James Linden Hogg, 15, is a boy displaced in time.
The teen, a multi-instrumentalist, prefers Celtic, folk and touches of gospel music over today’s pop.
He grew up with a bluegrass-playing dad and a love for all things historic. He also has an extensive collection of antique instruments.
As 225 details in a feature from its latest issue, the teen can count himself among Baton Rouge musicians with one-of-a-kind instrument collections.
“With me, I love warm-sounding instruments,” Hogg says. “That bright sound that you get from new instruments is not really something that’s a goal for instrument makers or even musicians who play them. I want something that sounds old, woody, very natural and acoustic.”
Hogg’s collection includes a 1780 Italian violin made of Mediterranean spruce, a 1928 pre-war Mastertone banjo and a 1915 Gibson A1 mandolin signed by Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass.
Hogg says he loves the history and character of his instruments. His favorite is an 1840 German violin his mother found 25 years ago. It was once too damaged to do anything but hang on a wall as decoration. After several refurbishers declined to revive the instrument, Hogg found a specialist in Florida who agreed to tear the instrument apart, shave the wood down from cello thickness to violin thickness and do a complete overhaul. Hogg used it last year to win the NSU Folklife Festival Louisiana State Fiddle Championship.
The teen isn’t the only Baton Rougean to have a one-of-a-kind instrument collection.
In Beth Fuller’s home, you’ll find a 7-foot tall German double harpsichord that was custom-made by famed Holocaust survivor Eric Herz, who called the piece “the most perfect instrument he ever made.” She also owns a 5-foot French double harpsichord with ornate flowers painted along the soundboard and a smaller, antique Dolmestch with detachable legs. She likes to take it on fly-fishing trips. Thankfully, her husband doesn’t mind having the huge pieces in the living room of their home, and the Louisiana humidity is the perfect climate to maintain the instruments.
“What do these instruments mean to me? Well, everything, of course,” Fuller says. “They add a lot to our home.”
Read the full feature, which also profiles bassist and composer Bill Grimes’ collection.
