During the next year or so, I caught every performance by Harry Harpoon that I possibly could. I enjoyed every moment of the performances. I made a few more halfhearted attempts at playing the guitar, but nothing ever came of it.

In 1993, I moved to Salt Lake to begin law school. With law school and family obligations I gave up thinking about the guitar. It was about that time my brother hooked me up with the BMG CD club. I joined the classical music program and began collecting classical music CDs. I didn’t listen to or even really think about the blues for a couple of years.

There was a small music shop two doors down from my apartment. During my third year of law school, I looked into the window of the store for the first time in the more than two years I lived next to the shop. When I looked into the window of the shop, I saw a shiny, new, metal resonator guitar hanging on the wall. I stared and felt the musical beast within me starting to stir.

I entered the shop and spoke with the owner of the shop. We talked about the resonator guitar. We talked about the blues. The blues hunger was back. I picked up a beginning blues book and cassette. I played diligently for about three days. But my sore fingers, musical clumsiness from being out of musical condition for so long, and my lack of time contributed to yet another failed attempt at playing the guitar.

I didn’t pick up the guitar again for a very, very long time. I finished law school, took the bar exam, and moved to Korea. I got caught up with my new job at the law firm. I kept promising myself that I would start playing the guitar as soon as I had enough money and time to start again. That never happened. I never seemed to find the time or the money for a new acoustic guitar.

A little more than a year ago in the late spring of 2004, I suddenly had a thought. I am a successful, 34 year old international lawyer. I have money. I will never have more time than I have now. Why not start playing guitar seriously.

I went searching for a new guitar. Through a few people I know and a few connections, I was turned on to my new baby:

I named her Arlene. Arlene is a temperamental broad with a wicked personality. She can be a nasty, ornery, scratchy beast one minute and sing the sweetest lullabies imaginable the next. A girl like that could only be named after…my mother, Arlene.

I picked up a few books on the blues, set aside an hour or so each night, and began to play the blues. Now here I am, 13 months later. Having the time of my life.