Barbara Wight smiled when she recalled being crowned the accordion princess of the Western States as a child. While she later had a long career as an executive in the agricultural industr...
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 ...
Bob Kilpatrick wrote his first song in the fourth grade and went on to pen one of the most popular worship songs in the last fifty years. In his early twenties, Bob and his wife performed...
Joe Wood was taught the Blues and how to play the guitar by his uncle. Throughout his career in Punk Rock, the feel for the Blues remained an important element in his playing and his song...
John Lambert is a docent at NAMM’s Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California, having joined the team in 2019. Just after his docent training was complete the pandemic of 2020 hit and...
Norman Hamlet was just a kid when he heard this strange but wonderful sound during a Grand Ole Opry radio program. He was told the sound came from a Hawaiian Guitar, which was a term used...
Robert Price has been a journalist his entire professional life, in fact, he wrote for the newspapers at his high school and colleges before landing a job at the Bakersfield Californian p...
Jim Shaw formed his own country band in Fresno, earning a nice living when he heard Buck Owens opened a recording studio down the road in Bakersfield. Jim thought he could go down and mak...
Bob McNabb is a well-known and respected piano technician in Bakersfield, California, who began his training in 1973. He enjoyed the role of piano tech for the Civic Center for over 20 ye...
Daniel Tomlinson was giving drum lessons when he was 13 years old and grew up in his family’s music store, California Keyboards in Bakersfield, California. In addition, as a teenager, Dan...
Ricky Harrison is an eclectic guitar luthier and the founder of RH Custom Guitars, located in Southern California. His love and respect for the guitar goes all the way back to his childho...
Corky Siegel often mentions he had three LP records as a kid that changed his life. The three Blues artists were Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Reed. Growing up in the southside of...
Igor Maxymenko is a co-founder of Audiomovers, which was established in 2017 by providing plugins designed to help musicians and studio engineers transfer high-quality audio files over th...
Dr. Charles Menghini is President Emeritus of VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, who has served music students his entire career. His journey started as a band director in Kansas an...
Al Murrell recalls being hooked on the Pipe Organ when he was just three years old. That special sound, which could be loud and haunting, could also be soft and soothing. As a young boy, ...
Richard Bates devoured each and every record album with Moog synthesizers in the 1960s and early 70s. He was fascinated by the famous Hooked On Bach album by Wendy Carlos and took a great...
Maryann Sfarzo has always loved singing! She is fondly remembered in the Baldwin NAMM booth alongside Lowell Simpson as Mr. & Mrs. Baldwin. The two entertained attendees with songs as...
Bongo Bob Smith has had an amazing musical journey, which all began with his love of the music of Puerto Rico. Before the term World Music was used, Bob was exploring music from many coun...
Tim Shirk likes to say he is a Tim at Tim’s Music and not the Tim. While not the founder, Tim is the general manager of the Sacramento area store, which focuses on band and orchestra sale...
Melissa Mandeville and her husband, Scott, own Tim’s Music, which is located in Carmichael, California, near Sacramento. The couple are strong advocates for music education and work to se...
Chaco Amazè fell in love with music at a young age, after all his father was a music teacher and his mother was a dancer of Mexican folklore music. His father introduced young Chaco to J...
Joe Nemzer is a salesman and shipping manager for The Magic Flute, a music store located in San Rafael, California. Musically his uncle Jeff was an influence on young Joe, playing the pia...
Marilyn Creamer likes to tell people that the only day The Magic Flute was closed, besides holidays, was for her wedding! She met her husband Michael while both were working at the store,...
Michael Creamer has many happy music memories growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, such as attending rock concerts at the Cow Palace. His brother was a big Van Halen fan and had a gu...
Will Meyer grew up with a great appreciation for music, thanks to being exposed to styles such as Bluegrass by his parents. He played trumpet beginning in grade school and focused on sing...
Spike Klein thanks his sister and her love of Van Halen for bringing music into his life. Their father made guitars for them out of plywood but pretending to be musicians soon turned into...
Tamara Osheroff enjoyed a 30-plus career in marketing and formed a well-respected agency with her partner. When her husband, Christian Dean, brought up the idea of buying a music store sh...
Christian Dean is the co-owner and guitar tech for The Magic Flute in San Rafael, California, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. In 1978, he purchased his first guitar from The Magic F...
Jim Hart has two passions, music and animals! His love of music began for him in the 6th grade when he began playing drums for the school music program. In 1981, his family purchased a mu...
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...
