Bobby Bare Sr. began writing songs as a teenager and landed a hit record with the talking blues song "All American Boy" in 1958 when Bobby was just 18 years old. He followed that recordin...
Cindy Lee Berryhill is the creative singer/songwriter whose twist on Folk Music (with a bit of a Punk Rock edge) has led to several albums and performances around the world. In 1987 Rhino...
Dick Boak has served as Director of Artist Relations for the C.F. Martin & Company during the development of the popular signature series product line, as well as for such historic pr...
Dave Bresnan had a true passion for music that began when he was fifteen when he learned to play the piano. Throughout the 1960’s, Dave played guitar and banjo in several groups after dis...
Mark Campbell is the Manager of the Guitar Center in Nashville. He began his music retail career in Knoxville and came to Nashville in 2005. Among the unique elements of his store are the...
Stu Cohen grew up playing the clarinet, and took lessons for close to eight years. In the early 1950s, Stu listened mostly to country music on the radio, just because it was the only stat...
Betty Comer has owned and operated Gibson’s Music in Corbin, Kentucky since 1969. When asked about the store, Betty fondly describes Gibson’s as “the Mom and Pop store but just with the M...
Michael Dresdner loves woodworking, so when the opportunity came up to build guitars he jumped at it. He designed and built several styles of acoustic guitars before being hired by the C....
Amani Duncan served as the Vice President of Marketing for C.F. Martin & Company in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Since joining the company, Amani has focused her attention on embracing the...
Elliot Easton often visited Grayson's Music in Long Island, New York as a kid. He ordered his first custom left handed electric guitar from Mr. Grayson, who always treated Elliot with kin...
Bryan Galloup somehow convinced his parents to set up a guitar repair shop in their basement back in 1975. Their support encouraged young Bryan to learn all he could about the art of guit...
Richard Gellis remembers the early days of the vintage guitar movement when greater value was being placed on "used instruments." As his small store grew in Santa Cruz, California, so di...
Ed Gerhard knew that there was something special about playing the guitar when he heard Andrés Segovia play on TV when he was 10 years old. He took a few lessons from a music store but le...
Fred Greene enjoys running the C.F. Martin & Company factory in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, in fact you could say it is his dream job. As a guitarist he has passion to the tenth degree w...
George Gruhn is without question one of the top experts of vintage guitars on the planet! George collected guitars before opening the world renowned Gruhn Guitar Shop in Nashville, TN in ...
Hunter Hayes, a musical prodigy born in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, discovered his passion for music at a tender age. From mastering multiple instruments to crafting heartfelt lyrics, his j...
John Dee Holeman was an influential blues performer known as the last surviving original musician who popularized the Piedmont Blues style. The finger-picking guitar style was also known...
Laurence Juber, like so many kids in the 1960s, began playing guitar soon after hearing the Beatles for the first time. He couldn’t dream that one day his talents as a guitarist would all...
Led Kaapana grew up in a family of musicians in Kalapana, in the southernmost district of Hawaii Island. His teachers included his mother, Mama Tina Kaapana, from whom he learned to sing ...
Debra Karlowitch likes to tell people that she started working at C.F. Martin & Company the same week Chris Martin joined full time! At the time of her NAMM Oral History interview in...
Jerry Kennedy was just a young teenager when he and a friend heard Elvis Presley’s first Sun Record. They were blown away by the electric guitar they heard but realized in photographs Elv...
Amy Kreider has been passionate about music from a young age. She played piano, viola, and flute and later studied music business and marketing in college. These passions came together wh...
William Locke worked for the Canadian division of the C.F. Martin & Company going back to the early 1970s. During that same time period, several suppliers came together to form the Mu...
David Magagna had an incredible career selling guitars for some of the biggest names in the industry. He worked for the government out of high school and attended college in Georgetown b...
Chris Martin is the proud descendent of the instrument craftsmen in Germany who founded the C.F. Martin & Company in 1833. As CEO of the company, Chris has overseen the expansion of t...
Don McLean walked into the House of Music in New Rochelle, New York as a kid dreaming of owning a Martin Guitar. When he finally owned one, that instrument assisted him in writing severa...
Steve Miller led a popular rock band beginning in the 1960s with a string of hit songs, most of which he wrote. His passion for music began at a very young age. Did you know Les Paul was ...
Maudie Moore was hired by Gibson Guitars in 1962 to do small piece work and soon branched out to engraving, which became a specialty for her over the next several decades. In fact, she o...
Tracy Newman Tracy Newman jumped into the Folk music scene in the early 1960s just as the genre was making its sweep across the country. She was among the early members of the New Christy...
Rick Nielsen is among the very few rock stars who grew up in a music store! His story and background is perfect for the NAMM Oral History program as it ties together a professional career...
Don Oriolo grew up in a very creative home. His father was the cartoonist behind such characters as Casper the Friendly Ghost and Felix the Cat. Don developed a passion for music as a chi...
Fred Oster was encouraged by his cousin to play the guitar as a youngster, which quickly expanded to include playing the mandolin and the five string banjo. By the time Fred was playing b...
