Greg Golden’s new album and his longtime business have the same effect: the guitars will blow you away.
Golden estimates he has 5,000 guitars in his Reno store Bizarre Guitar and the self-titled album, “Greg Golden Band,” probably has as many precision-fired notes.
“I talk a thousand miles an hour and move even quicker,” Golden told Tahoe Onstage during an interview in the famed “Vault,” the basement below the store, a destination for rock stars for decades who are seeking a guitar or just want to witness and talk about the rare ones. The memorabilia in the vault could fill a litany of Hard Rock Hotels.
Speaking of which, the Greg Golden Band will perform free on Thursday, April 9, in Vinyl at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Lake Tahoe.
Many of the players on “Greg Golden Band” will perform in Tahoe onstage with Golden, including drummer Boris Tavcar, bassist Richard Wagner and guitarist Jeff Montgomery. Paul Holdgate will sing. And as many as three very special guests could join the rock show.
The album was produced by Frank Hannon, the Sacramento-based lead guitarist for Tesla and his own band. Hannon and Golden met in the early 1980s when Hannon shopped for guitars in the store. Golden sat in with Hannon when he recently performed in Vinyl.
Tim Parsons / Tahoe Onstage
“He’s my favorite guitar player in the fucking world,” Golden said. “He also appreciates my guitar playing and he said, ‘Why don’t we do an album?’ … I am following his lead. He knows what’s going on and I trust him. He’s like family.”
Work on the album began in the fall and it was set for release on the last day of March. But the CDs were delayed in the mail for a day, which might inspire an April Fool’s Day joke about rock being dead.
The album’s 10 tracks, nine being originals, are a blistering homage to early 1970s classic rock in the vein of Deep Purple, Montrose and Robin Trower.
Golden has been infatuated with guitar since he was a child. He said he drove his father crazy playing with the tremolo.
“What would you expect from a 7 year old?” Golden laughed. However, he said he learned chords in about a week and soon thereafter could play country songs. At the age of 10 he started his first band, Axe, which is a nickname for a guitar.
Golden had the pleasure of playing many gigs with Chuck Ruff who played the iconic drum solo on Edgar Winter’s Frankenstein.
When on the road, the enterprising Golden would buy guitars and send them home. He said he didn’t make much money, but he was able to start an inventory. He made money reselling the guitars, and in 1979 with his father built Bizarre Guitar on Oddie Boulevard in north Reno, one of the largest independent guitar stores in the world.
The Reno store has been a stalwart in the support and development of music in the region.
“I bought my first guitar in this place when I was 11, and I got my first band here, too,” said Andy Kimberly, who at 32 is a Bizarre Guitar office assistant. “Greg does a lot for this community.”
He and his band will be doing a lot of rock ’n’ roll at the Hard Rock on Thursday. He said four or five songs from the new album will be played, as well as “Long Way Home,” a track he made with Holdgate that received 3.6 million views on the Internet.
- Greg Golden Band
When: 9 p.m. Thursday, April 9
Where: Vinyl in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Lake Tahoe
Cover: free
Greg Golden in the “Vault.”
Tim Parsons / Tahoe Onstage
