guitar shops in Houston, Texas
HL
Houston?
Thanks
John Swee
rtmca
Not really. There used to be a Guitar Gallery but it is closed (it is
now located on the SW FWY and sells only sheet music online). I am
assuming you mean walking distance. Check out the wonderful Houston
Museum of Fine Arts
across the street from the Warwick while you are there. Back to
shops. You may have to check the phone book. There is a place called
Rockin' Robin on Shepherd and , I believe Alabama, which is about 3
miles away (Go W on Bissonnet from the Warwick and take a right on
Shepherd--go up about 1/2 mile--Rockin' Robin is on the right). Good
store. There used to have a nice acoustic selection -- Lots of
Martins and Larrivees-- but I haven't been in a couple of years.
There is also a Guitar Center about ten miles out Westheimer. (From
Warwick take a right on Montrose, left on Westheimer and go out about
10 miles--it's on the left). Also, up main in the middle of the
downtown area is H and H music (one block off main to the right). (I
got my first and second guitars there when a wee lad--1964 a Framus
and 66 a Gibson ES 335). I would get a phone book and call around.
New shops crop up from time to time. John Carrick opened a shop in
the Warwick hotel area 4 years ago and stocked lots of Breedloves but
I don't think it's open (though it may be) and I don't recall the
shop's name.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Now if it were Austin (my home) or
Dallas I could direct you to several.
Robert McArthur
HL
Thanks for the detailed info. I'll pass it on to my friend who will be going
to Houston. (I'm not going - I'm just asking around for him.) He will only
be there for a 2-day business trip, so I think he won't be wandering around
much. Thanks anyway, we'll see how things work out.
Cheers,
John Swee
Ken Cashion
> Also, up main in the middle of the
>downtown area is H and H music (one block off main to the right). (I
>got my first and second guitars there when a wee lad--1964 a Framus
>and 66 a Gibson ES 335).
How interesting!
I got my Framus 12-string and Gibson J-50 from H & H about the
same time. Did Northcutt wait on you?
Ken Cashion
rtmca
Red Novak!
and I took a couple of Jazz lessons there from Mickey Gilley's
guitarist, Randall Dalahan. I recall drooling over a new cherry
sunburst L-5 but the price was outrageous ($750!!!). Ha.
Robert
rtmca
> the Warwick hotel area 4 years ago and stocked lots of Breedloves but
> I don't think it's open (though it may be) and I don't recall the
> shop's name.
Sand Mountain Music. If it is still open--it might well be--it is
real close to the Warwick and the owner John Carrick is an old singer
songwriter who used to hang with Townes Van Zandt. I remember hearing
him a lot in the old days. Phone for directions.
Robert
HL
"rtmca" <rt...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:12847b5c.02072...@posting.google.com...
Thanks! I hope it's still open.
John
Ken Cashion
Yeah, but how many loaves of bread was that?
My dad always told me to think of things costing in loaves of
bread and I would be able to keep up with how much things really cost.
He didn't understand inflation...at least not the way most of us do
now.
I got a good deal on my J-50...but we still had to "budget"
for it and the 12-string Framus, as well.
Ken Cashion, still loving my J-50 and Framus
Ken Cashion
I can't believe Sand Mountain would still be open. Isn't that
like sending someone to the Jester? Surely, that is not still open!
I played the Jester just once but Sand Mountain and The Colonel's
Quarters a bunch of times during Townes, Jerry Jeff, Carolyn Terry,
Carolyn Hester, Guy Clark, and in the case of the Jester, Lightn'
Hopkins.
I saw Papa Stoneman and his family at the Quarters...this was
a long time before Ronnie became too corny and ugly on Hee Haw.
Man, those were some pretty good evenings back then.
Ken Cashion -- the guy with the cigar and gut bucket bass
rtmca
> like sending someone to the Jester? Surely, that is not still open!
>
Ken--Sand Mountain Coffeehouse has been closed for decades. However,
in '99 I was at the Kerrville Folk Festival and saw that John Carrick
had set up a high end guitar booth with lots of Breedloves, including
the CM model. We spoke and he said he had opened a guitar shop in the
Montrose area and was calling it Sand Mountian Music. Might have been
at the same location as the coffeehouse, I don;t recall. It just
might still be open after 3 years of recession, but I wouldn't assume
it is.
Robert
Ken Cashion
>> I can't believe Sand Mountain would still be open. Isn't that
>> like sending someone to the Jester? Surely, that is not still open!
>>
>> Ken Cashion -- the guy with the cigar and gut bucket bass
>
>Ken--Sand Mountain Coffeehouse has been closed for decades.
I would have thought so...besides, no one would sit and listen
like they used to. Too, bad...their loss.
> However,
>in '99 I was at the Kerrville Folk Festival and saw that John Carrick
>had set up a high end guitar booth with lots of Breedloves, including
>the CM model. We spoke and he said he had opened a guitar shop in the
>Montrose area and was calling it Sand Mountian Music. Might have been
>at the same location as the coffeehouse, I don;t recall.
I don't recall, either, now that you mention it. I once
thought I could drive straight to these places but I know now with all
the changes in the area, I couldn't.
I doubt if I could find H & H Music now whereas at one time,
if I got within five miles of it, my car went into "target mode" and
took me straight to it.
I also bought an old, carved, upright piano from them and I
still have that. It was built in 1905 Chicago -- I was told by a
tuner.
Ken Cashion
Mike Rickard
> Montrose area and was calling it Sand Mountian Music.
Rockefeller's. When Rockefeller's closed several years ago it doomed Sand
Mountain Music. There is no listing for them in the current business or
yellow pages and last I heard, John had skipped town.
Mike
Ken Cashion
wrote:
Mike, wasn't it managed by a woman? I always remember seeing
this woman there, and in the kitchen, she maintained a sheet of paper
on the wall with who was going to do which set. We didn't always
follow her list but we were supposed to.
I just remember she was always there trying to tell us what to
do, but remember, this was back in paleolithic time and my memory has
had some end-of-files lost by now and things run together .
Ken Cashion
Mike Rickard
"Ken Cashion" <kcas...@datasync.com> wrote in message
news:3d467012...@news.datasync.com...
Ken, you're referring to the coffeehouse, not the music store. Yes, it was
managed by John's mother, best I can remember. I even played there a couple
of times but can't remember a thing about it. The Sand Mountain name that
Carrick has used ever since comes from "Sand Mountain Blues" by the Delmore
Bros.
Mike
Ken Cashion
wrote:
>
>"Ken Cashion" <kcas...@datasync.com> wrote in message
>news:3d467012...@news.datasync.com...
>> On Mon, 29 Jul 2002 17:09:53 -0500, "Mike Rickard" <mari...@pdq.net>
>> wrote:
>> Mike, wasn't it managed by a woman? I always remember seeing
>> this woman there, and in the kitchen, she maintained a sheet of paper
>> on the wall with who was going to do which set. We didn't always
>> follow her list but we were supposed to.
>> I just remember she was always there trying to tell us what to
>> do, but remember, this was back in paleolithic time and my memory has
>> had some end-of-files lost by now and things run together .
>>
>> Ken Cashion
>
>Ken, you're referring to the coffeehouse, not the music store.
Yes, the coffee house.
> Yes, it was
>managed by John's mother, best I can remember.
Ahh..so, that is who she was.
>I even played there a couple
>of times but can't remember a thing about it.
I will give you a hint...when the comodes were flushed, it
could be heard loudly on stage.
Once during a Guy Clark set, a pretty girl got up and headed
for the ladies' room and just as she was leaving the performance area,
Guy said (into the mic), "We're gonna' listen for you."
It was particularly loud because the big pipes were attached
to the wall right behind the little stage. And these pipes weren't
all electrically grounded. One night I had been playing gut bucket
behind someone and I was sweaty and the back of my shirt was soaked.
I then sat on a stool and had a harmonica rack around my wet neck and
the harmonica was in a Schlitz tall-boy beer can resonator. In that
with the harmonica was a mic -- which was plugged in some manner to an
amp.
Long story short -- I leaned back against one of the pipes
while playing the harmonica and guitar and I got a hard shock through
my back and my lungs automatically downloaded all the air they had.
This produced a spasm and my chest thrust forward and I both
blew and yelled "WHOA!" into the harmonica -- over-modulating the Hell
out of it and producing the most frightening "squawk" imaginable. I
just about blew the reeds off the little pins.
I could hardly finish the song and I damned sure wasn't going
to lean back again.
Everyone commented on how I was really doing a good job on the
harmonica...never knowing I was nearly electrocuted.
Sand Mountain had three or four colored lights to illuminate
the stage but the foot switches were real loud and there was no way to
change them discreetly...so we would say, "Now, here is a hot little
number..." and we would stomp the red light switch in an obvious
manner...or "Here is a bluesy little song... STOMP!...and the blue
light came on.
They had the cleverst bunch of graffiti on the restroom walls.
One of my favorites was "God made Eve." Some wag wrote under that,
"With a rib bone, yet."
Oh, well, we folks were younger then.
Ken Cashion
rtmca
paying to see the likes of you guys. Do you recall the name of the
performer who was the house regular, a slight built blond haired guy
-- folksinger?
(Don??something??)
Robert
rtmca
The singer songwriter I was trying to recall was Don Sanders. Do
either of you have an update on him?
Robert
Ken Cashion
I don't, but there was another guy I was trying to think of
that would fit that discription. I want to say his name was Frank
Davis or Frank Edwards.
When one of the old, old theartres was being torn down in
Houston, he got one of the real desireables. On both sides of the
curtain (that went back and forth to introduce the movie -- I said
"old"), way up some 40 feet or so, at each corner was some musical
instruments that were arranged in an artistic display.
Everyone remembered looking at them before the movie started
and wondering how they got up there, if they were any good, (how to
steal them), and then when they tore the theatre down, this guy,
Frank something, got the snare drum.
He put a guitar neck on it and that was the first granddaddy
banjo I saw. He left the snares against the back head.
Later, when I put my one-man band together out here, I built
me a granddaddy, too. I was not as enthusiastic as he was. I never
did "field hollers" while beating on the head with my fingers.
Ken Cashion
Mike Rickard
whose song "Frankenstein" has been recorded by Vince Bell and others). I've
known him for years. Don has not done "adult" music for a couple of years,
as he has a thriving career performing in schools, mixing music and stories
in the guise of various characters such as "Sourdough Cowboy". He performs
under the auspices of the Texas Commission of the Arts. He'll be doing a
kids' show for us (Houston Folklore Society) on the October Second Saturday.
Mike