'You couldn't wipe this smile off my face': Edmonton musician's stolen guitar recovered

An Edmonton musician is no longer playing the blues now that his 1964 Red Telecaster guitar is back in his hands.

“To be honest, I was pretty depressed and I’m a happy dude right now,” said Kelly Bourdages, leader of the band Trick Ryder.

The guitar, gifted to him by Canadian Country Legend Big George Moody 40 years ago, was stolen from his truck earlier this month.

“I went and played with my other guitar, it wasn’t the same,” said Bourdages. “I felt so violated.”

After nearly two weeks thinking he’d never see the guitar again, someone spotted it.

“I don’t know who had it, I don’t care, we said no questions asked, we said we’d do a reward, we kept our word and we gave a reward,” Bourdages said.

“Red found its way home. I’m not going to lie, I think I’m going to tell my girlfriend she can sleep on the couch because this one’s coming to bed with me.”

He’s thankful for the support while the guitar was missing but said the whole ordeal has taught him a valuable lesson.

“My stuff now is all in storage, it’s under lock and key with surveillance, with cameras and actually there’s guards at these storage units so I learned my lesson,” he said.

The guitar did suffer a bit of damage Bourdages said can be fixed.

“I’m elated. You couldn’t wipe this smile off my face.”

With files from CTV Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson