Folk Music
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 review his notes. Garth spoke about his love for music and his first teacher in Canada who impressed upon him the...
Peter Yarrow is the Peter in the wildly successful popular folk music trio Peter, Paul, and Mary. During his often musical NAMM Oral History interview, Peter spoke of the role music played during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, as well as the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War. The...
Tom Paxton spoke eloquently about the role folk music played during critical events in American history, such as the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s for which he was involved with. Tom marched, wrote songs, and played the songs of others, such as Pete Seeger, in order to bring about...
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 played lead guitar, piano, finger cymbals, pedal steel guitar, and sang with the band from 1965 until 1972. He...
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 recorded by a range of artists including "Small Town Saturday Night." Pat, in fact, grew up in a small town in...
Mary Faith Rhoads Lewis grew up on a farm outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania, where her mother played the piano and encouraged her children to play an instrument. Mary Faith began playing the violin at the age of eight and soon discovered she had a love of folk music. She built her own Mountain...
Bob Smakula built his first dulcimer when he was 14 years old. Having grown up all around the roots music of West Virginia, Bob loved all aspects of musical instruments. Along with playing and building, he developed great skills at repairing all stringed instruments and took great joy in playing...
Hiroaki Oh-oka sat on a thin mat in front of a leg-less table in his traditional Japanese home where he outlined the history of the bamboo flutes his five- man company produced. The company, which his father started as a street vendor in Tokyo, holds a patent for the colorful plastic ends on the...
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 before coming into the music industry by way of the C.F. Martin & Company. The year was 1962. David became...
Gerard Garnier is the president of ALGAM in France and likes to say with a proud smile that he started in the music industry with only one thing, a Black & Decker drill! He began making wooden flutes with his drill and soon expanded to 50 employees. He then began to import musical products...