Winning the Billboard Music App Awards

My first foray into software development was an app called the Gibson Learn & Master Guitar app. Believe it or not, we won the 2010 Billboard Music App Awards that year in the Branded Apps category. What a thrill. Here are a few press articles about it in the EO Press, on Gibson, and in the Nashville Business Journal.

Renovation of the historic Acuff-Rose Publishing building

In December of 2012, I bought my first commercial property: the historic Acuff-Rose Music Publishing building. It had been vacant for years and needed a major overhaul, but I wanted to make sure to honor the building's history and preserve as much of the original architecture of the place as possible.

A historical architecture magazine, "The Other Century," did a very nice piece on the project, which you can find here and here. The Tennessean did a nice article when I rented part of it to Brentwood Baptist, as did the EO Press.

Related tweets...

I need to write a longer post about this, but I did break my back snowboarding a few years back. I had just received a GoPro for Christmas and happened to catch the whole thing on video. Believe it or not, I was back on the slopes two months later. Here's the link...
Gabriel Smith breaks his back!

Nashville Snowboarding... in the street

It's not very often you get to do this in Nashville!
Gabriel Smith snowboards in Nashville

Gabriel Smith YouTube Page

It's a nascent start, but I am beginning to collect my videos on a YouTube Channel called Gabriel Smith Nashville. Check in for a few of my misadventures!

I love my family dearly, but there are times I wish we had a last name other than Smith. Especially in today's connected world, having such a common last name is a hassle. There are a LOT of Gabriel Smith's floating around, including a handful right here in Nashville. This Nashville Gabriel Smith is NOT me, for example. Neither is this Nashville-based Gabriel Smith. I plan to give all of my children uncommon first names, which should help them considerably. This founder is me, however, and so is this inventor.

Back when I was running Guitar Apprentice, I can remember how excited I was about signing Zakk Wylde. I was convinced that his celebrity would help us break out and make some noise, but we were soon trumped by the release of Rocksmith by Ubisoft. We made a little noise, but just couldn't keep up with their marketing machine.