The NAMM Show Summer 2022: Early Report

This week, The NAMM Show – the largest and oldest music trade show in North America put on annually by the National Association of Music Merchandisers – returned to an in-person format for the first time since January 2020.

The event is being held June 3-5 at the Anaheim Convention Center after going virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, it is in a scaled-down size. More than 3.500 music-related brands are on display and approximately 56,000 attendees from around the world are expected to attend – both about half of the 2020 totals. There are 150 performers across seven stages.

Fortunately, The NAMM Show + app allows those music industry professionals (NAMM is not open to the public) who can’t show up the opportunity to watch selected livestream content and other programs on demand.

On June 2, the She Rocks Awards celebrated its 10^th year honoring women in music. The ceremony, co-hosted by AXS-TV personality Katie Daryl and saxophonist Mindy Abair, honored Dionne Warwick (who was on tour and accepted via video message), Meredith Brooks and nine others. Many performed after their acceptance speeches.

2022 Academy of Country Music Awards nominee Tenille Arts opened the She Rocks proceedings solo on acoustic guitar. The Canadian country singer performed a cover of The (Dixie) Chicks’ “Wide Open Spaces” as well as her own “Somebody Like That,” which reached the top 10 on the U.S. country music chart.

David Lowery - singer/songwriter of the alt-rock bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven - received the American Eagle Award from the National Music Council for his advocacy work on behalf of performing artists’ rights and expanding music education. He did an acoustic guitar version of Camper VB’s “Take the Skinheads Bowling.”   

On June 3, veteran pop and rock singer/songwriter Kenny Loggins was presented the 2022 NAMM Music for Life Award for his lifelong commitment to inspiring music makers by the organization’s president and CEO Joe Lamond.

Getty Images for NAMM

The pair’s chat capped off that morning’s Breakfast of Champions session (where French male/female duo Rosaway did a short engaging set). Loggins recalled buying his first electric guitar and classical music album as a high schooler in Alhambra, Calif.

He also discussed how Loggins & Messina’s 1970s success fortunately coincided with a burgeoning FM format that championed longer songs (“That ride happened quickly”); how he ended up writing two songs for the successful “Top Gun” soundtrack (“I made a few tweaks to what Giorgio Moroder had written on “Danger Zone”); penning the early solo hit “Whenever I Call You Friend” with Melissa Manchester and inadvertently asking Stevie Nicks instead of Manchester to sing on it; why he stuck with the unusual song title “Celebrate Me Home” (producer Phil Ramone thought it fit); his work ethic and mentoring young musicians who live near his Santa Barbara home. All these stories are expanded upon within the pages of Loggins’ great memoir “Still Alright” is in stores on June 14 via Hachette Books.

Legendary rock photographer Henry Diltz, offering a master class in photography at The NAMM Show was interviewed about his career that dates to the 1960s. He talked about starting out as a singer with the Modern Folk Quartet and being immersed in the Laurel Canyon folk rock scene. He fell into the career after taking casual photographs of friends like Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, The Doors and many others. Diltz recalled hanging out at The Troubadour club back then.

The interesting TEC Tracks session “The Life of a Hit Song” featured panelists who are highly respected producers/engineers: Bob Clearmountain, Tony Brown, and Mark Needham. 

On the topic of what they think of today’s hits, Brown said he felt a lot of pop and country music hits today are disposable. Clearmountain lamented such a lack of melody today, reminding people how The Beatles made you remember every note. Needham countered by citing his work with Imagine Dragons, stating that that singer Dan Reynolds has awesome lyrics and sings in a believable way. 

Needham, who engineered and mixed The Killers' 2004 debut "Hot Fuss," said that many U.S. labels passed on them until "Mr. Brightside" was released on a small U.K. label and made waves abroad first. "I liked Brandon Flowers' voice and thought his delivery was so believable."

On the subject of compromises, Clearmountain demurred on commenting on anything about his most frequent client Bruce Springsteen but recalled working on Bryan Adams’ mega-hit “Everything I Do (I Do it for You).” He didn’t think the bridge melody worked too well. “But I wasn’t producing. Mutt Lange was, and it was Bryan and Michael Kamen’s song…as a producer, you can speak up more.”

Both Brown and Clearmountain said they don’t really listen to new music. Needham relayed a story about engineering Chris Isaak’s “Heart-Shaped World” that spawned “Wicked Game”: “Sometimes you’ve got to get artists to dig deeper. When we first met, Isaak’s band didn’t want reverb on anything. They hated it. But that ended up being his identity.”

On the biggest surprise they’ve encountered, Brown admitted that since he’s not a musician, he always relied on Nashville’s best session musicians. “I need an artist with a vision…whether it’s Vince Gill, Lyle Lovett, or Reba.” He also mentioned that while Steve Earle didn’t have the best singing voice, he was writing lyrics about things that stood apart from the rest during the ‘80s. In that decade, “country music started copying pop and adult contemporary records. Now, country has no tradition to it at all. They use loops; I need a band.”

Brown told a fascinating anecdote about working on Cyndi Lauper’s country-leaning album “Detour” and how she complained about no females being on the studio session. When one esteemed male musician made a suggestion, Lauper yelled at him, but later asked what the idea was.