NAMM, the interNAtional Music products association M (go figure) had it’s winter convention in Anaheim last week, and as usual Jason, Ryan and I headed down.

We changed our strategy this year, and headed first to the Taylor Guitar suite to get their performance schedule – Taylor sets up a stage with top notch sound and lighting, and they invite some of their artists to do sets. Once we knew their schedule, we spent the intervening hours on the exhibit floor. Here’s some highlights.

If you want to see all my pics, here’s my set on Flickr.

I don’t have a heading for this one:

Jason, my accordian playing trucker buddy, ramps it up in the Roland booth at NAMM

Taylor Artists

Last year we saw Everclear among others in a room that holds an SRO crowd of maybe 200 people. This year we saw four artists, none of whom we knew. First up was Marc Seal. Marc is touring for Taylor this year, and played a combination of original music and a few covers – including a nice job on “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.”

It’s worth checking out Doyle Dykes’ videos on the Taylor website. He has a lightning fast fingerstyle that is unique and energetic.

Marc Seal

Sandra Stephens – guest singer for Marc Seal

Doyle Dykes – he’s pretty much this intense the entire time

I didn’t know Elliot Murphy before this show, even though he’s been around since the 70′s. He’s a folk-rock singer-songwriter with a soulful deep voice. He was accompanied by Olivier Durand – one of the most unique and interesting guitar players I’ve seen in a long time

Elliot Murphy

Elliot and Olivier Durand going at it

I’m not a big country fan, so Jonalee White was kind of lost on me.

Jonalee White belting it out

Guitars

Some of the guitars I loved:

New Taylor T3 semihollow electric

James Trussart metal

XOX carbon fiber electric

Equipment

Vox had some nice new amps, my favorite was the “Night Train,” a 15w head that sounded beautiful and weighed a ton. I also have to update my Pro Tools – the new Pro Tools 8 is a giant upgrade from my ancient version.

VOX Night Train amp

Night Train detail

One of DW’s kits on display

Other Artists

And of course there was the usual slate of sponsored artists signing stuff.

Mick Thomson, Slipknot’s #7

Steve Vai, Guitar God

Again, more pictures on Flickr.

After the NAMM show in Anaheim this week (post and pictures coming soon) Jason and I headed up to Hollywood to catch the Alan Parsons Project at the House of Blues.

Alan led the band from a riser at the back of the stage. In addition to being great musicians, each member of the band also had vocal chops – each one of them was lead singer on at least one of the songs.

Alan taking his turn at lead vocals.

Godfrey Townsend, lead guitarist.

It isn’t that I haven’t been blogging lately, it’s that I have been blogging HERE. Instead I’ve been blogging here.

We spent 10 wonderful days in Costa Rica touring the country. I took over 1500 photographs, all geotagged via a GPS I carried along. I also kept a journal of the trip. Then I spent all of last week going through the images, winnowing them down to ‘only’ 138, and then building the travel blog out of my journal. Whew.