Music Retail
Greg Billings is the retired president of the Steinway Piano Gallery of Naples in Florida. Greg is also a very active member of the music products industry, appearing on panel discussions at NAMM Shows, serving on boards and writing a regular article for Music Inc. magazine. His deep passion for...
Rosi Johnson was hired by the founder of Mississippi Music and her future father in law, Jimmy Johnson, as the in-house accountant. She took over the financial end of the entire business from the secretary/treasurer/office manger who was retiring. At the time the company had seven store locations...
Dex Johnson grew up in the music retail business. His mother and father formed their store, Mississippi Music, after World War II and his father became an industry leader, even serving as President of NAMM in the 1970s. Dex worked in every department of the company and managed several of the...
Larry Biernacki opened the first of three music stores in Deerfield, Illinois. Like with all three locations, he named it after the local community to provide a neighborhood feel to each store. Along with a strong focus on customer service, the stores have become the place to be for musicians and...
Ed Hamrick enjoyed playing the drums ever since he saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. From that moment on, he played drums and in the early 1970s established his own drum shop outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Over the years the Atlanta Pro Percussion Shop has become one of the strongest...
Glenn Axelton managed a few stores for the famed Jenkins Music Company in and around Kansas City before opening his own store in Manhattan, Kansas. Glenn’s Music soon became a music center for the town and surrounding areas and led to one of the largest music lesson programs in the area. As a...
Dee Starkey recalls the days when his father, Jim, had a well known dance band in Wichita and played at night while teaching music during the day. In 1954 he opened Jim Starkey Music with a strong focus on lesson programs and hiring the best teachers in the area. His wife, Sally, who he met in...
Bob Williamson has been involved in the piano and organ business since he was a boy. His father sold Baldwin Pianos out of his barn in Southwest Nebraska. The Williamson Baldwin store never had a store front but called on farms and local families directly. For over 50 years Bob and his father...
Ed Blasco was one of the best known organ salesmen in Kansas City during the 1970s. He worked for Sherman Clay, Jenkins Music and even ran his own store, Ed Blasco’s Conn Organ Center in the mid 1970s. Ed’s passion for the organ was the foundation of his selling and he never lost sight of the...
JW Jenkins was president of the large music store chain in and around Kansas City that his great grand father first opened in 1878. His father, Paul W. Jenkins, kept the company running during the Great Depression and provided a great example to JW who expanded the store locations after World War...