Dan Crary- Lady’s Fancy

Here’s Dan Crary again with an original piece entitled Lady’s Fancy.

Sorry that we can’t get to see him play this one, but it is the title cut from his Ladies Fancy album that was released back in 1977 and is outstanding. The album also features John Hickman and Byron Berline.

Dan was playing a Mossman guitar on this album… I thought wow, it had such a wonderful tone (in my opinion) that I just had to have one. Turns out, I was at the Martin Factory in Nazareth PA (1833 Shop) and found the same guitar in their for only $300. The reason it was so cheap? The guitar was in the Mossman fire, where apparently Stuart Mossman suffered a tremendous loss of wood and guitars. This particular guitar had no fire damage, but lacked a few of the characteristics that Dan’s guitar did (mainly the low end).

So a friend of mine and I decided (the smart teenagers we were) to go into the guitar with a file and shave down the braces (we’ll show you Stuart Mossman!).

The result was two fold- the guitar did have more low end but it also made the top of the guitar lift.  I did after some years end up getting the guitar reworked with a new fretboard and some bolts to keep the bridge on.  I still use the guitar on gigs to this day.

Anyway, Dan’s playing had a bigger influence on me than Tony Rice or Clarence White, and I learned as a kid all the songs on the Ladies Fancy album pretty much note for note.

Who is your guitar influences, and do you kind of sound like them? There’s something about the impact of your first influence and how it seems to stay with you. (Also, Doc Watson for me, biggie too).

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