Kim in front of one of the Messe halls

Märkä härkä!

My turn to be your eyes and ears, so here it is -- the Frankfurt MusikMesse 2007 as seen and heard by yours truly, Jussi, the FW.com Äijä.

Nutshell? Guitars, ouds, the Balalaika, great Vietnamese food and lots of German weizbier.

The FW Messeposse - consisting of myself, our marketing manager Kim, and the FW überlord himself, Antti Vilenius - met up very early (read: too early, at least for those of us who manage to leave all travel preparations to the very last minute) at the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport on Tuesday, March 27th, all a bit sleepy but still happy to travel. Kim and I had already done the instrument fair routine earlier this year at NAMM in Anaheim, but this time Antti decided to tag along and come spy on the vibe in Frankfurt for a couple of days. Check-in, security checks (remarkably less of a hassle than in the U.S.) and a quick coffee for Kim and Antti later, and we were off. Slept most of the flight.

I hadn't been to Frankfurt in over ten years, so it was great to see the city with a fresh (and older) pair of eyes. My boudoir was at the Hotel Corona, while Kim and Antti crashed at the Art Hotel Robert Mayer, both a few minutes' walk from the Messehalle. Tuesday was spent meeting up with our man in Germany, Toni Götz, whose I-Music Network booth we shared in hall 3.1 with Maton Guitars from Australia, Stanford, British acoustic amp and pickup connoisseurs Headway, and Aranjuez, and setting everything up for the Messe. Dinner at an Italian restaurant nearby with Toni and his wife Ines, and off to bed.

Wednesday turned out to be the only day of the week when I actually managed to get myself up early enough to have breakfast at the hotel; the other days the routine was oversleep, quick shower, rush to the Messehalle, tune up, play guitar and figure out where and when to get breakfast later. Have to say I prefer stronger coffee than the one served at the hotel, otherwise no complaints. Being one of the first three days not open to the public, the first day turned out a bit slow, especially compared to NAMM, but people interested in Flaxwood seemed to keep coming at a steady pace, and most of them left at least considering converting to the faithful.

The FW stand

I was doing the FW sample guitar mannequin routine on a mostly improvisatory basis, as I had thought there would be a German guitarist demoing this time. Found out the day before we left it was my shift again, as it was at NAMM. Oh, well -- a few trusty tunes and licks and the rest just came as it went. A tapped-and-delayed solo arrangement of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" got more than a few broadcasts, I can say that much. Our tried and trusted warhorse, a Swedish-made Lehnert Rambler tube combo proved once again to be more than worth its weight in gold. Do yourself a favor and check their amps out -- drive, low, high and volume, doesn't get much simpler than that, and oh, the tone.

Our good old Lehnert Rambler, with my favorite axe at the Messe, a particularly stunning Liekki

You'd be hard-pressed to tell much of a difference between the first three days at the fair. People dropping by, taking brochures, taking pictures, asking questions, playing our guitars, Ines serving us coffee (and wine if we were good), Toni having a seemingly endless string of business meetings (the work ethic of that man is just unbelievable), myself playing every now and then, Kim and I taking turns strolling around the eight different halls looking around. The I-Music Network booth got a real change of pace when two amazing musicians, Irish multi-instrumentalist Steafan Hannigan and his wife, violinist Saskia Tomkins came to showcase for Headway: this was the beginning of many a set of Irish folk music and more jams than I can count. Steafan, a pipe player originally, would play anything from a buzuki to a guitar to percussion, I'd sit in every once in a while and we'd jam on anything from total improv to Senegalese afro grooves. A real honor to get to play with musicians like these two.

While Steafan and Anthony from Maton exchanged humorous insults that had the rest of us howling with laughter, a German acoustic guitarist named Stefan Mönkemeyer dropped by to play for Maton. Ended up jamming with him as well. Another musical highlight was playing with Christina Lux who paid Maton a visit.

One thing that was interesting was that every night I ended up eating the native food of a country that I'd never tasted before; Eritrean at the African Queen, Vietnamese at the Mai Vien, and Greek at the Omikron. All washed down with weizbier, naturally. Steafan and Saskia were always eager to take the chance to jam, so most nights ended up at a little pub in Sachsenhausen called the Balalaika, where we were also treated to impromptu music by our American hostess, Anita.

A typical scene at the Balalaika

I also got the chance to go pursue my own acoustic perversions and ended up trying a bunch of new instruments which I'd never played -- a buzuki, a Turkish oud (very different from the Egyptian kind which I'm accustomed to since it's tuned a minor third lower), and an electric oud of all things. My good friend Petteri Sariola was showcasing for Seymour Duncan/D-Tar at the Warwick stand upstairs, so we did a bunch of hanging out when we had some downtime. Hearing him play never fails to blow me away, check him out if you're into Michael-Hedges-meets-hip-hop-and-funk-one-man-abusing-acoustic-guitar kind of stuff. Also witnessed players as diverse as Michael Angelo and Stu Hamm doing their thing. By this time Flaxwood North America's man Gordon Roberts had also flown in, so between him, Steafan and Anthony, tall tales were a dime a dozen. Gordon also taught me how to play the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" on the mandolin, which was nice.

Kim seems to gravitate towards flutes at every trade show...

Saturday, being open to the public, was the busiest and craziest day of the entire Messe, not surprisingly. The amount of noise in the electric guitar hall, for instance, was just insane, not even mentioning that in the drum hall... don't you find it ironic how fairs organized to sell high quality instruments prove the worst of settings in which to actually hear the way they sound? No surprise the Italians selling sound-proofed rooms in the middle of the drum hall did such good business. Can you say marketing genius?

The entire gang at the I-Music Network booth -- Toni and Ines, Steafan and Saskia, John Littler from Headway, David and Anthony from Maton, and Gordon, Kim and myself from Flaxwood

The last night in Frankfurt ended with Kim, Gordon and I enjoying a delicious dinner at a Greek restaurant named the Omikron, where we wandered by accident. Friendly staff and great food; kalamari, lamb, beer and ouzo were served as we admired the sensual Greek beauties dancing to the tune of an amazing band with a truly spectacular buzuki player. That tremolo... From there it was back to the Balalaika with a cab, where we were supposed to meet Steafan, Saskia and John for more jamming, but sadly they'd left before we got there. Well, we jammed anyway. I think even Anita got a bit tired by the time Gordon and Kim took to the piano at 6 am!

Gordon, Kim and I at the Omikron, bellies full

For the trip home I was accompanied by one nasty Mr. Han Gover, which did its best to keep me from enjoying the flight. Don't you hate it when someone on a plane starts to get a bit too friendly? Petteri happened to be taking the same plane back to Helsinki, so we ended up talking quite a bit about music and life, and in that order, as it always is when we meet.

So there you have it, the Flaxwood team takes a bow and exits stage left. Thanks to everyone who dropped by the stand, and a huge thanks to Toni Götz and Ines from us all.

I'm out!

-J