Worship Musician November 2019 | Page 108

TRIBUTE TO GUITAR BUILDER GERARD MELANCON by Andrej Grozdanov My name is Andrej Grozdanov. I was born prestigious universities in Europe. At a young in Croatia and I am GIT (Guitar Institute of age music in Church inspired me more than I recorded one of the very first Worship albums Technology) graduate and I also have an MA anything, and I knew it would be part of my life in the then war-affected Balkan region in 1998. in Theology and Philosophy at one of the most without knowing in what form and intensity.  Before that, I had chance to be an eye witness of the birth of the UK Worship scene when the youth band Cutting Edge became Delirious?. Back when Matt Redman was a teenager holding a guitar bigger than him. At that time, I lived in London and believe that this period put a vision and stamp of what would happen later. After many years of working on raising the sound of worship in the places where modern Worship music expression was unknown, my battery dried out, my vision got tired, my soul was worn. I knew it was time to recharge. In a search for a place of recovery, I did not find a better place than CMS (the Christian Musician Summit conference) that happens every year in Washington state. The year was 2005 and, although it was far away from where I live, I bought the plane ticket and went. It was the place I needed to be. Like every year at CMS, the line-up of Christian Artists that year was amazing and for me it was vitally important to be there after years of giving of myself back home. In the lobby of the venue there were many exhibitor’s booths, and one of them was Melancon Guitars. The name was familiar to me as we musicians in Europe were getting huge and heavy German music store catalog each year that was the size of a telephone book. In there were Melancon guitars lined up… looking like candy and far out of reach for our standard. Andrej Grozdanov 108 November 2019 I asked the gentleman there if I could pick Subscribe for Free...