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2 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories 'Guitar Player' book recalls the heady days of the '70s and '80s Ashland budget proposal says solar power could attract investment Ashland High School water polo club seeks yard sale donations Final Ashland Middle School band concert of the school year set for May 20 Nashville singer/songwriter with Ashland ties dies of cancer Education Ashland Middle School students put their Spanish-speaking skills to the test Grizzlies claim speech championship Levy backers eye final push Neal Simon: This is a test Grade-school philanthropist Environment Ashland publisher offers prize for environmental book Ashland water bills could go up to fund watershed protection Stopping fire in its tracks Some trails, roads remain closed due to controlled burn Earth Day: Hope for our 'pale blue dot' Business Ride & Drive: 2015 BMW 428i Gran Coupe Ashland Safeway closes Thursday, to reopen as Haggen on Sunday Cars We Remember: Car enthusiast wishes new model designs were ‘more different’ Ride & Drive: 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Silvio Calabi: Taxis and traffic in the olde worlde Politics and elections Ashland water bills could go up to fund watershed protection BREAKING: Baltimore prosecutor charges officers in Gray's death Arthur I. 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Guest Opinion: Ambrose spins a conservative fantasy ... Herb Rothschild Jr.: The courage to ask ... Ashland Calendar, Saturday, May 9 ... Guest Opinion: Ambrose spins a conservative fantasy ... Herb Rothschild Jr.: The courage to ask ... A LOOK BACK 'Guitar Player' book recalls the heady days of the '70s and '80s Comment By John Darling for the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling for the Tidings Posted May. 8, 2015 at 3:06 PM Updated May 8, 2015 at 6:39 PM Guitar Player is celebrated in a new book, edited by former publisher Jim Crockett and his daughter, Dara. Dara, and special guest, guitarist Craig Chaquico, both who reside in Ashland, will be reading from the book, with conversation, book signings, and a little music to follow. By John Darling for the Tidings Posted May. 8, 2015 at 3:06 PM Updated May 8, 2015 at 6:39 PM 'Guitar Player' book reading set for Monday --> Guitar Player magazine is celebrated in a new book, edited by former editor and publisher Jim Crockett and his daughter, Dara. A book reading will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. Monday, May 11, at Blooms... » Read more X 'Guitar Player' book reading set for Monday Guitar Player magazine is celebrated in a new book, edited by former editor and publisher Jim Crockett and his daughter, Dara. A book reading will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. Monday, May 11, at Bloomsbury Books, 290 E. Main St. Dara Crockett and guitarist Craig Chaquico, both of whom reside in Ashland, will be reading from the book, with conversation, book signings, and a little music to follow. » Social News In the decades before the Internet, Guitar Player magazine served as the bible and encyclopedia for those who actually strummed and picked the riffs. For Ashlander Dara Crockett, the literary-musical hotbed run by her father was her childhood cradle. Now, she and her dad, Jim Crockett, have teamed up to publish a book, “Guitar Player: The Inside Story of the First Two Decades of the Most Successful Guitar Magazine Ever.” For this musical chunk of history — including rock, bluegrass, jazz, blues and folk — they garnered essays from guitar masters who graced their covers and were the insider stuff of the magazine’s stories in the '70s and '80s. “It was such a colorful period,” says Dara, who lives in Ashland and is an English Language Learner teacher at Hoover Elementary School in Medford. “As a kid, for me, it was a wonderful life, with all the greats walking through the office and joining our jams.” Realizing that the stars of that era were dying off rapidly, Dara set out to email, text and phone all she could find and implore them to set their story to words, especially as they revolved around the touchstone of Guitar Player. The stories flowed in — and sometimes Dara and her dad interviewed and summed up the person’s life and work, just as in the old days. One of the interview subjects, Ashlander Craig Chaquico, now has Dara as his manager and contributed his article to the book. A member of Jefferson Starship, he was the cover guitarist in the January 1982 issue and now keeps a busy touring schedule, sometimes with up and coming Shaeny Johnson, vocalist for the Rogue Suspects. In Chaquico’s reminiscence, he notes how it was “Guitar Player” magazine that helped him graduate from the accordion to guitar in his teens. He wrote how he struggled with the supposed wisdom of the industry (short solos) to keep a 28-second guitar solo in the Starship’s hit “Jane” — and how the band members of Metallica told him it was their favorite song in high school because of that solo. Today, he says, he'll hear his solo playing in the market, which is quite a rush — until it's interrupted by the PA saying, “Price check, please, in produce for organic broccoli.” Chaquico remembers reading In the early magazine how his favorite guitar player carved notches in his pick for more “bite,” so Chaquico used his dad’s driver’s license to fashion exactly that pick, cutting the notches in it. His father was not pleased. That's the kind of back story you wouldn’t get in “Rolling Stone” or other magazines that were geared to pop culture and rife with the sex, drugs and rock 'n’ roll of the period, said Chaquico. “There is just something so special about that early era,” writes Dara in her book preface, “when the magazine was independent and the first of its kind, that remains in the hearts and souls of those who love music in general and the guitar and guitarists in particular.” Back in the day, the magazine's Cupertino, Calif., office was next to the small quarters of a young Steve Jobs and his budding company called Apple. The family created the magazine with pens, negatives, prints, wax and typewriters, the tools of the trade before the digital revolution that Jobs would bring, said former editor and publisher Jim Crockett, whose first interview was Andres Segovia. He sold the magazine in 1989 and is now retired in Southern California. “It was great fun," Jim Crockett said. "We had to be so creative. Every time it went to the printer’s we’d say, ‘Damn, we did it again,’ and since we all were musicians, we’d drink and jam for hours. "Soon, the greats were coming for the jams — B.B. King, Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, Country Joe. We loved every minute of it. When we contacted the old staff for the book project, they all said it was the best job they ever had.” Recalling memories in Chaquico’s gold-record decorated studio, behind his Ashland home, he and Dara told how many careers were launched, not by getting on the cover of the Rolling Stone, but by detailing in words and photos their lives, tools, travels, tricks of the trade to others whose big passion in life was the same — the guitar. As Chaquico put it, “This is all from the horse’s mouth, fascinating, the inside story, leaving out the sex, drugs and rock 'n’ roll. It’s about the community that revolved around the magazine and how it helped so many careers. It’s about the guitar players.” John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected]. By John Darling for the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling for the Tidings Posted May. 8, 2015 at 3:06 PM Updated May 8, 2015 at 6:39 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Propel Marketing Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Your privacy is important, read our privacy policy. © Copyright 2015 Local Media Group, Inc. 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