No, I didn't have to play this jewel of a piano. But it's not beyond imagination (sadly) that a client would say, "Oh, it will be fine---just do what you can with it. No one will know." (When they say that, and I've heard it often over the years, I always want to say, "YOU, Mr. Client, may not notice anything amiss because YOU are a moron. But don't underestimate your guests.) This mangled piano was in a fancy wedding venue in the mountains of North Carolina, not far from Cashiers. It's a fancy place. I'm hoping that this piano is just there for atmosphere. But, looking at it, you have to wonder what this piano has seen. Was it beat up this way in a middle-class living room? Not likely. In a holy-roller church, where it was played by enthusiastic piano-pounders? In a raunchy mountain beer joint where the band set up behind chicken wire? By Jerry Lee Lewis wannabes? Who knows? It's fun to imagine, but it was more fun to see it and know I didn't have to sit down and fight to make music come out of that box!