Pickin’ for the Record
In August, 1,868 guitarists gathered in Luckenbach, Texas, to pick a couple of tunes together in the name of supporting U.S. troops.
By Andrea Grimes
IT’S NOT UNUSUAL, ON A WEEKEND, TO FIND FOLKS WITH TRUCKS AND KIDS AND BEERS HANGING OUT IN LUCKENBACH, TEXAS, generally enjoying the warmth—or downright sweltering heat—of the Texas Hill Country. Nor is it strange to find a group of Texans who are passionate about supporting U.S. armed forces and veterans. And it certainly wouldn’t be unheard-of for any Texan to speak highly of and sing loudly about the state’s rich country music tradition.
It is, however, somewhat unusual for 1,868 guitarists to gather in Luckenbach to pick a couple of tunes together in the name of supporting the troops. So unusual, in fact, that last August, when this precise thing happened, the players broke a Guinness World Record. Pickin’ For The Record brought thousands of folks from Texas and beyond to the legendary Hill Country city to raise awareness and funds for troops with brain injuries.
Three different organizations spent months planning the event—the city of Luckenbach, the Kerrville Folk Festival and music-oriented nonprofit Voices of a Grateful Nation. Pickin’ For The Record began when organizers at all three groups knew they wanted to work together and started brainstorming over lunch. But it was late-night brilliance that really got the record-breaking event going.
Luckenbach’s event maestro Abbey (yep, just “Abbey,” sometimes with a cheeky “Road” tacked on for good measure) wasn’t “sleeping real well” one night and her over-charged brain wondered, “I wonder if there’s a world record for a picking circle?” Turns out, there was—in 2007, 1,804 Germans set the record for the world’s largest guitar ensemble. Luckenbach, Kerrville and Voices of a Grateful Nation had their work cut out for them, yet happily accepting the challenge.
“We set out with a grassroots effort,” explained Abbey, who says they launched a Web site and solicited help from the many music and media contacts among the three organizations. After all, Luckenbach is a legendary outlaw country capital, the Kerrville Folk Festival has been hosting outdoor events and launching music careers for more than 30 years and Voices of a Grateful Nation produces an album series that solicits original work from singer-songwriters to raise funds for injured troops. For all three organizations, Pickin’ For The Record was the role they were born to play.
E-mails were sent to Texas Music Project members, press releases were shopped out to media outlets across the state and radio and TV interviews were organized. The message: Come to Luckenbach, bring your guitar and let’s do something for the thousands of troops who come home from Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic brain injuries.
Built on 24 acres and revitalized in the 1970s with a dance hall and post office, Luckenbach is the subject of a famous Jerry Jeff Walker song about getting “back to the basics of love,” so it was only appropriate that the town be the site of the fundraiser. Two songs were chosen, “This Land Is Your Land” and, of course, the Jerry Jeff Walker classic. In preparation, the Kerrville Folk Festival’s Dalis Allen says they tried to give guitarists every resource—and no excuses—to make the day a success.
To make sure they’d have enough people to break the world record on the day of the event, they set up an online registration form where, for US$10, guitarists could reserve a number and get a T-shirt and dog tags commemorating the event.
“We put the chords online so people couldn’t say they didn’t know the song,” Allen said.
Soon they had more than 2,000 people signed up. Because of the nature of the event as a fundraiser, food and staff were mostly provided on a volunteer basis from Kerrville locals and religious groups. There was barbecue and, of course, plenty of beer. The Gibson Guitar Corp. even donated a Les Paul guitar to the cause.
While the temperature was unbelievably hot and may have kept many folks at home—late August Texas afternoons aren’t known for cool weather—many people showed up and registered at the last minute, heat be damned. In fact, people came by the busload.
Located between San Antonio and Austin, Luckenbach is an easy day trip from both cities and is surrounded by some of Texas’ best camping locations as well as the bed and breakfasts of small towns such as Fredricksburg and Wimberly. It’s a great place to visit even if you don’t have a fantastic excuse like setting a world record and raising money for veterans.
“I had chills running down my spine the whole day,” Abbey said. “I didn’t feel any heat.”
With nearly 2,000 white-shirted guitarists strumming in time on a hillside and Texas country superstars Gary P. Nunn, Jimmy LaFave and others on stage leading the songs, there just wasn’t much time to be preoccupied with little things like 100-degree-Farenheit heat indexes.
“I walked away with an invigorated, positive feeling about the American spirit and American generosity,” said Craig Hillis of the Voices of a Grateful Nation project.
Thanks to Pickin’ For The Record, Voices will continue to be able to help troops through its “sound healing” program, which teaches vets with traumatic brain injuries to play the guitar.
“Now we can get more guitars in the hands of injured troops and help them through music and art and culture,” Hillis said.
Abbey says that many folks had tears in their eyes that day, with families and friends coming together to play music they loved for a great cause. She particularly remembers a father and son duo that, at the end of the day, hugged her and said, “Nothing in this world that a father and son could have done together will top this.”
Hillis says the success of the event spoke to the “power of the song in American culture to affect positive change.” And 1,868 guitarists agree. One+
ANDREA GRIMES is an Austin-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in the Dallas Observer, the Austin Chronicle and One+.