Any musician of my vintage in the greater Boston area holds a definite fondness for a local busker named Mary Lou Lord. Some of my all-time favorite songs were unknown to me until Mary Lou played them for me. I used to regularly miss the MBTA train that would have gotten to me to whatever awful dayjob I had because she was blowing my mind with a song on the red line platfor.
She had this super beat up Martin D-18 that, over the years, she leant to Elliott Smith when they toured together and later gave to Curt Cobain. Wishing to avoid the tabloid aspect of it, they had a brief but impactful relationship just before he met Courtney Love and really connected on a song level. She gave him this battered D-18 which he strung left handed and nicknamed “Grandpa”. It was not the guitar he used on MTV unplugged, but he played it a lot and wrote a bunch of songs on it.
Recently, Martin issued a tribute to this guitar (the original lives in its museum/ facTory in Nazareth, PA) and they very kindly sent one to Mary Lou. Although she was signed to a major label at one point and toured endlessly in the 90s, she is a busker at heart. She currently lives in a mobile home, has some health issues, and simply does not have a lot of money, so this act of kindness is truly meaningful. It was just a ver righteous thing of Martin to do. They didn’t have to do that.
She had this super beat up Martin D-18 that, over the years, she leant to Elliott Smith when they toured together and later gave to Curt Cobain. Wishing to avoid the tabloid aspect of it, they had a brief but impactful relationship just before he met Courtney Love and really connected on a song level. She gave him this battered D-18 which he strung left handed and nicknamed “Grandpa”. It was not the guitar he used on MTV unplugged, but he played it a lot and wrote a bunch of songs on it.
Recently, Martin issued a tribute to this guitar (the original lives in its museum/ facTory in Nazareth, PA) and they very kindly sent one to Mary Lou. Although she was signed to a major label at one point and toured endlessly in the 90s, she is a busker at heart. She currently lives in a mobile home, has some health issues, and simply does not have a lot of money, so this act of kindness is truly meaningful. It was just a ver righteous thing of Martin to do. They didn’t have to do that.
