Jeff Black goes Voyage-Air

Jeff Black's first album: Birmingham Road has been described as "fine portraits of American life without the sappiness or self-consciousness often attributed to the singer/songwriter genre." He's gone on to write songs that have been covered by Waylon Jennings, Sam Bush, and Blackhawk. Jeff has been a Nashville institution since he moved there in the early 90s. Click here to see Jeff's website.

Recently Jeff was at a special 25th anniversary party thrown for Sam Bush... and there he met Jeff Cohen of Voyage-Air Guitar.

"Now I want you to say this, because it's just the way it happened," said Black. "I started talking to that guy Cohen because I like to meet people, and found him very nice, and very modest. When he told me about his folding travel guitar, I told him 'heck, bring it on up here! This room is full of guitar players that need to see that!"

So he did. And that guitar made the rounds of some very distinguished musicians and songwriters during the next few hours. A few days later, Jeff Black has a Voyage-Air OM-style Songwriter guitar in hand, in his studio, and he's telling us about it on the phone:

"Any guitar you pick up to play, you have to tweek the tuners a little bit to get it ready, always. The Voyage-Air is no exception: you open it up, and just a twist or two zeros in the tuning, you know? And the sound, and the way it plays! That's what did it for me. This guitar just... well it just works. This guitar is not a compromise, like all the other 'travel guitars' I've played."

Because Jeff Black was working with the entry-level Voyage-Air Songwriter, we asked about the sound of the select, precision-laminate Mahogany used for the back and sides. "Somebody asks me about woods on guitars," Jeff answered... "I tell 'em I don't know and really don't care. I have a Gibson J-200 and a bunch of other guitars, and I know they all have differing sounds. I don't know what the woods are. But I tell you what: this Voyage-Air just works. It's the way the guitar feels against your body, and the way the sound projects. That's it for me. This one works!"

Jeff's enthusiasm was easy to hear - even on a cross-country phone call. "You know, I travel a lot. I'm just an old troubadour. And this Voyage-Air guitar was made to travel. It's a natural fit. It and me got along right off."