For release Tuesday, June 3rd, 2003

Blues great Larry McCray unveils Gibson's Valley Arts Guitar

Blues guitar master Larry McCray unveiled the new Valley Arts guitar line at the 20th annual Chicago Blues Festival on Friday, May 30. Gibson Guitar officially introduced the Valley Arts line of custom guitars during the popular event.

"Just like the Chicago Blues Festival, Valley Arts guitars represent the highest level of their art form," said Henry Juszkiewicz, chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar Corp. "Gibson guitars and Chicago blues have always gone hand-in-hand, and our new Valley Arts models enhanced this tradition of great music and great guitars."

With the introduction of Valley Arts, Gibson has re-created the legendary custom guitar line and "pro shop" guitar store whose client list was once a who's who of Los Angeles guitarists, from Larry Carlton to Lee Ritenour to Tommy Tedesco. The new Valley Arts facility, which opened in November 2002 in Nashville with the dropping of a grand piano from a helicopter, includes a full-line guitar store, a guitar repair service and a manufacturing facility, just like the original business. Even the original owners, Mike McGuire and Al Carness, are on hand - McGuire as operations manager of Gibson's Custom division and Carness as Valley Arts store manager - to ensure that the spirit of Valley Arts carries on.

Nashville session guitarist Brent Mason has recently joined the long list of great guitarists who have ordered their own custom Valley Arts instruments. And the spirit of the original pizza Saturdays will soon be revived when the top floor of the Valley Arts facility is finished out with a restaurant and music venue.

Larry McCray is best known for his strong commitment to the tradition and the vision of the blues genre. His 1991 debut album Ambition for Pointblank was a stunning set of hybrid blues, rock and soul. His 1993 encore, Delta Hurricane was a slicker affair produced by veteran British blues maven Mike Vernon. Other releases include 1995's Climbin' Up, Meet Me At the Lake in 1996, and 1998's Born to Play the Blues. Believe It followed in early 2001.

Valley Arts Guitars began in 1970 as a retail store in the Los Angeles area and eventually became a world-renowned custom guitar shop. The founders, Mike McGuire and Al Carness, are longtime Gibson employees, and they hold the positions of production manager and sales manager, respectively, in the new Gibson operation.

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 digital guitar, introduced in 2002, represents the biggest advance in electric guitar design in over 70 years. Founded in 1894 in Kalamazoo, MI, and headquartered in Nashville since 1984, Gibson Guitar Corp.'s family of brands now includes Epiphone, Dobro, Valley Arts, Kramer, Steinberger, Tobias, Slingerland, Trace Elliot, Maestro, Baldwin, Ellington, Chickering and Wurlitzer. Visit Gibson's website at www.gibson.com.

Contacts:
Walter Carter, Gibson Guitar Corp., 615 871 4500, walter.carter@gibson.com
Michelle Nikolai, Gibson Guitar Corp., 615 871 4500, ext. 2267, michelle.nikolai@gibson.com