Music Retail
Bruce Bannister is the current president of Samuel Music in Effingham, Illinois. The store was formed in the 1940s by Lowell Samuel, the band director turned music industry pioneer. Bruce was interviewed in the store and recalled working closely with Lowell as well as Dean Samuel, Lowell’s son and...
Dean Samuel is the son of industry leader, Lowell Samuel, who not only formed the Samuel Music retail store in Effingham, IL but the pioneering music wholesale company, MIDCO, in 1964. Lowell was also one of the founders of NASMD and an early supporter of the industry’s Global Economic Summits....
John Craviotto, the founder of Craviotto Drum Company, has helped pioneer the handcrafted solid-shell snare drums, a leading product for his company and a tool he sought as a young drummer in the 1960s. As a musician, John worked for a host of top artists such as Neil Young, Ry Cooder, Buffy St....
Wes Faulconer is the founder of Explorers Percussion in Kansas City, Missouri. He formed the store in 1984 with the goal of bringing quality drumming products to students and educators within the area. As technology developed over the years, Wes took full advantage of new ways to connect with his...
Steve Weiss loved playing the drums as a small child, but never imagined in a million years that he would have a career in music, let alone a pioneering and successful career in the music products industry. In 1965, he formed Steve Weiss Music in Philadelphia and soon became one of the leaders in...
Buzz Tarpley grew up in the music business. His grandmother was selling pianos as early as 1917 in West Texas. The Tarpley family officially opened a music store in 1927 in Pampa, Texas. Buzz recalled growing up in the late 1930s and 40s and the many radio sets his father would sell. He also...
Joe D McBrayer always took great pride in the craftsmanship he put into the servicing and restoration of pianos. In a career that began when he was a kid sweeping up the store, Joe D managed to do every job related to the buying, hauling, restoring and selling of pianos and organs. Ultimately, it...
John Tarpley likes to echo the message his great-grandmother lived by when she established the family business over 100 years ago: the customer is most important. Since taking over the business, along with his cousin David in the 1990s, John has strived hard to do just that. Running four locations...
David Tarpley remembered crawling around in the ceiling of his current church as a child, hauling the wires for the Allen Organ his father and uncle were installing. As a member of the Tarpley family, you worked in the family business, which for David meant sweeping the music store, moving pianos...
Bill Tarpley remembered the stories his father used to tell him about the early days of the family music retail store in west Texas. Times were hard during the era of the dust bowls and depression, but he credits his father’s skills as both a businessman and salesman in the success of the store....