Before I continue with re-capping the performers and events, I wanted to thank, and introduce you to, all the past and new attendees who contributed to making this our biggest Registration turnout in our 9 years.  What was especially gratifying were those who came for the weekend who don’t play at all (spouses, friends and fans), and, importantly, at least a half-dozen 6-string players (of all levels) who don’t yet own a harp guitar.  Yes, it’s something we’ve been “harping” on for years (and I’ve blogged to death in the last month or two) – you want to come to a Gathering before buying your first (or second) harp guitar, if you possibly can.  We managed to find loaner harp guitars for all these players, and we saw them trying out dozens more.

Below, I’d like to show all these folks that I have photos of, including all the non-concert players who entertained us during the various open mics or impromptu hallway jams.  I’ll also show the Friday dinner tables with all the guests our photographer Chuck Thompson managed to catch.  At the end, I’ll list all the remaining registered Gathering attendees we don’t yet have a photo of – if you see your name on the list, and someone took a pic of you, please share it!

(Table names are only of those seated):

Harp Guitar playing friends from past Gatherings included:

Co-host John Thomas, with his vintage Dyer Style 7

Mark Farley, with his nylon-strung “classical” Lark in the Morning

Steve Farmer (left), Bettie Swarts and Dan Pease, with Muriel Anderson jamming on fiddle

Ed Dowling, with Benoît’s instrument

Michael Schreiner, with a beautiful Sullivan-Elliott-style harp guitar he built for himself

Nancy Conescu, with her Doolin electric

Ken Bonfield, with his Alan Carruth “Beastess”

Neal Rudy, with his Worland “Eaton lyraharp”

Martin Leykomm, with the infamous “Mystery Sunburst Dyer” which he now owns

Mike Belotto, with a travel 6-string practice guitar

Photographer Chuck Thompson, with his McCormick “Nashville-style” harp guitar

My (2 years older) brother Mark, with a borrowed Holloway
(me on my Dunn harp-uke)

And the plethora of first-time-attending current and future harp guitar players included:

Michael Lohr (from Germany), with his Holloway

Esau Simmons, with his very cool Beardsell

Paul Price, with his Holloway

Bob Workman, with his grandfather’s Dyer type 1 that we blogged about 2 months ago

Richard Reed, with Dennis Mitchell’s new short-scale HG

Kinloch Nelson (pronounced “Kin-law”), with Kathy Wingert’s short-scale HG

Glenn Roth, with Stephen Bennett’s original Merrill

James Platt, with Stephen’s brand new Holloway
(P.S:Do not let James tune your guitar…)

Robert Miller, with his Hewett

Phil Lester, with the Ukraine HG we raffled off

Robert Picott

All the players combined to make a spectacular grand finale (complete with “harp guitar choir”):

Sunday afternoon (when we were all in tune…)

Additional Gathering Goers this year not shown above (or are in previous or upcoming blogs) included:

For the first time:

Randy Klimpert & son Nate
LaVonne Arendsee
John Hoyt (Brad’s uncle) & Suzanne Mount
Reid Kaplan & Sarah Whitaker
Steve Roan
Nick Waters

Loyal regulars:

Janice Mitchell (Dennis’ wife)
Susan Taylor (Stacy Hobb’s better half)

I think that covers everybody (pending the rest of the stage performers); if I’ve left anyone out, please remind me!