The reason I went to Nashville recently was to work our company's booth at the Summer 2011 National Association of Music Merchants show, or simply known as NAMM. NAMM is an organization that, according to their web site, is a "not-for-profit association that unifies, leads and strengthens the $17 billion global music products industry." The NAMM organization serves as a hub for those looking to find the newest in musical products, recording technology, and professional sound and lighting. Whether you're working in a small recording studio, a music store vendor, or a touring professional, NAMM is the organization that helps showcase the gear that keeps musicians in business. From amps to instruments, lighting to P.A. systems, publishing to promotions, NAMM allows companies to showcase their gear at two annual shows.
The Summer NAMM show in Nashville is significantly smaller than its winter counterpart that is held in early January in Anaheim, CA. The Winter NAMM is six times larger in terms of companies that show, and the people attending are, well, more colorful than the more conservative-minded people who attend the show in Tennessee. But there were some people at the Summer NAMM who were dressed rather flamboyantly, literally screaming, "Look at me! I'm trying to be somebody!" You could tell the "wanna-bes" who came to our booth by the number of big names they would casually drop in conversation trying to impress you with how important they are because they had had their picture taken one time with Elton, Reba or Phil. (I never did figure out which Phil it was, though...)
The Summer NAMM is housed in the Nashville Convention Center, just north of Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville (see map). The Summer NAMM, at one point, was a pretty good sized show with exhibits in both the convention center and in the arena. The show was expanding so fast that they needed more room to show exhibits. Summer NAMM moved to Indianapolis about seven years ago and attendance plummeted. A number of large exhibitors quit showing at NAMM during the years they showed in Indy because of poor attendance. The eventually moved the Summer NAMM to Austin, TX, but it was during the economic downturn of 2008 and 2009. With the show downsized by nearly 2/3rds, Summer NAMM moved back to Nashville last year. But even with it being back in Nashville, attendance is still down and a number of the large companies have not come back to Summer NAMM.
They are building a new and larger convention center to the south of Bridgestone Arena and it will more than triple the existing exhibition space that is in the current convention center. The new convention center should be open in time for Summer NAMM next year and show organizers are hoping the new facility will bring back some of the companies that have skipped the summer show for the past few years.
We were there showing products from Lauten Audio, a San Jose-based vendor of high-end studio and performance microphones; Vovox Cables, a Swiss manufacturer of high-end instrument, microphone and power cables; and Focal Pro, the leading near-field recording studio speakers on the market today. We were in a small booth - 10' X 10' - and it didn't give us much room to properly demonstrate products. At right is a picture of our booth with my colleague, Ian, doing some last minute clean up during set up the day before the show began. The only active demonstration we had was with a Wechter guitar and an Orange amp and bottom where we showed the difference between the Vovox guitar cables versus other cables that are more well-known name brands, including Monster Cable. Although it was tough to hear with all the ambient noise and other demos going on around us, those musicians who we did the demo for were overly impressed with how much better the guitar sounded with the Vovox cables. The rest of the equipment we showed was in static displays. You could look at the microphones and speakers, but you couldn't hear them. That somewhat hampered us in our efforts for people to stop in.
The Summer NAMM show was heavily skewed toward instruments that most country music people would use - mainly acoustic, electric and resonator guitars. Something I learned from the people at Wechter Guitars who were right across the aisle from us (pictured below left) was that the term "dobro" is a licensed trademark of Gibson, and other companies cannot call their metal topped guitars a dobro. Hence, they are called resonator guitars by the dozens of other guitar manufacturers who make that style of guitar. But even if they're not made by Gibson, dobro is still the common term for the guitars among musicians who play them.
Another thing that was interesting at the Summer NAMM were the number of vendors and distributors showing ukuleles (above right). There must have been six to eight different manufacturers/distributors showing everything from cheap, Japanese-made beginner ukuleles made out of bamboo, to hand-made exotic wood high-end ukuleles that fetched thousands of dollars. I was pretty amazed by the amount of uke's on display.
Now, if I haven't lost you already by this point, please bear with me just a while longer. I'm not going to get into the equipment at the show, but more the personalities that I saw, met and talked to.
Next to us was the Pigtronix booth. Pigtronix is a Long Island-based company that specializes in effect boxes for guitar players. David Koltai is the young owner of Pigtronix and he and a couple of his guys were on hand to demonstrate their "toys" to dozens of guitarists - both well-known and neophytes - who were in attendance at Summer NAMM. Pictured at left are two of David's guys who were pretty damned good guitarists in their own right. And David was no slouch on the fretboard, himself. Their booth was always busy - and loud. The NAMM officials came by about a half-dozen times during the show to tell them to turn it down. If they were hacks at the guitar, it would have been worse. But they were good players as well as good guys and were fun to be next to.
Between Pigtronix and Wechter guitars across the way from us, it was very difficult to hear our Vovox cable demo from all the playing going on between the two booths. It was actually sort of comical to watch some of the guys trying to hear the tonality and intricacies of a Wechter acoustic guitar while they had their ear right up next to the upper body of the guitar as they played.
This little kid below to the left is a young bluegrass performer from Indiana - Isaac Moore. He stopped by the Wechter booth on Thursday to play a little guitar for them. At first, I was a little skeptical, but once he sat down and started to pick out some songs, I was pretty amazed. He was there with his dad who looked like any other schlub from anywhere. But 8-year-old Isaac was playin' the part with his cowboy boots and hat, his pressed jeans and western shirt. I saw the kid the next day over at the Martin guitar booth in a western-style suit, complete with a matching cowboy hat.
Above right is a guitarist named Steve Hunter who stopped by the Pigtronix booth to try out some of the effects pedals. Steve Hunter isn't a household name, but he is very well known among guitar aficionados as "The Deacon" and is one of the very best in the business over the past 30+ years. He has played with a "whos-who" of musicians, performers and bands including Mitch Ryder, Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Bette Midler, Lou Reed, Meat Loaf, Julian Lennon and David Lee Roth. My friend, Leo Kelly - a very good guitarist in his own right - told me that Hunter "ghosted" on guitar for Joe Perry from Aerosmith on the song "Train Kept a Rollin" on their "Get Your Wings" album. David Koltai from Pigtronix, standing in the black shirt to the right of Hunter, let him sit down with a guitar and have at it. It was about 20 minutes of jamming on Hunter's part, trying out each different effect box in Pigtronix's arsenal. When he was done, he ended up buying two of the effects boxes that he said he would use when he plays with Alice Cooper on his upcoming tour. Now, that was pretty cool.
Another cool thing for me was seeing one of my all-time guitar heroes at the Pigtronix booth, Adrian Belew. Belew has had a storied solo career, but I first knew of him from working with King Crimson starting back in the 80's. He also played with The Bears, a very underrated group from Cincinnati that Belew had produced their first album when they were known as the Raisins. Belew joined up with them, they changed their name, and their first album - simply called "The Bears" - is one of my all-time favorite albums. Belew has also played with Frank Zappa and David Bowie.
More recently, Belew had been playing with bassist Julie Slick and her brother, Eric Slick, in Adrian Belew Power Trio. And Belew was checking out new effects boxes at Pigtronix for his upcoming Power Trio/Stick Men tour that features Julie Slick, and King Crimson bandmates Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto. Belew sat there as David Koltai played his guitar and went through all the different effects he had. Belew would lean back and laugh heartily when he heard something that he really liked. And he lauged a lot.
I had taken this picture of Belew as he was sitting with David. It wasn't a very good picture to begin with. He looked up and mugged for the camera as I went to take a second picture, but my camera phone's battery suddenly went low and it wouldn't let me take a picture. I cut David out of this photo because he was blurry. I was pretty upset that I couldn't get a better picture of Adrian Belew. But it was just sort of neat that I got to see him up close.
A few other guitarists that came through the Pigtronix booth included George Marinelli, the original guitarist for Bruce Hornsby, and who now plays with Bonnie Raitt. "Burnin' " Vernon Reid from Living Colour played guitars at both the Pigtronix booth and over at the HeliArc guitars booth that was about 30 feet away from us. I also saw Bob Welch, the former Fleetwood Mac guitarist before they got REALLY big in the 70's, and who also had a somewhat successful solo career in the late 70's. I'm sure there were many others who dropped by and played who I didn't know or recognize because there were a LOT of good guitar players stopping and playing guitars with effects at Pigtronix.
One guy that stopped in to look at the Lauten microphones was some guy named Eddie Reasoner. He was dressed like a tastefully aging rock star and immediately gave me his card and started dropping names. I thought this guy was a phony, but after going to his web site - NashAngeles Music - it appears he's a player in the music business of some significance. Or he's one helluva self-promoter.
But quite possibly the highlight of the show actually happened at a dinner that Lauten Audio founder and president Brian Loudenslager invited Ian and me to on Friday night. It took place at the Speakers Bistro at the Sheraton Nashville - a dinner that was so pedestrian I'm not even going to write about it on Road Tips. Brian also invited Grammy award winning engineer/producer Randy Kohrs and his wife, Ashley; and Mark Capps, a four-time Grammy award winning engineer/producer. Both Kohrs and Capps use Lauten microphones in their studios.
In the picture at left, from left to right is Randy Kohrs, his wife Ashley, Brian from Lauten Audio and Mark Capps. Ian took the picture and I declined to get in the shot.
It turns out that Kohrs is an Iowa native, so we had something very much in common with that. He grew up in New Virginia just south of Des Moines and began to play in a bluegrass band at the age of 15. He made it to Nashville and became known as one of the best resonator guitar players in town. He ended up playing for the likes of Dolly Parton, Tom T. Hall, Dierks Bentley, Jim Lauderdale, and Hank Williams III. Kohrs also has a pretty good solo career going and has released six bluegrass themed albums in his career.
When he isn't performing music, he's behind the sound console recording and mixing other artists around Nashville in his home studio, Slack Key Studio. The recording studio is literally a good portion of the main floor of his home with Ashley and Randy living on the second floor. In fact, their kitchen is somewhat unique in that they decorated it with a diner theme. Randy told me that the hanging pot holder is actually the rear bumper of a 70's era Cadillac that they brought home with them from Iowa. The seats around the table are reconstructed backseats out of a 64 Impala.
Their kitchen is so unique that Randy was featured on Rachael Ray's show in a segment called "The Coolest Kitchens in America." Below is a short You Tube video that tours Slack Key Studios and shows the unique kitchen in their house.
Mark Capps has worked side by side with dozens of producers and has worked with an equally impressive list of performers. Ironically, three of his four Grammy awards were for engineering the best polka albums from 2005 to 2007. In fact, the list of producers and artists that Capps has worked with over the years is too numerous to mention. To see a list of all who has worked with, click here and scroll down.
Ashley Kohrs (pictured right with Randy Kohrs) is a very good musician in her own right. She played fiddle on a number of bluegrass albums and played with Randy's back up band, the Lites. She currently is a self-employed public relations person, but also runs the business side of Slack Key Studios and Randy Kohrs' Left of Center record company. She is also an accomplished vocalist who has appeared on Kohrs' studio albums. They just got married in late April at their studio/home in Nashville and are a very nice couple.
What struck me about listening to Mark and Randy compare notes about the music industry in Nashville is how competitive it has gotten. Not only with musicians, but with recording studios as well. Given Nashville's low cost of living, a number of west coast engineers and producers have relocated to Nashville over the past few years. Randy estimated there were now over 10,000 studios in the greater Nashville area. "Digital recording and Pro Tools has turned bedrooms all over Nashville into recording studios," he said. "The biggest problem is that a lot of these guys are only charging $15 bucks an hour to record musicians. And it's usually bad."
Randy said that he usually charges about $150 to $300 an hour for his sessions, depending upon what is needed, but he's getting severely undercut with a lot of the competition. He said that he's had musicians who have gone elsewhere after getting a lower quote for studio time, but end up coming back to him to fix the recording because it doesn't sound good. "I usually tell them that it will cost them $800 bucks for me to fix the recording," he told us. "But then I tell them, 'Or for $500 bucks, you can just bring the whole band into my studio and we'll record it and make it sound good right from the start." He said that usually gets them to come back.
Mark told stories of musicians coming back to him with their tails between their legs after they went elsewhere to record, only to have the sound be wrecked by an inexperienced engineer/mixer. "That's why Randy and I continue to be busy," Mark explained to us. "We do it right the first time and you aren't throwing good money at bad with us trying to fix bad recordings."
Both talked about the idiosyncrasies and egos of both producers and artists. Without naming names - except one, Mutt Lange (the iconic producer who was once married to Shania Twain) - they told some great stories of working with producers and artists. Mark said, "Mutt is Mutt. He has the magic and it's like his ears are attached to his fingers. But he can be pretty difficult to work with."
Mark told a story about how he was working with Lange on an album in the Bahamas and how he would work 48 hours non-stop once he got in the groove. "He'd call musicians at 1:30 in the morning, getting them up out of bed and say, 'OK, you're on!' ", Mark told us. "Mutt was an animal when it came to recording."
We were discussing the amount of name-dropping that goes on at shows like Summer NAMM. Mark said, "I'll guarantee you, the more names that a person drops in the course of the conversation, the more unimportant they are in Nashville."
Mark and Randy talked about how the big Nashville flood affected them last year. Randy and Ashley said they had about four inches of water on their ground level. They, along with a couple friends, kept bailing water - for twelve hours. Ashley said, "I finally turned to Randy about 11:30 at night and said, 'I don't think I can lift my arms any more.' They hurt so bad."
Soundcheck in Nashville is a very well known storage warehouse and rehearsal space for many of Nashville's top musicians. The facility was inundated with water from the Cumberland River with up to 4 feet of muddy sludge inside the facility. Mark was telling us about friends who lost a lot of gear in the floods, and of some artists, such as Vince Gill, who lost vintage guitars that he had stored at Soundcheck. Many were salvageable through time and hard work, but there were items such as vintage tweed covered Fender amps that couldn't be repaired or replaced. Mark said that while some of the musicians had insurance, many did not. He said, "I had a friend who heard that the river was rising and he went down to Soundcheck to get his stuff out. He got to the road that Soundcheck sits on and couldn't believe how fast the water had come up. Everything he had for equipment got wet. He was able to save his guitars, but not his amps and accessories."
Randy said, "Oh, yeah. It was a mess in there after the water went down. Snakes were coiled up inside the back of Fender amps, there was four inches of mud everywhere and the smell was just horrific. I know someone who works in the office there and she says she can still smell the stench of the flood waters in the place." He said they cleaned and disinfected the buildings, replaced the drywall and it looks brand new. "But she can still smell it," he said. "I can't, but it must be burned into her memory."
Both guys were down to earth, no pretensions between the two, provided a load of information about the recording industry, and Ian and I both learned a lot from just sitting there with them for nearly three hours. Although the dinner at the Speakers Bistro wasn't all that great, the conversation absolutely was. When we split up for the evening, Randy and Ashley both invited Ian and me to stop by their studio on our next trip to Nashville. Nashville is Ian's territory and I have a dealer who is only 60 miles away in Bowling Green, KY. I may just swing down to Nashville at some point and get hold of Randy to take him up on that offer.
Even though this looks like a big crowd at the Summer NAMM in Nashville, this was actually a picture of the attendees at the top of the escalator getting ready to go down to the exhibit hall at the convention center before the doors opened on the first day of the show. Traffic was light again and this year they decided to open the doors to the public on the last day of the show. For $20 bucks a head, the public could come in and take a look at all the neat instruments, amplifiers and other musical toys on display at Summer NAMM. Only about 1100 people paid to get in on the last day of the show, but compared to the previous two days, traffic was up significantly that one day. Still, it wasn't enough to convince us to come back to Nashville for the 2012 Summer NAMM. We'll just concentrate on going to the big one in Anaheim in January. And even though I'd like to do that show at some point, I'm sure that I probably won't have the chance.
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