Dec. 15, 2025 - A VERY MUSICAL WEEK
The master….
Photo courtesy of the multi talented artist Jeff Coffin…. Man, what that guy can do on horns!
I was really excited to go backstage and be able to introduce Gavin Rice to the great Bela Fleck. I think an interesting collaboration will happen in the future.
This young man from Los Angeles stopped by to try out a H.F. Eibert guitar, which we have just recently acquired. I have not seen Harry Eibert in 20 years. I hear he’s in Montana now. He is really an incredibly talented individual and we are lucky to have two of his guitars in stock.
These two old guys came in to try out guitars. I knew them when they were young kids in college. One of them left with a great “Eastman”.
Some other things visited the store this past week, but we’ll talk about that…maybe in the new year.
On Sunday, Julie was hard at work with our daughter Kara making the family recipe for Finnish kuchen.
Today is the birthday of my sister Elizabeth Rita. When she was one year old, I taught her how to walk and she’s been walking ever since.
A VERY MUSICAL WEEK
December 15th, 2024
Good mornings folks,
I was in back in Rochester for four blustery days this past week and now I’m home recuperating in the quiet of the village of Penn Yan. My mind has been more centered on going away at the end of the month than it has been on the "precious present" moment. But this week seemed to be something completely different. When I came into the store through the back entrance on Thursday, as I usually do, our staff had just opened the front door to let in the customers who were waiting outside. The first two people in the door were Bela Fleck and Sierra Hull! They were followed by an entourage, including Jeff Coffin, Victor Wooten and his brother, Roy. Now I have known Bela Fleck through his music for 40 years when I first saw him play at a banjo event outside of Nashville at the Cedars of Lebanon Park. At some point over the weekend, he took the stage and someone said, "watch this kid, he is going to be the best there ever was", and they were so right. Over the years he has frequented our store and gone home with a few prized instruments. They were in town for a concert that evening called "Jingle All the Way”and Bela wanted to show Sierra the store. We talked about banjos and music and I told him of the great Gavin Rice who worked for us for the past four years while he was going to Eastman school. As the morning progressed, we sat and talked….as fathers…and husbands… about our family and our aspirations. He is truly a great soul and a fantastic musician, needless to say. But he turned to me, during the course of conversation and said, "what people don’t realize is that when I’m off for a month, I have to practice every day. The stuff is harder and harder". Well, I guess now you have heard it from the best… you can never stop practicing and I intend to be practicing quite a bit in Sicily. It’s just I haven’t figured out what I’m going to be practicing… in addition to language.
Sincerely,
John Bernunzio
I was so touched by this…
I cannot say enough about how perfectly musical this performance was. I was completely taken back and I don’t go to performance very often, but this made me just thirst for more music. It was a tremendous evening and a great effort put forth by every single person on the stage.
It just seemed to be a week for bands to be dropping by the store. These folks were so kind and interesting to chat with.