Saxton Tribute

We have lost another icon of finger style (thumb pickin') guitar. It is such sad news that we must announce that our good friend and frequent Guest Picker at our Ohio Fingerstyle Guitar Club Pickin' Parties, Bob Saxton, passed away on April 11, 2016. He was 83 and one of the most popular players at the annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society (CAAS)

convention in Nashville. Your club organizer, and co-organizer, Chris Vickers, attended our first CAAS convention in 1998. Within the first hour of the first day Chris caught me in the hallway and excitingly said, "You've GOT to hear this Bob Saxton guy that just played on Main Stage - he sounds just like Chet!" Within the next hour we caught him, again, in the Picker's Club Room - where I joined Chris in his excitement with Bob's talents. We went on to follow Bob around like little puppies to catch him where ever he played the next 4 days . Which turned into many years.

A year later in 1999 when we started OFGC we were having difficulties attracting enough players and spectators (at donations of $10) to pay for the facility we held our Pickin' Parties in. My thought was if we could convince one of the "stars" of CAAS to come play for us - we might get enough audience to cover everything. Bob Saxton was the first "star" to kindly make the trip from Nashville to Columbus to play for us. He filled the room with 85 people - and, we brought in enough to cover the facility and get Bob $500! We never looked back. And, Bob came back many times over the next 10 years.

Charlie Berwinkle is one of our most knowledgeable and talented OFGC members who once remarked as Bob was amazing the crowd at one of our Pickin' Parties, "Saxton knows the fret board better than any player I know." All of us picker's have "borrowed" something from Bob over the years. Good lines, chords, or just acting up - like looking at the fret board in disgust (after making a mistake) - like it was the guitar's fault!! (lol) Or, pretending to wipe your left hand off on your pant leg - while continuing to play a G chord with the open strings. Or, reaching over the top with your right hand and slide the left hand up to the next chord. Or, reaching over the strings with your left fingers to fret a note or two. He had a million of them!!!!

One time I was trying to get the amazing Scotty Anderson to come up and be our Guest Picker. Well, his band couldn't make it, so he declined. In that same phone call I mentioned that Bob Saxton had just called and would like to come up. "Oh, BOB SAXTON?? Shoot, I'll come up and play with HIM!!" Which is where we got all those very popular videos on YouTube of Scotty and Bob - here's one. (Many thanks to Gail Hausch for shooting those vids.)

This paragraph is so difficult in these sad notices - well, because we are saying goodbye to a person that has meant so much to us musically, personally, professionally, and spiritually. Bob was a man of deep religious faith - and, we know he is in picker's heaven right now jammin' with all of our heroes that had gone on before him. Save a spot for me, fellas.

Palmer Moore - Organizer, Ohio Fingerstyle Guitar Club