The annual National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show and convention took place in Anaheim, California, on the third weekend of January.

NAMM is as good a representation of America as anything I can think of. It is big, it is loud and it is over the top. It is commercialism run amok. It is about fashion and trends. It is about the latest and greatest. It is about celebrity idolatry. It is about the buzz. You put them all together in one big building and it makes a carnival midway at a state fair feel like a monastery. It’s a mega mall with Marshalls. It’s a tent revival with hookers. It’s like a world’s fair without the science exhibit. It’s like SXSW without the mosquitos. It’s like the Comic-Con convention with people who have actually had sex.

Here are some numbers:

90,000 registrants

1,400 companies exhibiting their products

800,000 square feet of floor space

Here is another fun fact: NAMM is beneath me.

I don’t mean figuratively, but literally as I sit in my favorite spot at this enormous carnival of commerce. My third- floor perch is in front of the Fender exhibition space where I can take a load off and actually hear myself think. I can even return a few phone calls… oops I mean texts (yeah, I’m old) and write this missive.

I know, I know they have a media center for such activities, but why would I want to hang out with a bunch of journalists. Not only that, every last one of them are conducting interviews at the same time. It would be like trying to meditate on the floor of the New York Stock exchange.

The large windows that face east also has views to the north and south. From my third-floor sanctuary I can actually look out and see my past. My childhood home is in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains and can be seen from this vantage point. That neighborhood is of course completely unrecognizable as orange groves and cattle ranches were replaced with suburban sprawl a long time ago.

Down the street, date palms that look like Doric columns, line the boulevard leading to the convention hall. The gladiators that are making their way to this cacophonous coliseum of culture are, believe it or not, dressed for success. This week the hotels aren’t populated with a bunch of kids wearing black mouse ears, but old timers with mousse in their jet-black hair.

To my left is Disneyland and beyond it, just a few miles north, I can see the approximate spot where Leo Fender opened his first manufacturing plant. Fender doesn’t make solid body guitars, basses and amps in Fullerton anymore. Guitars and amps are like a lot of products that used to be made in America; they are now made overseas. If NAMM is quintessentially an American experience, then this is part of the narrative as well. Over the years the number of Asian manufacturers represented at NAMM has grown exponentially. It is easy to hear people at NAMM speaking in many languages, dialects and various forms of regional gibberish.

The music industry sometimes seems just as foreign and distant to me as my own home town.

I like to start at the top, and since the Fender exhibit gets very crowded very fast. At NAMM you get to Fender first and while you are up there hit the Gibson exhibition space. It is also helpful to have a V.I.P. badge as Fender doesn’t open to the general NAMM populace until noon on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Getting a head start helps to beat the crowds at these popular manufacturers’ elaborate exhibition rooms.  

I also like to start at the top because I can procrastinate and postpone my descent into the main exhibit hall as long as I like. That gets later and later every year. I put this off as long as I can because experience tells me that the rest of the day will be a whirlwind of activity that is relentless. I have to admit, I enjoy it to some extent but at the same time, I always feel a little out of place.

What confuses a lot of folks about blues music, if they think about it at all, is the fact that the people who make it by and large just don’t care about trends, style, fashion, the latest and greatest in terms of technology. It is these things that drive NAMM and American culture at large. NAMM is about high tech and blues guys (the good ones anyway) are about low-fi. Rock is about something new. Blues on the other hand…is timeless. 

It might be a scary proposition for some folks to jump off the ravenous beast of commercialism and listen to the roar disappear in the distance, as it races on by in quest of its next prey. Staying just out of reach of that ravenous beast has been one of the most liberating and rewarding aspects of my life. Blues musicians left this world behind a long time ago as well. They live in this kind of parallel universe that is a part of, yet slightly removed from the larger music industry. Maybe it is completely removed...I don’t know.

I do know that I ran into a fair number of blues musicians this week, taking a peak at the beast that is NAMM. The general consensus was, “This is nuts.... let’s get out of here Dave.” It as it this point I often think, ‘What am I missing here? Shouldn’t I pay a little more attention to what’s new in the music world? Shouldn’t I check out what the next ‘buzz’ is going to be? Shouldn’t I give a damn about any of this… or at least pretend to give a sh*t.  Shouldn’t I be taking selfies with rock stars and trade show hotties. Shouldn’t I be posting these shots on Facebook the moment they happen?’

There of course were several manufacturers who had terrific exhibits that some of these cats wanted to visit. One of my favorite aspects of the NAMM experience each year is learning from the musicians as they ask questions about some of the new products that are on display at the show. The almost always very knowledgeable reps answer the questions with laser beam precision. If you are hanging out with a working blues musician the conversation typically ends the same way. “That is cool... I just can’t afford it right now.” As we walk away, I have heard many times, “Dave, I’ll pick that up for fraction of that price in two years when that rocker sells it on Craigslist and buys the next new thing.”

As always, the people who help facilitate this exposition are helpful, friendly and courteous to a fault. The NAMM employees acted like professional concierges whose utmost concern was that their guests could make the most of the experience. The employees of the Anaheim Convention Center itself also handled themselves with a great degree of professionalism. Many of these individuals have been around many years and they seemed genuinely happy to see a familiar face stop to visit with them for a few moments each year. I’m glad to do so, as everyone else it seems walks by these people as if they were furniture.

One of my favorite aspects of NAMM is watching the 70’s era rock star who is wound tighter than a drum, trying desperately to be recognized. When one of their many adoring fans does spot one of these people, the would be, kind of, almost or even God forbid former rock star acts put off for the inconvenience of having to sign an autograph. It’s absolutely hilarious in a pathetic sort of way.

I’m just impressed that these aging rockers can keep up, on foot mind you, with the very tall, very young woman they rented for the weekend. It would appear that life has been good for these people… so far. You sure couldn’t tell by the expression on their faces. It would appear that the 2018 Namm Show was a success. For this, I’m glad because that means I can come back next year and file the same story. The NAMM show is a lot of things to a lot of people, but for me it is the last faint gasp of that rock star walking by me with that wrinkled, old scowl.

- David Mac



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