NAMM HIGHLIGHTS

-First off, I met with Josh Baker of Benchmark Records to discuss how things have gone with the release of Conduit over the past few months...

(pictures: Timothy Daniel)


Suffice to say, we talked a lot of things through, and I was really impressed with how cool he's being about the whole thing. Conduit will continue to exist, both in stores and at my shows, and both Josh and I are optimistic about our ability to co-exist on the music scene. We actually had a great time. :]

-I also performed at the Aguilar Bass Amplification booth each day I was at the convention. The first day, we had a hard time setting the levels between the vocals and the bass, and the noise police told us I was too loud. The second day, I didn't sing, but instead performed a duo with Steven Jenkins of NYC (Screaming Headless Torsos; a bad muther-fo), and that seemed to tame the savage noise patrollers. The third and last day I was there, I just said to hell with it and went balls out, and it was one of the best performances in recent history.
(Thanks to Cindy Sheffield Michaels for these shots!)

I played the annual show at the Marriott hotel lobby again as well, and that went splendidly. There were some celebrity guests in attendence; some well-known in music circles (bass players, take note: STEVE BAILEY caught the show for the second year in a row, and came up to me to tell me he enjoyed it. Oh YEAH...), and some that SHOULD be (Tim Corley, Timothy Daniel...).

I also shared the stage with some great acts. Rodney Branigan was there this year, and he stunned the crowd with his
"One Man, Two Guitars, No Tuner?" selection (oh, he knows... and he's probably laughing as hard as I was)... it was nice to finally get him to a NAMM show. He recently had all of his guitars stolen, and he had four companies clamoring to sign him to an endorsement deal! I think he went with Alvarez (they make Ani DiFranco's guitars, so you know they might be durable enough for Rodney), but I'm not sure.

At the end of the night, I did a songwriters-in-the-round set with Kerry Getz (who puts the whole Marriott entertainment deal together), Rodney, and a songwriter who's been blowing my mind recently: Daniel MacKenzie. What a great time that was. Kerry had played me Daniel's debut album, "A Complete Unknown" (see my Top Ten Albums of 2004) a few months back, and I flipped out over it; this guy is a brilliant writer, and suddenly there I am sharing a stage with him... he played all new material I hadn't heard before, and I was floored. Keep your eye on this guy... if I can't convince him to play shows with me, at the very least I'ma be his Number One Fan. :)

I had a great time, all told, and I must thank some friends for taking such good care of me:

Kerry Getz (Queen of the Marriott entertainment court)
Dave Avenius (Aguilar)
Chris Jett (Korg)
Dale Titus, Craig Costagan, and Michael Brown (Dana B. Goods/Warwick)
Chuck Kossuth (also Warwick, but he's so cool he gets his own line!)
Lonny Brooks and Jay Morrissey (Taylor)
...and the good folks over at Shure microphones and Hosa cables that helped us set up the vocal microphone!

You guys all rock my socks off being the cool people you are, and you all helped me out in big ways; last weekend and beyond.
Thank you so much!


...Now go check out the tour schedule and find out when I'm coming to your town! :)