Which has the better view?

Here's the view from my room here in Southern Maryland ...

And here's the view from the library.

Guess where I spend most of my time. : )

Nam @ NAMM 2012 (Part 3)

Things have been busy, so I've been putting-off posting these pictures for a while.

Pictured below is me with one of my biggest influences, Thomas Leeb. I happened upon him during one of my many visits to the Lowden Guitar booth (more on Lowden later). He gave a short but sweet performance and was very approachable and friendly!

We chatted for a bit, he listened to some of my playing and gave some compliments (I'm reminded of that scene from Wayne's World when Wayne and Garth meet Alice Cooper ... who was also at the NAMM show), and even let me play his signature model guitar!

NAMM was full of other surprises like bumping into Stevie Wonder ... three times! Other greats like Eric Johnson, Andy McKee, Sheila E, Horatio "El Negro" Sanchez, and countless others were there.

I also got to try out some wacky gadgets like the Infinite Response VAX77 keyboard which is a folding keyboard.

One of my most fun jams occurred at the Vintage Vibe booth where another keyboardist and I jammed on a bunch of jazz standards and accumulated a pretty good crowd. These were a lot of fun!

Ah, and of course, I can't end this post without mentioning the wonderful people at Lowden Guitars. This was hands-down my favorite booth at the Winter 2012 NAMM Show. I visited them every day because I simply could not get enough of George Lowden's guitars! The sound and feel are sublime. On the right, you can see two of their prototype fan fret models *drool*. They also had a gorgeous African Blackwood guitar that was a truly impressive sound canon. George's family was delightful and very patient in answering my questions and letting me play these dreamy guitars. One day, I hope to own a Lowden!

Overall, my time at the NAMM show was great. I regret not taking more pictures, but there was so much to do! I can't wait to go again and really make the most of my time there!

Nam @ NAMM 2012 (Part 2)

It's impossible to really convey all the music-related goodies on display at the NAMM show. If I stopped to take a picture of everything that looked interesting, I never would have made my way around the convention center. It took me a while to "get" the layout, but by Day 3, I had a pretty good idea of where everything was. 

There was so much going on all the time, so many incredible musicians strutting their stuff. It ultimately made it difficult for any given stand to, er, stand out. Unfortunately, that also made many of the acoustic instruments difficult to listen to when I tried them out. Sometimes, a stand would have featured performer who would have the benefit of being amplified, but for the everyday attendee, a given instrument was seldom given its due auditory due.

Of course, it wasn't all pick-up-and-play items. There were plenty of things on display that were not for any mortal to touch. Then again, I got to play on a $15k guitar which is pretty darn cool. More on that in a later post.

Aaaaannnnndddddd shiny ...

In the next part, I'll post some pictures of some very cool people I got to meet!

Nam @ NAMM 2012 (Part 1)

As promised, I'm finally getting around to posting my experience and thoughts on my very first NAMM show! First, I need to thank my friends Nelson (link) and Jan (link) for bringing me along and showing me the ropes. Also, a huge thanks to my friends at Tycoon Percussion (link) for sponsoring me!

My trip began with a 2 hour drive from Southern Maryland to Washington DC. (Just a few days prior, I had made the move from Philly down to SoMD!) The TSA people were actually quite funny and good-humored at Dulles. From DC, I went to Chicago, had a surprise layover in Kansas City, and eventually wound-up in LA where I met-up with Nelson and Jan. 

We were all famished and slurped down some delicious, local Mexican food then made our way to Anaheim and made preparations for the days ahead. This was what my walk looked like every morning:

The poor Southern Californians were suffering through a cold front with highs in the mid 60s. My Philly friends told me they got snow dumped on them right after I left. This picture was from Day 1. In the coming days, the sidewalk would be filled with musicians. Just to rub it in, here's a shot from the balcony of the convention center:

Unfortunately, I didn't take too many pictures as I was overwhelmed with the orgy of musical goodness happening around me. Over the course of the convention, I rubbed shoulders with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Alice Cooper, Eric Johnson, Andy McKee, and Thomas Leeb (more on that later). In addition to every music-related product you could think of, they had some things you probably didn't know existed like a cube that worked as a versatile percussion instrument, a stick that played both bass parts and percussion, and a full drum set you could play with your feet:

More pictures on the way in Part 2!

Sheltered Turtle @ Grounds for Music 2011

     A "thank you" to John Hutelmyer for shooting and editing this promo video for last year's Grounds for Music and feature my performance of my piece The Six Years throughout the video. Additional thanks to Greg Layton and Deborah Kates for putting on this event and supporting their local art and music scene!