Congrats to D'Addario Artists 2013 Grammy Nominees

We are very proud to have 2013 Grammy Nominated artists playing D'Addario and Planet Waves products!

• Bruce Springsteen – Best Rock Performance & Best Rock Song & Best Rock Album (D'Addario)
• Anthrax – Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance – Scott Ian, Frank Bello, Rob Caggiano (D'Addario)
• Megadeth - Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance - Chris Broderick & David Ellefson (Planet Waves)
• Zac Brown Band - Best Country Album (D'Addario)
• Pat Metheny – Best Jazz Instrumental Album – (D'Addario/Planet Waves)
• Steep Canyon Rangers – Best Bluegrass Album - (D'Addario)
• Luther Dickinson - Best Folk Album - (Planet Waves)
• Janis Ian -  Best Spoken Word Album - (D'Addario/Planet Waves)
• Hunter Hayes – Best New Artist, Best Country Song - (D'Addario)
• Jamey Johnson – Best Country Song - (D'Addario)
• Alison Krauss – Best Country Duo/Group Performance – (D'Addario/Planet Waves)
• Blake Shelton - Best Country Solo Performance – (D'Addario/Planet Waves)
• Larry Carlton - Best Pop Instrumental Album - (D'Addario)
• Little Big Town - Best Country Duo/Group Performance - (D'Addario)
• The Time Jumpers - Best Country Album, Best Vocal Performance by a Duo/Group - (D'Addario)
• Ronnie Dunn - Best Country Song, Best Country Solo Performance - (D'Addario)
• Blake Shelton- Best Country Solo Performance – (D'Addario/Planet Waves)
• Carolina Chocolate Drops- Best Folk Album - (D'Addario)
• Steep Canyon Rangers- Best Bluegrass Album - (D'Addario)
• Jack White – Best Album of the Year, Best Rock Album (Lillie Mae Rische on fiddle) - B
• Alabama Shakes – Best New Artist & Best Rock Performance - (D'Addario)
• Paul McCartney – Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album - guitarist Brian Ray - (D'Addario)
• Casting Crowns – Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music, Best Contemporary Christian Album – (D'Addario/Planet Waves)
• Israel Houghton – Best Contemporary Christian Music Song – (D'Addario/Planet Waves)

Fuzzy Dice, Leopard Skin and Jingle Bells

Mrs. Santa's Got A Brand New Bag

New York-based D’Addario Artist Relations guy Hugh Gilmartin visited the Brian Setzer Orchestra recently and sent back these photos:

Leopard Skin... FTW!

'59 At Rest

Guitar Tech Tyler Sweet

Tell Tchaikovsky The News!

SantaBilly's Set List

Ace of Bassman

Fine '59

      Jingle Bells Live

Jim D'Addario & Rick Drumm on the Panel for Manhattan School of Music Event

D'Addario CEO Jim D'Addario and D'Addario President Rick Drum were among the distinguished guests and top music industry executives to sit on a panel recently for a master class in music entrepreneurship.  The event was set up by the Center for Music Entrepreneurship at the Manhattan School of Music as part of the Setting the Stage Workshop Series. Both Jim and Rick participated by sharing their experiences and successes in the music industry. Topics discussed included how to succeed as a music entrepreneur, how to best plan an artistic business venture and how artists and music product companies can best work together.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Tours D’Addario’s Farmingdale Headquarters

On Friday, October 5, 2012, Governor Cuomo, along with his Strategic Implementation Assessment Team and the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, toured D’Addario’s music string factory and headquarters.  Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, as well as other elected officials were part of the ensemble that toured D’Addario’s engineering, machine building and string production areas.

The Governor toured Cold Spring Harbor Labs, OCI Pharmaceuticals and D’Addario. All three sites were awarded New York State economic development assistance as part of the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council’s strategic plan.  The Governor was impressed with the results achieved at all three locations.

While many of the LIREDC’s programs support advanced technology programs, the Governor and his team were relieved to see the success D’Addario has achieved producing high-volume, low-priced consumer products on Long Island.  “D’Addario’s culture for the last four decades has been to continually re-invest in technological advances that enable us to compete on a global basis with our competitors.  Our packaged strings are sold in over 120 countries and our bulk strings are installed on hundreds of thousands of guitars and violin family instruments every month. Factories from China to Eastern Europe to South America rely on our strings for the instruments they produce,” stated Jim D’Addario, CEO of D’Addario.

The Governor saw firsthand how D’Addario’s engineers and technicians design and build the world’s most advanced equipment. “D’Addario has over 1,100 employees worldwide and 800 on Long Island. Our team of 25 plus engineers is constantly advancing the art of string, reed, drumhead and drumstick manufacturing. Each time we add an engineer, you can be sure it will result in scores of new jobs in our factories,” stated Jim D’Addario.  It’s all music to the Governor’s ears.

US Representative Steve Israel Visits the D'Addario Factory

US Congressman Steve Israel paid to our factory this week in Farmingdale, Long Island, NY. Steve has been very proactive supporting manufacturing on Long Island. He created a manufacturing task force that I co-chair.  The committee came up with a Bring the Jobs Back Home bill that helps small businesses finance the capital expense of retooling to bring the manufacture of products being made off shore back to America.

D'Addario has always made all its strings, reeds and drumheads in America.  Three years ago, during the recession, we created the Make it Here program where we began to retool some of the Planet Waves accessories that were made off shore back here to America. This program has been very effective, and although D'Addario did not receive any government aid for these projects, they were used as an example for the Congressman to create a program to help other companies accomplish what we have accomplished on our own. Four years ago 87% of our products were made in USA, now 95% are. We now produce cables, pro winders, peg winders, humidifiers, sound hole covers, guitar rests, guitar straps and all our picks in the USA.

- Jim D'Addario, CEO D'Addario & Company

Neal Schon Gear

Robben Ford's Gear

D'Addario Summer Six Pack

Welcome! Take a seat and relax. We're about to crack open the D'Addario Summer Six Pack. Our good friend Michael Ross, curator of www.guitarmoderne.com, helped us pick out a few ice cold tunes to share with you. We'll post a new song to the six pack each day so make sure you check back tomorrow.

Get those speakers ready because for this six pack we're Droning the Blues!

The rock and roll revolution was born as a mashup of the blues, jump swing, and country music, as played by young white American musicians in the 1950s. As rock and roll gradually became just “rock” the swing and twang diminished and the blues influence became ascendant.

When we think of the blues we normally imagine a twelve-bar three-chord progression. But there is a trend in modern rock toward music based on a more primitive form of the blues: the one chord drone.

White Stripes

Jack White’s “Rag and Bone” has the occasional extra chord thrown in but is far from a classic twelve-bar progression. It is rather based on a single repetitive riff and a hopped up version of the boogie feel.

John Lee Hooker

Here the boogie man himself plays “Boom Boom,” demonstrating that three chords can be two too many.

Black Keys

This Akron, Ohio bred duo makes no bones about being influenced by the droning, Mississippi juke joint blues of people like Junior Kimbrough. Here they cover his tune, “Everywhere I Go.”

Check back tomorrow for the next ice cold tune in the D'Addario Summer Six Pack!

Live Music

I have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to see an incredible amount of live music in my first 40 years and I plan to continue. My first concert was the Police at the Providence Civic Center 4-13-1982, I was 11 years old. I remember the opening act, Bow Wow Wow, getting booed off of the stage and thinking that this was normal, like the gong show! And I remember how fabulous the Police and Sting were that night, they held the audience in their hands. I was hooked!

Stones VIP Pass (first time ever backstage) & Ghost in the Machine Tour Book From 1982 (I still have these!)

In high school my friends and I would work all summer landscaping at Green Animals, and we we would spend the rest of our time going to concerts all over New England. Sometimes we would be the first ones in line at the record store to buy tickets when the summer lineup was announced. Most of my favorite live concert experiences have nothing to do with being backstage, VIP, etc. Today when I am fortunate enough to have preferred seats or backstage passes, I often watch the show from the middle of the crowd - there is nothing like it when a great band is playing.

Green Animals Topiary Garden

Most of what I listen to on a daily basis is live music. I just prefer the improvisation and way great live music sounds. It is natural and real, you can hear the interaction between the musicians and you know that it has not been altered, re-mixed or dubbed over.

A friend and I were debating our top 5 concerts of all time that we have seen live (another in a long list of top 5 discussions we love to have). I found it very hard to come up with just 5, so many great moments and the memories after 20+ years are foggy at best sometimes. Every time I came up with 5 someone would remind me of another show that should be considered. I am going to keep working on it, if you have any suggestions or want to send me your top 5 I would love to debate with you: pdaddario@daddario.com