Posted by alprice on Sunday, May 3, 2009
We left Paxinos for Toronto on Friday morning, by way of Rochester. <Insert bad Jack Benny impression here> Rochester has two very nice music stores that we visited: Stutzman's Guitar Center and Benunzios. We first went to Stutzman's, but the owner had not yet arrived. We decided to visit Bernunzio in the interim. We looked up the address in the phone book, plugged it into Iphone Maps, and we were off.
We arrived at the address listed and knocked on the door, wondering why there was no signage. Mrs. Bernunzio very cordially greeted the three scruffy, roadworn, banjo carrying characters at the door and invited us inside. She tactfully explained that this was no longer the business location, it had moved down the street. We were knocking on the door to their home! But Mr. Bernunzio (John) was home, and she would see if he would see us.
He greeted us cheerfully, aware of the Nechville name and happy to visit with us. He liked what we showed him, and asked if we would deliver one of the banjos we showed to the store. Hell yeah.
Off to the store we went, meeting and discussing the new openback with two of the people working there. Located around three different music schools, the shop had a sophisticated air about it. People working and visiting there were music savvy, and had a deep love for roots music.
We then scurried back to Stutman's. Dave Stutzman remembered Tom's previous visit, 10-15 years ago. He also loved the banjos, and we left with our load one banjo lighter.
Crossing the Canadian border at Buffalo, Tedd and I did the tourist thing and took photos of each other kin front of Niagra Falls. (Photos to follow later.) We drove onward, to the home of Ed Rampen.
Like when I first met Tedd, Ed and his wife Kathy made me feel at home instantly, as though we were long lost friends. Ed had a spectacular collection of instruments, including a Stelling (!) John Hartford which I played in the throaty E Flat tuning. We jammed, had beers and steaks. We were road weary, and turned in early.
The next morning we had breakfast at a cool eggs and sausage cafe around the corner, and headed to Toronto to visit The Twelfth Fret. Good times were had there as we got to know some of the local players and demo the instruments in store, as well as those we brought with us. Ed gave me a couple of very cool flatpicks he had designed, as he is an industrial designer. THey are my new favorite picks.
The Twelfth Fret is a spectacular shop, with high quality stringed instruments of all kinds. The owners are smart and business savvy, and have a first rate shop that is thriving. If it was near my home, I would bring a sleeping bag.
Staying longer than planned, and with an appointment to see a customer in Detroit, we hopped once more into the Nechville Tour Bus and headed back to the USA.
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