The last time I
made a pilgrimage to Dave's Guitar Shop, I made it alone. This time I made it with my favorite travel companion, Brenda. On Saturday morning, we left the Hastings AmericInn on Highway 61 around 10 a.m. The first leg of our journey took us through the farmer's fields and small towns of southeast Minnesota. The rural vibe of this part of the country is unmistakable, but time has not left this place behind. These towns are growing, going concerns, unlike the ghost towns that permeate much of the U.S. midwest and the Canadian prairies.
Highway 61 meets up with the mighty Mississippi River at Red Wing, the first of several quaint towns we encountered along the river. Since 1905, Red Wing has been the home of
Red Wing Shoes. In the 1870's, Red Wing was the number one wheat port in the world. The town is nestled among the beautiful bluffs of the Mississippi River, with Barn's Bluff rising steeply above the downtown.
The Mississippi River valley strikes me as one of the most beautiful places on earth: a big river, bustling towns, high bluffs, apple trees, wildflowers, boating and fishing, and freight trains that wind their way along the banks. There are few places where humanity and nature seem to co-exist and co-mingle so well together.
The river itself divides the great states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Highway 61 winds its way down the Minnesota side of the Mississippi until it reaches the town of La Crescent, the apple capital of Minnesota. At La Crescent, the highway crosses over to the Wisconsin side of the river, where the town of La Crosse awaits southbound travelers.
La Crosse, named after the sport of natives, was birthed by the fur trade of the 19th century (just like my own hometown). Compared to other river towns numbering 200 or 300 people, La Crosse is a bustling metropolis of 50,000+ people. The town has a long-established brewing tradition and features one of the few remaining A&W drive-ins. But La Crosse is most importantly the home of
Dave's Guitar Shop.
In 1982, Dave Rogers rented a 400 square foot space in a vacant dental office and Dave’s Guitar Shop was born. Dave moved the shop to other locations as the business grew and finally settled at his current location (1227 S. 3rd St.) in 1993. The shop was expanded to nearly 21,000 square feet in 2000. Today, Dave keeps over 2500 guitars in stock ... and his store is still growing. The year 2007 marked Dave’s 25th anniversary.
We arrived at Dave's Guitar Shop just after noon. Brenda had a quick look around the store, met
Clay Riness (my favorite Dave's employee), then headed off to the malls on the northeast side of town. She was gone for two and half hours, but the time flew by quickly for me. I had come to Dave's with a singular purpose: to play just one guitar -- a sonic blue '63 Telecaster re-issue built by the Fender Custom Shop.
I played that sonic blue Tele for about 2 hours. It's a magnificent guitar ... and one that might look familiar to anyone familiar with the logo for
RocknRollPreacher.com.
The Rock 'n' Roll Preacher logo features a sonic blue Telecaster with a "Jesus scratchplate" only a preacher could love. I've owned the oddball Jesus scratchplate for 2 years. It's been waiting for the right Tele ever since.
Guitar purists might recoil in horror at the notion of degrading a classic guitar with a cheap, schlocky scratchplate. And churchgoers might think it's blasphemy to affix a picture of Jesus to a "tool of the devil".
But I think we need to bring contrasting ideas and images together.
Iconoclash informs and inspires our tired, old ways of thinking. Let's take our cue from the Incarnation, an iconoclash of the highest order. What could be more contrary than a holy God who becomes an ordinary human being to change the world?
Dave's Guitar Shop exudes a certain iconclash of its own. Not many people expect to find one of the world's biggest and best guitar stores in the middle of small-town Wisconsin. The first time I drove through La Crosse, I was on my way to somewhere else and I doubted a small-town music store would be worth the stop.
But in a high-tech world, we should expect the unexpected. The world wide web means anyplace is everyplace and Dave sells more than 85% of his guitars to people who never enter his store. That kind of high-tech capacity also allows Dave to be
high-touch. I go to Dave's for his special runs -- uniquely-configured guitars you can't find anywhere else. For example, if you're looking for a new guitar the captures the funky look and feel of '66 maple-capped Telecaster, Dave's got 'em and you can only get them in his store.
Brenda and I left Dave's in the late afternoon and headed west into the sunset. Once again, my visit was a memorable experience -- an experience of contrasts. These contrasts present innumerable, unexpected treasures that theme parks and tourist traps can never provide. Many travelers treat middle America as a flyover zone, but postmodern pilgrims are rediscovering the richness that lies along the country's great highways.
Brenda and I certainly left Highway 61 with more than we came.
