Ketch Secor

He’s a multi-instrumentalist with Old Crow Medicine Show – but how will he handle the 10 questions we ask everyone?

1 What was your first guitar and when did you get it?

“It was my mother’s guitar and I got it when I was 12. It was in the attic because my mother no longer played it – she bought it in the era of The Kingston Trio so that she could sing Michae l Row The Boat Ashore and other such songs of the times. It was a Hawaiian guitar that had been converted – she had a new nut put on it so she could play it with nylon strings. I’ve still got it! It sounded pretty good. I played that until I was 14, then I got an electric guitar.”

2 If the building was burning down, which guitar from your collection would you save?

“Probably the one that wouldn’t fit on the insurance package because it’s a piece of junk, but it means the most to me. It doesn’t have a name on it because it’s had all this inlay put on it, but it’s probably a Silvertone archtop, maybe a Montgomery Ward Silvertone from the 1930s. It had been kept in a prison in Carter County, Tennessee for a few decades and, during that time, a prisoner – or possibly multiple prisoners – had put this inlay into it with Bakelite and mica and it says ‘Son of God’. It’s also handpainted on how you’re meant to tune the guitar. I’ve had it for about 15 years.”

3 What’s the oldest guitar that you have in your collection?