Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival 2022 Guitar Auction

This beautiful Epiphone Les Paul guitar will be signed by 2022 Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival performers, making it the ultimate and unique keepsake.

Celebrating the return of the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival, Painted Axe focused its artists efforts on “renewal.” With that, Painted Axe selected a butterfly to represent renewal, rebirth and the promise of a better future on the 2009 Epiphone Les Paul. Not just any butterfly, but a Gulf Fritillary – Louisiana’s state butterfly – and the only butterfly apparently indigenous to the Bayou State.

The guitar will be signed by many of the acts performing at the 2022 Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival and auctioned. The 2022 edition will be the eighth guitar in the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival – Painted Axe partnership.

Bid now and make it yours!

The Auction closes Sunday October 16 at 5:45pm.

The winner will be contacted by text message.

All proceeds will benefit the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s Don “Moose” Jamison Heritage School of Music, a free Saturday morning jazz education program serving more than 200 youth ages 10-18 since 1990, with in-depth music education free-of-charge.

About Painted Axe:

For more than 20 years, Michael Gauf, owner/artisan of Painted Axe, has been custom painting guitars and gear for festivals, special events, bands, musicians and charities. He draws upon intuition, imagination and inventiveness to craft one-of-a-kind branded guitars, conveying a message, feeling and/or story specific to the commission.

Educated and trained as a newspaper editor and then a corporate online risk specialist, Gauf adventured beyond his 9-to-5 professions. Through research, trial and error and stubbornness, he taught himself to become a copyrighted songwriter and artist. He was awarded art exhibits for his guitars in Indianapolis and Jacksonville, Fla.

Painted Axe guitars are highly sought-after collectibles. At the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival and the King Biscuit Blues Festival and others, Painted Axe guitars have become part of the event’s fabric. He is proud to call clients: blues man John Lee Hooker Jr. and Biscuit Miller, LA rocker Ronny North, Night Ranger guitarist Keri Kelli, Blues Foundation, BTE Foundation, Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, Summer Camp Festival and many more.

Born in Peoria, IL., Gauf now lives in St. Augustine Fl. When not in the workshop or paint booth, he’s trying to find a seat at one of many regional music venues.

About the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation:

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation invests proceeds from Jazz Fest and additional funds that we raise for year-round programming in education, economic development and cultural enrichment. Education programs include the Don “Moose” Jamison Heritage School of Music, the Tom Dent Congo Square Lectures, the Class Got Brass competition for school brass bands, a youth audio workshop program, youth vocal workshops, and more! Economic Development initiatives include the Community Partnership Grants, the Catapult Fund accelerator program and Sync Up entertainment industry workshops. Cultural enrichment programs include the Jazz & Heritage Concert Series and annual Foundation Festivals: the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival, the Congo Square Rhythms Festival, the Tremé Creole Gumbo Festival and the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival. Importantly, these are free programs that the Jazz and Heritage Foundation has developed over many years to ensure that we give back to Louisiana. The Jazz & Heritage Foundation also owns radio station WWOZ 90.7-FM and the Jazz & Heritage Archive. In late 2014, the Foundation opened the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center – an education and community facility named for the late Jazz Fest founder George Wein and his wife Joyce. In March of 2020, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation established the Jazz & Heritage Music Relief Fund – a statewide relief fund to support Louisiana musicians who were affected by the pandemic. In the last two years the Jazz & Heritage Foundation has been able to provide relief funds of more than $2 million dollars supporting musicians, music industry gig workers, Black Masking Indians and other indigenous cultural practitioners. To learn more about the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, please visit us online at www.jazzandheritage.org