The Guitar Channel

Prashant Aswani - NAMM show video

Prashant Aswani has uploaded several MySpace videos from his 2008 NAMM show performances at the ESP booth. In this clip, Aswani is playing one the new Xtone series ESPs. This track is called "Entangled."

My NAMM diary

Maybe "diary" is the wrong word, but Modern Guitars Magazine has just published an article I've written detailing my experiences at this year's Winter NAMM show.

Rich Murray at the 2008 Winter NAMM show

NAMM gigs photo gallery

I've uploaded a second Picasa photo album featuring shots I took of the following shows:

Scott Henderson Trio @ The Baked Potato - 1/16/08 (first show)
Jazz Ministry (feat Michal Landau) @ The Baked Potato - 1/17/08 (first show)
Allan Holdsworth @ The Baked Potato - 1/18/08 (second show)
Brett Garsed and Dirty Martini @ Alva's - 1/19/08

There aren't many pics here, and some of them are a bit rough, but here they are:
NAMM gigs photo gallery

I also saw Ric Fierabracci's set with Brett Garsed at JT Schmid's on 1/18/08, but those pics turned out awful.

NAMM show photo gallery

I've put up a Picasa photo album of my best pics from the 2008 Winter NAMM show. Most of the pics have captions but some do not.  Enjoy!

2008 Winter NAMM photo gallery

NOTE: These pics are just from the NAMM show itself. I still need to upload my live gig shots. I don't have many, but I'll have them in a separate album.

Paul Gilbert - NAMM 2008 video

Here's a video I took of Paul Gilbert performing at the Marshall booth at this year's NAMM show.

Modern Guitars Magazine photo coverage of NAMM

Jesse Stern took some great photos of the NAMM show for Modern Guitars Magazine. Jesse and I worked together a bit, going from booth to booth to find some good shots. Great guy. Modern Guitars has extensive photos from all 4 days. Start with the day one, page one link below and follow the links from there (you will even see a picture of me on this page playing a copper Dean acoustic; my pic is right below Dave Mustaine's.)

Modern Guitars Magazine NAMM photos

I'm back

Well I'm back home from my NAMM show trip, and all I can say is WOW! Well, that's not all I can say. I'm going to be doing a lot of writing in the coming days about my experiences there and some of the awesome shows I saw. I will also put up a Picasa photo album with all my best pics. Stay tuned...

Rich

Heading to the NAMM show!

Friends,
I'm heading to California for the NAMM show today. I probably won't be posting anything new to the site until I get back next week. I'm sure I'll have lots of great stuff to share when I return!

Rich

2008 Winter NAMM Show Events

I'll be attending the Winter NAMM show this year in Anaheim, CA from Jan 17th-Jan 20th, courtesy of Modern Guitars Magazine. I've attended NAMM before, but I haven't gone in about 15 years. Needless to say, I can't wait!

For those of you attending the show this year, here is a list of show floor appearances and gigs around town that, as a reader of The Guitar Channel, you may be interested in.

2008 Winter NAMM Show Events

New Paul Gilbert album title and NAMM appearances

Paul Gilbert's new instrumental album will be called Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar. In Japan, the title will be Hoko which translates to "Roar". The Japanese release date is Jan 23rd, no word on release dates for other territories yet. Here is the album personnel:

Paul Gilbert: Guitar
Mike Szuter: Bass
Jeff Bowders: Drums
Emi Gilbert: B3 and Piano

Also, Gilbert will be making several NAMM show appearances, including a Saturday Jan 19th appearance at 12:30pm at the Marshall booth, where he will be performing some songs from the new album. Gilbert's other NAMM show appearances will be:

An autograph session for Tortex Picks at the Jim Dunlop booth at 11am on Sat. Jan. 19.
An autograph session for Ibanez Guitars at the Hoshino booth at 3pm on Saturday, Jan. 19th
Sitting in with Joe Satriani at his JS guitar anniversary concert, Saturday night. (Venue TBA)
An autograph session for my Instructional DVDs at the Alfred Publishing booth on Sunday, Jan. 20th at noon

I'll be attending the NAMM show this year (more on that later), so I'm pretty psyched to be able to see Paul show off some of his new tunes.

Brett Garsed NAMM show gigs

One of the cool side-effects of the NAMM show are the great gigs that often take place surrounding the event. The massive music merchants trade event is held in Anaheim California every January, and features every music-related product manufacturer under the sun showing off their latest wares (unfortunately, the show is not open to the general public). I've been lucky enough to attend to the NAMM show several times (once in Anaheim, a few times in Chicago back when they held a second show there every summer) and can tell you the show floor is always teeming with top players promoting the various products they endorse. Oftentimes, musicians who attend the NAMM show, but who don't play live in the states much, will play some gigs in the surrounding area while they are in town for the event. Case in point: guitarist Brett Garsed will play three NAMM show gigs this January in California with his band Dirty Martini. Ric Fierabracci will be on bass, Joel Taylor on drums. Per Ric Fierabracci's MySpace page, reservations are recommended for all 3 shows. The 1/15, and 1/19 gigs are listed as "NAMM show exclusives". Not sure if that means you have to be a member of NAMM to attend or not, so you should call ahead to find out. Here are the dates:

Brett Garsed & Dirty Martini
1/12/08  Tone Merchants - Orange, CA  (714) 288-9583
1/15/08  The Baked Potato - Studio City, CA  (818) 980-1615
1/19/08  Alva's - San Pedro, CA  (800) 403-3447

Greg Howe "Giant Steps" video from NAMM 2007

Found this cool video of guitarist Greg Howe playing "Giant Steps" during the 2007 NAMM show. Dig it!

OHM to play 3 shows during NAMM week

Chris Poland's band OHM will be playing 3 California gigs during the week of this year's NAMM show.

Jan. 18 - The Baked Potato - Studio City, CA
Jan. 19 - The Blue Café - Huntington Beach, CA
Jan. 20 - Winston's San Diego - San Diego, CA

Greg Howe performs during NAMM '07

Greg Howe is going to kick off the 2007 NAMM week bash with a show at Tone Merchants in Orange, CA on Jan 18th 2007. Seats are $20.00 per person; advance reservations are required.