Steel Notes Magazine February 2017 | Page 36

Steel Notes Magazine
February 2017
him onstage alongside such legendary artists as Don Henley , Chris Cornell and Melissa Etheridge among others and his debut solo CD “ Guitar Nerd ” garnered critical praise and landed on CD Baby ’ s top selling albums list . Channeling his inner gear nerd , Thorn has taken to demonstrating guitar gear and accessories on his wildly popular YouTube channel ( 62,000 subscribers ). Pete ' s videos have so far garnered more than 12.5million views , proving there ’ s a lot of “ guitar nerds ” out there . But if a lifelong , unabashed passion for playing guitar in all its styles and permutations with some of the best artists in the world qualifies as “ nerd ” status ?! Then Pete Thorn is , indeed , a fabulous guitar nerd ”. I was stoked to see Pete Thorn in his element and checking out his signature guitar . He is an axeman among axemen , a true guitar virtuoso . I highly suggest checking him out any time you can and enjoy the taste and stylings that are his and his alone !
Then Renee and I split up to cover 2 birds with 2 stones . As it is during NAMM , many demo ’ s , signings , and performances take place at the same time . She went to the Deftones and I went to check out The 44 ’ s . On my way , I ran into Dave Marek a friend of the family of POPE SKATES . ( www . popeskates . com ) I was wearing their shirt that day . ( I wear different shirts during NAMM to fly the flag of friends and people I support ) He was like hey I know those guys ! I introduced myself and we chatted for a bit and then I was off to catch The 44 ’ s !
I arrived at the Tagima USA ( www . tagima . com . br / en ) booth just in time to catch the 44 ’ s playing . ( www . the44sbluesband . com /) ( www . facebook . com / The-44s- Band-104594366246808 ) “ The 44 ’ s are a Los Angeles-based band who play blues-rootsrock music . The 44 ’ s are one the brightest rising stars on the American blues roots scene . Make no mistake about it . The raw rough and tough sounds generated by these four expert musicians during live performances and in the making of their Sophomore album Americana , on the Rip Cat label , demands to be heard by Blues music fans worldwide . They evidence a genuine gift for creating blues in the moment while at the same time showing loyalty to a remarkable blues-and-r & b tradition that goes back decades through the James Harman Band and the Red Devils to storied greats like Howlin ’ Wolf , Albert Collins , and Muddy Waters . They ’ ve become a favorite band of club and festival crowds across North America ”. They brought it ! I went live on FB for one of their songs and it was an immediate hit ! They play the greasy spoon roots blooze swagger like no other . The buzz of catching them live was why I had to see them at NAMM . I was extremely high of their set . Then Renee and I regrouped and went to the Schector guitars booth ( www . schecterguitars . com ) to hopefully try and catch Zakk Wylde . ( www . zakkwylde . com ). Needless to say the line was about a mile long . Thankfully Renee and her media pass got in to take some great pictures of Zakk and Kings X front man Doug Pinnick
( www . dugnation . net ). Being that Schector was the sponsor of the Zakk Sabbath / Kings X show at the Grove , they were both there doing the signing thing .
As I was outside the booth area I ran into my good friend Karen who is part of the “ Brick by Brick ” ( www . brickbybrick . com ) venue in San Diego . She was telling me

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