Hi Everyone,

Eve, Steve, Kyle, Brendan, Kate, and Ken (at Bose) are here in Montreal for the 2005 Folk Alliance conference.

Over the past three days, I have been treated to performances from the most astonishing group of professional musicians I've ever met. These players, some two thousand strong, are all accomplished professional musicians. Most tour regularly throughout the world. There are some big names (Emmylou Harris, Odetta, McGarrigle Sisters) but you quickly realize that the talent is spread throughout the whole group.

I made the mistake last year before attending this same conference in San Diego for the first time, of thinking that "folk" meant traditional. Boy was I way off. This is simply the best collection of contemporary singer/songwriters anywhere, in my humble opinion. There is tons of ultra-modern music being written and performed here. So much so that it reminds me of the sixties and seventies when so much new music was being developed.

There are plenty of traditional groups here too. For example, in the room next to mine are a group of kids from Scotland, already professionals that play traditional music from that country on fiddles and guitars. All day long they practice with elders from North America, sharing songs, and technique. Talk about an education. The youngest one, a guitar player, looks to be about 10 years old.

They are here to showcase their talent to booking agents, venue owners, management companies, festival organizers and record companies. The music goes on all day and all night until the wee hours, in thirty minute slots.

Two of the biggest showcase venues are using our new approach to amplification. There have been many many compliments on the sound and the artists simply love it. Mainly it is because they hear themselves ultra-clearly and know that their audiences are hearing just about the same thing. There lives are filled with the vagaries of house systems and they often play with poor sound either on stage or in the audience. So they're really fired up about the Cylindrical Radiator system.

We are exhibiting and once a day I'm giving a talk backed by a killer quartet of Folk Alliance musicians under the musical direction of Lorne Entress. We have a special venue where an artist can sign up for a private tryout: this has been very successful.

We have also been very gratified to find how much progress we've made in just one year. Many Folk Alliance artists have purchased the system and are using it regularly and love it. Many others have played on the system and are trying to find a way to purchase. Many have heard about it and are eager to try it out. This is an outstanding result for us.

I can not urge you more strongly to attend this event next year, if only to dunk yourself into the holy waters of original music beautifully written and performed.

With great appreciation for all you who make live music,

Ken-at-Bose

(We'll post pictures when we come up for air next week.)

Wish I was there now.

Ken, I am constantly inspired by your genuine love and heartfelt enthusiasm for music.

You go, boy.

Here's some pics.

Kate-at-Bose speaks with some customers at our booth at the conference.

I'm working with some musicians excited about the system. Lots of questions. We love speaking with people about the system.

This is the doorway to our Plug and Play Room where anyone interested in trying out the product and simply come in and get a test drive on the system - complete with a friendly Bose specialist (that's where Steve and Brendan-at-Bose come in).

Steve-at-Bose works closely with a musician trying out the system.

Another pic of the PNP room. Got to run! Ciao.

I've gotta post my POV here too.

WOW, WOW, WOW! What a great 4 days. Between Wednesday and Sunday I got less than 20 hours of sleep and was completely energized the entire time.

The musicians I got to meet and work with were just so fantastic. Can you believe they pay me to do this?

Of all the musicians I met with for a 1/2-hour session I had one who said, no, this isn't for me. Everyone else was so enthusiastic and excited. What fun. We even had one guy who did a plug-and-play with me and when we saw him a few hours later in the day he said "I just called and ordered mine. I'm so excited to get it!" and he thanked us a bunch for helping him to try out the system.

Changing live music, one musician at a time. Fun!

Also, if you want to experience an amazingly high density of killer music, the Folk Allinace meeting rules! I have several new favorite bands/players.

Thanks to all those musicians who played for me in the plug-and-play room (if your reading this give me a shout out). I got more than 30 private concerts in the P&P room. How lucky am I???

This blues and rock die hard says FA rocks!!!

Steve

PS Next year it'll be in Nashville I believe.

I'm thinking that we may want to have a group of Message Board VIPs come to the next Folk Alliance. There is something so special here that I think we need to enlarge the community. Stay tuned or help me converge this.

Message Board VIP's or maybe AD's would be good...hint, hint.

Yes, Message Board VIPs and Product Specialists (ADs). Yes. YES!

Cool! This is EXACTLY what I had in mind when I was talking with Eve and Tony about Bose having a presence at the Guitar Shows around the Dallas area. Honestly, this Folk Alliance IS probably a better audience, but these Guitar Shows are very similar, and includes the rock and blues segments also...

So is this a competition, an application, popular selection, or appointment? I want in for next year.

Oldghm

Me Too! Me Too!!!!

I'm Neale Eckstein and this is my first post here. Laurie and I do the Fox Run House Concerts in Sudbury, MA and also presented over 50 acts over 3 days at FA in Montreal.

First a little background. We have done about 110 shows over the past 8 years in our family room. From the start, I wanted to have the best sound I could achieve and had many configurations before I was happy. We ended up with an Allen and Heath 24 channel board (so that I could record each show into separate Pro Tools tracks) and installed a pair of Bose 402 on our ceiling coupled with a subwoofer and small stage monitors. This system worked pretty well, although we had some issues with the seats near the front being too loud and getting a lot of monitor wash, but compared to many places we heard acoustic music, the audience and the performers were happy.

I went to one of the demonstrations at Bose with the Tony Sarno band with a fair amount of skeptism. In addition to seeing a great show, I was blown away by the even spread and imaging the PAS system allowed. I started to think about how to integrate this into our home venue. Space is an issue on our small stage and people sit at both the front and at the side in our kitchen. The worst seat in the house is only about 25 feet from the stage, so sight lines are not an issue, but getting even sound is a challenge.

We recently had Jim's Big Ego, a 3 piece group who regularly uses the system. Jesse Flack, the bass player, is a rep for the system and works at Bose. Because I record all the shows and need every instrument and mic routed to a mixing board, I wanted to see if we could achieve better sound using just two PAS systems. Jesse and I spent an afternoon testing various placements and we found that if we crossfired the cylinders, we got a very even spread into the main room and the kitchen. Granted, the sound is in mono, but that's what I have now and in such a small venue, you get a fair amount of direct sound from the performers instruments and voices.

I'm going to add a couple of photos of this show and then do another post about Folk Alliance. In a nutshell, the sound was even wherever I went. The stage, kitchen, mixing position. By far the best sound I've ever heard in one of our shows.

Jim's Big Ego at Fox Run

Continuing on to Folk Alliance:

This is the 8th year we have presented showcases. I knew Bose would be there and arranged to borrow a system from Ken-at-Bose. Putting on a different act every 20 minutes between the hours of 10 pm and 2 am and staying on time is a challenge. Again, we decided to use the systems as conventional mains and run the sound from a mixing board at the back. As you can see from the photos, we get some large groups. These are individual performers who line up their musician friends to back them up. We had some real all-star lineups going as the evening progressed. By crossfiring the 2 columns (this time in stereo) we were able to cover both the stage area and the 40 ft long room and again, everyone agreed that this was the best sound we'd ever had in our showcases. By eliminating conventional monitors, we had very little issue with feedback and the people at the front weren't getting blown out of their seats. While I understand the philosophy behind the intended use of the PAS, I feel that a pair of these systems are ideal for small and medium venues that are looking for even and transparent sound. In addition to presenting these shows, I also have a recording studio, so I don't make these statements likely. This is truly a revolutionary product.

Fox Run Showcase

Fox Run 3

For information about the concert series, see our web site.

Neale Eckstein
www.Foxrun.org
Neale@foxrun.org