A rock 'n' roll pioneer, Lew Skinner still has a burning obsession with guitars
For the Love of Music: Our first segment is about a dedicated guitar collector
There's no shortage of strings at Lew Skinner's place.
Guitar strings, that is.
Skinner, who helped start the Ducats, one of the first rock-and-roll bands in Newfoundland, got the bug for the guitar in 1955, just as Elvis Presley was exploding. Johnny Cash was another huge influence.
"I liked that idea of people admiring what you were doing," he said. "I liked the idea of making some money with it."
Skinner did not just have a passion for playing: he also became quite the collector, of records and indeed of guitars themselves.
In this debut instalment of our segment For The Love of Music, Skinner describes his passion — including the story of how he sold one guitar to a certain Paul McCartney.
Every instrument, he says, has a story.
Click the player below as Skinner tells some of those stories to video producer Mark Cumby.
For the Love of Music
For the next few months, we'll be bringing you some of the stories about music and musicians in Newfoundland and Labrador. Watch for it every second Thursday on Here & Now, and right here on cbc.ca/nl.
