"Steel Jam 08" has come and gone and we are winding up the 2008-year for CISGA. Our main show was a musical success even though the attendance was down from the 2007 show. With the economy the way it is we were not sure how many people would attend the show this year. Attendance was down but those attending had the chance to hear some great steel guitar music. This was our fifth year of having shows and this year´s show was held at the Ashland House Best Western Hotel in Morton, Il on Sun June 29, 2008.

Joe Wright and Don E Curtis were our headliners for this year´s show and they were at the top of their game. Both did an excellent job and we had many positive comments on their playing. The rest of our players played great this year. We think this may be the best show we have had. We were very pleased to have three first time players to our show. All three are from Iowa and they are part of the great shows in Iowa. We appreciate Danny Hedlund, Bruce Czarnetzki and Lefty Schrage for being a part of our show. Other players on the lineup were Jim Waddington, T. C. Furlong, Donny Vore, John Sawyer, Tommy Huse, Bobby Watson, Gary Sill, Tim Harr, Darrell Cummings and Michael Webb. We appreciate all of the players who came to the show this year and again supported CISGA.

Once again this year we were very proud of is the CISGA Staff Band. Our staff guitarists this year was: Darrell Cummings, Mike Webb, Doug Greenlee and Tim Harr. Once again this year our staff drummers were Bob Bobell and Jim Willis. This was Jerome Vogel´s first year in the CISGA Staff Band and he did a great job. Odie Fitchpatrick was our other bass player. First time piano player Roger "Curly" Hendrickson was our piano player and we look forward to having him again next year if possible. We had many compliments from the steel players and it is always nice to be able to recognize these guys since they work so hard to make the show a success.

We had many compliments on the sound at this year´s show. Corson Music supplied the sound and the one and only Jerry Erickson did the mixing.

Steel Jam 08 was once again videoed by Darin Hamilton. We still have DVD´s available from the 2005, 2006 and 2007 shows. For more information on these please contact me at mounce@hotmail.com. Darin also has a site where you can view some of the pictures of "Steel Jam 08". Please visit Webshots CISGA Steeljam 2008.

Each year a special award is presented to an outstanding steel guitarist. It is called the "Donny Vore”" award named after one of our very special players Donny Vore. This year the award was presented to Michael Webb. I believe the Award Committee did a great job with their choice.

Others who have received this award are:

2005: Donny Vore, Bobby Duncan.
2006: Jerry Erickson.
2007: Kenny Decker.