OH Taxonomy
Guitar Shorty was born in Houston with the name David Kearney, but found fame with his nickname in the blues world beginning in the 1950s. He grew up in Florida, where he began playing gigs as a teenager. After working with the Ray Charles band and Walter Johnson, Shorty released his first...
Tony Brown, the Nashville recording producer, started his career playing piano for Elvis Presley! Tony became a noted studio musician working with Roseanne Cash and Emmylou Harris before becoming one of the most successful producers in country music. As president of MCA Records, Tony produced...
Bobby Watson grew up in Lawrence, Kansas and remembers dreaming of buying a new saxophone at the local music store. An early gig with drummer Art Blakey began Bobby on his career as a noted jazz musician, which has included forming his own award winning band and playing with such artists as Joe...
Juha Ruokangas is a luthier from Finland who set out to create a community of builders within Europe thus establishing the European Guitar Builders Association (EGB). Juha designed his own series of guitars in 1997, beginning with the Duke model, which was the first instrument of his own company,...
John Krivit was interviewed at the NAMM Show in Anaheim 2016 and covered his career in the audio industry as well as his work as President of the Audio Engineering Society (AES). As an Associate Professor in Boston, John has dedicated his work as an educator to finding connection points for...
Cris Behrens began working with Summerhays Music Center at the age of 19. He earned a degree in band instrument repair from Red Wing Technical College and spent his first five years at Summerhays repairing instruments. After catching the sales bug, Cris attended Utah Valley State College for...
Frank Seta began his career in the music industry working for Baldwin Pianos before working for Gibson and then establishing his own retail store. Frank has built lasting friendships within the music industry due to his passion and drive; as a result, he was one of the most suggested people to be...
DW Fearn began working part time as an engineer for WPEN in Philadelphia while still in high school. His passion for audio grew and developed as he collected equipment. His goal was to create a recording studio with his gear, which he did in 1969 and he called it Veritable Recording Company. ...
Steve Rucker is the Director of Drumset Studies at the University of Miami. His long and interesting career began in Charlotte, where his father fell in love with big band music and often played recordings of Dixieland jazz. Steve was fascinated by the sound of the drummer and his passion was...
June Wang is very proud of her company, Pearl River. She is an outstanding spokesperson for the China-based piano manufacturer. In fact, it was Ms. Wang who assisted the NAMM Oral History team to conduct an interview with the then-chairman, Zhi Cheng Tong back in 2006. Ten years later, at the...