Melissa Foster loves talking about the Bluegrass group her family formed, beginning when she was just a child. The Foster Family String Band toured all over the United States, mostly on w...

Pete Langdell grew up in Northern Vermont and takes great pride in the fact that he has lived and worked in the same area his entire life. When he had an opportunity to establish his own ...

Rick Peate recalled the story of how his family’s multi-generational music business began and developed. During his NAMM Oral History interview, Rick talked about his innovative grandfath...

Marty Stuart grew up in the small town of Philadelphia, Mississippi surrounded by country music, which he taught himself to play on a family guitar when he was 12 years old. Marty soon le...

Lowell Levinger, known as Banana, was a founding member of the Youngbloods back in the late 1960s.  The band had a series of hit records including the 60s anthem “Get Together.”  Banana p...

Stu Cohen grew up playing the clarinet, and took lessons for close to eight years. In the early 1950s, Stu listened mostly to country music on the radio, just because it was the only stat...

Roman Zajicek was born in Kolin in the Czech Republic, where for several decades the government made it difficult to do business as an independent luthier.  In 2003, when he had the oppor...

Vince Gill attended his first NAMM Show when he was nineteen years old and living in Los Angeles, California, back in 1977.  Over the years, Vince has supported many music retailers and s...

Bob Smakula built his first dulcimer when he was 14 years old.  Having grown up all around the roots music of West Virginia, Bob loved all aspects of musical instruments.  Along with play...

Harry West was the founder of Fine Musical Instruments located in Statesville, North Carolina.  The store was an early pioneer in vintage stringed instrument sales and in fact, Stanley Ja...

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 month...

Kim Breedlove began building banjos in the 1960s, during the Folk Music movement and the popularity of such performers as Pete Seeger. After working with his brother for a few months he m...

Curly Seckler was a pioneer in the development of Bluegrass music. He began performing professionally in 1935, on a daily radio program on WSTP in Salisbury, NC.  After the breakup of the...

Thomas Dotzauer is a master mandolin builder from the region of famed music instrument production center Bubenreuth in Germany. He did his apprenticeship in guitar production of Walter Ho...

Ricky Skaggs is the internationally known Country Music performer and Bluegrass mandolin player who sat in front of our cameras to discuss his passion for Pro-Audio gear. Ricky covered hi...

Roland White played the mandolin as far back as he could remember. Influenced by the Bluegrass and Country Music he heard as a boy, Roland created his own unique style, which has been a m...

Stanley Jay always admired rare and special fretted musical instruments, so it came as no surprise when he and his friend, Haf Kuffner, opened a guitar shop on Staten Island in New York. ...

John McEuen is a founding member of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, considered to be one of the most successful folk-rock groups in history. He played with the band from 1966 to 1986 and took par...