Albie Donnelly started playing saxophone at an early age and played with Merseybeat groups in Liverpool, England. He was then signed to Virgin Records with his group, Supercharge, which h...
Billy Butler started in the early 1960s singing with the Merseybeats group, The Tuxedos, having also sang with The Merseybeats and even performed on the same stage as The Beatles. He soon...
Ryan Hewitt grew up following his father, David, on musical adventures that took them around the world. David Hewitt is the award-winning mobile recording engineer who passed down his pas...
Robert Hobbs is very proud of his father’s role in music. His father, Revis Hobbs, was a radio engineer for station WSM and later created the r/f switch for radio frequency stability. In ...
Arthur Sloatman was working at Valley Sound in Los Angeles when he was called to the Record Plant to repair a synthesizer that required attention during a session with Frank Zappa. Later ...
David Kramny proudly joined his father in business to help run PPV Media. His father, Thilo, formed the company in 1984, which has grown to include 27 magazines. The magazines range from ...
Paul Leim established himself as one of the top studio drummers in both Los Angeles and Nashville. Paul has recorded with the likes of Randy Travis, Dolly Parton, Brian Setzer and Lionel ...
David Prater has produced a series of successful albums for the bands Firehouse, Dream Theater and Night Ranger (among others). He recalls that he always loved music but pinpoints the bir...
Byron Berline established the Double Stop Fiddle Shop in Oklahoma back in 1995. The store became a major hub for musicians which bought and sold a great number of both vintage and new in...
Vic Russelavage was hired by Chuck Levin as a repairman while Vic was playing his trumpet professionally. Chuck became a mentor and encouraged Vic to focus on the details and to take as m...
Helen Meyer, Co-Founder of Meyer Sound in Berkeley California, remembers attending a rock concert while still dating John Meyer (whom she later married). John turned to Helen and told her...
Tim Shaw is the Chief Engineer-Guitars for Fender Musical Instruments, helping the company create guitars, pickups and other products. Tim’s career began when Charlie Wicks hired him to r...
Aaron Friedman was composing in his New York City apartment when he was distracted by the constant sound of car alarms. He took action and helped create a city ordinance, which led to his...
Kyle Lehning is a recording engineer and record producer who has worked with a string of artists in Nashville beginning in the late 1960s. As a result, he has worked with the likes of Ken...
David Davidson’s uncle, Bill Nimmo, was a professional drummer who opened a small music store on Long Island, New York in 1966. David was exposed to all sorts of instruments at an early a...
Howard Lieberman began playing the guitar at the age of 6. A decade later he saw Jimi Hendrix in concert - an event which forever changed him. By the time he was seventeen, Howard was rec...
Chet Roberts attended MTSU where he earned a degree in engineering. He was honing his skills in a studio when he met members of the rock band 3 Doors Down. Chet acted as an assistant in t...
Vail Johnson was the seventh son in his family, all of whom played a musical instrument. It was part of life, just like eating and sleeping. His great grandmother was an opera singer and ...
Gary Burr played trumpet in the school band and went on to become one of the top songwriters in Nashville in the 1980s and 90s. Among the many hit songs he penned were “In a Week of Two,”...
Chuck Ainlay was a member of a band in school which is where his love and passion for music began. Although he knew he may not make it as a professional musician, he knew he wanted to be ...
Eddie Bayers is the studio musician who was asked to assemble a group of players in the era following the Nashville A Team to act as the go-to group for studio recordings. Eddie called th...
Essra Mohawk enjoyed writing songs since she was a little girl! She learned the ability to express the feelings so many of us have about love and happiness using music. Her songs have bee...
Hank Marvin and his buddy, Bruce Welch, formed the instrumental rock band The Shadows in 1958 in England. The highly influential group pioneered the four-member rock band format consistin...
Johnny Smith played drums professionally with the Oak Ridge Boys and Travis Tritt, among others, before a group of investors approached him to help create the Songbirds Guitar Museum. Joh...
Paul Franklin asked his father to help modify his pedal steel guitar, as he had ideas to create sounds and chord changes that were not possible on the instrument at the time. His father, ...
Steve Gibson repeated, “I’ve been blessed,” which acted as a recurring theme throughout his NAMM Oral History interview. The sentiment comes from a review of his extraordinary career as a...
Guy DeVillez has always had a passion for music. At age 12, Guy started playing guitar and would collect odd guitar picks that he found here and there. He found colorful and unusual picks...
Gail Davies was the first female Record Producer in Nashville. In 1973, she was encouraged to run her own sessions by Henry Lewy (1926-2008). It was not easy to establish herself as a pro...
Tony Boase started his career in music when he was 16 and landed his dream job at Mersey Music, a musical instrument shop on the Wirral Merseyside near Liverpool in the early 1980s. Tony ...
Dr. Merryl Goldberg grew up inspired by music. Her parents wanted her to learn guitar, but she always had a soft spot in her heart for the saxophone and would sneak in lessons whenever po...
