An ex-lawman and his guitars

On a humid June morning, Bob Frith sat on the front porch of his home built in the woods down a long graveled driveway.

His thick fingers strummed the six strings on an acoustic guitar. A tune emerged and he smiled.

"A lot of people like to read for entertainment," Frith said. "If I pick up an instrument -- like a guitar -- then I'm entertained."

Frith's home far off the beaten path in Oconee County now is his headquarters. After spending almost four decades in law enforcement, he retired in 2009. While he laid aside his sidearm, his hands today are on guitars -- a Les Paul, a Stratocaster, a G&L -- or the piano.

And as the keyboard player for the James Hunter Band, the country-western group, Frith has been practicing for a performance at 10 a.m. Monday during a July 4th Celebration at Eagle Tavern in Watkinsville.

While Frith cites musicians like Chet Atkins, the Ventures and The Beatles as being his musical influences when he took up the guitar in the 1960s, his interest in music also was influenced by the opposite sex.

Frith and his wife, Helen Anne, grew up when The Beatles took America by storm and they were both attending Hialeah High School in the Miami area.

"She was crazy about Paul (McCartney). She had an interest in The Beatles and their music, so that generated my interest," he said, adding that he purchased some Beatles records and learned to play them on a guitar to impress the young woman.

During his teen years, Frith and three others formed a band called the Chevrons that won a battle of the bands contest by playing the song "Wipe Out," a version made by The Ventures, a group that actually was more of an influence on the Chevrons than The Beatles.

"We did an instrumental and won," Frith said.

After high school, he and

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