Ron Mann's doc Carmine Street Guitars @ NYC's Film Forum, April 24 to May 7

Kirk Douglas of The Roots happened to stop by Rick Kelly's shop Carmine Street Guitars while Ron Mann was filming his excellent documentary.

Carmine Street Guitars The mystique of the Greenwich Village as a haven for bohemians, artists, and musicians lives on (just steps from Film Forum) at Carmine Street Guitars: Rick Kelly and apprentice Cindy Hulej build handcrafted, one-of-a-kind instruments from wood salvaged from the city’s defunct buildings. (Unfazed 93-year-old mom Dorothy keeps the books and answers the phone.) Nothing looks or sounds like Rick Kelly’s guitars, which is why they’re embraced by Lou Reed and Patti Smith, among others. A week in the life of the shop features visits from its devoted clientele: Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Band), Dallas & Travis Good (The Sadies), Kirk Douglas (The Roots), Eleanor Friedberger, Nels Cline, jazz guitarists Bill Frisell and Marc Ribot, and filmmaker/composer Jim Jarmusch. Watch the trailer and a Q&A with filmmaker Ron Mann below. Check the links for screenings and tickets. 

Guitar guru Peter Walker sits in with Mercury Rev side project Harmony Rockets

The new Harmony Rockets album Lachesis/Clotho/Atropos is enhanced by the picking of Peter Walker & Nels Cline. 

Longtime Woodstock resident, guitarist Peter Walker recorded two albums for the Vanguard label in the late Sixties in a style best described as American folk-raga. He studied with Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, and was Dr. Timothy Leary’s musical director, organizing music for the LSD advocate’s “celebrations.” He was also a close friend of fellow Woodstock resident, the late folksinger Karen Dalton, and helped produce Remembering Mountains : Unheard Songs by Karen Dalton (Tompkins Square), which features unrecorded Dalton compositions brought to life by Sharon Van Etten, Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams and others.

Rediscovered by Tompkins Square in 2006 after decades out of sight, Walker has remained active into his 8th decade, recording for Jack White’s Third Man label, and now, collaborating anew with fellow Upstaters, Harmony Rockets. Joined in a mighty super-session with Harmony Rockets (Mercury Rev), Martin Keith, Nels Cline (Wilco), and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Lachesis/Clotho/Atropos is a mind-melting inter-generational collaboration that could only have coalesced around the wool sweaters, warm teacups and moldering bookstores of “Old Old Woodstock”, both the real and mythologized versions. Watch a clip of Peter Walker playing solo below.

Nels Cline @ The Horseshoe, tonight

Guitarist Nels Cline is very nearly as popular as his '59 Fender Jazzmaster purchased from Mike Watt.