Holidays at HMT

We're all prettied up for the holidays...






Come in and enjoy a cup of hot cider while you shop! In addition to some great deals on guitars, banjos, mandolins and hand drums, we've got a buy-one-get-one-free sale on general interest music books which are already priced 50-80% off! Lots of great titles about Clapton, U2, Eva Cassidy, history of the blues, and more!

Our holiday hours are:
Dec. 17-20: 11-8
Dec. 21-22: 11-6
Dec. 23: 11-8
Dec. 24: 11-7
Dec. 25: closed
January 1: closed

Sunday Surprise

We were treated today to an impromptu filming of a music video by Cheick Hamala Diabate, a great Malian musician. Happy to have HMT featured in this and will hopefully post a link to the finished video!

Dear HMT,

It's been a great nine years, but...




I'm running away to join a Mariachi band.

Love Always,
Juanita

Just another Sunday at HMT...

Old-Time For Obama!

In honor of election day tomorrow, enjoy this recently posted video of old-time musicians and volunteers jamming for Obama in Charlottesville, VA. Featuring former HMT employees Joe Fallon (bass) and Lydia Martin (lead banjo)!



FOLK THE VOTE!!

They're on a mission from god...

In the first of what hopefully will be many entries about what our talented HMT staff does whilst they're not at HMT renting trombones, restringing erhus, shipping out accordion reedwax and otherwise keeping the world safe for folk music...

rob hinkal (current guitar sales guy) and Rowan Corbett (former assistant manager who still fills in occasionally and is also our House tech support geek) are part of the "acoustic grunge" band ilyAIMY, and are currently touring the midwest. They've been to Louisville, Nashville, St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia MO, where this Halloween morn they graced the stage of "Pepper & Friends" morning TV show.



Due to copyright concerns I don't think I can post the video here, but you can follow this link to the KOMU website...click on "Performances" on the right side, and you'll see the two links for the ilyAIMY performances.

Seemed a perfect opportunity for them to channel another famous musical duo.




Happy Halloween!

Christylez Bacon!

We welcome to the HMT staff Chris "Christylez" Bacon, multi-instrumentalist and beatboxer extraordinaire! Here's Chris demo-ing a bass recorder...or is it the world's largest pepper mill?




Check out Chris' music at www.christylez.com or www.myspace.com/christylezbacon

HMT Hijinks

Ahh, it's that time of year again. There's a chill in the air, the crisp and clear notion of fall working its way into our world. The Maryland Renaissance Festival is well underway, which means we're graced with the appearance of the lovely Amelia Adams, our booth manager. But most of all, it's >>insert music of doom<< BAND INSTRUMENT RENTAL SEASON. Now don't get us wrong, we love getting hundreds of area schoolchildren started in their musical career, and it brings in a whole new set of customers to us, which is really nice. However, it just gets well...REALLY busy. And the staff here at HMT has to find ways to decompress and deal with the stress and busy-ness. What I'm tryin' to say is, we get a little goofy sometimes. And here's proof:




Amelia runs with scissors. Don't try this at home, kids.



Amelia & Erik demonstrate the $5 bagpipe.



Kristen captures the rare and elusive pygmy violin. It's sooo cuuuuute!



OK, lemme 'splain. So, we've got Amelia. We've got rob. We've got Paul The Younger. There's a lot of hair going on here, folks. And...we've got a fan. I wanted to get them all in front of the fan in a rock star pose and watch the hair a-flyin'. Well, the fan wasn't quite powerful enough to really capture my vision. But you get the idea. Sometimes folkies have to rock too.

We are on the Youtubes

Check out our YouTube channel!

Many thanks to Mark Sylvester for tirelessly demo-ing all these instruments. Glenn Tucker did the filming and Trevor Higgins engineered the audio.

Here's a few examples:

Steve Carmody Concert Jumbo


Goodall Concert Jumbo


Weber Gallatin Mandolin

Pictures of the new location--finally!!

Thanks to our webmistress and photographer Darcy Nair, we now have a virtual tour of the new location on our website. Rather than pasting the pics here, just follow the link to take the tour and see what we look like now!

Yesterday, we had a very successful session with HMT teacher Mark Sylvester. We filmed video segments of Mark playing many of our higher-end guitars. We will be uploading these to Youtube and linking to them on our website so that folks can see and hear what these fine instruments sound like in action if they can't come to the store. Glenn Tucker did the video, with Trevor Higgins assisting in audio so that we could get CD-quality audio on these clips. Stay tuned !

Long lost brothers

Dave yaks it up with funnyman Lewis Black at his reading at Sixth & I Synagogue

Join the Nose Flute Revolution

Frequent customer Peter Bankson, who makes an annual order with us for 100 nose flutes, has provided us with a video of what he does with these! Peter is with Faith @ Work and makes annual trips to Guatemala to build elementary schools in a different small village each year. He introduces the joys of nose flute to the locals and they have a great time on their work breaks and after school tootin' away.

For more information check out www.faithatwork.org and www.hmtrad.com/HMT/noseflutes.html



Bueno!

Grand Reopening Celebration July 4

If you're in town for July 4th, please join us at our new location to celebrate our grand reopening! Festivities will start after the Takoma Park Parade, from about 12-4 pm (for more info on the parade, visit www.takomapark4th.org)

Grammy winners Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer kick things off with a Family Singalong at the Carroll Ave. Gazebo immediately following the parade (approximately 12-12:30 pm).

Back at HMT, Cathy & Marcy will conduct a "Meet the Ukulele Workshop." Bring your uke or try one from the store--see how easy it is to make your own music! 1:30 pm

Other performances at HMT:
Calico Jack (www.janiemeneely.com/cj.html): Maritime Stories & Songs
Kieran & Iseult (www.myspace.com/kieranandiseult): Traditional Irish Duo
Billy Coulter (www.billycoulter.com) and Tommy Derr: Acoustic Roots Rock

Come check out the new digs, try a Goodall, Bourgeois, Carmody or Breedlove Guitar on the "Pickin' Porch," enjoy a cold beverage and listen to some great live music!

If you can't make it on the 4th, stop by when you can. We are carrying new lines of guitars, mandolins and banjos, we're now doing pro audio repair and have a great selection of Audio Technica microphones in stock, among other things. Through July 6th we're offering 10% off any regularly-priced, non-consigned item as part of our grand reopening sale.

Phew!

Well, it's done...mostly. It took about 10 hours to move merchandise & displays over, and another couple of hours getting the new store to an acceptable level for business tomorrow. Those of you popping in in the next couple of days will likely find a bit of chaos, but we're working on it. After some scheduling snafus with RCN, we have most of our phones & internet working (it wouldn't be a phone company if they didn't make you wait, right?).

It's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle now figuring out where everything's going to go in the store. Everybody's been asking if we're going to have more space. Not exactly...but it's just organized differently. We have several rooms: upstairs there's the guitar & mandolin salon, the harp & dulcimer room, and violins/exotic strings/Indian instruments/used winds & brass. On the main level we have the usual wall o'banjos by the front counter. Customers can walk around and get their strings, picks and other accessories. The book & cd room is off to one side, the accordions have their own room on the other side. A short hallway and then there's the large room, divided into less expensive guitars & amps, drums/percussion and kid's stuff. Finally, all of our storage/overstock/cases/packing & boxes mess will be confined to the basement--hopefully eliminating some of the characteristic clutter in the main merchandise areas.

On the positive side...once everything gets organized, the store is going to look really nice. Everyone who has been in the new building has been impressed with the look. It's going to be a nice vibe keeping with our folky tradition. The "pickin' porch" on the upper level should be finished in the next couple of days. You will be able to relax out there and look out over downtown Takoma Park as you strum on that Goodall guitar! There is definitely a buzz and excitement among the staff. Of course, it may take us a bit longer to find things, as we discover where we have actually put them!!

I had my hands too full today to snap pictures of the moving process, but here's a couple of the now very-empty rooms at the old store. I'm holding off taking pics of the new store until things look a little better.

Signing off, fairly exhausted but really proud of our staff and volunteers for a great job today!



Empty main room


Aftermath of the moving tornado



Goodbye guitar room!


ps...despite the hopes of many, we did not find Jimmy Hoffa. The search continues.

Last Day at 7040

Well, it was a fairly uneventful last official day of business at 7040 Carroll. Thought I would capture "the calm before the storm." True, many aspects of the store look emptier and messier than usual!



The CD room, sans CDs



The book room, sans books.



The squeezebox department, sans squeeze.



We don't really have a place in the
new store for the corporate ladder.
Sorry, it's a dead end job! (Also, note
the sad solitary fanny pack. Is this
some symbolic statement of where
Dave stands on the corporate ladder?)



Rob H. restrings a guitar



Man use tools!



One of many "what the hell" items
I'm sure we'll find...Rowan discovers
a flute made out of plumbing pipe
behind the guitar room desk. Just 'cuz.



Our last official 7040 customer, Emma. She
bought some guitar strings at 4:59 pm!



Jackie, Kristen and Rob have loads of fun counting
the register!

The Media Room is done!

Yay progress! One room down, several more to go. Through the combined genius of Rowan and Aleta (Roweta?), we were able to fit both our book department and our CD department into one room instead of our original plan for two separate rooms. Not a lot of space to expand either department, but we'll manage. Below is Dave, Aleta and Paul The Younger in the finished room.



Those of you who are visiting the old store in its last days will find many things gone already. Though Monday is still the big day, we're moving some things over bit by bit. We had a setback today of discovering that we need to completely reinstall a heating/cooling system, but that's on its way too and should be finished in the next couple days. So...we're already exhausted, but still excited.

WE HAVE A MOVE DATE!

The time has finally come! Our official move date will be Monday June 2nd. We will be closed for business on that day and will be reopening Tuesday June 3rd at 7010 Westmoreland. It will be chaotic for awhile, but it wouldn't be HMT if it wasn't chaotic, right?

Anyone interested in lending a hand on Monday, give us a buzz.

We've already moved our book department and should be moving the CDs over tomorrow. We've discovered that we can fit both books and CDs in one room which will open up even more space--yay!

Eternal thanks go to Aleta, who has taken a break from her PhD studies to do glorious tasks like clean out the attic, basement and storage shed. She has been taking charge of lots of the initial moving tasks, and together with Rowan they have gotten us off to a great start. Now the real fun begins.

Stay tuned...

We've got slatwall!

Here are some pics of the progress in the interior of 7010 Westmoreland. Thanks to our jack-of-all-trades Rowan Corbett, we've got beautiful slatwall up all around the store.


The front counter area



Trevor's "shop monkey" quarters



The trad-favorite "T1-11" paneling for the wall 'o banjos



The "lower-priced guitars room"



Room-of-somethings-or-others



Higher-end guitar salon

We're still alive...

OK, it's been forever since we posted an update. That's because we've been incredibly busy! We are still putting the finishing touches on the new building and will probably start the actual moving process within the next two weeks. It's a little chaotic to say the least, but we're getting there. Slatwall is going up all over the store, we've got our "new" (used) front counters in, the basement is finished, etc. It's starting to look good. Thanks to those of you who have already offered your assistance to help...we will be enlisting your services soon.

Stay tuned!!

More progress

YAY NEW FLOORS!!!



Up to no good on the pickin' porch...

Things are shaping up! The new "exotic cherry" floor is in on the main level, walls and such are being finished...now we can actually think about furnishing, shelving and such. Ugh, that means we have to start thinking about packing & cleaning in the old place too.

And the walls came a-tumblin' down...

It ain't pretty, but it's progress!


The future front counter area



Front room and maybe the wall o' banjos?



Maybe the CD room, and the entrance to the second level.




Dunno what'll go here yet...



...or here...

Front page news!

The HMT move is featured on the front page of today's Silver Spring/Takoma Park Gazette!

Also here are a couple pics of the upper floor rooms which will become our guitar & harp/hammered dulcimer "salons."

Pics of new building, pre-renovation

Here are some photos of the 7010 Westmoreland Ave. building.

Oh yeah--we will actually have real parking in the back!

Welcome to the HMT Blog!

Greetings everyone! Our main purpose in starting this blog is to share and document for posterity the process of our impending move. Yes folks, it's true. After 27 continuous years at our 7040 Carroll Ave location (plus 2 years in 1972-74, before our '74-'81 stint in Berkeley Springs WV), we are moving a stone's throw away to 7010 Westmoreland Ave. You can actually see the new building from our current one if you look through the gazebo across the street. Our new home is the gray house-like building (how appropriate!) which formerly housed Purple Mtn Organics and some other offices.

Why the move? Well, it's a bigger space and a nicer & newer space. We will be occupying the whole building: two floors plus a basement. We are expanding some aspects of our store: The second floor of the new building will become a "salon" type atmosphere where you will find beautiful high-end string instruments such as Goodall, Bourgeois and Breedlove guitars, Weber & Breedlove mandolins, and Dusty Strings harps & hammered dulcimers. The downstairs will be our main level with all our other instruments, books and CDs. We are expanding our sound equipment offerings and will have a special room devoted to amps, PA systems, microphones, pickups, and the office of Dave's "Sounds Reasonable" live sound engineering company. The basement will be a large storage area instead of the mini-closets, lofts, nooks and crannies we are currently trying to manage.

Those of you who frequent our current location know that we are crammed floor-to-ceiling with stuff! While that does present a level of "folksy charm" that we've all come to know and love, the new space will allow us to expand, relax, revitalize and reformat. We're looking forward to a new beginning and a bright future for HMT in the new location. We're happy to be remaining in the heart of Old Town Takoma Park--"The Folk Capital of the Nation's Capital!"

When is this all going to happen? Well, we've only just completed our closing on the new building. We have some renovations to undertake, such as removing some walls, installing new flooring, and finishing the basement. We are hoping for this all to be completed sometime this spring. We'll be posting pictures and updates as things progress. Interested in helping us with the move? Give us a buzz!! We'll need all the hands we can when the time comes.

We also hope to use this blog as a more "personal" aspect of our web presence. Look out for thoughts, ramblings and fun stuff from owner David Eisner, manager Kristen Jones, and more!

-Peace, Love and HMT