Podcast 336: Tod Nelson | Fretboard Journal

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Tod Nelson was one of the first ten employees at Amazon. He began packaging books and served as the “punk rock editor” during the opening of the site’s music store in the late 1990s. After working for the fast-growing company for five years, he left the company and started a family on California’s Central Coast. He ended up being the first Executive Director of Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Beyond his professional life, Tod was a lifelong guitarist and guitar collector with a passion for everything – Gibson. He is also a survivor: in the past few years he has had not one but two lung transplants.

Tod’s love of music and musical instruments carried him through his recovery, which culminated in his latest project: A Song A Day for Acoustic Guitar. He teaches himself a new song every day all year round … and looks for suggestions as to which tracks to try next (his current repertoire can be found here as a Spotify playlist). Feel free to send me suggestions for death via podcast@fretboardjournal.com.

I’ve known Tod for over 20 years, but until that conversation I had no idea how important the guitar was to him or his recovery. I hope you enjoy this chat. It’s unlike any other we’ve done so far. I hope you enjoy it.

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Don’t forget that we’re now running a whole family of podcasts on everything from violin making to home recording: Luthier on Luthier; The Truth About Vintage Amps; The Truth About Recording and Mixing; Acoustic Voices; and sweep the floor.

This episode is sponsored by Mono Cases, Folkway Music and Retrofret Vintage Guitars.

Special thanks to Calton Cases and Martin Guitars for sponsoring everything we do.