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Although the 2020 Guitar Gathering Conference was canceled, a few of us decided that we would like to visit Nashville anyway. We contacted Steve and he said he would be happy to see some familiar faces and could meet us one day for lunch. So the trip was on. After arriving in Nashville, Keith Morgan and I had a quick lunch and then headed into Nashville and guitar stores. North American Guitars (formerly Cotton Music) was first. We had a great time playing some very expensive guitars and chatting with shop owner Kim Sherman. We met up with Collin Hill and it was on to Gruhn Guitars. Gruhn has recently started carrying sinker mahogany OMs and I was eager to see what those were like. Between the two of us, I think Collin and I played about every sinker OM in the store. Greg Voros came down from the third floor and we talked a bit about the COVID impact on the shop (many of the employees have been laid off). Collin and I narrowed the sinker mahogany search down to one or two specimens and Greg took us upstairs to see if there were any OMs we had missed. George Gruhn joined us and suggested that we play in the shop stairwell (very nice acoustics). See photos below. On Thursday, we met Steve and Paulette for lunch and then headed back to the hotel for some rest and relaxation as well as a bit of guitar practice. Keith and I had intended to perform a song at the conference – Keith was ready – I was not 🙂 After an early Friday morning meeting with Instruments of Joy President Joshua MacLeod, Keith and I visited Artisan Guitars (where Keith played a killer Collings C100). We then headed to Clarksville to visit Collin and his family. In spite of getting lost - hey – we only missed their address by 16 miles – we eventually found Collin’s new home and got a tour of his new studio. After a brief tour of downtown Clarksville, which included a new guitar store owned by a former Gruhn's employee, we had a nice dinner, and then it was back to the hotel in Brentwood. By the way, the Holiday Inn Express in Brentwood was a great place to stay. It was convenient to both Nashville and the Franklin/Cool Springs area. The trip was over all too soon. Hopefully, we can all be together next year. Photos below: -Gruhn's new mural (under construction) -Collin playing the best sounding sinker mahogany OM -Collin playing in the stairwell -George and Greg listening to Collin playing -Our mini Guitar Gathering 2020 official photo

Perfect timing. I am right now in session 7 "Jazz" of the fingerstyle course, so that fits perfectly with the challenge of the month 😀. This is a walking bass style arrangement of the jazz standard Autumn Leaves. Wim.

For all of you who have worked on, repaired and/or just love guitars, this is a great read! Enjoy. Mike https://www.guitarplayer.com/gear/the-raising-of-lazarus-bringing-an-old-gibson-back-from-the-dead

I'm there with @Eracer_Team-DougH Play it and enjoy it - and trust me, that comes from a guy that is the poster child for being OCD. I hear good things about the SE replacement locking tuners, so that might be a good $95 investment. Once you cover the back with belt buckle scratches, you'll probably forget about the other imperfections! And congratulations on that Core! I purchased a Korean made SE Custom 24 (after I laid hands on it at a Guitar Center). I had never played electric previously and frankly just didn't feel like dropping the coin for the Core model. I got lucky I suppose - no obvious flaws, but then again, I haven't placed it alongside a core model.

Having been picked to choose this months recording challenge theme, I thought I would get going on a Jazz Standard. This is All of Me, straight out of the Real Book. I know we are going to study this one for the Jazz Standards Academy course, so I thought I would try it on my own first, and see the difference after Steve presents this in class. Thanks for any comments.

Here is a live song from a teacher's concert at my wife's music school. My wife played the piano, the other piano teacher played the drums and I was a guest that evening, playing a Burny jazz archtop guitar. The song is called Spirit Song.