A Japanese Luthier and a Fingerstyle Player from My Home Region (and My Past) – A One shot story

I took this photo at GuitarPlanet, in the Ochanomizu district of Tokyo, because I was intrigued by the different bracing of the guitars’ lower backs. The picture in itself has no particular value, but on closer inspection it revealed a story linking a musical instrument, a Japanese luthier, a region of Italy (Abruzzi) and my past.

Pixel-peeping the photo, I noticed that the lower back in the middle bears the mark of Morris Guitar, a renowned Japanese acoustic manufacturer. The name rang a bell, so I went to their website to see what caught my eye. After some wandering around I landed on the page listing the artists who play Morris Guitars and here I found the answer I was looking for: one of them is Franco Morone, a great fingerstyle acoustic guitarist from Lanciano, a small town in the Italian Abruzzi region, who over the decades has become an internationally renowned artist.

But my connection with Franco Morone is not just because we both come from the same place. Eons ago, I was part of the local music scene supporting non-mainstream musical and performing arts. Franco Morone was one of the musicians who performed at one of the editions of a gathering called ‘Acoustic Music Festival’ and I still remember, after all these years, his beautiful performance.

I would never have guessed that this flashback could have been triggered on the other side of the world by a mark on the back of a guitar hanging in a big music shop.

Post Scriptum: for those interested in the ethnic acoustic fingerstyle, I suggest you listen to this arrangement of Vola, Vola, Vola, a traditional tune that tells the story of a man who, for a few moments, dreams of going back in time, when he was a young boy and met his first love.

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