Oral History - all
Paul Raley is the President of Paul Raley & Associates Inc., as well as PRA Audio Systems Inc. The focus of his company was to allow ease of use when it comes to wireless systems for guitarists. Paul talks about how you shouldn’t have to worry about configuring a system at a show – it should... more
David St John began his career in music retail in 1967 and since that time he has devoted his career to bringing music and music lessons to the lives of his customers. David worked for a few music stores in Southern California, staying decades at some stores, including Gard’s Music in Glendora. ... more
Christie Carter and her husband, Walter, are the proud owners of Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville, which has a family friendly feeling by design! Christie wanted to help create a place that would be as welcoming to women musicians just as much as it would be for men, as well as wives and... more
Stephan Peus started out his career with the Georg Neumann GmbH in Berlin in 1974. During his time with the company he developed numerous innovations in microphone technology including the first shotgun microphone that Neumann produced. When Sennheiser purchased the Neumann Company in 1991 Stephan... more
Douglas Woodfull-Harris started his career as a studio musician in San Francisco. During his studies of classical composition and musicology in Los Angeles he met his wife Petra. They both moved to Germany and soon after Douglas started working at Bärenreiter as editor. His first work included... more
Barbara Scheuch-Vötterle is one of five children of Karl Vötterle who founded the Bärenreiter-Verlag in 1923. After the death of her father 1975, Barbara took over the company and with her husband Leonhard Scheuch they expanded on the publishing house’s international reputation and modernized... more
Leonhard Scheuch was born 1938 in Winterthur, Switzerland. After theater studies in Munich and Vienna he worked as artistic director at the Zürich Opera until 1975. His career took a turn when he met Barbara Vötterle of the Bärenreiter publishing house in the birth town of Smetana and soon married... more
Renate Matthei is the founder of Furore, a music publishing house in Kassel, Germany founded 1986 exclusively dedicated to publishing women composers’ works. She has been awarded with numerous prizes for her more than 30 years of activities in publishing and her incredible efforts in making the... more
Sabine Kemna is sales director at Furore. The publishing house focuses exclusively on offering works by female composers. Sabine Kemna played percussion in a band and worked at music publisher Zimmermann at the time in Frankfurt when she was invited to work at Furore. Sabine travels the world to... more
Erik Gramkow started his career in the music business with piano manufacturer Brødr Jørgensen. When Eric joined the company the focus was on importing music instruments to Scandinavia. Hammond organ kits were imported from the United States and assembled in Denmark, making it possible to export to... more
Peter Kragh-Jacobsen started out as a percussionist performing all over Denmark. After tiring of being on the road, he opened the Drum and Percussion Center Denmark, established in 1980. Importing of percussion instruments to Denmark became very expensive due to the exchange rate of the Danish... more
Knud Damgaard loves guitars. Not surprisingly being regional sales manager for Fender in Scandinavia since 2000 is a dream come true for him. A long career starting as guitarist, owning a guitar shop and sales rep for another guitar manufacturer made him a prime choice for the job. Knud’s ardor for... more
Poul Marno Sørensen inherited Marno Sørensen Music store from his father located for many years in the heart of Copenhagen. Poul remembers how his father worked as a musician in a circus before he settled to open the shop in 1925. Many important jazz musicians were customers here such as Archie... more
Martin Elneff is owner of i.K. Gottfried, a music store specializing in sales, production and repair of woodwind instruments since 1796. As a teenager Martin started in retail at Marno Sørensen music store in the heart of Copenhagen. He moved on to become successful starting an online business.... more
Andy Talamantez fronts The Andy T-Nick Nixon Band out of Nashville. Andy’s guitar playing style is heavily influenced by T-Bone Walker and B.B. King, but at the same time, is something totally new and creative. He worked in the aerospace industry for twenty-three years before quitting his day job... more
Birth Date: April 9, 1941
Deceased Date: February 28, 2018
Nick Nixon and Andy Talamantez formed The Andy-T-Nick Nixon Band, which was based in Nashville. Nick teamed up with guitarist Andy to return to music, which he had left for many years. He was a part of the Jefferson Street blues scene in the 1960’s although his background was in Opera and Classical... more
Bill Rickard is the founder of Rickard Banjos – banjos featuring a classic design with modern innovations. In the early parts of his life, he fell out of touch with music. Following a tragic motorcycle accident, which took an arm and a leg from Bill, he reevaluated his whole life. He began... more
Birth Date: August 27, 1937
Deceased Date: December 24, 2021
JD Crowe recalled seeing Earl Scruggs perform in Lexington with Lester Flatt when he was a kid. The sound was so unique and different that all young JD could think about was getting a banjo! He did and, well, the rest is history. Jimmy Martin hired DJ when he was just 16 and they recorded and... more
Birth Date: December 17, 1932
Deceased Date: September 3, 2017
Tony Lovello began playing accordion when he was five years old, thanks to the fact that his father was a professional musician. Tony performed on stage, television, radio and in the movies, along with teaching and selling the accordion. He was an early adapter of the Roland electric accordion... more
Steven Ambrose first started liking country music after hearing Johnny Cash through headphones during a recording session. This prompted him to develop a toll that could be used by all musicians to get the same sound. The result was the first set of in ear monitors – something that the music... more