Old--School Sounds by DYLAN ROCHE photography by SOFIA SCIACCA,
F E A RLES S P H OTO G RA P H Y M EN T EE
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s a musician and a collector of vintage guitars, Rick Hogue has enjoyed several amazing experiences: partying with Eric Clapton, meeting Bob Dylan, appraising Lenny Kravitz’s guitar collection. He’s jammed with friends and neighbors, bought and sold guitars to local artists, and offered space for music teachers to connect with generations of students. His passion is one of the reasons that Garrett Park Guitars—the shop he established more than 30 years ago—has flourished. Despite
its niche specialty, or maybe because of it, the store has survived changing cultures and down economies, continuing to be a haven for budding and accomplished musicians alike, a place where the quality of craftsmanship and sound matter, and where old guitars find new life. Hogue describes Garrett Park Guitars, located today at 7 Old Solomon’s Island Road in Annapolis, as a museum store as much as it is a store; he and his team are less like salespeople and more like curators. “Yeah, it’s a business, but there’s a passion we have,
here,” he says. “All of us who work here share in this love for handling, restoring, and selling these old instruments.” Vintage guitars line the walls in several rooms and alcoves, and the staff is poised to discuss the instruments with anyone who walks in off the street, whether it’s a talented and knowledgeable musician or a curious passerby. “Rick was way ahead of the game on the vintage gear thing,” says local musician and longtime patron Bryan Ewald. “I learned quite a bit over the years from him about what was what.”
Rick Hogue, owner of Garrett Park Guitars, in the guitar showroom playing a 1964 reissue Gibson ES-335 guitar.
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