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Hobby turns to full-time career: Loss of forestry job forces worker to shift careers. (Iroquois Falls).


Losing a high-paying job after 15 years of service in a town that has only one major employer can be a traumatic experience.

This is not the case for Mario Proulx of Iroquois Falls. He has a new occupation and a growing reputation as one of the best producers of handmade guitars for bluegrass musicians This is an alphabetical list of bluegrass musicians.

See also: Bluegrass music, Country music, and List of country music performers.

: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A
  • The Abrams Brothers
 in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. .

Proulx, 35, says he is making "half the money" he was earning when he had a full-time job at the paper mill, but says "what's there not to like about this job?"

He is selling to some of the biggest names in bluegrass bluegrass, any species of the large and widely distributed genus Poa, chiefly range and pasture grasses of economic importance in temperate and cool regions. In general, bluegrasses are perennial with fine-leaved foliage that is bluish green in some species. , including Dale Ann Bradley of Kentucky and John Lowell

For other people named John Lowell, see John Lowell (disambiguation).


Hon. John Lowell (June 17, 1743–May 6, 1802), born in Newburyport, Massachusetts; the son of Rev. John Lowell and Sarah Champney.
 of Montana.

A story in the Washington Post said Bradley's music has "supple emotional power and purity of tone" and another. story in USA Today proclaimed her to be "one of the finest talents in bluegrass."

Proulx says he worked closely with Bradley to produce the guitar she wanted.

He produces seven different models of 14-fret dreadnought guitars ranging in price from $1,400 US to $2,100 US. He also produces three different mandolin mandolin (măn'dəlĭn`, măn`dəlĭn'), musical instrument of the lute family, with a half-pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and a variable number of strings, plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum.  models that sell for $1,500 US each. If a musician wants additional options on the instrument, the cost is higher.

Proulx builds the instruments in batches of three, with each batch taking three months to complete.

"One year I built 15 instruments," he says. "I learned on my own (how to build them) from reading about it."

He has no plans to hire anyone to assist him.

"Once someone else touches it," Proulx says, "it becomes a factory guitar."

He has always had an interest in bluegrass and now plays with a group known as Standing Room Only. There are four musicians in the group, two from Iroquois Falls and two from Timmins. They play at number of festivals each year.

"In the beginning I met a few well-known players at the festivals," he says, including the annual festival at River Valley near Sturgeon sturgeon, primitive fish of the northern regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. Unlike evolutionarily advanced fishes, it has a fine-grained hide, with very reduced scalation, a mostly cartilaginous skeleton, upturned tail fins, and a mouth set well back on the  Falls. "My reputation (as a builder of guitars) grew by word of mouth."

Proulx has not run a single advertisement for his business, but does promote his product on the Web. Each year he attends the International Bluegrass Music Association The International Bluegrass Music Association, or IBMA, is a trade association to promote bluegrass music.

Formed in 1985, IBMA established its first headquarters in Owensboro, Kentucky.
 trade show in Louisville, Ky.

He has recently purchased a building that at one time was a Methodist church and plans to move soon to reside there and produce musical instruments.

www.proulxguitars.com.
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No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2002, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Article Details
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Author:Lynch, Michael
Publication:Northern Ontario Business
Article Type:Brief Article
Geographic Code:1CANA
Date:Apr 1, 2002
Words:405
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