Roadtrip

Tomorrow, my wife and I are headed to Chicago to “enjoy/work” the AXPONA 2014 show. My friend Steve Davis started the show about 5 years ago as a small regional event in Jacksonville, Florida and has seen it grow into one of biggest audio trade shows in North America. I know he and his lovely wife Carmen worked insanely hard to build a consumer and vendor friendly show. Steve’s a skilled guitar player and enjoys singing and playing with his group so live music is always a component of the AXPONA show. This year is no different.

I’ve mentioned in a previous post that John Gorka and Antje Duvekot will be participating in a “first of its kind” shoot out in the AIX Records and partners Madison Ballroom on Friday afternoon at 2:30 pm. It’s an event that will be limited to press. Space is very limited in the space and we want to make sure that our partners and their messages get to the widest possible audience. I know some of you will be around that day…but it’s doubtful that you’ll be able to get a ticket for entry. Sorry. That doesn’t mean that you can’t come and enjoy the amazing system that we’ll going to spent all day Thursday setting up. This will be the best we’ve ever done and I’ll be loading up a 32-gig USB stick with a bunch of my favorite recordings…including some that I haven’t released yet. If you’re in Chicago or anywhere near O’Hare Airport, please stop by the Westin and say hello.

Yesterday, I called David Tamulevich in Ann Arbor, Michigan (the home of U of M…the first university that I attended). He and his associate handle the bookings and travel for John Gorka. I thought it best to double check on the gig that he and I discussed about a month ago and I’m really glad that I did. The deal needed refreshing. We got talking about high-resolution audio, John’s new record (“The Bright Side Of Down” on Red House Records) and Pono. He wasn’t aware of the new energy behind high-resolution audio. So, of course, I hit him over the head with it…gently.

He did mention that John had recently performed near the site of the Freedom Industries chemical spill in West Virgina and had written a song called, “Give Us Back Our Water”. Leave it to John to bring a heartfelt and honest song about this tragedy. You can take a listen to it on Sound Cloud by Clicking Here. I told David that I would gladly post the link to the song on this site…I do so because I think it’s an important issue and because John is my favorite singer/songwriter. He just has a way.

I’ll keep up the writing while I travel with reports on the show and our demonstrations. As you would expect, I don’t get to spend much time cruising around the show…I’m pretty locked in place demoing my tracks and talking about HRA. I will also be giving a presentation called, “2014: Is this the Year for High-Resolution Audio?” from 4:45 to 5:45 pm on Saturday, April 26th. Please come by if you’re heading the show.