Pat Alger formed his own music publishing company in Nashville after writing several hit songs. His tune "Thunder Rolls" was a big hit for Garth Brooks, and other songs have been record...
Muriel Anderson sure puts her heart and soul into her music as both a performer and songwriter. Over the years the music products industry has been lucky to be closely associated with Mur...
Henry Barnes is a wonderful example of the type of luthier and repair technician you want working on your musical instruments. With a background in building guitars for Charvel, Grover Ja...
Bob Bennett has written songs sung by congregations around the world for decades. His life in music all began when his older brother taught him a few chords on the guitar when he was ten ...
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...
Harry Bickel has been passionate about the folk songs and bluegrass music of Kentucky since he was a kid. While in college, he took banjo lessons from J.D. Crowe and learned how to repair...
David Brock is a gifted violin and banjo teacher who provides private lessons at the Folk Music Center in Claremont, California. His long association with the musical instrument store goe...
Hedges Capers rose to fame in the late 1960s as half of the folk rock duo Hedges & Donns. He and his singing partner, Donna Carson (who was later his wife for several years) began sin...
Mark Casstevens has always had a deep passion for music. He sang in church choirs and began piano lessons at age six, eventually teaching himself guitar. In high school in Ft. Worth, TX, ...
Willie Chambers and his brothers fell in love with gospel music while growing up singing in church. Even though they received some strong criticism, they expanded the places where church ...
Joe Chambers was inspired by his older brother George to play guitar and write songs. The brothers, Joe, George, Willie and Lester, formed The Chambers Brothers and began singing gospel m...
Denny Coiro spent over 40 years of his career in the piano industry. As a salesman, Denny worked for several stores over the years and had some wonderful experiences bringing a new instru...
Judy Collins is perhaps best known for her string of hit recordings in the late 1960s and 70s such as “Both Sides, Now,” “Amazing Grace,” and “Send in the Clowns.” However, did you know J...
Dan Crary first played an acoustic music festival in the 1960’s when the steel-string guitar was often in the background. However, Dan’s lead guitar playing caught the attention of a gene...
Lou Curtiss was a long time supporter of American folk music and in fact, he helped coin the phrase “roots music.” For over 30 years he created, arranged and promoted the annual folk musi...
Greg Deering worked for a short time with Bob Taylor in San Diego as both men sought their dreams to create their own unique fretted instruments. While Taylor Guitars was being establishe...
Janet Deering has become the darling of the banjo industry as co-founder of the Deering Banjo Company. Along with her husband Greg, she has brought the banjo back to its popular roots wit...
Earl Dummer played his flattop Martin guitar during the folk music boom of the 1960s as part of the Shenandoah Trio. The group toured with Jimmy Rodgers among others and recorded for Bill...
Bob Gand opened a music shop in Deerfield, IL in the early 1960s, which was an influence not only to the community but to his son Gary. Gary went on to open his own successful retail bus...
Gerard Garnier is the president of ALGAM in France and likes to say with pride that he started in the music industry with only one thing: a Black & Decker drill! He began making woode...
Stu Goldberg established Marina Music in San Francisco at the beginning of the guitar boom. The folk music craze was in full swing and the Beatles just hit the USA and within a few month...
Norman Greenbaum wrote the 1960s classic rock hit “Spirit in the Sky” with a hard drive introduction featuring his Fuzz-Tone and electric guitar. The song is considered a standard rock an...
Ellen Harper Verdries grew up in a music store! Her parents, Dorothy and Charles Chase, formed their first store in Massachusetts before moving to Southern California in 1958. The Folk Mu...
Jerre Haskew was right in the thick of the folk music boom of the early 1960s. He was a founding member of the Cumberland Trio, which recorded with Chet Atkins at RCA Nashville and toured...
George Hergen grew up during the folk boom in New York of the mid 1960s and fell in love with the luthiers of guitars and banjos as well as some of the colorful dealers in his area. He be...
Sam Hinton was a national treasure. It seems appropriate to use that term when talking about him because he become an important and invaluable preservationist of some of our nation's grea...
Garth Hudson sat down at the piano and played several classical works as the NAMM Oral History crew set up the camera and lights. He began by playing, stopping every once in a while, to r...
Julia Huff joined the Museum of Making Music volunteer program in 2018, focusing much of her time in the museum’s gift shop. She enjoys working with her fellow volunteers, the staff and i...
Sherry Klein grew up outside of New York City during the height of the folk scene. She loved to go to Greenwich Village and has amazing stories of meeting Joni Mitchell and going to Woods...
Michael Kropp loved folk music for as far back as he could remember. As he grew up and played in various bands in the 1960s and 70s he also became involved with the music industry. After ...
Lowell Levinger, known as Banana, was a founding member of the Youngbloods back in the late 1960s. The band had a series of hit records including the 60s anthem “Get Together.” Banana p...
