Fingerstyle guitarist El McMeen. (Photo courtesy of McMEEN FAMILY)

LEWISTOWN – When you’re a man of many talents like El McMeen, it’s OK to wear many hats.

Born Elmer Ellsworth McMeen III, the Lewistown native is a husband, father, grandfather, retired lawyer, Christian minister, humorist and, most notably, a musician.

At age 77, McMeen and his wife, Sheila, live in Sparta, N.J., located in the northwestern part of the state. He is still going strong as an acoustic steel-string fingerstyle guitarist.

McMeen’s specialty is fingerstyle arrangements of sung or strongly melodic pieces, ranging from the Irish genre, to hymns, gospel tunes and pop music. He has also composed instrumentals for guitar and has even published a book of Irish and Scottish instrumental music that he arranged for classical string trio – violin, viola and cello.

He plays and arranges guitar music almost exclusively in the CGDGAD tuning. That tuning, developed by English guitarist Dave Evans in the 1960s, is similar to a Hawaiian slack-key tuning called “C Ni’ihau Tuning.” In 2001, “Acoustic Guitar” magazine coined McMeen the “King of CGDGAD Tuning.”

McMeen has also arranged many pieces of music in Dropped D tuning (DADGBE), and has written “The Art of Dropped D Guitar.” He is profiled in “Who’s Who in the World.”

McMeen practiced law as his primary vocation in New York City for many years, and was a partner in the New York City law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae, LLP for 20 years.

McMeen decided to take an early retirement from his law career in 1999, committing fully to his music and ministry endeavors. “I wanted to tour and do concerts while I was still young enough to do it,” he added. Tours used to take McMeen across the Midwest, West and East. “I’d hit different places,” he said. He toured primarily with guitarist Larry Pattis, who resides in Eugene, Oregon now.

An ordained Christian minister, McMeen has authored a number of humorous books, typically involving puns and wordplay. McMeen has also written a great deal about faith, including a book co-written with his friend and fellow guitarist (and lawyer) Steve Baughman called “Objection! Overruled!”

McMeen credits his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the bountiful blessings that have been bestowed on him in regard to the matters shared on his website, and everything else. He is heavily involved in ministry by correspondence to prison inmates, primarily in Texas and Florida.

McMeen was born in Lewistown in 1947, and moved with his family to Huntingdon in 1960. Through his freshman year in college, he played clarinet as a solo instrument, as well as in band and orchestra settings. He studied piano and sang in choral groups.

“My mother told me that I could carry a tune from age two, singing and humming,” McMeen recalled of his interest in music. “I had the musical spirit at an early age.”

“I knew one song, and I played it over and over,” McMeen added. “I had an option of breaking the guitar into little pieces or learning to play it myself.”

McMeen attended public schools in Lewistown and Huntingdon before attending Mt. Hermon School (now called Northfield Mt. Hermon School), graduating in 1965. He graduated from Harvard in 1969, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1972, in each case with honors.

He was the editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He married the former Sheila Taenzler in 1971, and has three sons — Jonathan, Daniel and James — and a daughter, Mary.

While his last name is certainly recognizable in Lewistown lore – his family owned the department store downtown which was bought by Bon-Ton in 1957 – his first name is what led to his marriage.

“My name was the reason we met,” said McMeen, recalling how curious his wife was about his name. “We were both on the Penn Law Review in law school, and when she saw my name on the list of new editors as ‘E. Ellsworth McMeen,’ she wondered how bad my first name must be to go by ‘E. Ellsworth.’ So, she wandered over to check me out, and the rest is history!”

McMeen started learning guitar as a senior at Mt. Hermon. At first, he did not approach the guitar primarily as a solo instrument, but used it as accompaniment for his singing.

Upon reapplying himself in the early 1980s to the instrument, he encountered what he saw as an “incredible breadth of music that one could try to render on guitar,” he explained.

McMeen found himself attracted to Irish and Scottish music, alternative tunings and different approaches to rendering and arranging music.

“I tried to raise my game in the mid-80s. I took audio cassette lessons from Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop,” McMeen said. “Later on, he heard my music and asked me to offer my own lessons myself through his workshop! That really encouraged me. Later, Shanachie Records, a major independent label, released two of my solo recordings, and I was off to the races.”

Those lessons had a major influence on his music, plus he learned to play Celtic music on his guitar which proved to be very melodic.

McMeen’s playing is characterized by melodic emphasis, economy and great beauty of sound. His natural voice-like phrasing and skill at ornamentation and improvisation create a musical flow that gives the listener the impression he is hearing the piece for the first time, each time it is played.

His improvisational approach to pieces creates an atmosphere of warm and personal immediacy. “Guitar Player Magazine” referred to his music as “drop-dead gorgeous” in 1995.

After writing 16 guitar books, recording numerous albums and teaching guitar workshops, McMeen has become an internationally acclaimed and award-winning acoustic guitarist, who has been included in a “greatest acoustic guitarist” list. (He says that it’s nice to be on someone’s list, unless it’s for a hit or a tax audit.) He also has a YouTube channel where he posts informal guitar pieces and some instruction.

McMeen has written numerous books of guitar music for Mel Bay Publications, has given guitar workshops throughout the US, and produced recordings by other guitarists. His memoir, “Growing Up in God’s Country”, has been honored as a No. 1 new release on Amazon.

“I ran with it,” he said of his musical taste. “The CGDGAD guitar tuning really resonated with me, and has helped my career.”

The legendary Dale Evans was credited with inventing that tuning. “If I hadn’t heard of it, I would have ended up sounding like everybody else,” McMeen said.

McMeen had done a lot of touring as a guitarist from 1998 through 2002. After a 22-year hiatus, he returned to the road and performs concerts selectively, primarily in the East.

His last performance in Lewistown was in 2000 or 2001. “It would be fun to do another one,” he says. McMeen has lined up a Feb. 15 show with guitarist Steve Baughman, presented by the Mansion Concert Series in Harrisburg. That website is www.mansionconcert.org.

“Concerts are fun, because of the interplay with the audience,” McMeen added, “especially in a more intimate venue setting.”

He shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

McMeen’s website is www.elmcmeen.com.