JOHN & VIVIAN

In 1975, John was trying to eek out a living playing music in bars in Taos, New Mexico when a friend showed him a guitar made by a luthier in Boulder, Colorado named Max Krimmel. An idea flashed in John’s mind, “Maybe I could supplement my bar income by learning to build and sell guitars.”

Long story short, John spent a year making monthly trips to Boulder with a list of questions and a newly-built guitar to be critiqued by Max. By the end of a year, he was making pretty good guitars and people were buying them.

The first well-known musician to order a custom Dillon was Michael Martin Murphey (Wildfire). The second was Hank Williams, Jr. In the late 70s a workshop was opened in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. With the help of his assistants, John Kingslight and John Swinney, over thirty guitars were built and shipped all over the country.

In 1981, John decided to take a hiatus from guitar building to move back to Pennsylvania and explore his family heritage and work in the wholesale floral business that was founded by his namesake great-grandfather. This went well for a number of years, but gradually alcohol and drugs began to take a toll. “Was I born into this family to run the business, or should I pursue my passion of music and guitars?” After a downward spiral into addiction it became clear that he needed to choose the latter.

DILLON GUITARS 2.0

After getting sober and leaving the family business, John set up a workshop in his Pennsylvania basement. He began making regular trips to Nashville to showcase his wares. These trips paid off by securing custom orders from Trisha Yearwood, Steve Earle, Ray Kennedy, Dave Gibson and others. He discovered that one of the instruments from his New Mexico years had made its way into the hands of Brent Rowan, a sought after Nashville session player (see quote below).

While looking through the folk section of a New York City record store, he found a CD with a Dillon Guitar on the cover. Tish Hinojosa, one of his New Mexico clients had become very successful in the folk music world. John reached out and eventually made her a second guitar that she still uses to this day.

In the early 2000s John moved back to Taos, took the guitar shop with him, and continued building. After a few years, his growing allergies to the dust and glues became intolerable. Around this time Art of the Song began taking off as a nationally syndicated radio show. According to John, “I went from gluing pieces of wood to editing pieces of audio in a way that took my creativity in a new direction and kept me connected to the music business.”

Go to Art of the Song.