Ice-Cream Man Autographed Guitar

Remember our story about the super-famous autographed Voyage-Air guitar... featured on videos and played at festivals all over the country? It's now up for auction on eBay.

Proceeds go to charity,and the auction ends the evening of December 4: Click HERE.

More info also at the Ice-Cream Man site, click HERE.

Voyage-Air Guitar SweepsCountry Music Awards - 2009

Well, the official Country Music Awards wrapped up last November 11th, and I tell you what: that was among the best ever CMA award shows. Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood did a bang-up job as MC's ... but the music! For me, it was when the Zac Brown Band took to stage. Man! They burned the house down with their rendition of "Devil went down to Georgia." I hope you were watching for that, or can find it somewhere as a re-run. It was absolute, 100% standing-ovation material.

But the news! Get this: There were 12 major categories of awards this year. Voyage-Air Endorsers, Artists, Owners and Players were nominated in nine of those 12 categories. Nine out of 12.

Think about that for a minute. Voyage-Air guitars have been available on the market for... not quite a year. And here we are with the CMA Awards - among the biggest of all music awards period, and Voyage-Air players/users/artists/endorsers represent over 75% of all the nominees for all the categories? Whoa! That's HUGE!

Here's the message: these are not trendy, cute little folding guitars that you can take with you when you travel. These are stage-quality, performance-grade, 100% broadcast-quality musical instruments
that the #1 chart-topping, world-famous musicians use everyday.

Oh and consider this: for the Song of the Year award: there were five nominees for the award. Three out of those five proudly endorse Voyage-Air Guitar!

Voyage-Air and the Ice Cream Man

June of every year marks the Bonnaroo Music Festival, which is a Big Darn Deal in Tennessee. With over 90,000 in attendance, this year's event had headliners like Bruce Springsteen, Phish, Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails, Elvis Costello... you get the drift. WOW - what a weekend!

And every year there's Matt Allen - best known as the Ice Cream Man.

The Ice Cream Man is a staple on the Festival Circuit, and Matt lives out of his ice cream truck, traveling from festival to festival, making friends, and sharing his music as well as his ice cream! Seriously: Matt is one of a kind. You have to meet him to understand.

This year, we fixed up The Ice Cream Man with a Voyage-Air Songwriter guitar, so he could take it around the country and capture videos of ... well, people playing the instrument.

You know what? He did exactly that, and captured some incredible footage of artists like Brett Dennen, Avett Brothers, Bobby Bare, Jr., Band of Horses, and Daniel Johnston all playing the same guitar. And of course, had them all autograph that guitar.

Check the videos that The Ice Cream Man captured here. And soon, that incredibly autographed Voyage-Air guitar is going to be auctioned off on e-Bay, with the proceeds going to charity.

Jeff Black - Part 2

Okay, so we had a chat with Jeff Black at the end of last week. And he was thrilled with the Voyage-Air guitar he was goofing around with in his studio, and we did a BLOG post (that you can see right here by scrolling up or down... yes?)

Today, Jeff Black sent us this in an e-mail message:

"I recently made a new friend. A new traveling companion. Full of good tone and grace. YES: It's a guitar, and it's a Voyage-Air. Any person or thing that introduces themselves to the world as a traveler has a lot to prove. This Voyage-Air guitar came through my door, and I tell you what: it is authentic. The real deal. This is a guitar that I'm going to use when I'm on the road. I can't imagine logging the miles without it now."

-Jeff Black on The Voyage Air Guitar

Whoa... I would call that a sincere follow-up to our BLOG post. Yep. Yes. Yes, I would.
Thanks Jeff!

Jeff Black goes Voyage-Air

Jeff Black's first album: Birmingham Road has been described as "fine portraits of American life without the sappiness or self-consciousness often attributed to the singer/songwriter genre." He's gone on to write songs that have been covered by Waylon Jennings, Sam Bush, and Blackhawk. Jeff has been a Nashville institution since he moved there in the early 90s. Click here to see Jeff's website.

Recently Jeff was at a special 25th anniversary party thrown for Sam Bush... and there he met Jeff Cohen of Voyage-Air Guitar.

"Now I want you to say this, because it's just the way it happened," said Black. "I started talking to that guy Cohen because I like to meet people, and found him very nice, and very modest. When he told me about his folding travel guitar, I told him 'heck, bring it on up here! This room is full of guitar players that need to see that!"

So he did. And that guitar made the rounds of some very distinguished musicians and songwriters during the next few hours. A few days later, Jeff Black has a Voyage-Air OM-style Songwriter guitar in hand, in his studio, and he's telling us about it on the phone:

"Any guitar you pick up to play, you have to tweek the tuners a little bit to get it ready, always. The Voyage-Air is no exception: you open it up, and just a twist or two zeros in the tuning, you know? And the sound, and the way it plays! That's what did it for me. This guitar just... well it just works. This guitar is not a compromise, like all the other 'travel guitars' I've played."

Because Jeff Black was working with the entry-level Voyage-Air Songwriter, we asked about the sound of the select, precision-laminate Mahogany used for the back and sides. "Somebody asks me about woods on guitars," Jeff answered... "I tell 'em I don't know and really don't care. I have a Gibson J-200 and a bunch of other guitars, and I know they all have differing sounds. I don't know what the woods are. But I tell you what: this Voyage-Air just works. It's the way the guitar feels against your body, and the way the sound projects. That's it for me. This one works!"

Jeff's enthusiasm was easy to hear - even on a cross-country phone call. "You know, I travel a lot. I'm just an old troubadour. And this Voyage-Air guitar was made to travel. It's a natural fit. It and me got along right off."