“How did the Porch Music store get started?”, we’re asked. It truly started on Holly’s front porch. She bought a house in Oil City and the first time I saw it, I said ‘This is a perfect porch for music.’ I dusted off my guitar and old folk song books. We invited some friends and neighbors and soon music on the porch became a regular event.
Though many who came had played instruments earlier in life – organ, piano, wind instruments – at first no one else was playing. We gathered some very fun and easy to learn acoustic instruments such as the strum stick, lap dulcimer, ukulele, small drums and the canjo. Before long, we had a regular band.
Then I began to combine my love of tinkering in the wood shop with music and started building cigar box guitars, cigar box ukuleles, tin can ukuleles, canjos with hardwood necks and simple percussion instruments with recycled materials. Now we have this on-line store, a store front within the Liberty Galleria in Franklin, displays in a number of campgrounds and at the OC&T Railroad in Titusville as well as traveling to do workshops which allow young and old to assemble their own canjos followed by learning to play.
Linda teaching a canjo workshop.
The past several years have been great fun and the journey has just begun. We hope you will follow as we share events, introduce you to new and old instruments, and share stories about the fun people we meet along the road. Meanwhile, we encourage you to pick up a little musical instrument and get out on the porch!
Peace,
Linda
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