Hello music lovers! Happy summer 2022. Hope you're all enjoying our amazing music industry coming back. I know I am! NAMM 2022 successfully happened, only about half the normal attendance, but hey, it actually happened! Awesome speakers, demos, live music, attendees, and my annual Stevie (Wonder) sighting.

 

As far as Covid goes...I was a little surprised to see that most of my fellow Namm attendees were unmasked, (apart from The Music Soup team). And, one of the two of us came home with Covid. This virus is so unpredictable!  Many people have covid at this time. Naturally its a chance we take when we go to any large gatherings of people. And this annual music convention in Anaheim was just that. Namm attracted approximately 60,000+ attendees this year. The 2020 NAMM attendance was said to have been about 115,000. 

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As a music photographer myself, two highlights of this years' NAMM for me was meeting two legends in the field of music photography, (drumroll)....Henry Diltz and Neal Preston. They were both speaking at NAMM this year. Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Neal Preston. He took me on a mini tour of some of his own favourite shots. Even though he was the photographer with the most recognizable Queen shot, Pete Townshend is his absolute number one artist of all time to capture. (He and I share a deep love for The Who). After NAMM (last year), Neal followed up several times and he gave me some great suggestions and guidance, after looking at, and sorting out some of my photos with me. He gave me some great insight and words of advice. Preston and Diltz are two top music photographers of our time.

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Being without live music for a couple years from the pandemic, its left me even more grateful for NAMMs return! We all see that our music calendars are now filling up for the remainder of summer, as well as some hefty bookings for this coming fall. So exciting indeed! If you are a live music lover, I suggest checking your local music calendars out to see who is back out playing, and coming on tour to your area. New shows popping up everyday. 

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Remember..."Life is short...break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile".
 

With peace, love and music, 

Cheryl
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