Probably as close to 2006, 2007 timeframe, Cray was parked in Cayucus and Morro Bay, California Area. He’d criscrossed the country a few times from that vantage, and on one trip East found a used Martin D-40 parked on a Guitar Center Wall that had the boom of the Taj Mahal and a feel worth the 3 grand price tag and more. He didn’t pick it up at that time, instead thinking it best to focus on the relationship he was in, put 20$ down on it to hold it for a few weeks and forgot about it. Once back in California, the relationship went south almost immediately and Cray doubled back to Philadelphia, drove 2600 miles over the course of a few days and bought the D-40 outright. Oh, Bron Yr Aur was always in the practice cannon, but other songs were written that hopefully get to see the light of day in the years to come, like “She Walks All Over You” (actually a very Grateful Dead Hippy Happy Hoppy Song). But in retrospect, memories are stored in the miles of a life, and they resonate on the tone of the woods on that guitar. Not every D-40 ever built has that magic, but this one did.
