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January 21, day two
and onward.. no need to write the days separately - except for the one concert I played, every day was equally full of people, instruments, and
action!
Still lots of musician friends to bump into... like Rick Wakeman, and Albert Lee...
Over at the OLP booth, John Petrucci and I did signings each day, part of the announcement of signature model instruments for each of us, that
OLP is putting out.
John is the guitarist in the popular Dream Theater. Question we got most from people was, is there more Liquid Tension Experiment music
coming out... the answer is, we've got no plans for more albums. In the future... you never know!
And the deal with the Tony Levin signature bass is this: it was planned to be ready for this NAMM show - a 5 string, licensed by Music Man, that's
pretty much like the Peach colored StingRay 5 I've been playing since 1989, but quite a bit cheaper to buy. Well, there's one bass here at the
show, in a different (but nice) color, and the sound hasn't been tested out enough yet, so it'll be Spring before the basses are on the market.
Should be pretty neat.
(Signed a whole lot of those pages!)
Friday night, at the "acoustic cafe" concert in a nearby ballroom, I joined the California Guitar Trio for a very special show. Midway
though, Jon Anderson came on stage and joined us for Heart of the Sunrise (it's a piece we often play as an instrumental, and I'd performed it
a lot with Jon, back in 1990 - but this combo was a first.) Then I left the stage and Jon stayed with the Trio to perform a new composition of his own, a concerto for guitars.
Back at the show, Saturday and Sunday, lots of NAMM color and sound (I'll omit the sound - be glad of that - as usual it got louder and louder!)
(There seems to be no limit to how many necks on a guitar, or strings on a bass!)
Two spots I visited as often as time would allow me:
(Logic Audio, to pick up tips on how to better use my home recording system, and any of the espresso vendors on the floor!)
Here's a poster someone had, for an album I played on ages ago, Lou Reed's Berlin
More sights:
That's bassist Evil J giving me a friendly wave - he's a buddy, so I just call him Evil.
And, for a last shot of the NAMM show, from the Radial booth where, after I did some
signing of give-away cd's, owner Peter Janis and I shared a glass of surprisingly good Canadian wine.
It tasted good after an hour of chatting with people... and after the four days of NAMM, more than a glass of wine seemed appropriate,
especially after I ran back to the hotel to watch my Patriots get the playoff win. In case you hadn't noticed, for Boston sports
fans, these are the good old days!
Another NAMM show come and gone - a huge number of East Coast people will now be heading back into the snow, hoping their flights don't get delayed or cancelled.
But here in Anaheim it was lots of fun, lots of music, lots of new music equipment, lots and lots of contact with players and music lovers.
Most special instrument I played - a Music Man 4 string Bongo Bass in flat black design they call the Stealth Bass. Most special event to me was the
bagpipe accompanied memorial tribute to industry figures who'd passed away this year - it included Ernie Ball, founder of the very company who I've
been lucky to be associated with for many years now.
For me, flight home to NY State, shovel out the car at the airport, home a day, then driving down to Anapolis for the first show of a California Guitar Trio
tour, daydreaming about that Stealth Bass!
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