Prairie Bohemian: Frank Gay’s Life in Music

Gay never recorded an album, never won a Juno. His music existed in the moment, appreciated by the few who were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. For the rest of us, those late-night jam sessions in a shack in an alley on the bad side of Edmonton never happened. We never got to hear him play the Cole Porter songs he loved with Carlos Montoya, never got to watch the ashes build dangerously on the end of his menthol cigarette. And when Frank Gay died, only the guitar players gently wept. - Shelley Youngblut Until his death in 1982, Edmonton luthier and guitarist Frank Gay built guitars for several famous musicians, including country stars Johnny Cash, Don Gibson, Webb Pierce, and Hank Snow. He captivated listeners with his singular talent on guitar and other instruments, and was well known within the music industry. Trevor Harrison's detective work uncovers the story of this private, charming, and bohemian man, doing a tremendous service to Canadian culture and music history. Harrison pieces together Frank Gay's life through interviews with people who knew him and saw him play. Very few recordings of him playing exist, and the sparse accounts of Gay's life and work raise more questions than they answer. Musicians and instrument makers, as well as those interested in Canadian music or Edmonton's colourful past, will be fascinated by this biography of western Canadian luthier, musician, and guitar virtuoso Frank Gay.

Table of Contents:
Preface ix Acknowledgements xv 1 | Beginnings 1 2 | Army Tunes 17 3 | Postwar Toronto 25 4 | Edmonton the New 31 5 | The Shop 35 6 | Guitar Maker to the Stars 45 7 | World-Class Concerts 55 8 | The Dark Side 65 9 | Musical Flights and Nothing More 71 10 | Giving Back 77 11 | House Parties and Mr. Montoya 81 12 | Marriage Redux 91 13 | Wood Songs from the South Side 99 14 | Frank Gay's Travelling Music Show 107 15 | Jack Paget's Tape 115 16 | Searching for a Miracle 123 17 | The Final Years 127 18 | Frank Agonistes 137 19 | Final Days 143 20 | The Funeral 149 21 | Legacy 157 22 | "The Repressed Unmakeable" 173 23 | Coda 181 Notes 185 Bibliography 209 Index 217

About the Author :
Trevor W. Harrison is Professor of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge and Director of Parkland Institute. Frank Gay (1920-1982) was a personal friend of the author's parents; an unforgettable character who once sold Trevor's dad a National steel guitar that remains in the family.

Review :
"Persons interested in Canadian music will find this book on the life of Frank Gay well worth reading." "A truly impressive body of research by Trevor W. Harrison...has resulted in an exceptionally well informed and informative biography of Frank Gay.... An extraordinary and enthusiastically recommended addition to community and academic library Canadian Biography and Canadian Music History reference collections..." Trevor Harrison weaves multiple accounts of Frank Gay's life as a luthier, musician, and local character, together with his own personal memories.... Through Harrison's exploration of Gay's life, Prairie Bohemian also illuminated the social and musical history of the prairie towns and cities that Gay called home.... While documenting Gay's history, Prairie Bohemian also provides an account of the built and social history of Edmonton in the early to mid-twentieth century.... Harrison's account of Gay's life, awash with personal, emotional, and creative struggles, reminds us that speculation and subjective exploration of a life can be as valuable as the fact-finding mission that began it all." [DOI: 10.1353/gpq.2017.0024]