I had an amazing second day at NAMM. I took tons of photos, and test drove some great guitars, but the thing I'll remember most about yesterday was all the cool people I met. Early in the day, I bumped into Beth Marlis. Beth is currently the VP of Education for Musicians Institute, but some 17 years ago, she was my private on-on-one instructor at GIT. What a neat experience to chat with this person I hadn't seen in so many years. Beth was super-nice. It made me want to check out the school again; it sounds like they are doing some great things there these days.
A while later, I met up with Souvik Dutta from Abstract Logix. I've worked with Souvik remotely for several years now, but have only met him in person once before. While hanging with Souvik, I got to meet and hang out with some heavy-hitters such as Matthew Garrison, Jonas Hellborg, T.M. Stevens, and Scott Kinsey. Souvik, Garrison, and I also went to see Allan Holdsworth at the Yorkville booth where he was signing autographs. We were like three giddy groupies waiting to see the master. Allan was really cool. When I mentioned I would be seeing him at Alva's the following day, he said "You shouldn't have told me; I'm going to be nervous now." That's Holdsworth for you - "I suck. I'm terrible." Sure Allan, whatever you say.
At the end of the day, Souvik and I saw Mike Keneally, Marco Minnemann, and Bryan Beller (aka KMB) perform at the Fender Booth. What a great show. Their material is really intense, in a Zappa-meets-prog sort of way. Great stuff. Keneally is a mad man. I also saw Greg Howe at Tone Merchants last night, but I want to give that it's own post.
Today will be my last day at the show, and it's going to be a busy one. There are TONS of big name players performing and signing autographs at the show today, and I'm going to try to catch as much as I can. Then later tonight, I'll be seeing Holdsworth at Alva's in San Pedro with Souvik and I believe Alex Machacek. Stay tuned...
not fair! I should be there too!
Posted by: Laurie Monk | January 17, 2009 at 03:00 PM
Too lucky, you are.
Posted by: Rob Waxman | January 17, 2009 at 10:27 PM