Objective and accurate; curious and daring, nuanced as a steel guitar. As rare among people as a Dobro, the guitar pictured in a vast funky painting in our family room.

Our high art is a sepia-washed, larger-than-life photo of a brush-haired male Dobro player, a Warhol-like celebrity art installation that resounds nearly to the rafters. The painting has a fabulous story of the sudden find-and-problem-solved-ferry to our home, but that’s another blog-a-bull topic: my husband as a hero, a guitar painting strapped to the roof of our car.

A Dobro, revered and respected, as well louder and cheaper to produce than other resonator guitars is an instrument distinctive in look and sound, a guitar that seems so ‘Us’. Unique, unbreakable, unknowable yet revealing all in vibrantly plucky music.

The name originated in 1928 when the Dopyera brothers formed the Dobro Manufacturing Company. “Dobro” is both a contraction of “Dopyera brothers” and a word meaning “goodness” or goodwill in their native Slovak (and also in most Slavic languages). An early company motto was “Dobro means good in any language.”

My husband is objective and accurate; curious and daring. I love to harmonize to the music of his life, to try to match the rhythm of his stride. We’ve traveled the world – and enjoyed the energetic peace of our home together. His company is good in any land.

We’ve agreed that our painting shows the hapless guitar player of “The Ballad of Curtis Loew” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, though there’s no attribution – or artist signature – on the canvas. It’s the story we stake on; we make it real. 

Other favorite blues and rock groups exuberantly showcase the the guitar, such as “Gold Dust Woman“, a song by Fleetwood Mac from the famous album Rumours. Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits is famous for his guitar of this style.

Don’t we just love Wikipedia!

Don’t you just love (please) PJ’s wacky topics? Please do – as much as I love Larry.

Objective and accurate, curious and daring, nuanced as a steel guitar.