Our neighbor across the river, Astoria, Oregon, provides us Washingtonians so many riches, it’s easy to take this well-appointed small town—population 10,000—for granted. Whether it’s Blue Scorcher goodies, Gimre Shoes, the Coop, or the Big Daddy of them all, Costco in Warrenton, these well-stocked purveyors allow us Peninsulites to stay close to home in our hideaways and venture out only when we have a taste for adventure or for Ellenos mango yogurt. (It’s the best!)

Our local culture is increasing in modest leaps and baby bounds, but there’s nothing like the offerings available “across the river”—as we all say—as in, “I’m going across the river, what can I pick up for you?”

Mark Josephs


I was reminded of this when a couple weeks ago Carol’s Friday afternoon “Arts Live and Local” KMUN radio show included three folks who have participated in the Tenor Guitar Gathering over the years; the next one is coming up in Astoria May 30-31. It took me back to my archives and my first meeting with Mark Josephs, founder of this magical musical event.

Mark had a vision, obviously—the very first poster says “First Annual Tenor Guitar Gathering.” Before that first gathering, he wandered up to my Nahcotta place and we sat on the front porch talking and strumming—Mark on his tenor guitar and me on my ukulele. The first question, of course, is “What is a tenor guitar?”

The simple answer—it’s a four-stringed guitar; but the answer gets trickier when you delve into it because it can be tuned in a variety of ways. The most common tuning is C-G-D-A. This tuning makes it similar to a mandolin, tenor banjo, or a cello. (A traditional guitar is tuned: E-A-D-G-B-E.)

What Mark thought was special about the tenor was its voicing. “It’s the spacing between the notes that makes it so beautiful. It’s basically tuned to fifths. So, you see, it sounds like an orchestra tuning up.”

But before I get too carried away, I want to say a bit more about Mark. First of all we lost him too soon. He was born in 1949 but left us in January of 2016. Fortunately for all of us, he saw his baby-event developed sufficiently that I hope he knew it could sustain itself. He created a Tenor Guitar Foundation to be able to carry on the event and support tenor guitars everywhere. There is also a Tenor Guitar Registry, and a website that led to TenorGuitar.org.

Mark was vibrant, funny, talented and so full of energy when I first heard he had died I didn’t believe it. (He’d never had a colonoscopy and died of colon cancer.) Mark had been working, ironically, as a medical technician in Los Angeles and when he and his wife Karen retired that started traveling to decide where they want to land. “We decided we wanted to buy our first house somewhere where we could retire. So we got in the car and drove north. We stopped in lots of places in Oregon where we could afford a house and I said, ‘I’ll shoot myself in two weeks if I have to live here.’ Then we hit Astoria and we knew the second we arrived. We discovered there were lots of musicians, and we’ve also had the water!—it reminds me of where I grew up in New Jersey. And the people are great.”

Tenor guitars

Mark knew from the beginning of his idea that he wanted to incorporate it into the fabric of the community. Hence, he rented the Trolley for an hour the very first Saturday of the gathering; thus beginning the tradition of the tenor guitar trolley ride and jam. That first year he was hoping to make the Guinness Book of Records—now, you have to understand this was way before ukuleles starting being cool again. Anyway, he decided there was too much paper work involved for that. But a trolley ride with tenor guitars—yes! For Mark, life was about having fun with friends or about-to-become friends.

After creating the Tenor Guitar Orchestra on the trolley, Mark realized that his vision for that may have come from his recollection of the New Year’s Mummer’s Day Parade in Philadelphia. “I didn’t realize it immediately, but there were 1,000 guys with tenor guitars in the mummer’s string band—it was like an arsenal of strings. I actually bought a tenor guitar because of the mummers.”

Mark was a musician nearly from his birth. He played in and created so many bands as a kid. Later in life, one of his most professional was The Lew London Trio. They played at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, college campuses, and opened for Ann Murray, Ry Cooder and Don McLean. Playing in so many festivals and with so many celebrities, Mark learned all the riffs, made lots of contacts, and loved to pass on his knowledge.

TGG-15: Cultish to culture

The Tenor Guitar Gathering (TGG) may have started as a small almost cultish groupie event, but over the years it has grown and become nationally-known as a meeting place for stellar musicians and discerning audiences from far and wide. This year it will still be again at Charlene Larsen Center for Performing Arts (550 16th St, Astoria, OR 97103-3751). I noticed on the TGG Facebook site — tinyurl.com/2ymrshrs — now they feel the need to add “Astoria, OR, United States,” to the address. Just shows you the reach.

The TGG features workshops and jam sessions. But you don’t need to know anything about the tenor guitar to enjoy the concerts; though if you want to learn, have at it. I have traded in my guitar more and more often for my ukulele these days. I keep it tuned to the last four strings of a regular guitar, D-G-B-E, so it’s a pseudo-tenor—that old ukulele tuning melody “my-dog-has-fleas.” (On the tenor, this is called the Chicago tuning.) It’s a little easier to play and has a brighter sound and timbre. Or as somebody is quoted as saying, “Playing a six-string guitar is like driving a truck. Playing a four-string tenor is like driving a sports car.” That’s how I feel about my uke. Lighter to carry, easier to hold, and of course, the heart throb of Hawai’ian music.

Anyway, if you love music, lively personalities, and amazing improvisations, you should do yourself a favor and stop by for some part of the TGG, now fifteen years and running. Mark’s zest for life is still apparent everywhere at the gathering.

BTW, there’s a great article by Jimmy Leslie about this year’s gathering in the international magazine Guitar Player https://tinyurl.com/4kw3rh6a ). As the column states, “Many make an annual pilgrimage the weekend after Memorial Day to the Tenor Guitar Gathering in Astoria, Oregon, which is put on by the Tenor Guitar Foundation, a non-profit organization established by the late enthusiast Mark Josephs in 2009.”

And I can’t close this column without a mention of our own Clint Carter who passed a couple weeks ago.
Clint, consummate musician and community booster, one-time owner with wife Laurie of the Imperial Schooner, and founder of the Peninsula Blues Festival, fought the good fight. Unfortunately, both Mark and Clint lost the battle. I bet they’re “upstairs” right now trying to figure out how to jam with a folksy tenor with blues guitar.