NAMM Day 1 – We left BWI at 10:45am and arrived on time. Checked into the Hotel Preston and went downtown for some lunch. The plan was to play at the Preston from 8pm to midnight. At 2pm we found out that the hotel was double booked and we could play from 6pm to 8pm. Quite a letdown since we knew Gibson Guitars was having a major event and the hotel Preston was 1 of the host hotels. At 4pm, Gina Hughes of the Galaxie Agency, THE Gina Hughes who got all of our shows booked, called to say we were going to play at Bourbon Street Blues Bar opening for Josh Garrett and use their equipment. Cool! Much better than a hotel happy hour gig..
We got to Bourbon Street to find only 1 amp – We need 2.. There was a private party ending as we were walking in and they had a guitar amp. Peter Burger, the manager of Bourbon Street said he would arrange it so we could use the amp that was on the stage and he did. Turns out it was a Mesa Boogie. Roger checked it out and it sounded pretty good.. at that time. In addition to Roger, Bob and I, Jay Corder drove in from Rogersville, TN to join us on Thursday night. We got up to play around 8pm, all 5 of us like old times. David did the drum intro to Blow Me and we started. Even though the Mesa was not the ideal harp amp, we did fine. Jay sounded great and it was a blast to play our 1st night in Nashville.
We hung out to catch some of Josh Garrett and the Bottomline. Check them out – They are BAD!
Went back to the room, took a shower and went to bed.. oh, after somehow blowing the breaker for the electricity in the room. Only our room! The lights in the hall were fine. For some reason you can't turn on the TV, charge a phone and have a light on at the same time after midnight. They sent someone up to reset it, 5 minutes later he was back to do it again! Oh.. and the phone.. seems it rings about every 15 minutes, beginning at 3:44am, with nothing but static on the line. Oh well.. very cool quirky hotel.. That's where I'll stay next time.. life on the road!
NAMM Day 2 – Friday June 20
The day started out with a 1st – my 1st breakfast at a Waffle House. Our server, Luianne helped with the menu and it was.. well a waffle. Spent the morning at the NAMM show walking the floor. Got to see some old friends at the booths – Marty at Access Bags, Ben Cole at GHS, Coop demoing whatever it was this year, Toshi, David and Holly at Spectraflex, Gordon Roberts at Flaxwood, Flash Bathory at Tregan guitars, and many others. After lunch at Panera it was over to the Gibson Summer Jam at the Gibson Custom Shop. Being endorsed by Epiphone has it's benefits!
The Summer Jam was cool – We got there in time to catch some of the jam session. David & I signed up but didn't make it up to the stage. They had a great lineup for the Friday night show – Johnny Winter with Special Guest Slash. Their show started at 9pm, right around the time we'd be wrapping up our set downtown, but we knew we couldn't make it.
Went back to the hotel to freshen up (put on the cool shoes) and head back downtown for our show at Bourbon Street. Gina assured me that there would be another guitar amp for us to use (since the Mesa went home with it's owner the previous night) and 10 minutes before hit time an amp showed up. I got to try the mystery amp this time. We were the second band, Branded Sons opened it up with some great harmonies. The place was pretty crowded with a few familiar faces. Fellow GHS endorsee Lisa Lim was there with her husband and cameraman Mark, our good friend Joe Pritchard was there with Becky, along with many people to support Gina with her new company.
We hit around 7:30pm and I must say it went pretty well. Even with the Mystery Amp.. We did a 45 minute set and then brought up 15 year old guitarist Ryan Holliday. He stole the show – never follow kids or animals! He brought the house down. We finished the set with a little Freddy King and then cleared the stage for Anthony Gomes.
Anthony's band, the New Soul Cowboys rocked the house. They were high energy rock and roll complete with the Marshall stack! What a great player.
Josh Garrett finished the night off. His band features a horn section of trumpet and trombone that can play that true New Orleans sound. They were right on with the blues, zydeco and even a great version of Santana's Black Magic Woman. Josh is a monster guitar with great tone. We had a great time hanging out and listening, and I had a ball doing a couple of songs with them late in the night.
Back to the hotel at 2am, only blew the breaker once that night and I figured out how to put the phone on hold so it would stop ringing. Fun night…
NAMM Day 3 – Saturday June 21
Today was breakfast at the hotel.. ok but $$$. Off to the NAMM show floor. There was a group of people from Hammond Leslie at our show last night, one guy liked the sound of my leslie-like pedal and told me I need to come by their booth and try out the guitar leslie. I did. Anthony Gomes is an endorsee of theirs. After hearing it I asked them how I get my picture up on their booth as an endorsee. It's the real deal. More to come on that one..
I saw some cool guitars by Normandy – all metal. They have a chrome model, very very cool. Visited a few more sponsors, spent a bit of time with Paul, Rob and Gypsi at Peavey. They have been great to us. Left the NAMM floor around 3 to head back over to Gibson. Had to meet up with Hank Ettel, the hardest working man I know. He was running clinics and getting strings and who knows what else. At least I got a moment to say hi. I did miss the Epiphone clinic hosted by Dr. Epiphone himself, Will Jones. Another guy who is just too busy.
David and Roger both left Nashville today, so they missed out on a cool opportunity. I got invited to play with Stacy Mitchhart at his NAMM event at BB Kings! How cool is that. I brought Bob along and we got up and did a couple of songs with the band before Stacy joined us for dueling Epiphones on the T-Birds song "Sick and Tired". It was a blast!
After BB's we decided on a quiet dinner. Somehow we ended up at Morton's. Got a text from Gina to see what we were doing and if we wanted to go to John Rich's club. I had no idea what John Rich's club was. Turns out John Rich is Rich from Big and Rich and he has a private club on Broadway. Didn't take long to make that decision to go hang there. Gina met us at Morton's since she is a regular there, we followed her to a lot and walked to the club. It was cool to walk around the line and go right up the stairs. Very nice place.. nice bar, drinks are complimentary, and there is a balcony overlooking Broadway. We go there at 11:45 and it was dead, they said it doesn't get busy for at least an hour. About an hour later the Gibson tour bus pulled up and the Muzic Mafia (the band) got out and came up the to the club. An hour and 3 Scotches later it was time to go. Got back to the hotel around 2:45 and the phone only rang once before I remembered to put the lines on busy. Cool night..
Sunday June 22 – Going home.
Other than the plane being delayed for 2 hours.. and uneventful flight. Very nice weekend.