We
won't have a booth at the show, but David will be there,
roaming the aisles and meeting with dealers. In addition,
Lane will be there working with his close friend (and
our endorser!) Roy Vogt.
They'll both be at booth 1410, Hall E, with Teach Me
Bass Guitar.
If
you get into town on Wednesday, be sure to check out
Roy's show to open the show. It's at 6 p.m. at the Hilton,
on the Hilton stage. Rumor has it Lane is sitting in
again.
On
Thursday, at 1:30 p.m., you can catch Lane's presentation
in the Idea Center: The Magic of Wish Lists: Build
Your Business All Year Round.
If
all goes as planned, we will be uploading news and pictures
from the event on a daily basis. Keep your fingers crossed,
and check back here!
The
Pictures
It's
Wednesday the 20th and we've almost fully recovered
from NAMM. Today I downloaded the pictures and picked
out the best ones. I'm still waiting to hear from others
and will post new photos as they arrive. Here is a photo
recap of some of the fun at NAMM '10.
Roy Vogt and Shane Roberts perform at the Teach Me Bass
Guitar booth.
Roy talks to dealers.
VP, Sales & Relationships Lane Baldwin and David
Nordschow
Polo Jones drove 7 hours one way, just to see David
and wish him well.
David, Jay and Darlene Stevens and Garry Gryczan
Barry Pearlman, Renaissance Guitars, and Garry.
Polo and David can't stop laughing for a photo op. "I
can't tell you how happy I
am for David," Polo said. "It's like I'm
the kid at Christmas!"
David with two of our top endorers - Roy Vogt (left)
and Polo Jones (right).
David, Polo and Lane.
David talks to NAMM attendees.
David Crossman, CEO of The Learning Dock, LLC, publishers
of Roy Vogt's
Teach Me Bass Guitar, and Our David finally get to meet
face to face.
By Saturday afternoon, we were all getting a bit silly.
Here Bass Central's Johnnie Z and
Grasshopper do the Bunny Ears with Roy's wife Dee Dee.
Roy tried to stay serious and failed.
The final dinner at NAMM - Ribs and all the fixin's
at Lucille's Rib Shack
with the Bass Central crew and friends.
January
17, Last Day
As
I write this, I'm sitting outside the Phoenix airport
waiting for my delayed flight. I've got about a half
hour before going back through security. I'm hopeful
I'll be on my way home soon.
Yesterday
was very busy, but also a blast. For starters the media
seems very intersted both in our company and our partner
Teach Me Bass Guitar. We're all so proud of Roy and
happy for his success with TMBG. It really is a phenomenal
program.
David
spent the morning and early afternoon in one meeting
after another. We moved forward on at least one very
important front dealing with service. I can't say anything
now because I don't want to give anything away. Suffice
for now to say that we believe this will be a very important
benefit to our users.
The
afternoon really dragged for me as I've been living
on an average of 4 hours of sleep for more than ten
days at this point. We had more than enough work to
do without the need to totally re-engineer the web site
in the last two weeks.
After
the show I headed over to Lucille's Rib Shack with the
Bass Central gang. We couldnt' find anything bad on
the menu, and I highly recommend the beef ribs. Also
the banana pudding.
Back
to the house for one last night. About midnight, keyboardist
Tim McDonald and I started writing a song together.
Am blown away that Tim would ask me to write with him,
and looking forward to see how it turns out.
When
I get home, I'm going to sleep for a day and a half.
Then I'll pull what pictures I have and load them up.
I also have several people who promised to send me their
shots, so we'll see what I get on that end.
For
now, it's our first NAMM show in the can and we can
now get back to work.
UPDATE:
It's now 1:23 a.m., and I'm tired as all get-out, but
I wanted to get this loaded before I call it a night.
I was unable to connect to the FTP server from the Phoenix
airport, which I think was due to a firewall or some
such that prevented access to FTP sites. I know I didn't
promise to get it done, and technically it's not being
done until Monday morning anyway. But in my book, since
I haven't gone to sleep yet, it's still Sunday night.
So... here's the report. I'll start doing after-action
debrief reports as soon as possible. Right now, though,
I'm headed for about a day's worth of sleeping, napping,
and generally lazing about.
January
16, Day Three
There's
a reason they only do two NAMM shows a year: it takes
six months to recuperate from one! A NAMM Friday is
like three normal days packed into one. And yesterday,
was no different.
The
morning was hectic as it often is. So much so that I
couldn't find ten minutes to get over to the exhibitor's
lounge to take care of the upload. I finally got it
done in the early afternoon.
Lots
of people dropped by the booth to say hello, including
Bobby Vega, Rev Jones, Angeline Saris, Jay and Darlene
Stevens, and many more. We also had numerous media folks
drop by, and we'll be hosting more today.
David
arrived mid-afternoon. For about a half hour the aisle
was jammed as everyone celebrated the launch. It didn't
last long, however, as David had a full afternoon of
meetings.
Toward
the end of the day Roy and the rest of the TMBG band
(minus Tim, because they couldn't fit a keyboard on
the tiny stage) performed at the Alfred Publishing booth
for their Dealer Happy Hour.
Once
we'd made it to the checkered flag for the day, we all
headed back to the house and got David settled in. After
a very few minutes of breathing room, we headed up to
Joe's Crab Shack with Grasshopper and the rest of the
Bass Central crew for crabs and all the trimmings. Roy
and his wife Dee Dee had gone along, but had to leave
before we finally got a table.
Roy
and Dee Dee headed over to the Bass Bash for an great
evening hang. David headed back to the house after dinner,
while I hung with the BC Boys for a bit. We had an excellent
conversation about business, especially about customer
service.
I
actually made it back to the house by midnight, which
may well be a record for me. Which also means I got
a record amount of sleep - a whole six hours!
We
shot some video here and there throughout the day. When
I get home I'll start dealing with that. Hopefully all
the people that promised to send pictures will follow
through and we'll post those as well.
For
David and I both, this is the last day of the show.
David leaves in mid-afternoon, and I'll be out the door
early tomorrow morning. Because of that I don't know
if I'll be able to post an update tomorrow morning.
I will if I'm able. If not, I'll take care of it first
thing Monday morning.
OK.
Coffee break's over. Back to NAMM.
Januray
15, Day Two
Be
There Alert - Roy
Vogt and the Urban Legend Band will be performing in
the Alfred Publishing booth starting at 5p.m. this afternoon.
Will last at least a half hour, maybe more.
The
late Early report:
Hoo-boy,
what a late night. We'll get to that in a minute. But
first, let's talk about the show. The first day is always
a tad slower than the weekend, and this time around
it was a good thing. Over at Booth 1410 with Teach Me
Bass Guitar with Roy Vogt, we settled in nicely and
also had time to roam the floor talking to potential
sponsors for the upcoming Thunder Row web site.
Crossed
paths with a few players, including TM Stevens and,
later Victor Wooten. In the afternoon I got to check
out the Bold Tone resonator bass and bass banjo. Both
had pickups so you could keep up with a louder band,
but I think both of them would also be excellent choices
for campfire get togethers and the like. I am SO dying
to have one of each.
In
Black, of course!
Tell
you what, though. What with all the extra hours prior
to launch, I came out here already NAMM tired, so yesterday
was a test of endurance. Especially later in the evening.
After
a great home made dinner, TLD CEO David Crossman gave
me a lift to Big's Grill over in Fullerton, for the
4th Annual NAMM JAM. There were so many bands and individuals
on the bill, I just can't remember all of them off the
top of my head. I'll do my best to give some details
later when I can look at my cheat sheets.
Of
course, the reason to make sure I attended this year
is that it was also brother Rev Jones' Birthday. Rev
laughed at the fact that - at 40 - he's now joined me
in the Old Man Club. I told him that with his ink and
haircut, no one would ever confuse him with an old man.
Rev
sat in on several show, having a blast with his new
6-string custom Dean bass. Custom RJ inlays and all.
I was just suh-weet!
Automatice
Youth - a group of pre-teens stole the show with a blazing
set of Zep covers. The bass player 9who left so quickly
I didn't get a chance to meet him, was really nailing
John Paul Jones. What was really cool was that he wasn't
just regurgitating a transcription. He was crafting
his own lines based on what JPJ had laid down.
I
was originally scheduled to play with a very close friend
and outstanding drummer, Johnny O, along with guitarists,
both of which sang. Our set was supposed to consist
of Crossroads and a couple of SRV tunes. Well, both
guitarists were no shows. So it looked as if we wouldn't
get to play. But Debra, the woman who produces the event
wouldn't have any of that! She's also a close friend
of Rev's and she knew I'd come just to help Rev celebrate.
So,
Johnny O and I ended up doing our set with Tony Marcus
(XYZ, Bullet Boys) and Eric Dover on guitars. Since
neither one sang, it was left to me. Now, for much of
the night, the strategy was to play covers that everyone
knew. This made it easy to put groups together for the
jam. Well, I don't really do that as a vocalist. Sure
as a bassist, no problem. But I just don't sing that
high, you know?
Our
set consisted of an extended version of Voodoo Chile,
with some serious rearranging. And boy did we have fun!
The crowd sure seemed to get into it as well, although
part of that may just have been that they were al surprised
that Grandpa could play! (smile)
Jungle
Jim, a photgrapher with a lot of credits, got over 400
frames and has promsed to send me some of the best.
I also ended up posing for at least six other photographers
who wanted a shot of my bass. One of them tried to talk
me into letting a NAMM Babe (I'm sure you know the type)
hold it.
Uh,
NO!
So,
if all goes well, I'll have some cool shots to send
Stuart and PJ over at Spector.
Now,
the funniest part of the whole night was the ride home.
Johnny O's wife, Denise, was kind enough to save me
from late-night taxi purgatory. Only thing was, it took
us about four times as long to get back to the house.
I swear I saw parts of California that are nowhere near
Anaheim. But we sure laughed our fannies off! At one
point, during yet another U turn, we had to pull over
so we could stop laughing at ourselves. Thankfully,
we finally got ourselves headed in the right direction
and made it home. I can tell you this - I've got at
least one good fat chapter for my Road Stories book.
Maybe two.
Finally
got through the door at about three this morning, and
was back up at 7:30. As I wrote earlier: Hoo, boy.
OK,
in just a few, TLD COO Barbara Crossman and I are headed
to a few meetings. The, in just a couple of hours, David
Hisownself will be here. He's doing a semi-stealth fly-by.
I'll be back tomorrow morning with more info.
Until
then, I'm going to find a Coffee IV Drip to stay awake.
[Final
Note] It's now 12:37 and I was just now able to break
away for enough time to run to hte RB Lounge, where
they have free wi-fi for exhibitors, to load the update.
David should be here soon. - LB
January
14 - Getting
ready to head over to the convention center. It's going
to be a good but long day. Just so you know, these updates
are going to be "down and dirty," so we can
get them done as quickly as possible. After all, it's
NAMM, and we've got a LOT of people to see and things
to do. But we did want to keep you up to date as much
as possible. So... here's how yesterday shook out.
Roy
has been here since Tuesday, setting up the Teach Me
Bass Guitar booth with Barbara and David Crossman, owners
of TMBG parent companny, The Learning Dock, LLC. (I
am also VP, Sales for TLD.) I arrived mid-day Wednesday,
only to be taken on a 'scenic tour' of the LA freeways,
as Barbara and Roy's wife Dee-Dee completed the days
errands.
After
of few fales starts, I figured out the rental house's
Internet and got our new site uploaded, just in time
to head over to the Hilton for Roy's show. I goota say,
I was a bit nervous, having done the final checking
on the flight out. I was determined to meet deadline
no matter what, and we did make it. When you factor
in that we ended up scrapping the original design and
starting over, it's was pretty hairy there on the flight,
though. But all's well that ends well, and the site
went up as planned.
Roy
and his Urban Legend band had the honor of opening the
NAMM festivities, and rose to the occasion with a dynamic
set. Quite a few jaws dropped as the band swept through
the show. The finale - Amen Corner, from the Urban Legend
CD - put my onstage on second bass, providing the low
end so Roy could concentrate on the skinny strings.
Tons
of people showed up for Roy's set, including Grasshopper
from Bass Central and fellow bassists TM Stevens and
Jauqo IIIX. Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey were there,
but arrived late due to flight times.
After
Roy's show at the Hilton, Roy and I, and the rest of
the UL band headed over to the Jazz Kitchen to check
out the Vanoren Van Jam, which featured more sax players
than we've ever seen in one room. The top performers
were Kirk Walem and Joe Viviano, plus a ton of others.
Roy and UL keyboardest Tim McDonald sat in for a short
set. Later, I sat in, singing my Lemonade Blues,
one of the few songs with vocals - a real crowd-pleaser,
which made me feel relieved. I mean, we're talking some
serious Jazz cats, so I didn't know if they'd appreciate
the change-up or not.
Back
at the house in the early morning hours, everyone hit
the sack rather quickly, as we all had to get up early
this morning to prepare for the frist day of the show.
The Urban Legend Band (from left) Tim McDonald (keys),
Shane Roberts
(guitar), Rick Latham (drums, hidden), and Roy. With
his back to the
camera, David Crossman videos the concert.
Roy's wife Dee-Dee got this shot of Lane with Grasshopper
of Bass Central.
Jauqo III-X and Lane keeping an eye and ear on Roy and
the boys.
Lane takes over the low end for a tune so Roy can just
solo.
Joe Viviano, Duncan Taylor and Kirk Walem blowing down
the roof at the Vanoren Van Jam. Roy is all the way
to the right.
