I’ve had fun attending and performing at several Luthier events this summer. I was the steel-string demonstrator at the GAL (Guild of American Luthiers) convention in Tacoma in July; and a performer, teacher and demonstrator at August’s SBAIC.com in Santa Barbara. At GAL I performed 40 seconds of my arrangement of “Water Is Wide” 33 times in a row – on 33 different guitars! The luthiers wanted to compare apples to apples, hearing the same player play the same piece on all the guitars. Next time maybe I’ll play O.C. Smith’s “Little Green Apples”…
In Santa Barbara I had a great time participating in the Santa Barbara Acoustic Instrument Celebration at the Fess Parker Resort on the beach. (You might remember Fess Parker as TV’s Daniel Boone.) The photos above show Kinloch Nelson teaching in the outdoor workshop venue (it is SoCal!), and luthier John Carrigan, whose Curly Creek Guitars I demoed. I also played for luthier Simon Dion of Canada, gave a concert with Peghead Nation’s Teja Gerken and Acoustic Guitar magazine contributor Doug Young at the SoHo Music Hall/Restaurant downtown, and gave a solo backyard house concert nearby. (Photos below.)
All great fun!
