Trent Dabbs Live: Presented by Martin Guitar

Nashville singer-songwriter Trent Dabbs, whose song “Shine” was recently featured on ABC’s Nashville,  invited us into his lair to hear “Mountain Song,” an elegant and beautifully understated track off his forthcoming album.

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In the latest installment of our Martin Guitar: Session series, Dabbs picked on a D-18, which is regarded as the ultimate bluegrass model. “This guitar has a perfect blend of the warm and the dark,” Dabbs says.  “And it really carries a lot.”

“When I think of Martin, I think of these players I heard at the Mountain Opry, in Chattanooga, at this old abandoned church where these older players meet and play bluegrass,” Dabbs says. “Those guitars have to be from the fifties . . . They’re aged so well and sound so rich. That’s stuck in my memory as far as the classic Martin signature goes.”

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About the filmmaker: Nashville musician turned filmmaker Houston Mathews completed his first feature film, Music City Underground, a documentary on Nashville’s rock music community, last year. He has since been producing and directing music videos and live sessions.

Audio recorded and edited by Steve Martin.