I ’ ll cut to the chase , “ Yes !” Here ’ s why . This was my 41 st Winter NAMM so I have some perspective here . From the moment I stepped off the airplane at John Wayne airport in Santa Ana , CA I had confidence that this year was going to be something special . As we got our NAMM badges and walked to our booth the excitement grew .
We host the Wednesday night Pre-NAMM HANG ( an A & R Meet n ’ Greet style event ) that had 20 Sponsors ( yes 20 ) at The Colony House in Anaheim . All four of our performers played really well for the attendees ( thanks go to Norm Stockton , Bob Bennett , Doug Doppler and Chris Rocha ). The evening was a big success and I have booked the same venue for 2025 already .
Doug Doppler playing at the Pre-NAMM Hang
The next morning the convention itself started and our booth was set up and ready to roll . We were in a new location this year right in the heart of the guitar amps and effect pedals section . Knowing this ahead of time my two predictions came true . One , I knew it would be loud and for four days straight it certainly was . Two , I knew that we would have a high traffic of guitar players come by .
This leads me to a side bar on the spiritual aspect of the NAMM convention . This is a mainstream event . It has a large number of secular musicians and industry folks and it is steeped in everything from classic rock to metal music , from classical to country and everything else in between . There were lots of lost souls there and it reminded me of Jesus ’ comment that the harvest is large , but the workers are few . We hung our “ What Would Jesus Play ” t-shirts on the walls of our booth along with our magazine banners and we had Gospel tracks that we handed out for free to anyone interested .
[ WM ] Booth
Brian Felix ( who has run our booth for the last 15 years or so while I run around with editorial and advertising meetings ) has a yearly ministry there praying for folks and generally trying to love the lost . Go Brian !
Brian talking with a couple guys
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