Love That Twang

When Curtis Oltmann was either 12 or 13, he decided that he wanted to play guitar. As soon as he got enough money, he got a Sears guitar and would sit up at night trying to play along with the radio to all the stars on the Grand Ole Opry. He knew it didn’t sound quite right, but he was happy. It wasn’t too long before he figured out that the guitar needed to be tuned, so he bought a book, tuned it and started learning chords. From that time on there was no looking back. A guitarist was born.

Curtis found a couple of school buddies at Round Top-Carmine with an interest in music and they began jamming. Soon they were good enough to play for parties like fish fries on Cummins Creek in Fayette County. Of course they knew they weren’t good enough yet to charge money, but a fresh catfish meal was just right.

They started attending dances and they got to see legend Lefty Frizzell perform at Artesian Hall, outside of Brenham. The guitarist in Frizzell’s band had a just-released Fender Telecaster guitar. Curtis was mesmerized by the twangy sound it made. When he left the dance that night, he knew that some day he would have a Telecaster of his own.

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