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 ... 
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
