There’s no shortage of guitar teachers in Music City USA…they don’t call Nashville “Guitar Town” for nothing. But Dave Isaacs has earned a reputation as one of the best: not simply a guitar and piano teacher but as a musical mentor to performing artists, songwriters, and working musicians as well as beginners, weekend warriors, and perpetual beginners.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Dave about guitar, the music, surviving a pandemic and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and how do You describe your style of music?
Originally from New York, Nashville resident for 16 years, style is guitar-driven roots rock.
How did you get here? As in, what inspired or motivated you to take on this journey through music and the music biz?
I grew up in a musical household and fell in love with the guitar at 14. It was exciting and engaging and made me instantly much cooler, of course. But in retrospect, I also think the guitar was a healthy outlet for energy that had nowhere else to go, and I still feel that way.
Singing came a little while later, when a girl I was trying to impress asked me why I never played whole songs. Writing was a natural step from there, but I didn’t begin to work intentionally on songwriting until I started my first band Jackalope Junction in 1996.
How does your latest project compare/contrast with your previous release(s)? Were you setting out to accomplish anything specific, follow a specific theme, or explore different styles of creation?
This might be the most cohesive record I’ve ever done, for a variety of reasons. A number of years ago I resolved that I wanted the foundation of all my recordings to be a live band playing together, with sweetening and polish added as needed. To my ear this album is the best balance I’ve ever achieved between live energy and studio polish.
The real step up is the writing, though. After 16 years in Nashville I’ve found several co-writers that I work very comfortably with, and when COVID hit I had a number of songs that hadn’t been recorded yet. The enforced time at home practicing and experimenting made it clear which ones were the standouts, and I think it made for my strongest set ever.
Name the biggest challenge you faced as a creative during these unprecedented? How did you adapt? How have you kept the creative fires burning during all this?
The past year and a half have been a real creative burst, actually. First of all, I had time to slow down and think and listen. Nashville is a social place with music everywhere, so you’re exposed to other people’s songs all the time. That can be beautiful, but I needed to take a step back and reconnect with what I actually sound like myself.
I also got really engaged in my classical guitar for the first time in years. I love the sound, the intimacy of it, and the feel of the nylon strings, and it became a great creative stimulus. I wrote and published a set of solo guitar pieces and accompanying EP while we were working on Choogle.
What was the last song you listened to?
Doctor Wu by Steely Dan.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? 8-tracks? Cassettes? CDs? MP3s? Streaming platforms?
These days, everything is streaming. YouTube and Spotify mostly. But I do buy CDs from friends and from artists I hear and like, and I still have my extensive cassette collection. I still do love the sound of tape, but I’d have to dig out the cassette player.
Where is the best place to connect with you and follow your journey?
I document my day-to-day musical journey on Facebook and Instagram, as well as my Nashville Guitar Guru blog and YouTube channel.
I really appreciate Your time. Anything else before we sign off?
I make my living teaching music, and I strive to make that work part of my creative output as well. For a long time I felt like I needed to separate the teacher from the artist. I no longer feel that way, because all I’m doing is exploring music that interests and excites me and showing others just how cool I think it is.
