For 70 years, Fender has inspired countless musicians to pick up its electric guitars, from Stratocaster players like Mark Knopfler to Telecaster pickers like Laur Joamets. This week, Fender’s Nashville-based A&R team hand-picked American rock & roll songwriter and guitar player Andrew Leahey — frontman of Andrew Leahey & the Homestead — to receive the FIRST in a new line of “Deluxe Nashville Telecaster” guitars.

“The first guitar I ever bought was a Fender Squire Strat,” Andrew remembers. “I was 10 years old, and I mowed my neighbor’s lawn for an entire summer to save up enough money. Years later, it’s an honor to be working with some of the guys behind this company. They’re true music fans, willing to invest in some of the newer faces in Nashville’s music scene. To say that I’m honored to be the first to receive one of these new guitars is an understatement.”

Andrew recovered from a risky brain surgery in 2014 and responded to his new lease on life by writing and recording an 11-track album, ‘Skyline In Central Time,’ due out August 5th on Thirty Tigers. Ken Coomer, Wilco’s drummer and co-founder, produced the project.

Here’s a link to a video preview by our friends at The Bluegrass Situation:http://www.thebluegrasssituation.com/read/listen-andrew-leahey-homestead-little-love