09 Nov 2009: Flaxwood onstage with Reba McEntire at opening of Event Center in Texas

 

Reba McEntire's band flax their muscle at the brand new Event Center in Texas on Nov 6th

 

 OK, here's what's going to be a trivia question someday - What brand of electric guitar was played on the first song of the inaugural opening night with Reba McEntire at the brand new, $52.5 million, 8,600 capacity Event Center in Allen, Texas? Answer - Flaxwood!!

Although not a formal sponsor of the event, Flaxwood Guitars helped break in the new multi-functional performance facility with the two guitar virtuosos in Reba's band, Jeff King and Jim Kimball, as each played Flaxwoods on probably 15 of the 20 songs that were performed and on at least two songs both guys played Flaxwoods.

The models of choice? Jeff King played a redburst Liekki hardtail and Jim Kimball played a pearl white Liekki hardtail. When the guitars needed to play nice with the rest of the ensemble, they sounded brilliant; and when they needed to be bad to the bone, they really cut through the mix and rang out!

 

Jeff King onstage with his Karpalo redburst Liekki

 

Jim Kimball shows off his Lumi white Liekki

Both before the show during sound check and after the show, Jeff and Jim just couldn't use enough superlatives about the guitars; for both of them, the "wow" factor was off the charts. Both described the experience as being awesome in the live context - the guitars were super-responsive, easy to maneuver from top to bottom, comfortable and balanced to a fault, kept in tune song after song, and just sounded amazing in each and every mode from clean and crisp to growling and get-down-and-dirty. What's even more impressive is that this was all accomplished right out of the case(s) with no pre-show setup adjustments or even a change of strings.