Local musician hopes to unlock 'magic' in iconic guitar

Kannapolis resident Joe Davis, founding member of The Joe Davis Band, can hardly contain himself.

With a sly smile he reveals that in June, with bass player Garry Harper, he will begin to record a new album using Duane Allman's 1957 Goldtop Les Paul Guitar, an icon in music that was played not only on Eric Clapton's "Layla," but also the first three Allman Brothers albums.

Could this guitar bestow some of its magic to anyone who plays it?

"The way the guitar is played and handled seems to stay with the guitar, and you inherit that if you're lucky, or aware enough to acknowledge it." Eric Clapton said in a recent interview with Guitar Center.

"That is really it. I am going after the guitar's mojo," Davis said. "Of course Duane Allman was one of my all time favorite guitar players. I want to feel the guitar. I really just wanted to see the guitar. I didn't really have any interest in playing it. I figured the guitar would be in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame."

That's what most people would think — Allman's old Goldtop sitting in a glass case being admired by anyone with an appreciation for music, not slung across someone's shoulder pulling out sounds in an old familiar whine.

"All the guitars I use in my band are vintage. They are all Gibson's," Davis said. "I believe that certain guitars can unlock certain sounds. I'm a guitar addict, a guitar junkie, so I have to feel and play this guitar."

Scott Lamar and Mike Boulware are the current owners of Allman's guitar, and it's up for sale. The asking price is $1.1 million, according to Davis. This may sound like a lot of money, but Clapton's own coveted guitar "Blackie" was sold for $959,000 in 2004 to Guitar Center.

"We met, just running into these guys here and there. I talked to them before, a long time ago, and I didn't think anything about them being guitar collectors," Davis said.

The two collectors have allowed a handful of people to play Allman's guitar. Recently it was played by guitar prodigy Derek Trucks of the Derek Trucks Band. He is also a current member of the Allman Brothers Band. Trucks is the nephew of orginal drummer Butch Trucks, and played with the Allman's at 9 years old.

Bobby Whitlock, who played guitar with Derek and the Dominos on the "Layla" album recently had a chance to visit with the Goldtop.

Davis believes they are allowing him to play Allman's guitar in the session, not for the press, but because Davis believes in a thing he calls "guitar magic."

"I told them I would just like to come down and see the guitar. They invited me down," Davis said. "I took them up on it."

That's where he involved his friend Harper, a bass player who had lived next to Allen Woody in Nashville, Tenn. Woody was the bass player for the reunited Allman Brothers Band from 1989 to 1997.
Harper went to Woody's father and asked if they could use his bass for the recording. The two have brought that bass back to North Carolina.

"These two Allman Brothers guitars have never been in a room together," Davis said. "It was really strange that these two legendary Allman Brothers guitars wound up in me and Gary's hands."

The album the two will record is appropriately titled "Guitar Magic."

Davis has his own record label, Delta Hubcap Records. His label released three albums from The Joe
Davis Band in January. The albums are available from online retailers and from www.thejoedavisband.com.

"We can do it all ourselves these days thanks to the Internet. We get more out of it than what the record company could do," Davis said.

The Joe Davis Band includes Patrick Daniel Trombly on drums and Wes Johnson on bass.

Currently the band has music on a CD/DVD in the current Guitar World Magazine.

Davis won "Best Male Vocalist" in 2008, and the band won "Best Hard Rock Band" in 2007 from the Charlotte Music Awards.

For know, Davis plans a visit to see the guitar before the June recording.

"It's about feeling this vintage piece of guitar," Davis said. "It's a '57 Goldtop either way. That makes it a credible guitar on its own, but the history that surrounds it, being used on Aretha Franklin's album and Bozz Scaggs, on so many famous artists' albums just because of the work Duane Allman did."

For more information on Duane Allman's Goldtop Les Paul Guitar go to www.duanesallmansgoldtop.com.