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Friday night, besides his banjo and Russell, the lead guitarist, Jimmy brought over a hybrid set of Martin Bluegrass strings and suggested that I restring my old Martin with them because the combination of Martin strings/Martin guitar would sound better for our purposes (bluegrass) than what I'd previously been using (Elixir/Alvarez). The strings are definitely thicker (.056-.014) than I'm used to (.050-.012), so both my callouses and forearms got their respective workouts. And, since Jimmy also suggested that I try playing in the more bluegrass-friendly standard tuning in first position only (as opposed to D-A-D-Gb-B-E with the capo all over the place), the added tension on the 6th and 4th strings required a cramp-inducing level of left hand pressure on my part.

Don't get me wrong, though, Jimmy was right. It'll take some getting used to, but maaaan my Martin sings now. I'm tempted to record and post some video(s) of myself while the guitar still sounds so immaculate. None of the roommates have been awake yet, and I've been playing all morning. I'm about to get back to that, but I wanted to post a little youtube video of Tony Rice playing "Shenandoah," from the documentary "Bluegrass Journey." I only mention that it is from a documentary because at [5:06/5:45] there is a FANTASTIC, unattributed quote laid over Rice's playing:



One of the things about art is you give people an excuse to take some time and to be quiet and pay attention to something and, maybe under the guise of enjoyment, think about important things in life.