SPBGMA

SPBGMA 2008 is officially over, and it was awesome!

SPBGMA (pronounced "spigma") stands for the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America. Every year, SPBGMA puts on a convention at the Nashville Sheraton, and it has become THE destination for bluegrass pickers across the country.

Here are some of the highlights of my SPBGMA experience:

• Jamming - This is what we all come for...hours and hours of great bluegrass jamming, with old friends and new ones as well. People I jammed with this year: Dave Snyder, Benji Merritt, James Howard, Perry Woodie, Sim Daley, Missy Daley, Josh Hicks, Jim Clark, Jim Wingate, Justin Nunez (21-tr old guitar player from south Mississippi), Morgan Knowland, and other folks whose names I don't recall. Check out this video clip of one of our jams...
  
• Hatch Show Print - On Saturday, we stopped by a nondescript storefront on Music Row in downtown Nashvegas to visit one of the coolest businesses around, Hatch Show Print. Since the late 1800's, they have been printing showbills and posters for the top musical acts in the country. They still use the original printing methods and typesetting like in the olden days... Check out these examples of their cool artwork.
  
• Daley mandolin workshop - On Friday afternoon, we were invited by Sim Daley to visit his workshop where he builds Daley mandolins and guitars. Daley mandolins are the hottest mandolins going right now, and are played by Adam Steffey, Dan Tyminski, and a lot of other big name mando monsters.
  
• Gruhns Guitars - Saturday afternoon, we also stopped by Gruhn's Guitars, one of the biggest dealers of vintage acoustic instruments in the country. This place was incredible. Dozens of old Martin guitars, mandolins of all types, banjos, dobros, fiddles... No cheesy Chinese imports here - if its the good stuff, they have it.
  
• Western wear - We stopped in a western wear store just for kicks. Result: I confirmed that I look hilarious in a big black Stetson!
  
• Gibson Showcase - Like last year, we paid a visit to the Gibson Showcase, which is THE coolest store I've ever been in. The outside of the store looks like a huge F5 mandolin headstock, and the inside contains the entire line of Gibson bluegrass instruments. Just be sure to bring a BIG checkbook along...their top-of-the-line mandolin (distressed Master Model) had a price tag of $25,500!

Despite the huge blister I got from playing bass so loud for so long, it was a great weekend. Thanks, Cathy, for the great birthday present!

Once again, God is good.

Classic

I've had my 40GB third-generation iPod for about three years now, and it has seen some serious use. I'm talking, many hours a day, many days per year use. So lately, the battery has been wearing down, to the point where I only get about 45 minutes or an hour of play before the thing goes dead.

So, I says to myself, it's time for a new iPod!

After all, it has been a few years, and much has changed in the iPod world since then. There's the new iPod Touch, which is basically a iPhone with no phone capability (!?!). But alas, it only holds 16GB max, and I have about 25 GB of music. The iPod Nanos are also flash-memory based and only go up to 8 or 16 GB.

But, there is a new hard-drive iPod in town, the new iPod Classic. The classic comes in 80 GB and 160 GB models (!!!). I don't need that much room, but I need more than 16 GB, so the Classic was my only option. The Classic is basically the same as the iPod Video (5th generation), but has an slimmer all-aluminum case. Also, the software has the flashy (but not super useful) "Cover Flow" mode, where you can scroll through all your album covers.

Anyhow, I broke down and bought a silver 80GB iPod classic, and I'm loving it. In fact, I'm blasting some tunes on it as I write this! The battery life is rated at 30 hours, but if I get a consistent 10+ for a couple years, I'll be delighted.

Who would have thought that I could take my entire (huge) CD collection with me wherever I go, and it would fit in my shirt pocket? Ain't technology great? God is good.