Posts filed under 'Festivals'
Fred Carlson had some of his marvelous creations on display. The one on the left is called a Sympitar and features a number of sympathetic strings that run through a hollow neck. The instrument in the middle photo is a Harp-Sympitar and includes sympathetic strings, sub-basses and super-trebles. I’m sure glad I don’t have to tune it but I do wish I was the guy who supplied Fred with strings. In the photo on the right that’s Fred in the hat with Gregg Miner, the Head Fred at Harpguitars.net and an FJ contributor. Speaking of Gregg Miner, NPR just did a segment on him and his harp guitars.-MJS
August 28th, 2007
Every two years Luthiers Mercantile puts on the Healdsburg Guitar Festival, an amazing three day bash that includes concerts, workshops and an exhibit of instruments from some of the world’s finest luthiers. Jason and I spent August 17, 18 and 19 at the Festival playing these guitars, talking to builders, players and readers and looking for potential stories. We also took hundreds of photos, some of which I’ll be posting this week here on the blog. I made an effort to play at least one guitar from every builder and to take some shots at each table, but sadly not all of the photos came out. So, if you were exhibiting at Healdsburg and I don’t write a post about your work, it’s not because I didn’t like your guitar, it’s because I’m a lousy photographer. Please keep checking back for the updates. If you want to read all the Healdsburg posts, just click here.
Also, I’m very pleased to announce that FJ contributor Harold Fethe has agreed to write some posts about the festival. Along with being a fine writer he’s an excellent guitarist so he’s sure to come up with some good insights. To get things started, here’s his overall take on the festival: “If you can’t find a guitar you like at the Healdsburg Guitar Festival, you’re just not trying. Innovators and traditionalists; freethinkers and hide-glue-bound preservationists; builders who’ve only made a few guitars, and people with years-long waiting lists—they’re all there. You may even catch a premier builder with some inventory that he or she would rather not schlep back to the shop. Discounts are not unheard of in the closing hours of Sunday afternoon, when the re-packing chore looms large, and three days of relentless conversations have worn down these usually solitary craftspersons. But, make your 2009 room reservations early, or prepare for a long commute. It’s been discovered.” -MJS & HF
August 27th, 2007
This just in: The Fretboard Journal and Mandolin Cafe are co-producing a truly special late night show at the forthcoming Wintergrass festival in Tacoma, Wash: At midnight, on Friday, February 23, we will bring together Mike Marshall, Chris Thile and Hamilton de Holanda for the first time together on-stage. The concert, being billed as “Midnight Mandolins,” should be mandatory viewing. All three mandolinists are FJ favorites and we’re excited to see what they come up with. So plan accordingly!-JV
November 2nd, 2006
Jason and I have returned from the IBMA and are getting back into the swing of things. If you’ve never gone to one of these things, you should know that the music goes on non-stop and although there are some great performances on the various stages, the real action takes place after midnight in the hotel that is next to the convention center. The highlights for me were seeing fiddler Casey Driessen in a triple-fiddle jam session; getting to hear Tim O’Brien play mandolin in the Sugar Hill hospitality suite; and realizing that the two guys sitting on the floor and playing old-time tunes at the end of a hallway were Bob Carlin and Danny Barnes. I can hardly wait until next year.-MJS
October 2nd, 2006
Jason and I are still at the IBMA Festival in Nashville and I just haven’t had time to blog. I’ll be back home on Monday and I should get back into the swing of things then. If you want to find out what’s going on here in Nashville, check out the Bluegrass Blog. They have a team of guys here and they’re doing a fine job of covering the event.-MJS
September 30th, 2006
Just a quick post to tell you all that your friendly Fretboard Journal representatives will be on-hand in Nashville next week for the International Bluegrass Music Assocation’s World of Bluegrass week. We’ll undoubtedly see some great bluegrass so check the blog regularly for concert reports and photos. During Fan Fest (Sep. 29 - Oct. 1) we’ll be manning a FJ booth in the vendor area. Come say hello, grab a FJ guitar pick or browse through our back issues. If you ask nicely, we’ll even offer you a sneak peek of issue four! -JV
September 21st, 2006
The Mandolin Cafe has posted audio files from the panel discussion from 2006’s LoarFest West, which I covered in the third issue of the FJ. There’s some fascinating info here, so if you have any interest in old mandolins, you should set aside a couple of hours, head on over and listen in.-MJS
September 19th, 2006
I’m a little ambivalent about posting this, being the editor of the FRETboard Journal and all, but it looks like there is going to be a Fretless Guitar Festival in New York starting on September 29.-MJS
September 9th, 2006
Crashing the Guild of American Luthiers bi-annual convention in Tacoma, Washington is a bit like walking into a guitar-centric summer camp. Luthiers from around the country (and a few from overseas) have converged this week upon Pacific Lutheran University’s campus for five days of builder-talk, discussions about new tools and techniques and concerts. And just about everyone is there to show off their latest creations (whether they’re ukes, harp-guitars, mandolins or just plain ol’ regular six string guitars). Just walking around the exhibit hall, you’ll end up discussing guitars with everyone from hobbyists to world-class builders such as Kenny Hill or Steven Andersen. This year featured a great exhibit on harp guitars hosted by FJ correspondent Gregg Miner and lots of unusual, one-of-a-kind instruments, such as the pictured creation by Fred Carlson. - JV
June 25th, 2006
So, last Sunday I attended the 13th annual Ukulele Festival of Northern California in Hayward. Although the ukulele is at the center of the festival, it’s really more of a Hawaiian culture festival, and includes music, dance, food and booths selling Hawaiian crafts. As with our NAMM show posts, Patrick Ford was on hand to take these photos.
I got to meet a few FJ readers, including Gary Peare of Ukulelia. (That’s him on the right.)
Although they weren’t for sale, these quilts were on display and showed some nice island imagery.
Chris Kamaka, that’s him in the purple shirt, was there with some of the ukes he and his crew make in Hawaii. They brought a bunch of parts, along with some completed instruments, so you could see how their instruments are put together. Chris is also a bass player and performed with his group.
Some of the other builders there included Tony Graziano, who had some lovely sunburst ukes on display.
Tiki King looked resplendent in his fez and had some nice looking ukes to go along with his tikis.
Ken Potts had a few instruments there and a very elegant coffin-style case.
And Mike DaSilva had some good sounding pineapple-shaped ukes made from bamboo as well as a very nice 3K-style concert uke.
Mike also had an 1890’s Jose do Espirito Santo uke on display, which was very exciting to see. Santo, along with Nunes and Dias, built some of the fisrt ukuleles in Hawaii.
Mike offers courses in ukulele building and he had the work of some his students on display, all of whom built reproductions of the Santo. The instruments are smaller than a modern soprano uke, but they are are surprisingly loud and sweet sounding. Can you pick out the original from the copies? Mike is also thinking of offering a Santo replica of his own for sale.
There were a number of jam sessions. I played in this one, which included folks like Al Dodge, that’s him with the white face Gibson A-3 mandolin and Robert Armstrong, who is playing a National plectrum in this photo. And yes, that is a bass banjo, which was made by Glenn Jordan, the guy playing it. Oh, and that’s me with the archtop guitar and the National Reso-Phonic Guitars cap.-MJS
May 1st, 2006
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