The 2007 Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention

by Stephen Rekas

Each year for the past decade I've had the privilege and pleasure of representing Mel Bay Publications at the annual Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention at the Music City Sheraton Hotel in Nashville. Insiders call it "CAAS" for short with no intention of diminishing its stature as the greatest aggregate of fingerstyle and other guitar players under one roof anywhere in the world. A few of the charter members of the society have attended this event each summer for the past 23 years!

Like their guitar hero, the CAAS crowd is a savvy audience capable of appreciating quality guitar music in any style. In recent years, bluegrass flatpicking, straight-ahead jazz and even Gypsy jazz guitarists have established a firm pick-hold at CAAS. Place fans of all ages with accessible world-class professional guitarists and you have a recipe for a learning experience and a good time!

With the sheer numbers of artists and attendees and the variety of styles involved, it is staggering to think that the organization and structuring of this massive event is largely conducted by a team consisting of CAAS president Dr. Mark Pritcher and his family with the assistance of perhaps a dozen volunteers. I am still amazed that when my youngest daughter was born eight years ago Mark and Carol Pritcher thoughtfully provided a baby gift, and I was not the only recent father so honored at the CAAS convention!

Traditionally, the CAAS convention is held Wednesday through Saturday during the second week of July; that's four days of early open mic sessions followed by 9-5 workshops and performances on two stages with at least four events going on simultaneously. Each evening at 7:00 five of the world's best guitarists appear in concert on the main stage in the ballroom, and on Saturday the line of people seeking prime seats for the final gala concert in the then expanded ballroom starts forming at 5 p.m. Consider too that each conventioneer is allowed to participate in a raffle that may yield a handcrafted guitar or custom amplifier and you have a level of excitement that is hard to beat.

Through Saturday afternoon, three large conference rooms and the ballroom lobby are given over to a massive vendors' fair with two rooms reserved for luthiers and two with a mixed bag of luthiers, amps, accessories, jewelry, CDs, artists' product tables, and one lone music publisher- Mel Bay Publications, Inc. In the vendors' rooms, hotel bar and main lobby, and indeed throughout the entire ground floor and in individual guest rooms, spontaneous jamming can erupt at any time. Then there is the regional guitar group or Pickers' Club Room where performances, workshops, and jams occur continuously for the benefit of an audience of around 50 traditional thumbstyle devotees.

From the product selection on the Mel Bay/CAAS order blank to the physical setup of the display at the vendors' fair in the Tulip Grove conference room, we at Mel Bay Publications have it down to a science. In the early years I represented Mel Bay at this show alone, but for the last five years or so, two of us have been sent to drive a rented cargo van from our Pacific, Missouri warehouse and office facility, set up and man the sales booth, break down the display and make the return trip. Josh Buck, from our shipping department, accompanied me this year and was a great help in every respect.

The clientele at CAAS generally likes what Mel Bay has to offer. This year, as always, the Mel Bay Publications booth was often mobbed so typically, we only get to see the evening performances. I'm not complaining; these are usually fabulous concerts, each one memorable in its own way. As a result my reportage and photography of what I'm able to see first-hand is

extremely limited but I did get to hear Edgar Cruz, Doyle Dykes, Tommy Emmanuel, Wayne Henderson, John Knowles, Pat Kirtley, Jim and Morning Nichols (with brother John on bass guitar), Jorge Morel with John McClellan (author of The Magnificent Guitar of Jorge Morel), Richard Smith, The Joscho Stefan Trio of Gypsy jazz masters, John Standefer, and Guy Van Duser of "Stars and Stripes Forever" fame.

I'm also very happy I was able to hear Thom Bresh in one of the evening performances. Thom usually plays on Saturday afternoon when I am madly packing the Mel Bay booth display for the return trip. He is famous for his renditions of classic songs written by his biological father, Merle Travis, as well as for his gifts as a guitarist, impressionist and comedian. Thom was in fine form on this particular evening, cracking the audience up with his outrageous comedy songs and getting Muriel Anderson to dance a spontaneous buck and wing. His appearance with country/jazz singer Lane Brody was sensational. Thom was the only performer to invite the audience to film him for YouTube broadcast. "I don't have a record deal; YouTube is my friend!" he declared. I'll include a sample of Thom's performance here.

On Saturday I had an appointment for an interview with Gypsy jazz flatpicking wizard Joscho Stephan, but sales were so fast and furious that there just wasn't any time. We agreed to do the interview by email so he would have time for a considered response to my questions. CAAS president Mark Pritcher came by on Saturday and offered to introduce me to Branson theater owner and performer Jim Stafford, but I simply couldn't leave the booth.

I could only connect with Buster B. Jones after-hours while he was holding court in the bar of the Sheraton Music City Hotel. He asked me to play for him so he could "see where I was coming from" in regard to transcribing his material, so I did. He observed that I was classically trained and said, "You can't think linearly with my stuff; you have to think outside the box!" Then he gave me a brief guitar lesson,

showing me how he sometimes uses all five right-hand fingers and passes his thumb under his index while playing the "Chet bass". This technique is definitely outside the box, but it's not the first time I've had my eyes and ears opened by the guitarists at CAAS.

Mel Bay author Michael O'Dorn did a nice job in his "Comeback Performance" which was amazing as he had experienced a stroke six months earlier. The CAAS crowd adored him and urged him on. His workshop was so well attended that they had to close the doors to more entrants as not even standing room remained.

Although Chet and Jorge Morel crossed paths many times in their stellar careers and Chet recorded many of Jorge's arrangements, Jorge appeared at the CAAS for the first time this year. Mel Bay has just released The Magnificent Guitar of Jorge Morel by John McClellan and Deyan Bratic regarding Jorge's life and music, and Jorge himself played an all-too-brief sample on one of the evening programs. Chet Atkins had been instrumental in contributing to Morel's getting an RCA recording contract, and Morel spontaneously gave Chet a fine Manuel Velasquez classic guitar, which the Atkins family returned to him after Chet's death in 2001.

History in the making: Mel Bay author Pat Kirtley (right) chats with Fred Gretsch (far left), current CAAS president Mark Pritcher, and CAAS founder Jim Ferron.

The classic lines of the Chet Atkins signature "Country Gentleman" guitar have enraptured Atkins fans for generations. At the Broadway Music and Sound booth at CAAS you could take your pick of colors.

Fred Gretsch worked for 40 years to bring the Chet Atkins "Country Gentleman" model back into the Gretsch fold from the Gibson Company. There must have been at least a dozen Gretsch Country Gentlemen on display in the Broadway Music and Sound

booth at the vendors' fair, so Fred had a big smile on his face through much of this event.

Mel Bay Records recording artist Frank Vignola and his Gypsy Grass Quintet were also appearing at the convention for the first time. Whether playing on the main stage, in the vendors’ room, or jamming outdoors at all hours, Frank Vignola and his Gypsy Grass Quintet were a huge hit. Although he plays exclusively with a flatpick, the CAAS audience loved Frank and particularly applauded 18-year-old mandolinist Josh Pinkham who seemed to possess an inexhaustible wealth of improv ideas.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the outstanding session players and vocalists that have been accepted into the CAAS fold. The Endless Road Strings, a quartet consisting of first violinist Julie Lastinger, second violinist Christina Simmons, violist Joanna Binford, and cellist Rebecca Kiekenapp (all from Lexington, Kentucky) was again present to accompany several CAAS performers including Pat Kirtley, Tommy Emmanuel, Stephen Bennett, and Muriel Anderson.

The Endless Road Strings get wired for sound.

The Endless Road Strings accompanied several CAAS regulars on the main stage, with Stephen Bennett shown here.

For the ten years I've attended this event tasteful vocalist Morning Nichols has appeared at CAAS with her husband Jim and brother-in-law John Nichols. Jim is one of the most versatile guitarists I've ever heard and can find a place among the best in any style; John is the family bass man who holds it all together.

Morning Nichols	Jim and John Nichols.
Woodwind specialist Paul Biondi returned to wow the CAAS crowd with his frenetic saxophone solos.	Dave Pomeroy backed Doyle Dykes on electric bass with the expertise born of hundreds of recording sessions and years of performing together. Here, Tommy Emmanuel doubles on drums.

Several moments of genius occurred when artists such as Tommy Emmanuel, Jim and Morning Nichols, Doyle Dykes and Richard Smith got together in spontaneous and rehearsed mix and match situations. It's incredible to see this diverse mix of instrumentalists assemble with little or no rehearsal time to make music at an exceedingly high level.

I'm pleased to announce that CAAS performers Pat Kirtley, Jim Nichols and Tim Thompson will be involved with a new Mel Bay DVD project. Several hopeful authors gave me CDs to submit to Bill Bay, or for use in Guitar Sessions, so CAAS will likely be a resource for Mel Bay projects and webzine articles for years to come.

Official CAAS master of ceremonies Bill Spann was hurting for jokes to tell between the acts; he just wasn't getting any laughs, so one of our clients gave him the Mel Bay Musician's Joke Book and Spann actually read from it! So while Josh and I were unable to attend the final Saturday night concert at the 2007 CAAS gathering, Mel Bay Publications may have gotten the last laugh.

See you all next year,
Stephen

For more articles about the 2007event and past CAAS conventions please see the Ohio Fingerstyle Guitar Club website at:
http://ofgc.bizland.com/caas.htm and the Mister Guitar website at http://www.misterguitar.com/.