Music Stores (Sherman Clay, Gospel, M-V, Hockett Cowan)

[Scott-o-rama]

In the mid-'60s I was a budding adolescent guitar player and hung around Sherman Clay in Manchester Center quite a bit. I'd buy strings and picks there -- and play their cool electric guitars & amps as much as Mel, the manager, would tolerate. Wish I'd had the money to buy up some of the used Gibson Les Pauls and Pre-CBS Fender Strats & Teles they had for sale cheap. They sold records there too, and I bought my copy of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album the first day they got it in -- in early June, 1967. I took that album home and played the grooves off of it, learning the chords and riffs from every song within about a week!

[Lost Fresno]

Hockett Cowan sign on the Fulton Mall in 1969

[whitmaso]

My grandmother, Linda Privett played in a band based in Ethel Starr's shop, called the Starrliters. The family is doing some research and we're just looking for anything from that era we can find, pictures, stories or if we're lucky maybe some recordings. Thanks for anyone who can help.

[GYM]

Tom Takahashi was service manger at Gospel Music. Greg Youngman also worked in the service department. That's me!

[DougR]

Starting from about 1956: my trap set, my mom’s alto sax and her autoharp came from M-V Music; my classical guitar came from Hockett Cowan; my dreadnaught guitar came from a music store at the SE corner of Fresno/Ashlan (across the street from where American Music Company is now -- anyone remember its name around 1963?).

[charlyn]

Kuettel Piano House on the corner of Olive Ave & Arthur St. (2 blks east of Fruit Ave)

[Fred Rated]

Charlie Daniels Music somewhere off of Blackstone. Took woodwind lessons there and they'd let me bang on all the synths I could never afford while I waited.

[rhchadwick]

I will be forever grateful to the kind people at Gospel Music... I was just a kid in jr. high school I believe (early 70's) and used to ride my bike to their store on Blackstone all the way from Sierra Vista and Shields just to oggle at all the instruments in there. I became a regular and at some point discovered the little room upstairs that had the synthesizers inside it. I asked if I could play with them and, to my surprise, they said YES. I learned everything about the fantastic analog Moog and Arp synthesizers they had there in the store and have never lost my fascination with them. I have later in life purchased a number of synthesizers which I still have, including an old Paia kit I bought from a friend at DeVry Tech many years ago.
Anyway, here's to the Gospel Music and Supply Company, without which I would probably have never been introduced to the weird and wonderful world of analog synthesizers and the fantastic sounds they can produce.