2001
The North American Rock Guitar Competition was born in 2001 as an educational event that would fall within the WNED Buffalo Niagara Guitar Festival. One of the primary missions of the Guitar Festival is to celebrate the guitar in all its forms and the players who bring it to life…and not only just the famous guitarists! The Competition afforded unknown guitarists the opportunity to play before a panel of expert judges and a live audience and gave them a chance to win some prizes and gain new fans.

2001’s Competition took place in the Drama Theater of UB Center for the Arts which seats 300 people. It wasn’t quite filled however the small group who attended was wildly enthusiastic. The message was heard loud and clear. The Competition was here to stay.

2001’s winner was Doug Yeomans of Orchard Park, NY.

2002
The Competition picked up steam when we formed a valuable partnership with Gibson Guitars that still continues to this day. We decided to take a leap into the Mainstage Theater of UB with a capacity of 1800. As word of the Competition grew regionally in Western New York and Southern Ontario over 500 people attended and were blown away by the quality of the competitors. Word also spread nationally through a partnership forged with Adelphia Media Services who nationally broadcast our “Call for Entry” spots. The relationship resulted in nearly double the amount of entries received from the previous year. Game on!

2002’s winner was Chris McHardy of Toronto, Ontario.

2003
As planning for the event got rolling it was clear that a professional host needed to be hired. Abby Gennett, former host of MTV’s Rock Countdown, was just the rocker we were looking for! Excitement abounded when WNED decided to record the Competition and all of the behind-the-scenes action for a documentary that was broadcast nationally on PBS. “Driven to Play” truly captured the magic of the Competition and the spirit of its competitors.

2003’s winner was Ned Evett of Boise, Idaho. Ned designed, built and played on his fretless guitar; a Guitar Competition first.

2004
The Competition continued to build relationships in the national guitar community and formed a friendship with Guitar Player magazine that continues to this day. Guitar Player became a sponsor and advertised our “Call for Entry” in their magazine which yielded in hundreds of entries flooding in. The size of the audience size continued to grow and Carm Tedesco, wife of Tommy Tedesco – the most recorded guitarist in history and namesake of the Competition’s 1st place trophy – gave a moving speech onstage about the power of music and the respect and reverence Tommy always had for musicians on the rise.

2004’s winner was Jon Kabbash of Los Angeles, California.

2005
Host Abby Gennett’s band went on tour with Motorhead so the search for a host was back on! Hard rocker from New York City, Queen V, joined us and sure did put the rock back into this rock and roll show! As our judge panel grew in both number and credibility, one of Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 100 Guitarists of All Time, Vernon Reid, joined the panel and came to Buffalo to watch our Top 5 battle it out. The audience tripled in size from the Competition’s first year and UB’s Mainstage Theater was filled with an undeniable electric energy that is hard to describe.

2005’s winner was John Mameli of Naples, Florida. His playing was flawless but it was his showmanship of playing his guitar with a bow – a la Jimi Hendrix – and then levitating it that left no doubt in the audience’s mind as to who would win.

2006
Thanks to promotion in Rolling Stone Magazine, Guitar Player Magazine and Long & McQuade stores, the competition saw great leaps in the quality of material received during the entry process.  Ironically enough, 2006 brought some familiar faces back to Buffalo for the Rock Comp.  Two of the top 5 included former competitors who decided to give it another go.  Some of our favorite judges including Vernon Reid and Kat Dyson also returned to help us out.  After 5 spectacular competitor performances, reigning competition winner John Mameli rocked his hometown as the judges scores were tabulated.

2006’s winner was Les Robot from Edmonton, Alberta.

2007
With the help of Sonic Bids, You Tube and Myspace this was the year that the NARGC went international!  We received entries from England, Scotland, Italy, Russia and Brazil, not to mention the submissions from 21 US States and 5 Canadian Provinces.  Six finalists were asked to join us in Buffalo after the second round judges were unable to break a tie for the fifth spot.  Before joining our esteemed judging panel, John 5, guitarist for Rob Zombie, opened the show by playing the Star Spangled Banner with his teeth!  Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, it did!  In their first year at the competition, rookie judges Terry Lickona, Executive Producer of Austin City Limits and Beth Marlis, Director of GIT were in awe of the talent we supplied for them to critique.  In the end, 17 year old Jamie Robinson took home the Tommy Tedesco award with his combination of rock, jazz and electronic elements.