This post is a contribution from Christy Reid, one of our 2010 IBMA correspondents. She will be reporting on her experiences at IBMA as a member of Lou Reid & Carolina.
This is the first time that Lou Reid and Carolina have appeared at IBMA as an official Showcase band, complete with a booth at the trade show. This was a lot to have to prepare for, and Lou isn’t the best at planning ahead. Our trip began with problems…our guitar player, Shannon Slaughter, will be without his black dress shoes because Lou forgot them. Our booth is lacking one key element, a fine handmade basket, for housing the Little Debbie cakes…because Lou forgot it. Apparently, laying out all the items and giving him instructions were not enough. So, we are all making do at the last moment. Shannon may be wearing flip flops. Oh well. In the music business you learn to go with the flow.
The setting up process of the booth went fairly well. It was just Lou and I handling it. I am glad we went to Staples ahead of time and got the necessities…tape, scissors, potpourri. Yes, our table smells pretty. A few crazies tried to eat it, but all in all it went over well. Lou didn’t understand this at first, but after a dozen or so folks said how nice our area smelled, he agreed it was a nice touch.
Here’s a few pics from our booth..
I was very happy to see Jesse McReynolds looking very healthy and talking with fans. We saw him at the Bluegrass Legends booth.
Lastly, I have decided there needs to be IBMA etiquette such as…DO NOT come up and interrupt an artist three times when he is having a conversation with someone else… and DO NOT slam your banjo case down on our table to show us some great bridge while knocking our CD’s to the floor. I’m just saying, people.
Tomorrow will be a much different day for us, with two showcases on the schedule. As long as Lou didn’t forget his mandolin, I think we will be fine.
