Folk Music
Bob Shane was among the most influential performers of the folk music boom of the late 1950s and 60s. As an original member of the Kingston Trio, Bob was at the cornerstone of the American folk explosion that helped define a generation and inspired millions to make music by picking up a guitar or...
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 business. Bob fell in love with folk music in the 1960s and formed the Gand Family Singers, which included his...
Bob Riskin started working for McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica just a few years after it opened in 1958. Before long the shop was abuzz with the folk music boom and later played an equally important role in the folk-rock craze that expanded the shop to include electric guitars for the first...
Craig Yarbrough worked alongside his brother Tony and sister Phyllis (his younger sister joined them later) in running the music store they established in Memphis to serve the working musician. The all-in-the-family store soon developed a special role in the industry, which focused on audio and...
Tony Yarbrough’s love of music led to buying a music store in Memphis that was closing and renaming it Yarbrough Music, which soon became a hub for musicians in and around town. He took an interest in audio and pro audio installations and created a division of the store called Memphis Audio. ...
Billy Ray Hearn is credited by many for pioneering the concept of Contemporary Christian Music during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Influenced by the folk musicians of the day (Peter, Paul and Mary and others) Billy Ray brought these modern sounds into the church to surprising results. The...
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, Norbert also played with and produced such artists as Jimmy Buffett, Dan Fogelberg and Joan Baez. At the heart...
Pete Seeger was the American folk icon who made it a personal goal to bring peace to the world by getting people to sing! His role in the folk music movement, beginning in the 1930's, forever changed the role music played in protest, celebration and sorrow. Within the music products industry,...
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 months Stu opened his own music store. His small store had a very big impact on the music industry and soon became a...
Ken Tobias loved repairing guitars for himself and his friends and was able to turn it into a business in the early 1970s when he opened Tobias Guitars in Downers Grove, Illinois. One of his first lines was Martin Guitars and with the help of his son, Paul, several years later the store became the...