GriffHamlin.com

Belly Fest In Midland Texas, May 19

Griff — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:17:40 +0000

If you’re anywhere near Midland, Texas on the 19th at 2:00 in the afternoon, come by a little shindig we’re doing. It’s free, just bring some beer and have a ball with us and the Stoney Curtis band.

It’s put on by BellyUp4Blues radio and like I said, it’s free.

The address is:

5700 E. County Road 98
Midland, TX 79706

(Really) Rare Acoustic Gig At Lucille’s March 3

Griff — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 22:25:38 +0000

Had a great time at Lucille’s in Tustin last night. We don’t normally do acoustic type stuff, so it was a lot of fun just to hang out in the corner and play some blues for the BBQ folks at Lucille’s in Tustin.

I had some trouble with the Dobro coming through the PA so I didn’t get to play it much… too bad really. I’ll get a feedback eliminator for next time and that should help.

Laura shot some video throughout the night so I mashed it all together into 1 clip for you:

Watch this video on YouTube.

Upcoming Gig March 10th At The Fender Center In Corona

Griff — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:51:36 +0000

I’m really looking forward to invading the Fender Center and Museum on March 10th with The Griff Hamlin Band and The Circle City Horns next weekend.

This is part of my Blues Guitar Unleashed Live 2012 weekend, but this show is open to the public… unlike the rest of the event.

We’ll do 2 sets starting around 7:00. Tickets are available at the door and cost $15. Proceeds go to benefit Fender’s Kids Rock Free program. Last year we raised over $3000 for the program.

The Fender Museum is at 365 North Main Street in Corona. Their phone number is 951-735-2440 if you’d like to buy tickets ahead of time.

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Taste Of Laughlin With Yard Sale

Griff — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:10:27 +0000

Had a great time last weekend with Yard Sale… but man was it cold and windy! Took some video so you could see just how “glamorous” that rock-and-roll lifestyle can be.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Pala Gig, NYE 2011 – Circle City Soul

Griff — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:41:36 +0000

Had some fun last night playing for Pala Casino in their Events Center for New Year’s Eve.

It’s a BIG room – easily 600-800 people in there. The dance floor was full most of the night and the countdown with the big balloon drop was cool.

I took some video from the cel phone – not the greatest quality but hopefully you get the idea

Here’s the “before” when we just walked in:

Watch this video on YouTube.

And once the room is setup and dark, ready for guests. Sorry the quality is kind of bad on this because the room is so big and mostly dark. But you can really see the color at the stage… it’s cool

Watch this video on YouTube.

And finally… the party’s over…

Watch this video on YouTube.

Happy New Year Everyone!

San Manuel Casino Yard Sale Gig 12-23-2011

Griff — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:11:43 +0000

Okay, so obviously I’ve not been very good about posting my exploits around Southern California.

Well, last night I was at San Manuel Casino with Yard Sale doing a holiday show. What was cool about this for me was that earlier this year Laura and I were in the audience watching BB King and Buddy Guy on this exact same stage.

Now, granted, I’ve played on a lot of big stage but for some reason walking in those footsteps was especially cool for me.

I took a little video of the setup and everything.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Gig: March 5th At Fender Center Rhythm Lounge

Griff — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:35:27 +0000

The Griff Hamlin Band will be performing on Saturday, March 5th at the famous Fender Center and Museum as part of their Rhythm Lounge concert series.

What makes this show especially cool is it is also the first time we’ll be joined by the Circle City Horns (with my lovely bride on sax!) as one big 7 piece swinging and kicking blues band!

Show starts at 7:00, tickets are $15 and are available through the Fender Center box office or at the door. Hope to see you all there! Proceeds benefit the Fender Center’s Kids Rock Free program which provides music lessons for kids in the Corona area. It’s a great cause and we’re proud to be a part of it.

New photos

Griff — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:13:11 +0000

Our good friend and photographer extraordinaire Crissy Watkins was kind enough to squeeze a band photo shoot into her schedule a couple of weeks ago.

She just sent over the images and I had to post some up. They are on the Photos page at the top. Hope you like them…

I can assure you most of us don’t look that good in person

Sunday Jam With Darrell Mansfield Band

Griff — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:27:06 +0000

Had a great time yesterday over at Main Street Cafe in Yorba Linda playing at the open blues jam. My guys and I showed up and did 3 tunes. My friend Pat Hennessey was also there and he played a couple of songs with us, while Darrell jumped in on Pride & Joy for the last tune.

Special thanks to Brian, Tina, and Darrell for inviting us… we had a blast.

Here’s some video clips from the day:

1st- I’m Tore Down:

2nd- Red House (you gotta do this one

Finally some Pride & Joy with some help…

Winter NAMM 2011 Gear Report

Griff — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 08:28:44 +0000

Well I did it… I went to NAMM this year. Winter NAMM in Anaheim takes up the entire Anaheim convention center and it’s basically all the music gear you can possibly imagine in one place.

NAMM stands for National Association of Music Merchants (I think) and this is not open to the public. It’s where the manufacturers and the dealers all get together and work out their plans for world domination in the coming year.

It’s also where you can see the cool new toys that are coming out this year…I’ve been to NAMM before, many times in fact. And that’s why I haven’t gone the last few years. It’s loud, it’s crowded, parking sucks. There’s not a lot of good that comes out of it.

But I managed to squeeze in about 3 hours there this year… pretty good for me. Here’s some stuff I found that I liked.

First, here’s a shot of the convention hall… there are 5 halls just like this:

Just 1 of the 5 halls full of people

The upcoming PedalTrain 3 loaded up and ready

Okay… my favorite thing. I love PedalTrain pedalboards, and this year they are coming out with a model (the PT3) that is a little bigger than the PT2 but not as big as the PT Pro. It looks like the perfect size to me and exactly what I was looking for. Check it out on the left and below:

The pedaltrain 3 from the crowd's perspective

One of my other favorites was an amp I played briefly over at Koch amps. I had heard of Koch and had heard other people play them, but I was not prepared for what I heard.

The Koch Jupiter fooled me completely!

I played this amp for a few minutes and really dug it. I then asked the standard question about what tubes were powering it…

And guess what… it’s about 90% solid state! Yup, there are 2 small 12AX7 tubes, one for preamp tone and one for power amp tone, and the rest is solid state.

I was fooled. This amp weighs very little (one hand picks it up easily) pounds out about 40 watts or so, and could hang easily on just about any gig.

It has great tone and will last basically forever with little to no maintenance. As good tubes get harder to come by, this may very well be the way of the future.

The Clapton Signature Les Paul is gorgeous... and pricey!

Past that, what I saw was really a lot of scaled back stuff. Gibson has a Clapton series Les Paul coming out while Fender was also promoting their Clapton strat… seemed odd. It’s a beautiful guitar though, this photo can’t do it justice:

Many of the manufacturers had a lot less to show than in previous years. And the level of swag available was basically non-existent. Usually I can always count on Roland for at least a cool bag to carry around brochures in.

The Boss Pedal area, which usually takes up one whole wall and all the pedals are magically held up there, was reduced to a half a dozen of their little plastic pedalboards on a table.

I do have to give kudos to the guys at Diamond pedals. They let me sit and play on their pedals for about 20 minutes and those things sound amazing. I’ve heard great things about them, but never had the opportunity to try one. I’ll be grabbing one of their tremolo and compressor pedals soon. Also their fuzz pedal was really great. I highly recommend you check them out if you can.

The Texas Special in this Road Worn Strat through the Deluxe Reverb Reissue... very happening tone.

One last honorable mention goes to the really nice guy at fender who was playing this Road Worn Strat (it’s new, but looks worn) through a deluxe reverb reissue. What tone! The texas specials in the strat really worked with the deluxe reverb. And with this covering I might have to make that plunge myself.

Love this covering on the Deluxe Reverb Reissue. Might have to get one of these