How a Minneapolis luthier saved Jimmy Sutton's bass just before Rock the Garden
by Luke Taylor
June 25, 2015
There's some history — some of it apocryphal — to the unassuming building in which Ben Brockway houses his instrument-repair business. "There was a record store here," Brockway says. "Someone in the neighborhood said Jimmy Jam had a studio here briefly; I don't know whether that's true or not. People say during Prohibition, they were selling moonshine out of a little shed out back."
On Sunday, June 21, Brockway's building played a small yet documented role in the history of Rock the Garden.
The story actually begins in Bilbao, Spain, where JD McPherson bassist Jimmy Sutton was getting ready to play a festival gig. "I had opened up my bass case, and one of the parts that holds the neck onto the bass had got knocked out by the airlines and so did my sound post — the sound post is a really important part of the bass," Sutton says. "We were in a tough spot."
Fortunately, Sutton was able to navigate past the tough spot, thanks to a generous bassist from France. "He lent me his bass and it was fantastic, worked perfectly," Sutton says, "but still I had to get my bass fixed."
The next day, Sutton and the other members of JD McPherson's band jetted to Chicago, en route to Rock the Garden in Minneapolis. Sutton got his bass repaired in Chicago, but when he got to Minneapolis on Sunday, a familiar circumstance presented itself. "We got to the Walker Art Center, and I opened up the case to put it all together and the sound post is knocked out again," Sutton explains. "That's a real baaaad situation."
JD McPherson's set at Rock the Garden was that afternoon at 4:30, and McPherson was going on the air with Bill DeVille at 2:20 p.m. Before they went live, McPherson asked DeVille if he could make an on-air appeal for a bass luthier who could reset Sutton's sound post. A tweet from The Current was prepared, but during the course of the interview, the bass-repair subject never arose.
McPherson hadn't forgetten, however. He sent out an SOS tweet, and as he happened to run past me on the stairs out of the Walker Cinema, he said, "If you can find a bass luthier, that would be great."
The job of a digital producer doesn't often involve instrument repair, but the second word in that title — producer — is the operative one: Part of a producer's job is to make it easier for others to do their jobs, so I took out my phone and rang Twin Town Guitars.
"We don't have a person in on Sunday who can do that," the Twin Town employee said, then offered helpfully, "but you could call Ben Brockway on 46th and Nicollet."
A picture of the little shop instantly came to mind; the unassuming building just up the street from the firehouse-turned-bagel-shop on Nicollet Avenue. Brockway returned my voicemail message within minutes. He couldn't leave the shop, but he could certainly take in the instrument for repair.
The Current's Sean McPherson (no relation to JD) is an accomplished and respected bassist, and he had been working on a lead, too. "But if you've got a guy who will take it now," Sean advised, "go for it!"
Sutton was standing backstage, and it looked like he was understandably pacing a bit. I pressed redial on my phone and handed it to Sutton, who went back into the tent and explained the situation. It was decided that Sutton would travel to 46th an Nicollet, where Brockway would perform the repair on the spot. One of the show runners wrangled a van, and Sutton was on his way to Brockway Guitars to get the sound post on his bass reset.
Although not visible to the audience, the sound post is a critical part of any bass. "It keeps the top from collapsing under string tension, and it also transfers the vibrations from the top plate to the back plate, so it has dual purposes," Brockway explains.
"It's a wood dowel that's wedged inside of the bass just under the left foot of the bridge," Sutton adds. "It's held in there by pressure. Imagine a toothpick between your teeth and you're crunching down on it — that's kind of the idea."
Brockway admits he's not familiar with the music of JD McPherson, but he knew Sutton was performing at Rock the Garden. "It was obvious to me that he seemed like a pretty serious player," Brockway says, "but I just try to treat everyone the same either way."
Although Brockway focuses primarily on guitar repair at his shop in Minneapolis, repairing an upright bass was nothing new to him. "I was professionally trained in violin-family instrument repair — so cellos, violins, upright basses, all of that," Brockway says. "I worked on a lot of them when I was in North Carolina, but back here, I specialize in fretted instruments, although I definitely like to see the upright basses. I always liked working on them, and the players, they usually seem really happy with the work that I do, so that's always nice, too."
Brockway reset the sound post, and he also secured it in place so it would withstand travel back to Europe after Rock the Garden, where JD McPherson will play gigs in the U.K. and in the Netherlands.
"Ben was able to get that sound post back in," Sutton says. "He saved the day."
Brockway is nonchalant about it, saying it's a quick repair. He did, however, appreciate Sutton's vintage Kay bass. "It's a cool instrument," he says. "I'm just into the old days of instruments being manufactured in the U.S. There used to be the Kay factory in Chicago, and they just don't make them like they used to. They're nothing flashy, but they're cool."
At 4:15 p.m., a van came trundling up the barricaded Vineland Place, carrying Jimmy Sutton and his bass right to the foot of the stage. "We were sweating it a little bit," Sutton admits. "And I got back in the nick of time to get that bass up there, get it plugged in, dialed in, run back and change my shirt, grab a little drinkie for the stage — and yeah man, I got back by the skin of my teeth.
"It's funny," he continues, "we usually have a walk-on song, but when the walk-on song came on, I was already on the stage. I said, 'Come on up, fellas!'"
And with that, JD McPherson and his bandmates — Sutton, keyboardist Ray Jacildo, drummer Jason Smay and saxophonist/guitarist Doug Corcoran — burst into a rip-roaring, rollicking set that had the audience rapt, clapping and singing along to "Head Over Heels," "Let the Good Times Roll" and "North Side Gal," among other McPherson signature tunes.
"We just had an incredible set for a real big, awesome audience here in Minneapolis," an exhilarated Sutton said after the show. "So we're high as a kite. It's great!"
JD McPherson and his band will be back in the Twin Cities on Saturday, July 4 to play on A Prairie Home Companion in a live broadcast from the Great Lawn of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.
