to live.

In addition to Wendell and Andrews, the Museum’s trustees emeriti include Country Music Hall of Fame member Jim Foglesong, Richard Frank, Country Music Hall of Fame member-elect Emmylou Harris, Bruce Hinton, Ken Roberts and Janice Wendell.

New Trustees

New trustees, elected for three-year terms, include Henry Juszkiewicz, chairman and CEO, Gibson Guitar Corporation; and Ernie Williams, principal and director, Lee, Danner & Bass, Inc. Trustee Tim Wipperman was re-elected. Remaining trustees include David Conrad, Mike Curb, J. William Denny, Randy Goodman, John Grady, Keel Hunt, Kevin Lavender and Steve Turner.

New Officers

Newly elected officers include Troy Tomlinson, president and CEO, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC; and Steve Lynn, CEO, Backyard Burgers. The new board members join officers Earl Bentz, Connie Bradley, Mike Dungan, Rod Essig, Al Giombetti, Francis Guess, Lon Helton, Ken Levitan, Luke Lewis, Don Light, Mary Ann McCready, Donna Nicely, David Ross, Jody Williams and Trisha Yearwood.

CMA Chief Executive Officer Tammy Genovese remains as an ex-officio member. Chris Horsnell and Mike Milom of Milom Joyce Horsnell Crow PLC continue as the not-for-profit educational organization’s legal counsel.

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The Museum’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same educational mission, the Foundation also operates CMF Records, the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA Studio B, and Hatch Show Print.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.com

Share This