Wendel Stoltz was only a year old when his father, a big band musician, opened a music store in Memphis. The year was 1949. Wendel’s father, Colie, continued to perform at night for man...
Jack Pearson grew up listening to the Allman Brothers not knowing that one day he would join the band and tour the world playing the songs he loved. His talents on the guitar developed a...
Buzz Cason began his musical career as a singer in the late 1950s and early 60s. He formed The Casuals in Nashville and later sang with The Statues for Liberty. As he continued to sing, B...
Skip Buss played trumpet for several big bands on the road and in local hotel ballrooms during the great Swing Era of the 1940s. He decided to leave the road when his son was born at whi...
Ron Bienstock was playing gigs by night and the editor for the International Musicians & Recording World when he was hired by Hoshino to serve as their General Counsel. It was at th...
Cliff Acred began playing music in junior high school and later majored in music in college. He played in the 3rd Army Band out of Atlanta while in the service and once out returned home...
Fred Rast is the founder of Fred Rast Mouthpieces and a music lesson instructor for Music Village. The store is located in San Jose, California and is his musical haven with students and...
Don Kong is the manager of Music Village in San Jose, California. Don worked for a few other music companies before begging to be hired by the store's founder, Joe Teixeina, in the early...
Anita DeBlasio manages the Union Ave. location of Music Village in San Jose, California. The store was established by Joe Teixeina in 1964 to serve the musicians and to foster music in t...
Craig Bosco is a musician and manager of Music Village, a retail store in San Jose, California. Craig's passion for music began at an early age and over the years he has become a professi...
Richard Abreau played music in school as a kid but got away from it during most of his professional career. Then in 2001, upon his retirement, Richard returned to music! Encouraged by a...
Carl Mann sang in church as a child and grew up just a few years behind Elvis Presley, who, like Carl, brought the style of church musical expression to popular music when he began record...
Woody Bomar began his career as a songwriter and went on to work in music publishing. In fact, Woody created Little Big Town and had a very successful run in the 1980s and 90s. Woody ma...
Joe Teixeira opened a small music store in San Jose, California in 1964. As the fiftieth anniversary approached in 2013, Joe sat down for his NAMM Oral History interview to begin documen...
Brad Wittmer and his friend and co-worker Richard Schiemer were given an opportunity to purchase the store they were working in, and they took it! The two met while working for Brighton ...
Smoochy Smith was hired by Sam Philips at Sun Studios in Memphis to play piano on a few sessions in the late 1950s. Smoochy was being requested for record dates from both local performer...
Richard Schiemer grew up in Brighton, Pennsylvania and often went down to Brighton Music Center for supplies and lessons. Little did he know at the time that one day, after college, he w...
Norbert Putnam is a studio musician’s studio musician. With a career that includes playing on most of the early Muscle Shoals recordings as well as hundreds of tracks with Elvis Presley, ...
Jay Pilzer is the founder of New Hope Guitars and has been very active in the vintage guitar market for several decades. While earning his doctorate and teaching history, Jay became fasc...
Jyotindra (JP) Parekh is the owner of Rice Music House in Columbia, South Carolina. He is very active in educational programs within his community and has served the industry on many lev...
Arnie Lazarus invented what is largely regarded as the first three dimensional transducer for musical instruments in 1969. That same year he established a company that echoed the name of...
Hideo Kamimoto wrote the book on guitar repair! He built his first guitar in the late 1950s and soon discovered he had a true passion as a luthier. Within a decade he opened H. Kamimoto...
Kevin Jarvis began working for Gelb Music in Redwood City, California in 1966 as a guitar teacher. The store was established in 1939 by Sydney Gelb, who was still running the store when ...
Roland Janes! There were musicians/engineers/producers and then there was Roland Janes! The man nearly single-handedly invented many of the engineering methods used in modern recordings...
Wayland Holyfield wrote several popular songs for both pop and country artists during a career that began with singing in church as a child in Conway County, Arkansas. He penned classics ...
WS Holland played drums behind Johnny Cash for over 40 years! The man put the beat to most of Johnny’s greatest recordings and his innovations in drumming inspired countless musicians aro...
Tony Falcetti grew up in the music business and developed his passion for music before he can remember. The store his parents started in Springfield, Massachusetts soon became the learni...
Jack Ashford played percussion as a member of the famed Funk Brothers, the house band for Motown Records beginning in the 1960s. Jack’s unique approach to the tambourine soon resulted in...
David Israelite is the president/CEO of the National Music Publishers Association located in Washington DC. While his career before NMPA was in politics, David played the guitar at a you...
