Victoria bluesman Jason Buie had dinner with a complete stranger on Wednesday. Bought him a pint of beer and a shot of whiskey, too.
A guitar — one that was stolen from Buie’s home nearly six years ago — brought them together at the Yale Hotel in Vancouver. And during their introduction, Jason Webb of Maple Ridge, who bought the guitar four years ago, put back into Buie’s hands the battered, brown 1973 Fender Stratocaster the Victoria man had purchased nearly a quarter-century ago.
“Over a couple of years, I’d hit every pawn shop on the Lower Mainland, but I had given up on ever seeing that instrument again,” Buie, 45, said Friday during an interview with the Times Colonist.
“I feel really, really fortunate, and lucky to have had this happen.”
Webb had contacted Buie through Facebook just days earlier, wondering if he was the same “Jay Buie” whose name was carved into the back of the guitar. Buie said he was indeed the same person, and could prove it by identifying the signatures from musicians such as Buddy Guy and Jeff Healey, who scribbled their names onto the guitar following gigs in Victoria.
The guitar had been kept under Webb’s bed for four years and went largely untouched, Buie said. Webb handed it over to him immediately at their impromptu meeting, followed by a celebratory dinner and some drinks. Webb wanted nothing more in return, Buie said.
“He said when he pulled this thing out and started looking at it, he figured there had to be more to this story.”
Indeed there was.
Buie bought the guitar for $800 in 1986, tipped to its whereabouts by a classified ad in the Times Colonist. It wasn’t fancy, but the 15-year-old worked tirelessly to pay for it. He spent the better part of 25 years playing the beloved instrument, from gigs locally with Guy and Taj Mahal to studio recordings in Vancouver years later.
He took it with him when he moved to White Rock, but left the guitar at his home when he travelled to Sidney for a concert in 2010.
“Usually I take two guitars, and I can remember when I shut the front door thinking: ‘Nah, I’ll leave [the Stratocaster],’ ” Buie said.
The following day, a friend phoned and told Buie the front door to his house was wide open and items had been stolen. Missing along with a computer, amplifiers and guitar pedals was his cherished guitar, not unlike the ones played by his idol, Texas bluesman Stevie Ray Vaughan.
“That one particular guitar was the thing that was irreplaceable.”
Buie re-strung the guitar on Thursday night, and finally sat down to play it in his kitchen, a glass of Scotch nearby.
He wanted to savour the moment.
“I got a sense of real, pure joy,” Buie said, his emotions still high.
“Just sitting there, recalling all the years and different experiences I went through with this particular instrument, from the time I was 15 until the time I was 40. It was a real nice feeling.”
