![]() ![]() ”One door closes, another opens,” he says philosophically. Armed with a fistful of songs, he knocked on doors up and down Music Row. He came from San Francisco to Nashville in 1978, not with a piano, but a guitar. Each time he services it, he first gets the proper pitch of one key with the use of an electronic tuner, then tunes all the others entirely by ear. In the wake of Lee Greenwood’s massive single ”God Bless the USA,” the singer’s staff presented him with a magnificent Kawai grand piano, and for 30 years now, Houston has been charged with the care and upkeep of it. ”My first-ever house call was to tune a piano in Dottie West’s home,” he says, ”and after that, we bowled a few frames downstairs in her bowling alley.” (Yes, Dottie West had a bowling alley in her basement. Smith Music School, Roberta Flack, and on and on. His client roster over the years includes Michael McDonald, the Nashville Symphony, Willie Nelson, Keith Urban, Johnny Cash, Curb Studio, The Woods Amphitheater at Fontanel, Warner Bros., Tim McGraw, W.O. Ye shall know him by his license plate: TUNER. A serene, genial presence with a spray of gray beard and glasses, Houston tunes so many pianos at the Bridgestone that he has his own parking space. Stevie Wonder used his services at the arena recently Taylor Swift, too. Whenever there’s a show at the Bridgestone that features acoustic piano, or when the sound of one is captured in a high-end Nashville studio, there’s a better-than-good chance Grant Houston tuned it. I don’t know if I’m bringing it with me, or if I just get lucky every place I go.” - Grant Houston Now I live here, in Eastwood, which is getting all this buzz. In the 1980s, where did I live? On Music Row. This is a 4-day class with not more that 6 students and just as many teachers.“1967 was the Summer of Love and where was I? Living in the Haight Ashbury. ![]()
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