Auction Strikes Chord

By JOHN W. ALLMAN The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jun 18, 2007

TAMPA - Hillsborough County, get ready to rock. Little Kids Rock, that is.

The national music curriculum, which teaches contemporary rock 'n' roll music to kindergarten through high school students, is arriving this year thanks to a local musician, one of the world's best-known guitar manufacturers and a collection of one-of-a-kind customized guitars.

Christopher "Curse" Mackey, a Tampa musician, and Elliott Rubinson, president of Tampa-based Dean Guitars, raised about $215,000 last month during a live auction for "Six-String Masterpieces," a tribute to Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott, the late guitarist for Pantera and Damageplan, who was killed onstage in December 2004.

The auction boasted 65 guitars customized, hand-painted and inscribed by some of the most recognized names in rock 'n' roll, tattooing and visual arts. The auction, held May 17 at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, Calif., drew bidders from 11 countries and more than 100,000 Internet viewers at Web sites that participated in the auction.

Most of the guitars averaged winning bids between $2,000 and $5,000, but the top seller was a guitar hand-painted by California artist Mark Ryden, which fetched $32,500. It "really helped push us over the top," Mackey said.

A benefit concert after the auction featured performances from rock royalty: Ace Frehley of KISS, Dave Navarro and Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, and Scott Ian of Anthrax.

Abbott's brother and band mate, Vinnie Paul, played drums during an all-star finale. And Abbott's father, Jerry, bid on, and won, the guitar customized by Frehley, who was his son's guitar hero as a child.

"There were a lot of special moments like that for the family. It was true rock 'n' roll history," Mackey said. "It was an incredible tribute to a phenomenal artist and rock personality, while at the same time we single-handedly produced the largest [annual] contribution that [Little Kids Rock] has ever received."

Mackey and Rubinson gave about $117,000 from the auction proceeds to Little Kids Rock to create two chapters - one in Tampa and one in Abbott's hometown of Arlington, Texas.

The nonprofit organization will provide about 600 guitars for students plus an intensive two-day training session for Hillsborough County music teachers, founder Dave Wish said.

"It's at those trainings where we show teachers how to utilize the kind of music students are listening to and also teach them the skills they need to teach their children how to compose and improvise," he said.

Wish, 39, a former first-grade teacher, will conduct the Hillsborough County training. He formed the company in 2001, and it serves more than 10,000 students in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Georgia, Tennessee and Louisiana. In addition to Tampa and Arlington, a chapter also is planned for Washington, D.C.

Each chapter can cost up to $60,000 to create. Once up and running, the organization looks to local individuals, foundations and corporations for financial support so the chapters can increase in size each year to involve more children.

Little Kids Rock also has an Internet television station, based in St. Petersburg, that broadcasts tutorials for chapters to use. Find it at http://truefire.com/lkrtv.

Wish said he expects to start Tampa's chapter between October and February. He is working with county officials to schedule the two-day training.

Hillsborough is the nation's eighth-largest school district. There are about 365 music teachers from elementary through high school and more than 17,000 students who attend music classes, according to district officials.

Little Kids Rock is known for encouraging students to learn based on popular music from rock to pop to blues. But the program also teaches students to compose songs and improvise while playing.

The training session includes a songwriting exercise that asks each teacher to write a song in 30 minutes and then perform it in front of the class. The songs are recorded and put on a CD for the teachers to keep.

"That's one of Little Kids Rock's strengths, providing teachers with the tools necessary to put composition and improvisation in the easy reach of novice musicians," Wish said. "I've definitely had many teachers who were moved to tears by the experience."

Reporter John W. Allman can be reached at jallman@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7915. Keyword: Guitar, to view a special report on the Little Kids Rock project, including video interviews and images of the guitars.