Devin Champlin | Pipe of Doom | Western AF

Devin Champlin | Pipe of Doom | Western AF

Devin Champlin is the Archivist of the American Chord. We documented him in the stillness of the historic Gryphon Theater, surrounded by darkened seats and the ghosts of old WPA murals.

He is a luthier from Bellingham, Washington, who spends his days fixing instruments for others at Champlin Guitars. Here he sits down with a 1950s Gibson and unravels for us the little piece of Americana history that the instrument holds.

The guitar sounds exactly like the life he lives. Champlin’s work is rooted in the deep study of country blues and old-time fiddle tunes, the kind of music deciphered painstakingly from crackling 78 RPM records. His songs are built for restless souls, for the person who needs to climb a mountain just to see how small everyone gets, or who wants to take a midnight canoe trip just to shout at the Wyoming sky. This sound is the warmth of old wood resonating in an empty room, a song about spiritual wandering that finds paradise exactly where it lands.

Devin is the frontman of Sons of Rainier (whose lineup might look familiar to regular Western AF viewers) and a fixture in the Pacific Northwest folk scene, devoted to the kind of self-made culture you only find late at night around a campground fire. Devin Champlin’s music is a testament to the belief that the world is terrifyingly weird, beautiful, and best navigated with a steady hand on an old Gibson.

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Recorded by: Mike Vanata
Mixed & Mastered: Will Ross
Editor: Mike Vanata
Cameras: Mike Vanata
Executive Producers: Irvin Maddox, Arron Tschida, and Frank Stelter
Producers: Brian Harrington, Will Ross, Travis Blankenship & Mike Vanata
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