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The Baby Boat Acoustic Guitar

MacKenzie & Marr Guitars Pays Tribute to Toronto’s Riverboat Coffee House

Two New Solid Wood Acoustics Honour one of North America’s Great Performance Venues
 
Montreal, May 12, 2021- With the introduction of the Riverboat Series of solid wood acoustic guitars, MacKenzie & Marr is looking to rekindle memories of the famous folk-era coffee house, once located on Yorkville Avenue in downtown Toronto Ontario.
 
Crafted from solid AAA grade Adirondack Spruce tops and bookmatched Bolivian Rosewood back and sides, the two models, a Dreadnought, and OO guitar, represent the height of guitar craftsmanship.
“Because we build so few guitars, we have access to batches of wood that would be too small for the major brands.” said John Marr of MacKenzie & Marr, “That was the case with the Adirondack Spruce we discovered. The wood, especially AAA grade, is difficult to find. We felt a responsibility to use it wisely.” 
“We wanted a way to honour the legends of the folk era, not just the performers but the people and places that opened their music to the world. We knew these were would be two of the best guitars we’d ever built. When Bernie Fiedler, the owner of the Riverboat, endorsed our idea of naming them after his club, we were thrilled.” Said Marr
The Riverboat Dread and the Baby Boat, as well as other MacKenzie & Marr guitars, can be ordered online at www.macmarr.com
 
About The Riverboat Coffee House

 

Owned and operated by Bernie Fiedler, the Riverboat opened in October 1964. It quickly became part of a prestigious North American circuit that included Detroit’s Chess Mate and New York’s Bitter End. The club seated 120 people. Every seat provided an intimate showcase of the top names in popular music, including Howlin’ Wolf, Simon & Garfunkel, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Tim Buckley, Ritchie Havens, Junior Wells, John Prine, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Arlo Guthrie, Buddy Guy, Kris Kristofferson, John Lee Hooker, Doc Watson, Tim Hardin, Jerry Jeff Walker, Janis Ian, Steve Goodman, Odetta, Seals & Crofts and James Taylor. The Riverboat is where the protest folk singing star Phil Ochs wrote his popular ballad “Changes.” When Eric Clapton was in Toronto with his band Cream, the Riverboat is where he went, with his hair tied in a bun as a disguise, to hear Tom Rush perform. Everyone played the Riverboat except Bob Dylan, although even Dylan was rumoured to have sat incognito in one of the back booths one night.

 

 
About MacKenzie & Marr Guitars
The privately-owned company sells a limited range of solid wood acoustic guitars through its website (www.macmarr.com) at “Direct to Musician” prices. MacKenzie & Marr sold out their initial production run in 36 hours after a 2010 appearance on CBC Dragon’s Den. Since then legends such as Ian Tyson and Tom Rush have endorsed the brand. 
Contacts:
For MacKenzie & Marr Guitars:
John Marr
(514) 833-8352

Days and Nights with a Naked Lady

Gregory Dennis dropped us a line last week to alert us to an article he's written. Here's what he said: "I thought you'd like my latest newspaper column, which appears today in the Addison County Independent (Vermont twice-weekly paper). Because the paper wisely does not offer free access to its content online, I also post my columns on my blog. And I didn't even have room enough to write about my fourth guitar, the nice parlor guitar I recently purchased from Mackenzie and Marr. A friend says I have what David Lindley calls GAS -- Guitar Acquisition Syndrome." We've supplied a link to the article as it appears in his blog.

The St. John's Telegram Front Page

Our newest guitar - The Ron Hynes Songwriter has been a hit right across North America but nowhere as much as in Ron's home province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Still it was a wonderful surprise to wake up to news that we made the front page of the St John's Telegram. Thanks to Josh Pennell for a very flatering article.

Guerilla Seduced by Our Naked Lady

The headline evokes images of King Kong and Fay Wray but in this case the Guerilla is Ottawa's hip cultural zine (www.getguerilla.com) and the Naked Lady is, of course our Tom Rush guitar. She's been building a pretty strong fan base so it was no surprise when Tony Martins, Geurilla's editor wrote to tell us he really liked the one he bought. What did surprise us was that he also wrote a review of the guitar. All we can say is WOW...what great validation.

GearPatrol pegs MacKenzie & Marr guitars as "Lady Magnets"

We couldn't figure out where all the additional hits on our site originated until we followed the links to the referring URL. We found GearPatrol.com - a cool site dedicated to what's hot in guy stuff.

Techcrunch.com Shows MacKenzie & Marr Some Love

Twice within the last few weeks one Silicon Valley's premier web sites, Techcrunch.com, has written about MacKenzie & Marr Guitars. We're nothing if not suckers for praise so it's especially nice to have the go-to web site for breaking tech news say we're an example of ecommerce done right.

The Waterloo Chronicle

Former Waterloo residents make their musical pitch to CBC’s Dragons’ Den
January 13 2010

Charlotte Prong spoke with John and managed to capture the essence of the company's guitar and the important role friendship plays in shaping MacKenzie & Marr Guitars.

Fall In Love In Less Than a Week

Try any of our guitars in the comfort of your own home. If you don't fall head over heels in love within a week we'll arrange to take it back and issue a full refund (including shipping).
*certain conditions apply.

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