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     box so much, but I made a Weissenborn guitar, lap steel, so I've been playing that
    quite a lot. I’ve made a couple. Hopefully, I'll sell a couple, but I've also been using a
    Resonator like National guitars and Dobros, so I’m quite into it at the moment, you
    know.
    BiTS:  So was it really completely secret? I mean, you didn't realise that you were
    going to be the winner? It was something that was in the spur of the moment hit you.
    TB:  No. It was completely secret. I didn't know anything about it. I was with Dave
    Acari at the time because I'm a good friend of his. I was sort of saying, I think you've
    won it, Dave, and I really, I gasped when they called my name out to walk up to the
    stage and it was a bit overwhelming.
    Emotionally, I could hardly speak because I was so, well, just amazed, really, and
    overwhelmed by it. I know people say stuff, but it is, for me, a lifetime achievement,
    you know what I mean? It's like you would keep working and working and working
    and then suddenly you get recognition, and it’s like, wow! It blew my mind. It was
    really cool [laughs].
    BiTS:  The question is, how do you top it? I suppose you’ve just got to keep on doing
    work.
                                                                                   TB:  Yes, just keep going
                                                                                   on, and hopefully, it gives
                                                                                   you a platform which will
                                                                                   open other doors. I'd like
                                                                                   to  do  a  bit  more  in
                                                                                   Europe. I played in Spain
                                                                                   a  couple  of  weeks  ago,
                                                                                   and  hopefully,  I'm  going
                                                                                   back  there  next  year.  I
                                                                                   would  like  to  do  a  bit
                                                                                   more  European  work,
                                                                                   which  may  happen  now.
                                                                                   So we'll see, yes.
                                                                                   BiTS:    When  you're
                                                                                   working           on         and
                                                                                   developing  an  album,  is
                                                                                   there a kind of theme to
                                                                                   it,  or  is  it  pretty  much
                                                                                   random stuff?
                                                                                   TB:    Well,  I  think  the
                                                                                   theme comes to be how it
                                                                                   was recorded, if you know
                                                                                   what       I     mean,        the





