Shepherd and Huckabee jam at NAMM; Brian Wilson gets award
When it comes to playing blues-rock guitar, Kenny Wayne Shepherd is one of the best ones out there right now.
When it comes to playing bass guitar, Mike Huckabee is -- well, let’s just say he’s perhaps the second-most famous former Arkansas governor who can play an instrument in public and get away with it.
So you wouldn’t expect to see the two jamming together, unless it happened to be on a January morning in Anaheim. As everyone in the music biz knows, that’s when the National Assn. of Music Merchants holds its annual trade show at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Shepherd was there to promote AmpKit from Agile Partners, an app for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch that allows guitarists to jack in and simulate sounds ranging from imperial Marshall stacks to beat-up old Fenders. Huckabee, like most everyone else at NAMM, was there to see the cool new gear at the industry’s biggest trade show. In his remarks to the media, he also spoke of the importance of music and music education.
Someone had the idea for Shepherd and Huckabee to do a quick jam for the press. Shepherd said he knew nothing about it, but he gamely went along with the scheme. He tore it up. Huckabee, to his credit, kept up.
Media preview day also featured the Beach Boys’Brian Wilson, who won the Music for Life award. Asked for song-writing advice by NAMM President Joe Lamond, Wilson responded: “If you want to write a song, write the whole song. Don’t crap out halfway.”
Video credit: John Corrigan / Los Angeles Times
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