A Life's Pursuit

For many people music is a way to pass the time, a background noise that accompanies a car ride, or a radio buzzing away at work. For others it is a hobby; a fiddling with a guitar or an ingrained habit of tapping one’s fingers on a countertop. For the rest it is a way of life.

Bill “Buckwheat” Young is an example of a man who has lived with a lifelong obsession of music and all things music related. He has spent the greater portion of his life collecting vintage and new guitars and perfecting his bluesy guitar skills. One step into his shop, the Antique Rocker, and one is instantly confronted by musical trinkets and memorabilia surrounded by walls plastered with acoustic, electric and bass guitars. For Buckwheat this isn’t a job, but a kind of retirement. He spends his days tinkering on his guitars and conversing with his buddies that make their way in after work or while on lunch break while classic rock and blues music fills out the relaxed environment.

His obsession with guitars has led to a body of knowledge that outflanks many music store owners and equipment junkies. He can tell the difference between two Stratocasters made in different years or tell you how a particular manufacturer changed their production in separate years. He can help you straighten out a buzz on your fretboard or adjust the action of your strings to get the type of playability you desire.

For all his years spent in absorbing music and its many facets, one of the most impressive things about Buckwheat is the way his fingers nimbly move up and down the frets in rhythmic pentatonic figures. Upon sitting down to jam with him, he instantly picks out the sweet spot of a scale and proceeds to hammer out ascending and descending licks supplemented by soulful bends.



In the living room of his house there sits a single guitar and a small coffee table filled with paper parchments indicating chord progressions for songs and even some lyrics scrawled out in the evening hours. Downstairs in the basement, however lies the real treasure, a robust collection of electric and acoustic guitars amidst other coveted amplifiers. While it is not uncommon for musicians to have a couple of guitars or amps, it is obvious that this is an obsession. Stacks of black guitar cases lean against the perimeter of the walls while some guitars sit out on stands. In the bathroom sits a small amplifier for him to jam on while he sits on the toilet with the seat down to jam. It’s his own personal utopia.

Some people find their calling in other areas of life, but I doubt there is anyone out there who can say that Buckwheat isn’t doing exactly what he should be. He is the epitome of what happens to some who take on music as a hobby and ends up developing a lifelong obsession. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that a few little notes can have such a lasting effect on our lives, but there are worse things to be addicted to.






Hear a work in progress on my podcast