January 29th, 2024

Hello Folks,

    For some reason this past week, as I commute the long road from Penn Yan to Rochester, I have been listening to a lot of early 1950s rock ‘n’ roll. It’s the sound that I grew up with…it’s the music that was embedded in my heart from a very early age: the Everly Brothers, Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson and of course, the Big Bopper. I knew all the words to the song "Chantilly Lace". I was in fifth grade and I was constantly singing it to myself…. and occasionally I blurted out the sounds and words of the song…. much to the dismay of my parents. I’m sure they thought I had sold my soul to the devil. I could hear my father, murmuring, once again, "Hun, what the hell is wrong with that kid?" After all who wants to hear their 12-year-old son singing:

 "with a wiggling walk and a giggling talk,
she makes the world go round round round
ain’t nothing in this world like a big-eyed girl
to make me act so funny to make me spend my money
to make me feel real loose, like a long neck goose 
oh baby that’s what I want" 

 So it is, that sixty-five years go this Saturday… on February 3rd, 1959, rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper) were killed in a plane crash along with 21-year-old pilot Roger Peterson. It is referred to as "the day the music died" from the 1971 song by Don McLean. I was 12 years old at the time and the event is burned into my memory through the newspaper headlines and the disc jockeys on my transistor  radio. I certainly wasn’t sure what death was….in all of its ramifications. I wondered if the music would still be played…did it really die? But music lives on…it is the legacy of the creator.

   And so it is at Bernunzio Uptown Music. The music lives on…it keeps going, and it’s not going to stop. There was a time in my life that I flirted with retiring. It’s never going to happen. I get enough time off as it is… I don’t really need to retire. My retirement really is a matter of days of the week in Penn Yan not months in Florida. So many folks my age tend to start burrowing in and becoming more and more recluse. I’m certain it is natural because the world outside presents so many challenges that seem to become somewhat insurmountable as we advance in years. But, the music is in my heart and soul and I have to keep things rock and rolling. I have made some decisions about the “Store”. I’m going to bring back our musical stage and some of our musical performances. I’m hoping by the spring I will be able to have a free performance in our store once a month. The music must not die.

 Best wishes,

John Bernunzio 

Dan Palmer led a wonderful and packed old-time jam on Saturday in our "back room". His gentle way just keeps making this event grow as a part of the musical community.

The great Mikayla Davis on stage at Bernunzio’s

Bernunzio Uptown Music stage

Bernunzio Uptown Music stage….Scott Freilich on bass

A half a dozen of the best guitarist I’ve ever met….at Bernunzio’s

Bernunzio Uptown Music stage