Gibson Guitar's Memphis Custom Shop Celebrates the 2008 Beale Street Music Festival

Press release
Source: Gibson Guitar

Gibson Guitar, the world's premier musical instrument manufacturer and leader in music technology announced its continued support of the world famous Beale Street Music Festival. Just steps outside the equally famous Gibson Memphis Custom Showcase, the festival features three magical days and four big stages on thirty-three acres overlooking the Mississippi River. More than 60 top artists, many of them Gibson musicians, are set to perform throughout the festival. Blues, rock, gospel, R&B, alternative and soul are the musical genres guaranteed to entertain and mesmerize the sold out crowds who gather at the heels of the historic Beale Street district daily. To the world, Memphis means great music and great guitars from Gibson Memphis. Music lovers from around the globe gather at the Beale Street Music Festival to celebrate this vital heritage, this deep river of sound.

Gibson and Baldwin artists performing at the 2008 Beale Street Music Festival include Sheryl Crown, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, the Black Crowes, Gavin DeGraw, Keb "mo," Roots, My Chemical Romance, Cobie Caillat, Ben Folds, Finger Eleven, Simple Plan, Hubert Sumlin, Jerry Lee Lewis and many more. The complete 2008 lineup can be found by visiting www.memphisinmay.org.

Gibson Guitar will play host to the thousands of guest each day at a special interactive area on site at the festival. Some of Gibson Memphis Custom's greatest guitars will be available for consumers to jam and play with including the famous ES-335, ES-339 and Gibson Lucille models. In the year 2000, Gibson kicked open the doors of the Memphis Custom Shop, appropriately just one block from the blues and barbeque joints that line Memphis' legendary Beale Street. A premier Gibson production facility, the Beale Street location has become one of the most well-known sites in the area. Home to some of the world's preeminent luthiers, the Memphis Custom Shop specifically handcrafts Gibson's fine Electric Spanish and Archtop lines, producing models like B.B. King's Lucille, the ES-175 and the iconic ES-335, the world's original semi-hollowbody. For more information on the Gibson Memphis Custom Shop visit www.gibson.com.

The Memphis in May International Festival, a non-profit organization who produces the Beale Street Music Festival, is part of it’s month-long Festival in Memphis and was founded in 1977. The purpose of the event is to celebrate and enhance Memphis ’ musical heritage and draw attention and visitors from around the world.

About Gibson Guitar
Gibson is known worldwide for producing classic models in every major style of fretted instrument, including acoustic and electric guitars, mandolins, and banjos. Gibson’s HD.6X-PRO Digital Guitar and the Gibson Robot Guitar represent the biggest advances in electric guitar design in over 70 years. Founded in 1894 in Kalamazoo , Michigan , and headquartered in Nashville since 1984, Gibson Guitar Corp.’s family of brands now includes Epiphone, Dobro, Maestro, Kramer, Steinberger, Tobias, Echoplex, Electar, Faltiron, Slingerland,Valley Arts, Oberheim, Sunshine Piano, Take Anywhere Technology, Baldwin, J&C, Chickering, Hamilton, and Wurlitzer. Visit Gibson’s website at www.gibson.com.