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ASHLAND Guitar Magazine's colorful and influential history recalled in new book Comment By John Darling for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By John Darling for the Mail Tribune Posted May. 11, 2015 at 11:49 AM Updated May 11, 2015 at 11:50 AM By John Darling for the Mail Tribune Posted May. 11, 2015 at 11:49 AM Updated May 11, 2015 at 11:50 AM 'Guitar Player' book reading tonight in Ashland --> If you go What: Book reading, “Guitar Player: The Inside Story of the First Two Decades of the Most Successful Guitar Magazine Ever” Who: Dara Crockett and guita... » Read more X 'Guitar Player' book reading tonight in Ashland If you go What: Book reading, “Guitar Player: The Inside Story of the First Two Decades of the Most Successful Guitar Magazine Ever” Who: Dara Crockett and guitarist Craig Chaquico When: 7 to 8 p.m. today, May 11 Where: Bloomsbury Books, 290 E. Main St., Ashland » Social News In the decades before the Internet, Guitar Player magazine served as the bible and encyclopedia for those who 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 inside pages 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 former 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 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.” 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. “This is all from the horse’s mouth, fascinating, the inside story, leaving out the sex, drugs and rock 'n’ roll," Chaquico said. "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 Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By John Darling for the Mail Tribune Posted May. 11, 2015 at 11:49 AM Updated May 11, 2015 at 11:50 AM » 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. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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