fender tele

Billy Gibbons and Keith Urban at BMI’s Troubador Awards ceremony on Monday night.

Guitarists Keith Urban, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Chris Isaak, Robert Earl Keen, Elle King, Tom Bukovac, and Guthrie Trapp performed in honor of the Rev. BFG in Nashville on Monday night, as his body of work was recognized.

NASHVILLE, TN — From 1967, when he founded Texas psychedelic rock band the Moving Sidewalks, to 2023—a span that includes 15 ZZ Top studio albums and three solo recordings—Billy Gibbons has written songs as indelible as the dirty tones of his revered 1959 Gibson Les Paul, Pearly Gates. Those songs, including “Jesus Just Left Chicago,” “La Grange,” “Tush,” “It’s Only Love,” “Cheap Sunglasses,” nearly every cut on 1983’s Eliminator album, and many more, earned Gibbons BMI’s prestigious Troubadour Award in a ceremony at the performing rights organization’s Music City headquarters on Monday night.

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With his idiosyncratic style and spare Tele-driven setup, the inventive guitarist twists roots music on his new groove-centric album, Get It!

Rick Holmstrom says he spends “a lot of time not listening to guitar. I like trying to imagine the guitar taking the place of saxophone, Ahmad Jamal’s piano, or Mose Allison’s piano. Like Billie Holiday, who does those weird little micro bends that the great singers do—how can you get a feeling like that on the guitar?”

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Classic to-the-bone Fender: a 1952 blackguard Tele and a ’53 Pro amp.

Found during a house renovation, this guitar is a classic example of Fender’s prized blackguard gems.

Leo Fender’s efforts to create a professional solidbody guitar began in the late 1940s and resulted in the one-pickup Esquire and the two-pickup Broadcaster in 1950. By the end of 1951, the two-pickup guitar was renamed the Telecaster, due to a name conflict with Gretsch’s Broadkaster drum set. As we all know, today the Telecaster continues to be a versatile tool for amateur and professional musicians.

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