Voyage-Air Guitar

Where to begin? This is the largest outdoor festival in the country, selling over 100,000 tickets. Most of them camp or bring RV’s. Bonnaroo staffers stay at the local hotels, so I lucked out there. This is my 8th year running the Artist Catering Tent so I basically stay in one place and all the artists come to me. They can’t enter the tent without interacting with me, so it’s great for meeting the artists. This year I had both the BelAir electric and a mahogany acoustic on display at the front door.   Some of the artists that came in were Mumford and Sons, Gogol Bordello, Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, The Black Angels, Black Keys, Band of Heathens, Alberta Cross, The Relatives, Ben Sollee, Justin Townes Earl, Ray Lemontagne, Loretta Lynn’s guitar player, Jamie McLean band, Cheer up Charlie Daniels and Aaron “Woody” Wood. Ryan Bingham (an official Voyage-Air guitar endorser) came in to eat lunch in the tent. As did comedian Lewis Black and actor Ron Jeremy. (Yes, that’s right, you know who I mean)!

Check out the photographs from the tent at our Facebook Page. My designated videographer/photographer was there with me. Bayan Mogharabi came down from New York to help document the festival.  On retainer now with Jay Z, we were lucky that he was able to get away.   My buddies at WRLT, Radio Bonnaroo were kind enough to let us shoot video in their tent, which was a lot quieter than my tent. Rising Star comedian Tim Minchin, who also plays guitar, borrowed a Voyage-Air Guitar for his act in the Comedy Tent. Check out the video.  

Aaron “Woody” Wood was so impressed with our guitar that he came into the Radio Bonnaroo compound in between sets to shoot this video with us.

I didn’t see a lot of music this year, it was a busy time in the tent but I did see Arcade Fire, which was great. Mumford and Sons were fantastic from side stage, check out the photographs to see how close I was. I was practically on stage with them! And I got to see my personal favorite, Dr. John. I was able to spend about a half hour with Mac before the show chatting about various things. He was amazing on stage, the show was great.

So, in conclusion, it was a great time at Bonnaroo and I can’t wait for next year! Keep checking back for updates and don’t forget about our Facebook page, for all the latest news!

This is only part one of my Bonnaroo coverage, check back for more soon.

Thank you,

Virginia Cannon, Artist Relations Voyage-Air Guitar

I recently went down to a ‘pre-performance’ sound check to take a guitar to Jim “Moose” Brown. He’s a long time guitar player with Bob Seger, and in fact he and Bob were playing that night at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. I walked in with the Voyage-Air Guitar, and Jim immediately took me to meet Charley, his guitar tech. I took the guitar out of the backpack, unfolded it and handed it to Jim. Charley looked at us both like we were crazy.   But then Jim started playing it - and Charley blurted out “Let me have that.” He plugged it into some sort of headset that he uses to tune the guitars before they go out on stage. In a moment, Charley’s response was “Damn, Jim, this guitar sounds better than the one you’ve been playing on stage.” Seriously, check out the testimonial from the tech (it's in the video).

Jim then took me up on stage to see the set in an empty arena. I had taken my VAOM-1C down to see how they liked it - and it was obviously a hit. So I got some footage of Jim telling our COO, Adrian Bagale, that this is the exact guitar that he wants. That was funny! Then as Jim and Charley fooled around on the stage, I got some video footage and photographs, check it out (over on the right). It was kind of surreal being up on stage with all the instruments laid out, big percussion drums, a drum kit, horns galore. And in an empty stadium, I could only imagine what it must feel like to be up there, with all the lights and the full band, looking at the fans.

That night, with a sold out show at the Bridgestone Arena, Jim folded the guitar on stage twice!   It was so dark on stage that I could not capture Jim folding the guitar, but here’s a video where you can see him playing it with Bob.

It was an amazing show, and Jim clearly loves the Voyage-Air Guitar. He’ll be playing it and folding it on stage throughout the rest of the tour. Check back for YouTube footage that’s sure to show up.

Bob Seger’s show is a must see. Check the tour schedule for a show near you! (http://www.bobsegertour.com/)

When I first got this job in August of 2009, one of the first events that happened with the Voyage-Air Guitar family was the viewing of an ABC reality TV show called “Shark Tank.” This is a show where contestants go to pitch their products or their ideas, and then six self-made billionaires offer them money for a percentage of the company. That, or they get laughed off the show. One of the contestants, for example, wanted to pursue his idea of permanently implanting a blue tooth wireless device in someone’s head so that they wouldn’t have to wear a headphone. What a bad idea!

In early February, I flew out to Los Angeles for the filming of the Shark Tank follow up show. Jeff Cohen, Josh Cohen and I met at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, in Santa Monica, CA. McCabe’s was instrumental in getting us on the original show, so we decided to film the follow-up show there. This is a great guitar shop: McCabe’s has a regular clientele of musician giants, and you never know who you might run into at that store. The staff is knowledgeable, talented, and just really cool cats! One of their sales people is Pete Steinberg. Pete was recently the Southwest Finger-style Champion, and he loves our Voyage-Air guitar!

We all showed up there at 9am to meet the make-up artist, a lovely young lady by the name of Britnee Bagley. Highly recommended by a model and Voyage-Air Guitar player, Lorelei Shellist, Britnee proved to be the pro that Lorelei said that she was. So as ABC TV’s production crew was setting up the equipment for this filming, she was applying make-up, and fussing with hair and wardrobe. Rumor has it that Josh even got guy-liner! But I’ll never tell!

As filming began, the producer, Becky Blitz, got up next to the camera, standing on up a box. Hm. I suppose so that she was eye-level with the guys, so that they weren’t looking down while speaking on camera. I never asked that question but it makes sense to me now.

It was a fascinating process, and I was mesmerized. Cameras everywhere, camera guys, audio guys, and I’m not even sure what all of them do, but everyone seemed very busy. Realize that McCabe’s is a busy and popular store, so we had to cease filming every time a customer came in to look at guitars. Now this is the Los Angeles area, so these customers didn’t blink an eye at the massive equipment involved with the filming: they just went about their business like we weren’t even there. Senior sales associate, and long time employee Nancy Felixson guided them through the showroom and even sold a Voyage-Air Guitar during the filming! Thanks, Nancy!

We then moved out to the street, where they filmed the outside of the store. They filmed Jeff and Josh going in and coming out. Over and over. It’s an interesting process, how they capture different elements that go into telling the story. Then we all went to the ABC studio, where they filmed some trailers and did some other stuff.

For example, the director wanted Jeff and Josh to stand right in front of the camera with the guitar, vertically between them. They put the headstock right in front of the camera and as tape rolled, they were to pull the guitar back. Well, apparently they were both pulling it back and it knocked Josh hard, right on the forehead!

It was hysterical! We were all laughing so hard, I was afraid that Jeff wouldn’t be able to stop long enough to finish the piece. None of us could look at each other without bursting into laughter again. It was one of those special moments. After a long day and over eight hours of filming, we were all a little punch drunk, I guess.

All in all, it was a very cool day and an experience that I won’t soon forget. Don’t forget to tune in! Friday night, May 13^th, 8pm, 7pm Central time!