Geeking Out for Guitars: Christmas comes early for six-string lovers with the Breedlove Festival

Guitar love comes to Bend, courtesy of Breedlove. It's no longer our little secret that Bend is making some of the
best guitars in the world (that's truth, not hyperbole) now that Breedlove
Guitars has pretty much exploded in the past few years, placing their axes in
the hands of some incredible players. Now, the guitar maker is bringing some of
those players to town for a three-day festival.

The Breedlove Festival takes place between stages at the Breedlove
factory-tucked in behind Summit High School and Skyliners Road-and the Tower
Theater. Some of the names on the bill aren't necessarily the stuff of
Billboard charts, but are certainly well known to guitar hounds, and Bend has
plenty of those. Although a solid event for music fans, the festival is a
guitar geek's dream, complete with a full slate of workshops, clinics and
discussions-and that's on top of shows from some big musical names. In short,
it's going to be a busy weekend for six-string lovers.

Here's a few highlights from the packed schedule.  

Vetiver-they're not copying anybody.When Andy Cabic writes music, he just writes music. He doesn't
ponder his influences or how the record label will respond to his work or how
people like this writer will interpret it-the dude just writes music, then
plays it with his band, Vetiver.

Although quietly talked about in the indie folk universe for the
last half of this decade, San Francisco's Vetiver-a band with an oft-rotating
lineup that for all intents and purposes is Cabic's personal vehicle for his
songs-has only recently started to turn heads en masse, thanks to January's Tight
Knit, the band's first disc on Sub Pop Records. Vetiver got an
additional nod of respect in this region when it was named one of the
headliners (along with Dr. Dog and Blitzen Trapper) at the Pickathon festival
this weekend, the Portland-area event that's increasingly becoming the go-to
festival for today's cutting edge roots-based acts.

Like Dr. Dog and label mate Fleet Foxes, Vetiver has been viewed
by some critics and fans as creating tunes that seem a tribute to, or imitation
of, earlier times. Cabic said this has never been his intention with Vetiver.

"I think it's really
just attention to detail and good playing and well-recorded songs that give
that impression, because I think there's something to be said for the
production values and the craft of recording and songwriting from decades
past," says Cabic over the phone from Los Angeles where he's checking in on
some producing gigs, including meetings with legendary singer-songwriter Vashti
Bunyan, whose album he'll be producing this year.