Owners: Linda Henderson & Holly Gibbons
The Porch Music Store is not your ordinary music store and we’re not trying to be. Yes, we will stock common items musicians needs – strings, cleaning supplies, reeds, drum sticks – and if we don’t have it, we can order it. But our mission is to encourage grass roots musical endeavors. We really started on the front porch sharing sing-alongs with friends and neighbors. That led to building single string canjo’s, cigar box or tin ukuleles and encouraging young and old to learn to play an instrument. We would love to see more people gathered on the front porch enjoying one another and a sharing a few old folk songs.
Little musicians from YA make a lyre.
Sharing music – small gatherings of friends and family – is an American tradition that we’d like to encourage. Another tradition we’d like to encourage is the building of fun, folk instruments using whatever materials work to make great sound. Each month we host a local youth group event where we build an easy, fun musical instrument from simple materials. They love it!!
We feature our own handmade canjos, tin ukuleles and cigar box ukuleles in the store but some of the most rewarding moments we’ve experienced since opening the Franklin storefront has been meeting fellow builders. Some build from cigar boxes, others make their own boxes, and one shared his story of rebuilding old electric guitars then painting them with artistic flare.
Part of a wall in our store is currently empty. Our goal is to fill that wall with handcrafted, unique, locally built instruments – a place with musical folk art. If you’re a builder, a musical artist, or you love seeing unique musical related art, the Porch Music Store is your place. We’ll feature a “builders” corner with odds and ends that may be useful for your next project. And we’re very open to helping bring builders together to share knowledge and ideas.
Click here to read an article written by our local newspaper.
