Rager's Guitar

Mose Rager hails from the quaint little village of Drakesboro, Kentucky out in Muhlenberg County in the western part of Kentucky - considered, by many, to be the birthplace of "thumbpicking" guitar. (Reference "Roots" of Thumbpickin'.) Mose was never a rich or very famous person, but was a great, if not the biggest, influence on our musical heroes: Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, and many guitar pickers from Western Kentucky such as the current reigning king of Travis style - Eddie Pennington.

Like many struggling non-famous guitarists, It was told that if Mose ever got a guitar - he didn't have it for long. Sometimes he didn't even have one. Merle Travis joked on the album, Travis Atkins Traveling Show, that Mose "would sometimes borrow a guitar from one person, play it for awhile, and then give it back and borrow a guitar from somebody else." But, I guess he did have an affection for his 1956 Gibson ES-135 that he owned the longest pictured below - that just recently showed up on e-Bay for sale - for $3,000 dollars.

Several folks out on the popular Chetboard.com message board immediately started a fund raising campaign to buy the guitar and put it in the National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame at Paradise Park in Muhlenberg County. In that effort, the owner of the guitar was contacted and offered to drop the price to $2,500 - thus starting the donations at $500.

So, we are asking anybody and everybody that has the financial capacity and the desire to salvage a major piece of thumb style history to donate a few bucks to help rescue this rather abused old guitar that was used to influence our greats..

Tax deductible donations of any size may be sent to:

National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame/Mose Rager Guitar
C/O Eddie Pennington, Exc. Director
504 Madisonville Street
Princeton, KY 42445

Thanks for your help,

Palmer Moore - Organizer, Ohio Fingerstyle Guitar Club