My main instrument is a circa 1990 Gibson "Nick Lucas" re-issue acoustic. It's a killer guitar and with a Sunrise pickup has a gorgeous blues style tone. Really, it's an electric guitar, but the full body gives it more richness than any electric I've ever played. Plus I get an incredible unruly feedback, that changes each night depending on the room I'm performing in. As a back-up I use a 1965 Gibson J-45. As my friend says, these are rock and roll guitars, which is to say that I play them through an amp always, and though they sound nice played in a room unamplified, you'll never hear it that way at a live show.

The other guitars I use most are a 1960's Teisco 312 electric, and a Tut Taylor "Californian" resophonic guitar. Lately I've been playing a dulcimer with a pickup on it that was made in the 70's in Maine by Dana Bourgeous. It resonates with the soul of Ireland and Scotland and I've been writing songs on it that reflect those roots.

My friend Flip Scipio in New York is a master guitar maker/repair dude and I wouldn't use the word frivolously, genius. He can make the worst piece of junk sing. He has worked on all my guitars and really brings them to life, both in the way they sound and in the way it feels to play them. There was a great documentary about his work released in 2009. Flip is the one who turned me on to the Teisco 312 . I was at the shop he had on Staten Island and he pulled one out with the lo E string tuned down to an A. I had to have one! He found me a blue one, re-fretted it, put on a bigsby tailpiece and it is funky! I also have a bright red one that is tuned to normal tuning. They come in 2, 3, and 4 pickup models, and have gorgeous tone variations. This is the first electric guitar I've fallen in love with and I can't live without the whammy bar.

The Tut Taylor Resophonic is my first "Dobro" style guitar. Leni Stern gave me a Rickenbacker Lap Steel when we were playing together and I fell in love with lap style playing. It was made of bakelite and my son broke it into 3 pieces! I now have a beautiful 1940's or 50's wooden one with the famous horseshoe pickup, that is loud and bluesy. When I decided I wanted an acoustic lap guitar I went to Mandolin Bros. on Staten Island and played 20 or more Dobros. Most of them had a vibe but a mostly metallic tone, which I think many people want. The Tut Taylor Guitars, which I had never heard of at the time, were stunningly different. I ended up buying one when I was in Nashville at Gruhns. It has a rich warm tone that sounds as close to the human voice as a stringed instrument can.