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Instro Summit 2011 is our third annual event, held from 7pm Friday, April 29th to 1am Sunday, May first. Currently the largest festival of its’ type in the Southeast, it features bands from as nearby as Durham to as far away as Ulm, Germany, all eager to share their lyric-free music with fans-and bands-that appreciate the genre.

Our family vacation this year started in Houston, where we dropped in to see Jimmy at Southpaw Guitars. Next we hit South Padre Island, San Antonio and Austin for SXSW 2011!

Friday March 18th – SXSW Austin, TX – I was in Austin for only one day of SXSW this year, but as luck would have it, so was Mike Watt. His is in the middle of a grueling 51 shows in 52 night tour.

Wow. Where did the time go? OK, I’m 50. No big deal. I’m just a little surprised how fast I got here that’s all. Looking back I can’t imagine having more fun along the way and no reason to think it will get any less silly moving forward. I am blessed to be surrounded by a great family and a wide, diverse circle of friends. What else could you ask for? Sorry to bore you with the slide show, but I feel the need to document this.

Every month I get people sending in images, youtube links, songs, etc that fit the theme of My Rare Guitarticles newsletter. Here are a few samples. Feel free to send in anything you think might be of interest to our community.

Once again it’s been a busy fall concert schedule here in Toronto. Here is what I’d picked out for the first half of October. Here are some photo’s, videos and comments from a few. Beck with Jessica Dobson playing her Airline Tuxedo Guitar. If you have never been to a Beck show, do yourself a favor, GO!

When Squeeze were coming through Toronto this August, Mike talked with the singer/songwriter Chris Difford, and found out that their two Eastwood guitars went missing. So Mike arranged to replace their guitars free of charge. After the sold out show at Koolhouse, Mike Robinson presented Chris Difford with a beautiful Airline 3P DLX and handed Glenn Tilbrook an Eastwood Wandre DLX. The smiling British song writing duo were elated by his generosity.

Sunday June 6th was a fine day here in Toronto. We had the pleasure of spending some time with the guys from R.E.M. prior to their show at the Molson Amphitheatre. As many of you know, Scott McCaughey has been playing an Eastwood Sidejack Guitar for more than half of the songs on this tour (Scott is the long-time sideman for R.E.M.).

Just got back from an 8 day trip to UK. I will have more details in next months newsletter – including exclusive video interviews – but here is a snapshot of what we were up to. Our first day in London included a visit with Chris Spedding, who was messing around with his Airline Town & Country before heading off on a European Tour playing guitar for Bryan Ferry.

Continuing the busy summer concert schedule here, this time with a road trip to Detroit, MI. The New Cars played their last summer concert here on Sunday night where Elliot Easton was our gracious host. Here are some pictures.