Stuart Smith

My dear friend Denison Witmer is out on his first tour in a decade in support of his brilliant album Anything At All that he made with Sufjan Stevens. This coming Tuesday night, Jax Yoga is being turned into a venue for an intimate performance. Selfishly, I’m excited to hear him play live. We’ve been friends for a while and I played on his record American Foursquare, but I’ve never heard him perform before. This is a rare opportunity to catch someone who’s probably your favorite songwriter’s favorite songwriter in a small space right here in central Illinois. I know it’s on a weeknight, but don’t be lame. We can all still be in bed by 10pm. There’s a few limited tickets remaining that you can grab at the link in the comments. See you there!

Mark Baier with Victoria Amplifiers makes amps for a lot of famous guitarists (John Mayer, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards) and…. I’m not one of them. But Mark is a real one and has always been so cool with me.

Last night, he spent two hours with me before my show disassembling, modifying, and tweaking my amp to do everything I need. This is one reason why buying American matters. These aren’t manufactured on an assembly line cutting corners to meet a price point. They’re meticulously crafted with all made in USA parts in my home state by someone who truly gives a damn. There’s some soul here and most importantly, TONE.
Over the past 15 years, I’ve owned many of his amps and, while I’ll try other amps occasionally, I always come back to Victoria.