Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 29-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
An excerpt from Obliterating History – a guitar-making mystery, domination & submission in a small town garage, a novel by Jean Smith
Frank moved from New York City to Nazareth to take a job at the Martin guitar factory—and this just doesn’t make sense to the people of Nazareth. It’s backwards. People don’t move from New York to Nazareth. They just don’t.
Frank keeps quiet about his background, about being raised in a household devoted to art and creativity. His father was an ad agency art director and both parents painted professionally. Frank knows that there is nothing to be gained by telling regular people about how he grew up, about his parents’ studios and art openings—and how he used to give his father’s large abstract paintings their titles. It isn’t the kind of thing that’s going to help build friendships with the gun-toting, guitar-building rednecks of Nazareth. Frank has counted the gun-racks in the employee parking lot enough times to know that instigating a discussion on the differences between Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline would likely result in any number of years of razzing. And besides, he isn’t looking for new friends and he’s always been comfortable keeping secrets.
“I’ll Call You,” from The Observer (Kill Rock Stars, 2006) (download):
