Strait Music Hosts Martin Guitar's Chris Martin IV, and Craig Thatcher

Around West Lake Hills Texas-Thursday October 16th 2025-Places We Love-Strait Music straitmusic.com hosted Martin Guitar's Chris Martin IV shown above with the 3,000,002 guitar celebrating Nazareth Pennsylvania, the home of Martin Guitars. See the back of this special edition below. Martin shared stories of the family-owned company, founded in 1833, using guitars, and a Ukulele, to illustrate the ebbs and flows of the company martinguitar.com and the audience heard a group of prototype guitars throughout being played by virtuoso Craig Thatcher craigthatcher.com

3,000,002nd Martin Guitar

Chris Martin IV, a UCLA graduate in Economics had a sporatic acquaintance with the family firm until, on his father's passing, he was thrusted into the CEO role. He commented "he's the only Martin employee that never had an interview...I just showed up, one day, and nobody told me to go!" Ultimately, while Martin is a fun company it is a business and that has been Chris' focus. He's now somewhat "retiredish" but enjoys these roadshows working with Craig Thatcher. When asked what advice, given his 55 years in the business, he would give a youngster interested in guitar-making he answered [paraphrasing] take a course in guitar repair or find a luthier willing to take on an apprentice because it's the quickest way and best way to learn about guitars. He added, his belief, that there will always be demand for repair and it is an economically viable career.

12 Fret Spanish Guitar. 12 frets free and slot head.

Chris can play.

Smaller body guitars, called Parlor guitars, were early commercial versions that created enough sound for entertaining in the home "Parlor." Being small they also were favored by women who constituted most of the players early on.

Dreadnought, as guitar's popularity evolved, steel strings and a bigger body created a bigger sound that resonated in larger spaces.

Hawaiian Music is incredibly popular, above an all Koa wood body.

Late 50s early 60s "Folk" style guitar. Acoustic guitars enjoyed growth during the folk era and sales peaked in the 1970s. MTV's Unplugged 1989-1999 help revive sales for acoustic guitars and led to Eric Clapton's "Unplugged (1992)" becoming the best-selling live album of all time having sold 26,000,000 copies. [Wikipedia].

Chris played bits of "Can't Find My Way Home," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and many genre-spanning others-rags, bluegrass and blues. Above a Martin D-18 E 1959 made electric. There's a $4,000,000 story behind this guitar, paid in auction, so above is a replica that will be played by Chris at an upcoming event in at London's Royal Academy of Music. Chris played a Ledbelly song "Where'd You Sleep Last Night" that was played by Kurt Cobain on MTV Unplugged. He also played the Jimi Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary" on the D-18E adding in vocals as he did on some tunes.

Bill Kirchen of Commander Cody fame and an Austinite joined Chris for a bit of Bob Dylan's "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry." Bill told stories of being at Bob Dylan's first 1964 Newport Folk Festival and 1965 the "going electric" session. They then covered the first verse of Commander Cody's "Hot Rod Lincoln."

Chris Thatcher, Clint Strait and Chris Martin IV on the Strait Music Stage. Clint thanked Chris, Craig, the attendees, recognized the Strait Music Team and his father-Strait Music also a multigeneration family business established in 1963.