During the weekend of November 11-13, Barker Musical Instruments had the pleasure of exhibiting at the Christian Musicians Summit. Here's a brief recap ...

http://www.dixontech.com/NABA/cmsmaster.jpg It was in Redmond, Washington. I live in Redmond, Oregon. I drove 5 hours from home and was in Redmond. Very confusing.

But the event wasn't--it was beautifully planned and seamlessly accomplished, and that's no small deal when there are over 3000 souls in attendance. Bruce Adolph, the man!

We had a great time with other vendors in the gym, especially the guys from Triad (coolest amp stand in the land), Willy Houston from Rocket guitar pickups, Eric Wylie from Summit, and others. Most fun though was with Jay and Jill Roberts from RMI. They had a guitar player and a drummer, and alas, no bass player in sight unless you looked in the next booth, and there was either Tom Szell or Todd Johnson, eager to glom onto a Barker Bass and get swingin' on some jazz standards. Folks would just stand in front and ogle and groove while these guys were playing wonderful things and just lifting spirits everywhere. It was great music, not loud enough to be offensive, but well heard.

Connie from Bothell, Washington walked out with her very own Barker Bass, slung over her shoulder in the very attractive burgundy gig bag. She was for sure the envy of the neighborhood. I have placed another pin in my map, which shows where Barkers are residing.

Todd brings joy wherever he goes, and having him nearby, engaging bassists and telling them about his cool instructional DVD, just added more "bassness" to our area.

Dwayne Dixon is our sales and marketing guy, from the Twin Cities, and flew out and helped us a great deal. He also was sneaking away here and there to catch sessions from Norm Stockton and like that. Linda Barker, the tireless female half of this partnership, took in some of the vocal instruction stuff and has already shared some of that with praise team members she sings with.

We enjoyed meeting the many attendees at the conference--some from Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and I presume other states but those for sure I remember. Great folks, all interested in becoming better musicians, particularly in their church settings. We'll be back next year.

- Lee

Connie, mentioned above, sent this email to Barker Bass:

I LOVE MY BARKER BASS!!!!!!!
We met at the Music Summit in Redmond WA and I bought #28,your old bass. We got home late that night and I wanted to set it up and play but we had a very busy schedule the next day. I went to bed but couldn't sleep. I forced myself to stay in bed. The next morning we were playing for mass and I was determined to play my new Barker. I practiced for about a half hour that morning and you're right the transition is easy. I played that morning and got wonderful comments on the sound from fellow musicians in the congregation. There's no going back now.....Thank you so much!!!!! Connie

And thank you, Connie, for becoming a member of the Barker Bass Family. We're the ones, you know, who are known for our warm inward smile that occurs every time we play those round, golden notes on a Barker bass.

Kindly,

Lee

I am new to Talk Bass and while searching the various forums I noticed a posting from Lee Barker of Barker Bass regarding the CMS convention in Bellvue, Washington. I was fortunate enough to attend with my good friend Todd Johnson. We had a great time meeting everyone, but the highlight for me was getting to play with Todd, Jay Roberts and his mom, Jill Roberts. This was also the first time I played the Barker Bass and I must say it was a joy and a pleasure. Lee makes a wonderful instrument that emulates an upright, sustains like crazy and is portable for any gig. I loved it! Thanks to Lee, Linda, Todd and Dwayne. Great people. Great Bass. Please stop by the Barker Booth at the NAMM show and say hello.
Regards,
Tom