Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter To Host NAMM's 40th annual TEC Awards

01-07-2025

(Jensen) Capping a brilliant and successful 2024, legendary Grammy-winning, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is kicking off the new year with a full dance card at the 2025 NAMM Show to be held January 21-25 in Anaheim, California.

On Thursday, January 23, Baxter will serve as host for NAMM's 40th annual TEC Awards. The virtuoso guitarist, a founding member of Steely Dan who later joined the Doobie Brothers, was inducted into the NAMM TEC Awards Hall of Fame in 2016. Says Baxter, "Having been honored by NAMM in the past, it is indeed a special privilege to host this year's NAMM TEC Awards."

This year, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, guitarist, record label founder and one half of the rock duo the White Stripes, Jack White will be honored with the TEC Innovation Award. White personally requested that he receive his award from Baxter. "That was very kind of him, and I appreciate it," Baxter says. "We've never met, but I'm most impressed with Jack. He's fearless and certainly innovative. I know that he once bought one of my signature Epiphone Firebirds, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity for a good musicians'-style hang with him."

Before the TEC Awards, Baxter will participate in a special seminar titled Good Vibrations: The Science of Sound and Music for Healing, hosted by sound therapist Cimcie Nichols (daughter of Roger Nichols, Steely Dan's iconic engineer), to discuss how music affects people physically, mentally and emotionally. "There's a close connection between the physics of frequency and vibration and their ability to positively affect living things," Baxter explains. "For instance, I've seen interesting research using focused frequencies to destroy cancer cells. Music, frequency and vibration are deeply analogous, and I'm really delighted to see Cimcie carrying on Roger's work."

The next day, Friday, January 24, at 5pm, Baxter and his ace band - drummer Mark Damian, bassist Hank Horton and keyboardist Freddie Ravel - will be performing on the Roland stage.

In addition, on Saturday, January 25, Baxter will join musician, songwriter, record producer and advocate for music creators Larry Batiste for the seminar The Art and Business of Songwriting, which is also the title of Batiste's recent book that guides readers through the ins and outs of song structure and music marketing. "Larry is an extremely talented cat and a good friend," Baxter says. "Along with everything else he does, he's been the musical director for the TEC Awards ever since I can remember. I'm very flattered that he would ask me to be part of his seminar, and I'm honored to be so active at NAMM this year. I have a tremendous place in my heart for that organization."

In recent months, Baxter has been highly visible with appearances on multiple media platforms. His extensive and entertaining interview with the popular YouTube host Rick Beato has racked up close to one million views.

"That interview was very enjoyable and a lot of fun for me," Baxter notes. "Rick is a skilled musician himself, and he does his homework. Reading the comments online has been most gratifying - people seemed to get a lot out of the conversation." He laughs. "Some of them say things like, 'I didn't know Skunk played that solo,' or 'That's my favorite record - he was on that?' The reactions to the interview have been most gratifying."