This year's winter NAMM show was one of the most exciting shows yet for us. We introduced our Lite guitar capos in four vibrant new colors, along with our new Lite capo for ukulele, also in the same colors. That had our booth hopping nonstop each day. It looks like the colors will be a big success.
The booth was staffed by veterans Gary Mobley, Raul Reynoso, Mike Phelan, and myself, and guitarist Richard Gilewitz in just his second show as an exhibitor.
Also joining us at the booth were some of our favorite performers: SONiA, Roger Espinoza, Tim May (who played a set with Richard Gilewitz), Luis Villegas, and joining us for the first time was bluegrass singer Susie Glaze.
I think SONiA looks great with her new hairdo. She played a couple of sets for us at the booth, and that's always a pleasure.
She and her manager, Terry, are like family to us, and seeing them is a highlight of any show.
Luis Villegas joined us again with his trio, bringing their own style of Latin jazz to spark up our Sunday.
Luis Villegas, Pete Korpela, Jose Garcia
Tim May played a set with Richard Gilewitz
That's me with new Shubb endorsing artist Rebecca Sullivan,
proudly displaying her new violet capo.
Susie Glaze and her group, the Hilonesome Trio joined us at the booth on Saturday.
Raul Reynoso borrowed her guitar to join in and add a few hot licks of his own.
Raul Reynoso, Steve Rankin, Gary Mobley, Susie Glaze, Rob Carlson
Also on hand Saturday, Latin-style guitar master Roger Espinoza and his trio.
Roger Espinoza, Dexter Espinoza, Joe Calderon
I played a set at our Friday night show with Saga's group,
the Tora Bora Boys
He has a strong, clear voice and a good feel for bluegrass.
We were glad to have New West on hand for a set on our Friday night show...
Headlining our Friday night show again was the incredible
John Jorgenson Quintet.
They were spectacular as always, and this time a particular highlight was a guest appearance by guitarist Robin Nolan.
Robin joined John for a couple of duets, notably a beautiful version of Django Reinhardt's Nuages, then the whole group played Robin's Mediterranean Blues.
We hope to have pictures from this set, and maybe video, coming soon.
Musikmesse 2012
(Frankfurt, Mar. 21-24)
It was our pleasure to again present dynamic singer-songwriter SONiA on Musikmesse's Acoustic Stage.
Here's guitar monster Doyle Dykes with our guy Gary Mobley.
The big buzz around Doyle was that after years of being closely associated with Taylor guitars, he's now playing a Guild and sometimes a Fender. Happily, he has not changed capos, though, and remains solidly a Shubb man!
It was the fourth year at our booth for Tina Steigerwald, who has now become quite an expert on our product line and a very valuable member of our team.
Richard Gilewitz on the Acoustic Stage
International star Julian Dawson played a couple of great sets at our booth
It always brightens up the day whenever SONiA comes to the booth
Richard and Tina... in flight refuelling.
(thanks to Facebook fan Yvonne Desrosiers for the caption)
Here's Gary with our new distributors just signed at this show...
Jorge Oliveira and son from Portugal
John and Matthew Wei from Taiwan