PROLOGUE: - Nazareth, Pennsylvania

I pulled into Nazareth…

Okay, we actually stay at the Bethlehem Comfort Inn, but close enough. They let us take over the entire hotel, using the lobby and lounge as our center of operations, replete with a pot luck food array and single malt whisky bar, all provided by the various UMGF members. They also give us their meeting room, which we use for song circles, rather than the more raucous goings on.

The Thursday Welcome Party was a big success. One second-year person, Len Rosenberg from Long Island, NY put it this way: Last year was about seeing all these amazing guitars and playing with people who actually liked the same kind of music he did. He walked in the door and played for three hours straight before he stopped to unpack. This year he did not pick up a guitar for three hours, as he was happily meeting up with very good friends he has not seen for a year.

I did they same, spending far more time socializing than playing music.

DAY ONE: Friday, August 6 at the Martin Guitar factory - UMGF Day at the factory was on Friday, rather than the usual Monday and combined with the Martin Owners Club Day, a much larger but newer group run by the company.

As a result there were some 1,500 people taking tours of the factory, mingling in the visitors center and roaming the Martin Museum. Outside they had an enormous tent covering a parking lot, to offer shade and a place to eat, with entertainment by various local musicians, including some Martin factory workers. We were lucky that the heat wave ended. It almost reached 90, but was still a lovely day.

As some of you know, Michael Dickinson has been promoted out of Customer Service and is now the buyer of exotic, alternative and sustainable woods for CFM. About 11 AM, I gathered Martin Company President Keith Lombardi and Carmen Cortez, Head of Customer Service to witness my presenting Michael with an authentic pith helmet, like those used on African safaris, with a special name plate featuring the company logo and “Exotic Wood Buyer” framed by two palm trees.

Later, Mike and I went out for the free lunch and took in the set of Tyler Grady, the American Idol contestant who grew up in Nazareth.

C.F. Martin IV Address Mr. Martin was happy to report that the company is doing very good. Not “nineties good” but better than they had been doing. He said they did not have to lay off anyone or “monkey with their 401Ks like some other companies.” I was happy to start off the applause after hearing that bit. Later some factory workers told me they were genuinely impressed that Chris actually brought back some manufacturing from the Mexico location to help insure the company wouldn’t have to lay off anyone at the Nazareth plant. My kind of boss.

Songwriters Workshop In the afternoon I left the factory and made it to Nazareth Boro Park, where two great songwriters were giving a talk about the do’s and don’ts, even if they kept stressing that there are no real rules.

Bob Martin, from Lowell, Massachusetts offered a long life’s worth of advice and some wonderful songs about hobos and house painters, loved ones and life lessons. Ron Peterson is a Nashville music scene veteran who wrote or co-wrote a Number One hit, five Top Tens and a host of many other great songs for some of the biggest stars in Country Music. Hearing these songs rendered with the supreme authority of the poets themselves sent goose bumps through the crowd.

Friday Night -The Comfort Inn was teaming with happy people until4 AM. Many were first-timers and everyone who saw the green dot on their name tag made sure to say hello and learn that they were indeed having a great time. When we arrived from dinner the massive sing-alongs were in full force out on the front walk way, in the main lobby and the Cheers Lounge, complete with finger food, made to order egg creams and other more potent libations.

Among the popular single malts was the cask strength Aberlour A’Bundah and the Auchentoshan Triple Wood. My personal favorite was the Gordon and Macphail bottling of a 1992 Glen Scotia, which Michael Thompson brought for us from the UK.

Later, I was part of the Dylan song circle. Normally, the Morgan Room is set aside for folks to take turns offering a favorite song or new original composition. This year, at 11 PM on Friday we switched to just songs by Bob Dylan. I was happy with the mixture, from classic sing-alongs, to some gems many people had never heard before.

I spent my final hours catching up with folks who were newly-arrived and was in bed by 2:30 AM. But before I did, I sampled two, modern OM-45s, one being an old favorite, made with vintage styling of grained ivoroid bindings and snowflakes on the fingerboard and the other new to me, in modern Style 45 with white binding and abalone hexagons on the neck. Life is good.

Saturday: Martins on Maint Street For the third year, Saturday was spent at a street fair, full of local vendors, restaurants and a large display of special Martin guitars for people to play. At the other end of Main St. a stage was erected in the town square were we took turns entertaining the crowd under clear, sunny skies and mercifully lovely weather.

The special guests were the Walker Brothers, still in their teens and having already played the Grand Ole Opry many times. They did some songs with Jon Garon from myfavoriteguitars.com, no slouch himself I can tell you, and then played some pieces on their own, including their rendition of “My Favorite Things.” Bluegrass does Coltrane does the Sound of Music. Wild!

I had the privilege of doing a two-song set with three hot-hand guitarists, Frank Krupit from NJ, Jim Murphy from Long Island and the Rev. Dr. Michael Thompson from Cambridge, UK. We did “Little Wing” and the Allman Bros. take on “You Don’t Love Me”, basically excuses to stretch out in some guitar solos. A lady asked if we had any albums out, so we must have done good.

Saturday Night: The Morgan Room song circle, the cacophony of the Cheers Lounge, the jaw dropping playing by the various kids, some as young as 13, brought by their parents who are members - and the youngest UMGF member of all, who actually brought his parents with him; the hilarious rendition of “Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian”, put on in the parking lot by a collection of brave souls in grass skirts and coconut bras – perhaps the bravest being Jim Martin who henceforth shall forever be known as “Coconuts”; the front walkway, filled with mini-song circles, sing-a-longs, guitar lessons, life lessons, restringing of guitars and of hearts, hilarious antics and serious spiritual bonding. In no way could a narrative hope to touch upon the closeness in that laughter, the transcendence in that joining together in song that crosses so many lines of age and geography and philosophy and musical tastes and levels of proficiency, where even the people who do not play music would tell you they had one of the best of nights, because of the friendship shared. Words would fail, utterly.

So I won’t even try.

But I shall mention the two hours I spent alone with Ron Peterson. It began with my shooting some quiet video of his amazing guitar, built for him by his old friend, Randy Wood - among the most sought after mandolin makers in the world. And it ended with my getting a private song doctoring. Ron is a master who had only to observe my creation and tap the chisel at just the right spot to make all the difference the world. The song went over great in the Morgan Room later that night.

Sunday: Nazareth Boro Park The morning hosted a worship service at the large pavilion and then we had a memorial near some trees the UMGF planted in honor of members who are no longer with us. I spoke for my friend Kathyrn Faughey and others said a few words for other such friends and we sang a song for each. It was quite beautiful and I was happy to see the Martin factory softball team stop their warm ups and come over to join us.

Sunday Night: Last Hurrahs With no Monday this year, only the hardcore diehards remained for Sunday night. But enough to keep it festive. The annual Beatles jam was well under way when I finally left the Morgan Room song circle, sometime after Midnight.

I took my place among the faithful and lit into Beatles song after Beatles song. Mike Buono never fails to impress when people call out for the most obscure of Beatles songs and he has the opening chords quicker than you can say “I Call Your Name”.

With Paul, everyone’s favorite desk clerk, humming along, the final hours skedaddled, carrying off our singing voices with them. We ended with "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" just as the clock reached 4:30 AM. And then someone realized we forgot “No Reply” and Mike launched into that as the encore.

It was then, as far as I am concerned, that Martinfest IX came to its close.

Epilogue: Monday Four of us were at the Martin factory way too early to say final goodbyes to some friends and then drove the 90 minutes to make our annual Day-After-Martinfest trip to Mandolin Brothers, on Staten Island for a little guitar withdrawal and the playing of some fine instruments, including the first Martin 12-string ever made, from 1913. A cool $35,000 and it’s yours! A lot less than several of the vintage Martins that I got to play across the three days I spent at Martinfest.

Next year is the 10^th Anniversary. I have been to all of them and each is different but so worth while. At the 5^th year we had several special guests, including the Ed Bruce, Jack Lawrence, the Kingston Trio and Laurence Juber. So the 10^th should be pretty special.