Summer NAMM 2016

Summer NAMM came to Nashville June 23rd-25th and it was a blast! I was able to run into and catch up with a lot of friends as well as make many new ones, and that’s what I love so much about NAMM! It feels like the whole industry moves to Nashville for a week and you spend your day at the convention center trying out all the latest products and inventions in the music world, meeting the people and companies behind those advancements, and making connections.

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The NAMM show is a trade show for manufacturers to display new products and for buyers to place their orders for the upcoming year. There are two of these shows a year, the biggest being in Anaheim, CA in January. The Summer NAMM show, typically held in Nashville, is held in June or July. The advantages for a musician like me to get a badge to these shows are trying out new products in my field, meeting other musicians, and networking with companies.

What made this year’s show exciting and fun for me were the opportunities I was given to play after the convention center closed for the day. I was very fortunate to have multiple performing opportunities with some of my favorite musicians all three nights.

After the convention center closed on day one of NAMM, I started the night at the Hammond Organ party at Soundcheck Nashville playing with the Jon Hammond Band. I met Jon Hammond last year at the Mothertone Mother Of All Hangs Summer NAMM 2015 event, where I got to jam on a few songs with him and guitarist Joe Berger, and I was thrilled when Jon asked me to play with him again for a few events at this years show! Jon Hammond was asked to perform at the Hammond Organ night celebrating the unveiling of the new Hammond XK-5 organ and he invited Joe Berger (Guitar), Chuggy Carter (Percussion), and I to play 3 tunes with him.

Here’s a link to part of the performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zse4xuv6-eg

All three nights of NAMM this year, Michael Turner from Mothertone hosted the Mother Of All Hangs at Big Shotz. Each night was a huge success with tons of great acts playing and other sponsors in attendance including Sonall Percussion’s Marco Llanos, who put Cush Pads and a Ti-Rod on the Sleishman/Mothertone drum kit for all the drummers to use. After playing at the Hammond party I rushed over to the Mother Of All Hangs to play a full band set with Hathaways, a group led by brother/sister duo Kate and James Hathaway with a really cool Peruvian influence in their writing.

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On night number two for the Mother Of All Hangs I started by playing an acoustic set with Hathaways, showing off the new Mothertone Cajons. A few hours later The Khromatiks made an appearance with a set including a brand new tune we haven’t made a video for yet! Chewbacca even sat in on drums for a song, thanks to my killer new Chewbacca mask I wish I could drum in all the time. Right after The Khromatiks set, Jon Hammond (Organ) and Joe Berger (Guitar) came onstage to play a set with me! Check out these video links for the Jon Hammond Band set:

“Pocket Funk”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WBoeOrZhZE

“White Onions”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rqNqfaOT6M

And to close night 2 of the Mothertone hang, I played drums for another full-band set with Hathaways.

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The third and final night of the Mother Of All Hangs was just as busy and exciting. Kyle Pudenz and I played another set as The Khromatiks early in the night, and I’m so glad he wanted to play with me at this event. We played as the Khromatiks at last year’s Mothertone party and we had a lot of fun putting songs together to play for the event this year, but I think we had one of the best live performance sets ever as The Khromatiks that Saturday night! Later that night I got to play an acoustic set with Hathaways on cajon, and in between the acoustic set and full-band set Michael Turner came onstage to talk about the brand new Mothertone Cajons and had me demonstrate how they sound and some of my techniques. Later on I ran down to Alley Taps to play a really fun set with Larry Mitchell. Fun fact: the drum kit at Alley Taps didn’t have a hi-hat stand so Michael Turner left his Mothertone hang and ran several blocks with a hi-hat stand to make sure I had one to play on for that show! Thanks Michael for that, and for allowing me to play with so many incredible groups at your Mother Of All Hangs. Thank you James and Kate Hathaway for letting me play your music with you on cajon and drum set all three nights. Thank you Jon Hammond for including me in your NAMM performance plans and letting me groove with you, Joe Berger, and Chuggy Carter. Thank you Kyle for rehearsing with me to get new Khromatiks material up and running for this year’s NAMM performances. Thank you Larry Mitchell for inviting me to play with you this year and rehearsing with me before hand. And thank you to my mom for being the most incredible supporter and sharing this NAMM experience with me.

It was such a pleasure to play with such incredible musicians this year! Thank you to all who came to the shows each night. I’m so happy to have made so many new friends and connections!

-Kayleigh

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Summer NAMM 2016

Kayleigh Moyer

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