Pictures from IBMA

The Three Stooges.  Identify them correctly and win a FREE Proulx guitar (just $2400 shipping/handling...).  No fair enlarging photo and reading the name tags.   Hint: Todd Higgins has the flat-top.

Bryan checking out Jimmy's bus. 

On the trade show floor.  Steve Swan's booth is on the right hand side, Keith Yoder's booth is dead center, Beard resonator is right next to Swan.  We did a lot of jamming in the open area to the right of the green partition.  David Coffey's place was just to the left and he played Beard's resonators while we played Swan and Yoder's Santa Cruz and Phoenix mandos.

Steve Swan himself.  I don't know if he's looking for divine guidance or proclaiming the rank of the Tony Rice Pro on the left side of the photo, or talking about the price of Brazilian RW.  That's a Merrill guitar getting a blast from Steve's armpit.  An excellent collection of guitars, all with Adirondack tops.

Across the hall was a whole 'nother trade show area.  This is Mark Newton entertaining the crowd.  That's Wayne Bledsoe, Bluegrass Now editor on the left side with the gray hair and green jacket.  This scene was repeated at every aisle, corner, and mid-section of the trade show.  You could find practically anyone jamming at any given time- I saw Nickel Creek, Roland White, Bull Harmon, etc., etc., etc. jamming on the trade show floor.

Tim Stafford jamming at the Dearstone booth.  That's a Dearstone archtop, btw.

Elderly's booth.  They, too, had a very nice used Braz Santa Cruz TR, as well as a bunch of new Martins and a 60's D-21.  A bunch of nice F5's, including a very loud Paganoni for a mere $6000.   That's Barry Willis, author, to the left.   Taylor's booths are just out of sight farther to the left.

The best part of IBMA was jamming and the best part of jamming was jamming with friends.  Here, we're doing just that in our room.  Left to right: Mario Proulx, Todd Higgins, Willam Felty's dad,  William Felty.  We had an "open door" policy, as you can see.  If you didn't like our playing, well, the door was open...<g>

The view from the Galt.  That's a nice litle park to the left and I meant to get down there and get some Vitamin D, but somehow never got around to it.  See photo above for reasons why.

All in all, a great time.  I was way too busy jamming to take too many pictures, plus I dropped my camera mid-week and broke the flash. 

One of the funnest parts of the show was the "hospitality" suites sponsored by various companies.  At these, performers played a short set right there in the suite, usually sans mics and all that.  It was a GREAT way to see how they actually sounded- did they play loud, soft, or what?