Dragon Guitars & Jeff Easley

Plus Last Train to Bremen & Rockbeasts

I love guitars. I love dragons. So, you can bet I love looking at the special Dragon model guitars that Paul Reed Smith (PRS) has produced over the years. This article on the PRS Guitars website provides a full history of these very collectible guitars.¹ The first one (Dragon I) was released in 1992 in a limited production run of 50 guitars:

Here is an excerpt of the Dragon guitar origin story:

As a 16 year old, Paul Smith's dream of a guitar with a dragon inlaid down the neck could be nothing more than that, a dream. Technology limitations at the time made it impossible to design the Dragon how he envisioned. Fast forward to 1992, PRS is a growing business (7 years old at the time) and Paul hears that the technology is available to inlay a complicated design with laser sharp precision. Excitedly, he gets to work building what will be known as “Dragon I,” a 22-fret maple top guitar with 201-pieces of inlay in the neck.

The Dragon guitar was an instant classic and was featured in the Airheads movie:

Paul provides more info on his dragon affection in this Alto Music interview:

“I just always liked English water dragons ‘cause they look like they could fly. The movie with Matthew McConaughey called Reign or Fire depicts it very well. I also thought that a dragon slayer going out to kill the dragon for the maiden was a bunch of crap. The dragon opened his mouth and killed the guy instantly.”

Paul further demonstrated his draconic appreciation by naming one of his previous bands “Dragons” and naming his recording studio “Dragon Crossing.”

Fans of TSR-era Dungeons & Dragons art might be especially interested in the 30th Anniversary Private Stock Dragon that came out in 2015:

It featured artwork from Jeff Easley, who was one of the renowned staff artists for TSR from the 1980s into the early ‘90s and who was responsible for countless iconic D&D rulebook, module, and Dragon magazine covers.

Jeff Easley cover art on the AD&D Night Below campaign box set

Here is a description of the Easley Dragon model from the PRS website article:

The 30th Anniversary Private Stock Dragon - became the 8th Dragon guitar to date. The guitar features an elaborate dragon inlay designed by Jeff Easley, a fantasy artist famous for some of Dungeons & Dragons rulebook covers. Aulson Inlay deconstructed Easley’s artwork and recreated it into several distinctive sections that have been embedded into the body of the guitar and conclude with the dragon’s tail whipping up the fretboard.

If you want more Dragon guitar eye candy, watch this PRS “From the Archives” video about the Dragons:

Last Train to Bremen

Thanks to a recent Yes Indie’d Pod podcast, I became aware of another tabletop roleplaying game that has a music theme. The episode featured an interview with Caro Asercion who is the designer of the game Last Train to Bremen. Here is a description of the game:

LAST TRAIN TO BREMEN is a storytelling game of doomed musicians and poor decisions. Perfect for a self-contained one shot, LAST TRAIN uses snappy rules based on Liar’s Dice and other push-your-luck dice games to deliver a tale of secrets, tension, backstabbing, and betrayal.

Build your band, saddle them with baggage, flee your cursed contract, and reflect together on all the choices you made that led you down this sorry path.

Taking inspiration from the “Town Musicians of Bremen” fairy tale, each player plays an animal musician character. Thirteen years ago, they made a deal with the devil, and now “the Devil is coming to collect his due.”

You can purchase Last Train to Bremen from Caro Asercion’s itch.io page.

Rockbeasts

I don’t usually cover the RPG video game beat, but the animal archetype musicians of Last Train to Bremen reminded me of a trailer I saw for the upcoming Rockbeasts game:

Here’s a description from the game’s press release:

“The road to success is a tricky one, and being a manager is a complex task. Will you help your band become rock rebels or sellouts? The choice is not always easy. Rockbeasts is set in the 90s United States, a time of grunge rock, raging capitalism, and music television.”

The release date for the game is just listed as 2025, however, two songs from the game’s soundtrack have been released already.

1. Not collectible by me. These are very pricey guitars.