STEPHEN GILCHRIST, WARRNAMBOOL, AUSTRALIA, 1997

Jim Irsay was a long-time fan of the acclaimed country/rock/blues/bluegrass singer-songwriter Steve Earle, most recently inducted as the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry. Earle released his debut solo record, Guitar Town, in 1986, which reached number one on the country charts and is now regarded as a classic of the Americana genre. Most recently in 2023, Earle’s 1988 hit ‘Copperhead Road’ was made an official state song of Tennessee. A lifelong guitar obsessive, Earle estimated in an interview given to Lou Carlozo for Reverb.com that at its peak his guitar collection numbered around 235-240 instruments, including banjos and mandolins. When Earle decided to sell off a selection of these through Carter Vintage Guitars in the wake of his divorce from country musician Alison Moorer in 2014, Irsay eagerly sought to add guitars associated with some of Earle’s most important performances and recordings to his own collection.

This mandolin, made by Stephen Gilchrist of Gilchrist Mandolins, Australia, the premier living maker of bluegrass mandolins, was the first mandolin he produced to use a prototype hinge tailpiece. Earle received this mandolin from Ronnie McCoury, the musician and son of famed mandolinist Del McCoury. Steve Gilchrist of Gilchrist Mandolins, confirmed that this mandolin was custom-built for Ronnie McCoury in 1997: It was presented to Ronnie McCoury at the IBMA Bluegrass Convention in Louisville, KY in Oct 1997 by myself in appreciation for his great support for my work over the years. McCoury toured with this mandolin before selling it to Steve Earle. Earle had recorded The Mountain with Ronnie McCoury and the Del McCoury Band in 1997 and subsequently toured with McCoury in 1999. Steve Earle reputedly used it for every album from The Mountain (1997) to The Low Highway (2013), including for one of his most celebrated tracks 'Galway Girl' (Transcendental Blues, 2000).