Pickin' but not grinnin': U.S. law targets stars' guitars

[Stephen Basil]

Pickin' but not grinnin': U.S. law targets stars' guitars

A Nashville politician is fighting to keep the instruments out of U.S. border agents' hands amid confusion over an endangered tree species law, writes Randy Boswell

BY ANDY BOSWELL, OTTAWA CITIZEN MAY 20, 2012

 

A U.S. senator has made it his mission to save country music in Canada this summer from nitpicking, guitar-snatching U.S. government agents who might try to enforce a "confusing" American law that targets products made of wood from endangered tree species around the world.

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander is the senior federal lawmaker from Tennessee - its capital, Nashville, far better known as Music City and for its Grand Ole Opry than for being home to the state legislature.

And Alexander, an accomplished piano player himself, is taking steps to ensure that Nashville superstars such as Taylor Swift, Toby Keith and Carrie Underwood - just three of the many American country singers booked for music festivals in Canada this summer - don't have their guitars, or those used by their backup bands, confiscated at airport inspection stations or the Canada-U.S. border.

"I don't want the musicians from Nashville who are flying to Canada to perform this summer to worry about the government seizing their guitars," Alexander said in a statement issued Friday, adding that he is working with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon to address the "unintended" consequences of new U.S. legislation the two of them co-sponsored in 2008.

"We're committed to creating a safe harbour for instruments made before 2008 - this law was never intended to apply to those instruments," said Alexander. "We are also working to give companies more certainty about importing wood, by requiring the federal government to inform importers of foreign wood whether the law applies to them or not."

Four years ago, Alexander and Wyden co-sponsored amendments to the century-old Lacey Act - a U.S. law prohibiting trade in rare feathers and other products made from endangered wildlife - to include objects manufactured abroad from threatened types of trees and other plants. One of the aims of the change was to help protect the U.S. timber industry from certain wood-product imports.

But as part of a high-profile investigation in recent years by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Nashville's iconic Gibson Guitar company has twice been raided by federal agents who seized instruments believed to have been made from imported wood - such as India-sourced ebony and rosewood - that violated the Lacey Act's new provisions.

"The law was intended to prevent illegal logging and protect U.S. jobs that are threatened by illegal logging. It was never intended to seize instruments or wood products that were obtained prior to the passage of the Lacey Act amendments," Alexander stated on Friday, after hosting a "roundtable discussion" with representatives of the music and woodimport industries and conservation groups.

Among the lingering concerns Alexander highlighted was the "threat to individuals travelling internationally of confiscation of musical instruments made of wood harvested before 2008."

Swift, whose many hits include the 2007 single Teardrops on My Guitar, typically uses instruments made by California-based Taylor Guitars, but has been known to strum a Gibson on occasion. The 22-year-old songstress is scheduled as the star attraction at the Capital Hoedown country music festival in Ottawa in August.

Underwood, who's married to Canadian-born NHL player Mike Fisher of the Nashville Predators, and fellow country star Tim McGraw are among the acts scheduled to play at the Boots and Hearts Music Festival in Bowmanville, Ont., also in August.

And Keith is one of the headliners at this year's Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose, Alta., another August event that's one of Western Canada's biggest country music blowouts.

While Alexander stated that he and Wyden have received assurances from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that they "have no intention" of seizing the guitars of Canada-bound performers, the senators say they will be taking steps - through administrative channels in Washington and through new legislation - "to make it absolutely clear" that wooden instruments owned by Nashville's most famous musical exports shouldn't be snagged in the foreign-wood crackdown.

"Instrument makers like Gibson Guitars in Tennessee are an important part of our music industry," noted Alexander, "and if the Lacey Act as written is keeping them from being able to get the wood they need to make instruments, we need to make every effort to fix the regulation."



Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Pickin+grinnin+targets+stars+guitars/6651188/story.html#ixzz1vS7iUDEA

[unclrob]

This guy is an idiot at best and best buds with the idiot who own's Gibson.There is no reason for this law...period.The law that stands now will not effect any musician.

I'll stop now because I don't want this thread to get out of control.

[Mr_LV19E]

the senators say they will be taking steps - through administrative channels in Washington and through new legislation - "to make it absolutely clear" that wooden instruments owned by Nashville's most famous musical exports shouldn't be snagged in the foreign-wood crackdown.

So does that mean that if your not the "most famous" you'll still be treated like a criminal because some a$$ wipe made yet another law?

[unclrob]

  Yep.

[eded]

Just sounds like another politician trying to goad a gullible public into a few more votes.  The only reason anyone here knows anything about the law is because we have researched it.  Those of us who have read any of the real information understand that it doesn't affect traveling musicians.  The majority of people out there (that is, those who haven't done any fact finding) will read this and take it as gospel and as good god fearing merkins, will vote for this lowly public servant out to serve his poor mistreated constituents.

Ed

[Mr_LV19E]

I've been around long enough to know that law enforcement interprets the law to fit their position and feed the court system. If you believe that border agents cannot seize your property if they don't like your looks then your mistaken, put a badge on a human being and they can do whatever they feel like.

Don't get me wrong, I know there are good people in these positions but there is going to be a percentage of bad ones too so keep in mind that what ever you do in life is a gamble. Good people get screwed everyday.

[ducktrapper]

I have decided not to comment.