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The Chet Atkins Appreciation Society Convention

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Guitar related vendors were already set up in a trade show room down the hall, where you can sample and buy products such as guitars, rare record albums, thumbpicks, instructional materials, and videos. Guitar makers Paul McGill and Harvey Leach displayed their instruments, as did Kent Everett and others.

That afternoon I caught a performance on the main stage by Michael O'Dorn of California and then went to my hotel to check in and head off to dinner.

Day Two - Thursday:

On Thursday I met many of the Chet fans I have chatted with on the Internet over the last 6 months. These are folks I had come to know online, but had not met in person: Chris Vickers, Palmer Moore, Dave Baer, Dan Bishop, Mark Bruffey, Tony Rose and Jimmy Goode were the first ones I met. I also met the man web guitarists call the "king" of tablature, Larry Kuhns. Larry uses a software program called "tabledit" to figure out and transcribe some of Chet's tunes and emails them to friends. Another guy, John Langford had a digital camera and he was walking around taking photos for the "Chet Atkins Fans" webpage, a meeting place for Chet fans on Cyber River.

I also got to meet and play with Julian Smith, a great fingerstyle guitarist from Bowdon, Georgia. He played "Copper Kettle" faster than I expected and it was tough keeping up with the chords on that one, but a thrill to play with him.

Pat Bergeson, a multi-talented guitar player who has toured with Chet in recent years played with Bill Piburn on the mainstage. After an unusually long attempt to get the tuning and sound just right they sounded great together, and Bergeson even played harmonica on a few tunes.

Thursday afternoon I spent about 45 minutes with Thom Bresh in the hotel restaurant and he told me about his experience as the son of the great Merle Travis and how he came into his own career and developed his picking style and what he thought about Chet and Jerry Reed and everything else important in this world. Thom is a funny guy who is entertaining to be around on-stage and off. He's also a bit of a "gadget" junkie. He loves the new technologies and guitar-related "toys." He told me stories of how he sat up all night writing songs, drinking wine, and recording licks onto his home studio DAT recorder. Bresh's home is so full of gadgets that Buster B. Jones calls it "Guitarville".

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