Locals to Hear Electric Guitar

The first electric guitar ever made comes to Randolph, Bethel, and South Royalton when they host Reverend Richard "Stonefingers" Johnson in concert.

He will be at the Randolph gazebo, Saturday, July 28, at 12:30 p.m. There will be activities for kids and families with free hot dogs starting around 11:30 a.m., as well as a chalk art contest, bubbles, and games. Bring a lawn chair or a blanket, and picnic provision if you like. There will be a basket for donations and CDs for sale.

On Saturday, July 28 Johnson will be at the Bethel band shell starting at 5:30, sponsored by the Faith Assembly of God. He will also be in South Royalton at the church with the red door on the South Royalton Green Wednesday, Aug. 1 at 7 p.m.

Johnson is known throughout the US and Canada as the leading purveyor of "Christian swamp music," his own unique and original blend of blues, folk, and gospel. His "good pickin' and good news" style, played on his collection of rare and unusual instruments, his easy, laid-back manner, and his wry sense of humor appeals to people of all ages and musical tastes. His work under the umbrella of Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship makes him well-known to audiences across the nation.

One of the instruments Johnson will bring with him is the first electric guitar ever made- a rare 1934 Rickenbacker Electro Lap Steel nicknamed "The Frying Pan Guitar." First produced in 1932, 2,700 of these guitars were sold during the 1930s. At the time he found his guitar at a music store in the northeast back in 1975, it was only the third one known to have survived, and the only one in private hands. A few weeks after he found it, a collector offered him six figures for the instrument, an offer which he turned down.

Johnson is a first-rate story teller and has many interesting stories from his work with prisoners, as well as the Amish, and from his own free-spirited lifestyle in younger days.

"I would like to personally invite everyone, whether they like church or believe in God or not, to come to the show. We're going to have a good time," Johnson says.

For more information, visit the Stonefingers Concert Ministry website at www.stonefingers.org.