NON-COMMvention is the premier annual event for North America’s noncommercial Triple A radio stations. It was founded by Dan Reed in 2001, when he was at radio station WFPK in Louisville, which cosponsored the event. In 2008 the event moved to Philadelphia, and WXPN (where Reed is the music director) stepped into the co-sponsorship role, along with TripleAradio.com.

This was my first visit to the annual conference, which not only features panels of interest to radio people, but some notable musical guests over the course of the event’s three days. To be honest, although I’m sure that the panels were interesting, I’m not a radio professional, and my main interest in being there was to see the artists assembled for day two. NON-COMM is held in WXPN’s World Cafe Live, which is one of the best new music venues in the country, with stages on two levels, including one with a bar/restaurant. To see all of my photos from NON-COMM, please click here.)

I arrived at World Cafe in time to head downstairs to the main stage for an early performance by the Derek Trucks Band. Trucks has developed into one of the finest slide guitar players in the world, and his set of torrid blues got the day off to a great start. Musically, the set was very reminiscent of Trucks’ day job, as a guitar player for the Allman Brothers Band, but he does quite well on his own, playing with great confidence and style. (more…)