I hopped off the bus at Madison Square and parked myself in a sliver of the Chelsea Hotel known as Chelsea Guitars to pay a visit to the troubadour of 23rd Street, the mystic ‘wise guy’ known as Dan Courtenay. The Queens-born, hippie-haired, no-nonsense son of an Irish Catholic policeman once turned down a $1,200 offer from Tommy Hilfiger to buy a stool in his shop that he salvaged from the garbage. 

“I was just like, fuck you. This is my chair. It just felt good to say no to someone who was throwing money at you.” In hindsight, he says he should have sold it. Hilfiger’s assistant made several attempts, and after their final phone call, Dan hung up the phone, and said aloud, “I might be the biggest asshole in New York,” but after all, he’s a business man who doesn’t see himself as a business man. 

In 1980, Dan moved to Manhattan. He fondly recalls sitting on a stoop outside of a brownstone on 22nd St., where he witnessed a man in leather clad assless chaps exchanging pleasantries with an elegant 80-something year old woman walking her poodle– they were neighbors. “I sat there, and I said, ‘Oh my God, I’m the luckiest man on Earth. This is the greatest block. In Queens, people would’ve been throwing stones at that guy!” 

In many ways, Dan and his employee Coby O’Brien are keeping the neighborhood in check– God forbid this charming crevice becomes another VC backed coffee chain hell bent on sucking the originality out of this city. Chelsea Guitars is the type of place where you could imagine Tom Waits stumbling in to work out a lick he just heard in his head. The shop has been there to strum the tunes of New York’s euphoric highs as well as its covid blues. Most recently, Grammy-nominated singer Leon Bridges was in the shop last month before his concert at Forest Hills Stadium. 

Dan shared with me his favorite five albums – albums for the good times, the bad, and everything in between that are all “timeless, but of their time.” 

The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed

When you walk into Chelsea Guitars you are caught in a stand off between a T-Rex head from a defunct restaurant to the south and The Rolling Stones Their Satanic Majesties Request album cover to the North– “which is kind of a shitty album,” Dan quips. Nonetheless, when it comes to who his favorite rock band is, The Stones are on top— though a staunch admirer, he actually prefers the Beatles’ earlier stuff before they went psychedelic. If you press him on his favorite Stones’ record, he comes clean with Let it Bleed. “It’s a timeless record, but it’s pretty close to Beggars Banquet–their more acoustic outlet.” 

For someone who owns a de-facto guitar institution, you would think Dan would qualify as the venerable headmaster for The School of Rock, but that would be a misconception. “I stopped listening to rock and roll by ‘72. I grew up on Motown, and all of my heroes were black. I grew up on Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, and Stevie Wonder. I used to go see The Grateful Dead, and I couldn’t stand them because they were these white guys who can’t sing. When I saw The Stones in 1969; they were these little English guys, but I was terrified. The Stones back then were dark and fucking scary. They came out on stage, and you had this feeling that the guy has a knife in his back pocket, and if I look at him the wrong way, he’s going to come [at me]– that’s how strong the music was! By 1973, it became The Rolling Stones show, and that’s when rock n roll became big business with big checks and arenas. Before that, all you cared about was the music and the personality.”

 

Merle Haggard –The Okie from Muskogee

Next we have Merle Haggard’s The Okie From Muskogee – “I hate country music and these B.S. country stars that are just super handsome; they don’t reflect reality. The guys I listen to are George Jones, and best of all, Merle Haggard from 1963-1972. Merle’s band kind of wrote the book on outlaw country. All of those guys were real bluegrass players. Not only did Merle write the songs, but his voice is amazing. I love Frank Sinatra and George Jones, but they didn’t write their own songs. He would play to all these Richard Nixon guys in their suits meanwhile he was a major pot head. He was a real shit kicker.”

 

Bobby “Blue” Bland – Bobby Blue Bland Further On Up the Road: The Duke Recordings 1955-1962

Then we have Bobby Blue Bland Further On Up The Road: The Duke Recordings 1955-1962. “Listen to anything released by Duke Records, but what you should really hear is “Call On Me” by Bobby “Blue” Bland. There are only two singers who give me chills down my spine – Nursat Fateh Ali Khan and Bobby “Blue” Bland. Bobby was one of the top five vocalists of all time. My friend’s dad Doc Jones– who wrote “Viva Las Vegas”– couldn’t believe how good he was. He was really goofy looking but women would pee in their seats when they heard him sing.” 

 

Frank Sinatra – Only The Lonely

Following Bobby we’ve got Frank Sinatra’s Only The Lonely. “I was a rock n’ roll guy so I’d have to hide these singer records. Only the Lonely was truly the first concept record where every song connected to the central theme. It changed the way we think about music. When you first listen to it, you have to clear away from the social aspect of it— which is grandma and grandpa [music]. You have to listen to this as a musician and as a human being listening to a fellow human trying to tell you stuff that he isn’t able to say with regular words.”

 

Albert King – Live in the 70’s

Finally we’ve got Albert King’s Live in the 70’s. “Listen to Albert King at the Fillmore East. I was at that concert. I was 14 years old. It was a religious experience. It was like World War Three; I didn’t know things could be so big and loud and so expressive. I watched him play and it split me in half. The first time I heard his guitar playing it was amazing. King played a Flying V guitar (nicknamed Lucy). See Gibson made these guitars that were very traditional and in the 50’s they tried to get to ‘space age’ with The Flying V which was hilarious because they didn’t have to do it.” @chelseaguitars DTM