The Luthier Exposition is at the Hilton Garden Inn, Saturday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, and Sunday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. All-Access and Guitar Expo tickets grant access to the guitar exhibition, additional events will be announced later this summer.  For reference, below is the schedule from 2022:

FRIDAY, SEPT 9th 2022

Hilton Garden Inn (All-Access pass holders)

  • 5:30 - 7:00 VIP and Luthier Welcome Reception, Taylor Roberts playing.
  • 7:00 - 8:30 Frank Vignola's Birdland Guitar Band Featuring Jimmy Bruno
  • 9:00 - 11:00 Benedetto Guitars Afterglow Jam

Silver Vines Winery (Public)

  • 8:00 - 11:00 Organ Trio Madness Hosted by Bruce Forman, with Jeff Jenkins and Todd Reid, featuring:
    • 8:30 Alicyn Yaffee
    • 9:00 Pat Bergeson
    • 9:30 Jim Nichols
    • 10:00 Paul Asbell

La Dolce Vita Coffee Shop (Public)

  • 7:00 to 10:00 Blues Jam with Dive Bar Diva

SATURDAY, SEPT 10th 2022

Hilton Garden Inn Seminar Room (All-Access pass holders)

  • 9:00 Ken Parker Archtoppery Presentation
  • 10:30 - 11:50 Snoozer Quinn: Fingerstyle Jazz Guitar Pioneer - Dan Sumner and Steve Howell will present their book on this enigmatic legend
  • 12:00 - 12:50 But These Go To 7! - A panel on 7-string guitars, from the perspective of the players and builders, discussing pros and cons and why you should try one.
  • 1:00 - 2:20 Women in Jazz Guitar - Jocelyn Gould, Lisa Liu and Alicyn Yaffee will play a tune or two and discuss issues facing women as professional guitarists and educators.
  • 2:30 - 3:20 Howard Paul - History of the Archtop Guitar
  • 3:30 - 4:20 Bruce Forman Clinic
  • 4:30 - 5:20 Howard Alden Clinic
  • 9:00 - 11:00 Benedetto Guitars Afterglow Jam

Classroom 1 at the Hilton Garden Inn (All-Access pass holders)

  • 11:00 - 12:00 Jamey Arent - Voice Leading The Blues: Smooth Chord Transitions and Connected Lines
  • 12:30 - 1:30 Zakk Jones - Beyond The Frets: All You Need Is One Note
  • 2:00 - 3:00 Mark Tonelli - No fancy chords: creating beautiful textures on the guitar with simple methods
  • 3:30 - 4:30 Davy Mooney - Into the Labyrinth: An Anatomy of Position Playing for Jazz Guitar

Classroom 2 at the Hilton Garden Inn (All-Access pass holders)

  • 11:30 - 12:30 Alicyn Yaffee - TBA
  • 1:00 - 2:00 Pat Bergeson - Blues Comping and Soloing Possibilities
  • 2:30 - 3:30 Nate Lopez - Don't Abandon the Groove, the art of solo guitar playing
  • 4:00 - 5:00 Paul Asbell - Jazzin’ The Blues, and Bluesin’ The Jazz

Classroom 3 at the Hilton Garden Inn (All-Access pass holders

  • 12:00 - 1:00 Jocelyn Gould - TBA
  • 1:30 - 2:30 Ron Jackson - Chord Melody Bassline Workshop
  • 3:00 - 4:00 Jim Nichols - How to Fix Anything!

Hilton Garden Inn Bar Stage (Public)

  • 1:00 - 2:00 Giacomo Fiore
  • 2:00 - 3:00 Davy Mooney
  • 3:00 - 4:00 Mark Tonelli and Doug Martin
  • 4:00 - 5:00 Ted Ludwig and Friends
  • 5:00 - 6:00 Sean McGowan

Harkins Movie Theater (All-Access AND Guitar Expo ticket holders)

  • 11:15 - 12:45 The Chisels are Calling film showing
  • 1:00 – 2:30 Blue Guitars Reunited - See select Blue Guitar collection instruments reunited with their builders!
  • 3:00 – 4:30 The Chisels are Calling film showing

Hunter Bay Coffee (Public)

  • Guitar Demos
    • 11:30 Fernando Jaen w/ TBA
    • 12:30 Eastman Guitars w/ Mark Tonelli and Doug Martin
    • 1:30 Ken Parker Archtops w/ Sean McGowan and Michael Chapdelaine
    • 2:30 Koentopp Guitars w/ Alicyn Yaffee
    • 3:30 BlueArch Guitars w/ TBA
    • 4:30 Galloup Guitars w/ Fareed Haque
  • 5:30 - 6:30 Nate Lopez

Arvada Center (All-Access AND Guitar Expo ticket holders)

  • Arvada Economic Development Association Business Appreciation Event
    • 5:30 - 6:30 Reception with Taylor Roberts
    • 7:00 - 7:45 Paul Ricci and Mafalda Minnozzi
    • 8:00 - 9:15 Benedetto Guitars All-Star Band

Flights Wine Cafe (Public)

  • 6:00 - 8:00 Gypsy Jazz Stage featuring Lisa Liu and Michael Joseph Harris 6:00 - 8:00

Olde Town Pickin' Parlor (All-Access ticket holders included, separate tickets available at the door)

  • 6:00 - 7:30 Bruce Forman's Grumps TV Live!
  • 8:00 - 9:00 Howard Alden

Silver Vines (Public)

  • Guitar Demos
    • 12:00 Montarado Guitars
    • 1:00 Denny Kopp Guitars w/ Jamey Arent
    • 2:00 D'Ambrosio Guitars w/ Doug Martin
    • 3:00 Maegen Wells Guitars w/ Sean McGowan
    • 4:00 LHT Guitars w/ Nate Lopez
    • 5:00 Comins Guitars w/ Ted Ludwig
  • 7:00 - 7:50 Jimmy Bruno
  • 8:00 - 11:00 Organ Trio Madness II , with Rafael Rosa, Gianni Bianchini and Brian Claxton
    • 9:00 Ron Jackson
    • 9:30 Zakk Jones
    • 10:00 Fareed Haque

SUNDAY SEPT 11th 2022

Hilton Garden Inn Seminar Room (All-Access pass holders)

  • 10:00 - 10:50 Tom Nania - Archtop Guitar Dynamics
  • 11:00 - 11:50 Frank Vignola Clinic
  • 12:00 - 12:50 Fareed Haque Clinic
  • 1:00 - 1:50 Jimmy Bruno Clinic
  • 2:00 - 2:50 Sean McGowan Clinic
  • 3:00 - 3:50 John Storie, Perry Smith and Will Brahm - Gigging jazz guitarists; performing with other guitarists and ways to arrange on the spot

Classroom 1 at the Hilton Garden Inn (All-Access pass holders)

  • 10:30 - 11:30 Giacomo Fiore - Right Hand Fingerstyle Techniques Borrowed From Classical and Flamenco Guitar
  • 12:00 - 1:00 Donovan Raitt - One man, Steely Dan: arranging steely dan classics for solo guitar

Classroom 2 at the Hilton Garden Inn (All-Access pass holders)

  • 11:00 - 12:00 Ted Ludwig - Jazz From the Blue Side of the Tracks
  • 12:30 - 1:30 Mason Razavi - Self-Comping Ideas: Filling Out Your Solo, Duo, and Trio Playing

Classroom 3 at the Hilton Garden Inn (All-Access pass holders

  • 11:30 - 12:30 Taylor Roberts - Arranging Pop Music for Solo Guitar

Hilton Garden Inn Bar Stage (Public)

  • 12:30 Ron Jackson
  • 1:30 Donovan Raitt
  • 2: 30 Mason Razavi
  • 3:30 Jamey Arent
  • 4:30 David Bailey

Harkins Movie Theater (All-Access AND Guitar Expo ticket holders)

  • 11:15 - 12:45 The Chisels are Calling film showing
  • 2:00 - 3:00 Paul Ricci and Mafalda Minnozzi with special guests
  • 3:00 - 4:30 The Chisels are Calling film showing

Hunter Bay (Public)

  • Guitar Demos
    • 10:30 Sontagg Guitars w/ Bruce Forman
    • 11:30 American Archtop w/ TBA
    • 12:30 Benedetto Guitars w/ Howard Paul
    • 1:30 Steve Grimes Guitars
    • 2:30 Sadowsky Guitars w/ Jimmy Bruno
    • 3:30 Tad Brown Guitars w/ Sean McGowan and Donovan Raitt
    • 4:30 Wilkie Stringed Instruments w/ Ted Ludwig

La Dolce Vita Coffee Shop (Public)

  • 3:00 - 6:00 Open Jazz-Jam Hang at La Dulce Vida coffee shop, featuring the Doug Roche Trio

Lady Nomada (Public)

  • 6:00 - 7:30 Finale Concert featuring the New West Guitar Group with John Storie, Perry Smith and Will Brahm.

Olde Town Pickin Parlor (Public)

  • 2:30 - 5:30 The Blue Guitars public display at the Olde Town Pickin Parlor - the whole collection for the first time since the Smithsonian!

Provisions Wine StockRoom Speakeasy (Public)

  • 2:00 - 4:30 Miner Wines tasting with performances from Howard Paul and Jackson Evans of Benedetto Guitars.

Silver Vines Winery (Public)

  • Guitar Demos
    • 12:00 Mirabella Guitars w/ Ray Matuza
    • 1:00 Manzer Guitars w/ Ted Ludwig
    • 2:00 Tim Frick Guitars w/ TBA
    • 3:00 Mario Beauregard Guitars w/ TBA

Joining the festival for 2022 are some new attractions:

  • The famous Blue Guitar Collection will be making its first ever touring appearance at the Rocky Mountain Archtop Festival.  In 1995 famed guitar collector Scott Chinery commissioned 22 of the world’s premier luthiers to build a blue archtop guitar. The collection has been on exhibit at the Smithsonian and was most recently purchased by The Archtop Foundation, whose mission is to promote the art, understanding and continued development of the archtop guitar. The Archtop Festival will feature a performance and discussion forum with the attending luthiers whose work is a part of this historic collection. More information available at https://archtop.org/ and you can follow the Blue Guitars on Instagram @theblueguitars
  • The film “The Chisels Are Calling” will have its Colorado premier at the Harkins Arvada movie theater during the Archtop Festival. This feature-length documentary film featuring David Grisman, Ben Harper, Mark Knopfler and others, is a profile of John Monteleone, one of the world’s greatest guitar builders and a living artist on permanent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 “It was like meeting Stradivari,” recalls acclaimed musician Mark Knopflerwho partakes in the film alongside the likes of musical luminaries David Grisman, Ben Harper and Frank Vignola, among others. John Monteleone: The Chisels Are Calling looks beyond the technical aspects of the cherished lutherie and examines the life, passion, talent and unique approach Monteleone takes to his art.

  • Snoozer Quinn: Fingerstyle Jazz Guitar Pioneer - Dan Sumner and Steve Howell will be presenting their new book! For the first time ever, a book devoted to exploring the biography and musicianship of the enigmatic early jazz musician Snoozer Quinn has been made available to the public.  Since his passing in 1949, the legend of Edward “Snoozer” Quinn and copies of his rare deathbed recordings have been passed along through generations of serious guitarists like treasured secrets of an exclusive society. Truly a musician’s musician, Snoozer’s marvelous abilities have been extolled by his contemporaries who heard him play, and those who came after — including such luminaries as Les Paul, Eddie Lang, Danny Barker, Frankie Trumbauer, and Bing Crosby. He performed with Paul Whiteman, Louis Armstrong, the Dorsey brothers and many other leading musicians of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as country musician Jimmie Davis. But disfigured from birth and plagued by illness, Snoozer Quinn rejected the “big time” and lived out his short life in rural Louisiana. Working mostly before the era of amplification and the widespread acceptance of jazz guitar as a lead instrument, solo recordings he made for Victor Records in 1928 were never released. Quinn would have faded into obscurity were it not for Johnny Wiggs who, in 1949, captured Quinn’s solo guitar jazz style for posterity. Quinn was in a tuberculosis ward at New Orleans’ Charity Hospital when Wiggs recorded him, shortly before he died at age 42. Even today, the performance of a dying man gives pause to musicians who wonder how he achieved his unusual sound. These recordings are vital to Quinn’s legacy, and that they only offer a hint of his talent and technique is both marvelous and tragic. “Snoozer employed a unique approach to guitar technique to achieve the illusion of multiple guitars playing at once,” says co-author Dan Sumner, a Louisiana-based guitarist, arranger, educator, and music producer. “He played with the fingers of his right hand, not with a pick. His right-hand technique seems to have its roots in the country blues tradition rather than the classical guitar tradition…. he used combinations of adjacent open strings (usually diatonic to the key, but not always) as a way to keep the harmonic rhythm moving while he was shifting his left hand to a different playing position.” Sumner includes eight transcriptions of Snoozer’s featured solo work from the hospital recordings, in notation and tablature, as well as discussion of Snoozer’s guitar technique, chord voicings, and musical language.
  • In the week leading up to the Archtop Festival, Frank Vignola is bringing his Big Jersey Guitar Camp to Colorado for the first time ever!  Join Frank Vignola and friends at the Hilton Garden Inn in Arvada for a 4-day guitar intensive workshop to improve your playing.  Immerse yourself in ensemble jams, master classes and Q&A sessions with the pros! Beginner, intermediate and advanced students are welcome. There are still some spots available, details at https://www.bigjerseyguitarcamps.com/denver-2022
  • Tom Nania will be presenting his work, Archtop Guitar Dynamics, the first comprehensive acoustical analysis of the archtop guitar along with his current work in mapping the acoustic signatures of historic and benchmark fretted instruments. Tom Nania is a guitar maker and instrument acoustics researcher. Tom graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Astronomy from Indiana University South Bend. Tom is an Affiliated Scholar with the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy at IUSB, where he worked in an acoustics lab specializing in the design and fabrication of piezoelectric transducers for the PICO astrophysics research group. Tom studied guitar making at the Galloup School of Guitar Building and Repair and is co-proprietor of House of Luthiery along with his wife, Becca. Tom’s research of archtop guitar acoustics, Archtop Guitar Dynamics, was published in 2021 by The Violin Society of America Paper. Tom recently joined instrument string maker, D’Addario, as an Acoustics Engineer. Tom has worked as a consultant or collaborator with Joseph Curtin Studios, Galloup Guitars, Bourgeois Guitars, Nugget Mandolins, and NS Designs.