I Got An Email From Anthony Wilson; My Favorite Monteleone Season

Oh, this is super-cool, and super-unexpected. Having seen the "Guitar Heroes" archtop exhibit at the Met and having simply been stupidly entranced by the Monteleone "Seasons" guitars, I was just thrilled to hear (well after the fact) that Anthony Wilson had collaborated with three other world-class guitarists to write and perform a composition that used all four of the Monteleone guitars in a series of unique compositions.

I ordered the Seasons DVD from Mr. Wilson's individual Bandcamp site rather than from Amazon, mostly because I wanted him to get all of the cash. You can imagine my surprise when I got an email from him indicating that he'd pack and ship it when he returned to his home from an overseas concert tour. I asked him to sign it, and he said he'd think about it. Color me excited.

I should point out that when you order Seasons from the Bandcamp site you get an immediate download of the performance. So although I'm still waiting for the DVD, I've had a few chances to listen to the entire suite already and have really enjoyed the composition, the musicianship, and the precise yet airy recording.

The guitars themselves are, of course, magnificent. Good photos of the Seasons guitars are hard to find, for some reason... this is about the best I could obtain:

My favorite is the blue "Spring" on the upper right. Here's another shot:

You can see a few more pictures at the Monteleone site. I'd love to own a Monteleone but given that he's now charging upwards of $90,000 for instruments made to the standards of the four Seasons, it's unlikely to happen any time soon. I'll have to be satisfied with being one of the very few people out there to own a pair of Heritage Super Eagles, I suppose.

Still, it would be more than lovely to have my own Monteleone. But what would I play on it? I'm very far from being a classical guitarist. I suppose I'd drag it out, tell people, "This is a guitar that costs as much as a new Porsche 911, and it's made for the very finest musicians." Then I'd play "Smoke On The Water". Then I'd say,

"So, what do you think?"

Then I'd shut up.