Believe it or not, we are only 34 days away from the opening of SHOT Show 2023. Hopefully, that doesn’t put a crimp in your Christmas, but the calendar proves that trade show season isn’t that far away.
Yesterday, we got word that one of SHOT Show’s new events - the 2023 SHOT Show All-Star Jam was announcing the mystery musician for the event. If you’re a southern rocker, it’s enough to get you fired up…Billy Gibbons, a legendary guitarist and ZZ Top frontman will be performing, along with country music’s Eddie Montgomery (Montgomery Gentry) and .38 Special’s Don Barnes.
Lynard Skynard’s Johnny Van Zane was originally slated to perform, but Barnes has agreed to fill that slot.
I’ll let the NSSF’s release flesh out the rest of the news -after all, it’s their show:
“Along with the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons is unquestionably one of the finest blues-rock guitarists to ever emerge from Texas. During the 1970s and 80s, ZZ Top became one of the country’s top rock bands and Gibbons’ exceptional playing influenced a wide variety of players who became guitar legends themselves.
Don Barnes is one of the founding members of the Southern rock band .38 Special, performing lead vocals on many of the group's biggest hits. As a seasoned music veteran, he is one of those exceptional artists who continue to improve over time.
Eddie Montgomery of Montgomery Gentry recently released “Outskirts,” a seven-song EP. With 20 plus charted singles, the Kentucky native has earned CMA, ACM, and GRAMMY awards and nominations with undeniable blue-collar anthems.
Part of a new series of events called “SHOT After Dark,” the All-Star Jam concert will be held Wednesday evening right after show hours. Tuesday evening will feature an Industry Welcome Reception happy hour and a Networking Reception will be held on Thursday evening, both being held out on the Caesars Plaza.”
The plaza, it seems will be the place to be after SHOT Show’s formal hours Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.
Since we’re talking about next year, I guess it’s appropriate to put out a little news about the Wires as we wrap up 2022. For your planning purposes -if you have news you want to get out to readers and the industry before the holidays - our final editions of all wires for 2022 will be the Wednesday, December 21 editions. Your news needs to be sent to us no later than noon Eastern time on Tuesday, December 20 to make those final editions.
All our services will commence their normal distribution schedules beginning on Wednesday, January 4, 2023. We’ll be working on those editions (intermittently) over the holiday break. Corporate Members should have received their 2023 invoices and accompanying 2023 Corporate membership numbers by now. 2022 CM numbers will not be accepted for submissions after December 20, 2022.
In 2023 we’re adding new features and three completely new wire services. More on those later- along with some updates that are designed to streamline our release submission processes.
All part of our promise….we’ll keep you posted.
— Jim Shepherd