Dallas International Guitar Festival 2024

Ah yes, it is once again the time of the year that I enjoy so much, why yes, of course you can ask, Mr Dave pray tell what are you speaking of? Well I am glad you asked because in the springtime of the year a young man’s heart turns to love, however, an old guy like myself, his heart turns to guitars. Yep that’s it, it is Dallas Guitar Show time again! After a bit of a slow start, involving the need to put air in one of my tires, I have made the somewhat treacherous drive up I-30 to I-35 to Dallas Market Hall, the bustling heart of music in Texas this weekend. I quickly found a decent spot to park and off I go in search of great new music, goldtops and super reverbs only to be thwarted by a line to get into the place. Upon finding myself in the back of a rather long line of festival goers, I noticed something I have not noticed in the past few years. Normally the “get tickets here” line is much longer than the “I bought mine online” line, not this year, we are all standing in the “bought mine online” line and there is literally no one in the “get tickets here” line. Interesting to say the least, but no worries I am here. This year I applied for and was blessed to receive a media pass, of course I found out a few days AFTER I paid for my 3 day VIP tics. So I looked at the situation as, oh well, I donated to the DIGF, what was also funny is the week before I went to the DIGF warmup show at Intrinsic BBQ (downtown Garland), I happened to know that the song title was “Outside Woman Blues” and won two tickets. I gave those to a couple of guys that parked next to me on Saturday morning. Everyone is happy.

Meanwhile, back to the line, I make it inside, get up to the counter, where I gather my media pass, complete with DIGF lanyard to hang around your neck, I suddenly feel somewhat important. Woo Hoo! Now comes the fun part, what to do next? First check the performers schedule and note that I have time to run the vendor gauntlet. Gotta grab a $5 Baby Blues Amps t-shirt, got 3 now. Now the first run thru is just a scouting run to see who’s here, who’s new and whatnot. Have to go by the Trinity River Blues Society booth and say “hi”, I happen to be a paid member. By the way, go check out their facebook group, Angela and crew do a great job of keeping one up to date on the latest blues news. Here’s the link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/NorthTexasBlues

While you’re at it go check out my facebook group as well,

https://www.facebook.com/groups/591924381326172

Alright the commercial time is over, on to bigger and better things, like music.

Friday 5/3/24:

1:15 Darren Wise and Empiires

These guys are an enjoyable watch, primarily a cover band w/ some original material. Darren played a very “fat” sounding Les Paul, nice tone. I saw him at the DIGF warmup show in Garland he played a white Flying V. Go check them out.

1:45 Denny Jiosha

I only got to see his soundcheck, since I saw him last year, Played a nice tobacco 335, go find out more about Denny, he’s got great chops and an amazing sense of melody. I am going to try and catch his full set on Sunday. No guarantees. I didn’t get any video as he was just checking levels

2:15 Texas Slim

With a name like “Texas Slim” you better be good and he very much is. Nice Vintage blond Gibson firebird. Played some originals along with Johnny Winters “Careful with a Fool”

4:00 Reverend Guitar clinic w/ Greg Koch

Clinic with the owner of Reverend Guitars, this is straight off the cuff, improve fun with the Gristleman.

5:00 Andy Wood

Andy played his signature Suhr tele thru a Suhr 4×12. Andy was I believe the only artist I saw that used his own amp. Everybody else just uses the backline, mostly Cat 5 amps, no big deal just something I noticed. Something else I noticed, Andy Wood is just stupid good! His chops are ridiculous, even infectious (and yes, I long for it to infect me). Andy’s tone is smooth and “clean sounding” yet he uses more gain, more reverb and a longer delay setting than most, it is no where near too much. Check out his work on his album “Junktown”. As an added bonus Andy had YouTube’s Uncle Ben Eller on bass. Take some time and look over Ben’s YouTube channel, it will be time well spent. I got a pic of Andy walking to the stage, but evidently video of Friday’s set must have been deleted when I was trying to more space to record. Sorry I have more video of Sunday’s set a bit later on.

6:00 Ally Venable Band

Ally Venable ends the Friday extravaganza with a blistering set. She never fails to impress me, chops, tone, vocals, stage presence this girl has got it all. Whether she is playing her trademark burgundy Les Paul or her strat, her playing is always spot on. Heavily influenced by SRV, but by no means a clone, Ally has her own style and she works it wonderfully. I have to mention she has a great band with her. It just dawned on me that I didn’t get a video with her Les Paul.

Saturday, ah yes day 2, what pray tell will happen today? As you may remember I gave away 2 tickets to a couple guys that happened to park next to me. Then, not a minute later, I am not 30 yards from my truck when I run into guitar instructor, player, entrepreneur extraordinaire, all around good dude; Griff Hamlin. We had a nice chat on the way into the festival, we had to part ways after we got in, as I had work to do. It was 10am, first band to see came on at 11am, so I make a quick run thru the vendors, gotta see who is new for Saturday, plus I have to grab any new freebies available, I’m collecting vendor stickers and picks for an art project I’m working on, yeah I know, but Dave you say, “you’re not an artist”, my answer is simple, “what can I say, I’m a multifaceted individual”. Alright, alright let’s get back on track, we have bands to see. I am going to post a few of the short videos of various guitars and vendors booths.

10:55 am Anthony Cullins

Mr Cullins is a young man, probably mid twenties, with a style very much beyond his age, I would call it R/B with a hint of George Benson. Anthony played a white/blond Firebird, clean tone with a touch of dirt. Sweet melodic style, great chops/technique, speed when he needed it, but certainly not in your face. Of course the B3 player was lovely addition. I couldn’t stay for the full set as I had to go check out the next act.

Looks like I lost several of Saturday’s videos due to camera problems, durn the bad luck, you’ll just have to trust my written review. And of course, I encourage you to seek each of these musicians on Youtube and your music streaming service.

11:00am – Joe Mass

I was unfamiliar with Joe which is the exact reason I wanted to see him. Some quick research via the jolly ole chap Mr Google, reveals that Joe Mass is a noted session player / sideman w/ some solo work as well. Joe played a Les Paul, wonderfully fat tone, dirt almost to the saturation point. His first three songs are from Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder and Johnny Winter..

12:00 Kirby Kelly, while I familiar with his name, I did not know with his music, which is a shame on my part. Mr Kelly is a treasure, his old school Delta style slide playing carefully rides that razor’s edge of “I know exactly what I’m going to play” to “I’m not sure what I just did, but it sounded good” to completely out of control to “See I told you I knew what I was doing”. Even sitting in his chair, his expressive vocals and stage presence make him a most enjoyable watch. Kirby is unfortunately battling stage four cancer. His band included Mike “Jr” Clark, and Jerry Don Branch on guitars with I believe Mike Gage on drums. Go see Kirby Kelly soon and let him bring the Delta to you.

1:00 Chris Duarte, wow just wow. Chris’s performances are more of an assault than a musical set, after he is done melting your face off you are just exhausted. He plays a strat style guitar, well rather than “play” let’s say he strangles his guitar. Chris has simply amazing chops and killer tone. As I sat there and took all this in, I thought, man, his playing is “LSD meets meth, with a couple of ‘ludes” thrown in. Please note that the previous statement is “tongue planted firmly in cheek”. Chris is an amazing player and a lot of fun to watch. Another victim of the camera failure, unfortunately.

2:15 Joanna Connor, this was my first time to see Joanna, I do have some of her music on one of my playlists. What a treat this was, Joanne’s grind / gritty sound and tone are to die for. She milks her Les Paul for all its worth. And it’s worth a lot. Her band were the legendary Mighty Mikes. It would definitely be nice if she came thru town more often. Would love to see her full band set.

3:30 Koch, Marshall Trio, I’ve seen Greg a couple of times now, but it has been in a clinic type setting, this was my first time to see the KMT in action. What a great set! You’ve heard that a particular guitar player can make it “sing” or “cry”, Greg makes his guitar do “stand up”, to say he is amazing is a ridiculous understatement. They did several original songs, and the one I was hoping for, Zep’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You” and it was during this that the heartbreak of camera/phone issues started to raise its ugly head. I’m out of EFFing space. NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

So during the next half hour, I spent madly trying to delete stuff so I could have the room to record the ONE GUITAR player I came to the festival specifically to see; Matt Schofield !

5:00 It’s now time for my leader, my fave, (yeah I know I’m a bit old to have a “favorite”, but screw it the little kid in me has a favorite guitar player). Matt Schofield hits the stage with “All You Need” and all I can get is 16 secs of video and 2 pics, I am so sorry to disappoint everyone but that’s all I could get, I tried to edit some more space, but then I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the show. So I gave up and just enjoyed the show. Matt played his newly acquired player-grade vintage white strat, of course he had a Two-Rock to run thru, courtesy of the Guitar Sanctuary, more on that later. Songs that I took the time to write down included; “Livewire”, “Sifting Thur the Ashes”, a bit later he brought the Gristleman himself, Greg Koch along with Christine Tambakis out for vocals on a couple of tunes. Greg was great! She is great! Matt was great, Matt is always great! Here’s my 16 seconds.

Well thus endth Saturday’s events, now we have to drive like the rest of the maniacs down I-30, to get back to Rowlett before the ATT store closes so I can get a new camera / phone. A short while later, Oh goodie, I have now upgraded from a I-ph 11 to a I-ph 14 just in time for Sunday’s festivities.

Sunday, off we go, dodge the loons on I-30, get to Market Hall by 10am. Ha! My media pass got me in one of the side entrances, “flash badge and they wave you thru”, I walking about a foot and a half off the ground! Yay! Go Me! Okay, Okay back to business. Buddy Whittington is on at 11:15, so I have some time run the vendor gauntlet, during this time I was able to get some narrated videos of guitars and booths. Earlier I mentioned Matt Schofield’s Two-Rock amp, at the end of the day Sunday I was walking thru the vendors and happened by The Guitar Sanctuary’s booth. Said hi to Brian Meader, I noticed the Two-Rock and asked if it was the one Matt had used, Brian answered in the affirmative. So I (in proper church language) laid hands on said amplifier hoping to absorb some of Matt’s talents. I don’t think it worked, though. Yes it was silly, yes Brian laughed, but it was fun, therefore it was good. Alright, back to the task at hand.

11:15 Buddy Whittington Band, Buddy is always a good time, he comes across about as down home, friendly and likable as they come. Buddy plays a strat style guitar thru what appeared to be a 12 inch Dr Z amp, his other guitar player, Mouse Mayes plays a Les Paul thru a vintage Marshall. Opened with “Young and Dumb”, then mixed in Bugs Henderson’s “Love Junkie”, Freddie King’s “Big-Leg Woman” and Point Blank’s “Mean to Your Queen”. What an excellent way to start the day.

Ran into my friend Shawn Messick, good to see you bud.

On the schedule was a group at noon, the “Garland Square Pickers”, but either I couldn’t find them or they didn’t play. So onward and upward.

1:00 Larry Mitchell, I missed his full band set on Saturday, so was glad to be able to catch at least of couple of tunes now. Larry played solo, with backing tracks and it was excellent. Larry is super smooth player, very melodic. Plus he was the one person/performer I saw who not only wore but rocked the look of crushed velvet pants.

1:20 Jonathan “Boogie” Long, seems like he has been at the guitar show before, I thought I recognized the name, but I’ve never seen him. This cat can flat out play, plays an older looking Telecaster, and although it doesn’t sound like a Tele, the man has great tone, technique, throwing in some nice sweep picking on occasion. I thought his sound and vocal were in the Marcus King vein, he was a most pleasant discovery. I going to have to dig a little further into him.

1:45 Jared James Nichols, this was another player that was on my list of definitely must see. Jared played a Les Paul, picks with his fingers, not fingerstyle though, I caught myself staring at his right hand work, it was most impressive and expressive. I have never been able to play that way at least for an extended time, like a whole song, but if you can pull it off like say, Jeff Beck or Mark Knopfler, its incredibly effective, Mr Nichols can and does. Jared played mostly original tunes and he introduced them as just that, “here’s an original song of mine” no titles I could catch. He did do a surprise version of Uncle Ted’s “Stranglehold”, which was a bunch of fun. Jared is on my list of must do more research.

Now whilst waiting for Andy Wood at 3:00, I made quick trip to restroom, no line luckily, then back outside to grab a good seat for Andy’s second performance. Of course they are always playing music over the sound system in between bands, I heard something that sounded familiar, then laughed and smiled when I realized what it was. I wonder how many people there in attendance or here reading this blog, remember the Dallas band Blackhorse and their local hit “Fox Hunting” ! It’s been years since I heard that song. Wonderful !

3:00 Andy Wood is back for a second performance this time on the big outdoor stage. He played pretty much the same set as Friday. I still got some more video. You can tell the difference by one set is played indoors, this one is outdoors. I know, I know, painfully obvious. Oh Well.

4:00 I was able to catch the tale end of Chris Rodriguez, Kara Grainger, and Tom Yankton’s set on the indoor while awaiting the last show of the weekend. Tom was new to me, I’ve seen both Chris and Kara several times before. All three of them were most enjoyable.

I did not waste my time with George Lynch, and based of posts I read about his set, it was the correct decision

5:00 Alright, unfortunately all good things this side of heaven come to an end. But hey what a better way to end the weekend than with Redd Volkaret’s Masters of the Telecaster. Redd was once Merle Haggard’s long time guitar player, he can be only described as stupid good. He even has good vocals. This year his merry band of pranksters included; Chris Rodriguez, Tom Yankton, Mike Tuck, Michael Weber, Andy Wood, Greg Koch, James Webb, and Arnie Newman. Each got to play a couple of tunes with Redd. What great way to end the weekend!