County provides local musicians limited options

Without the many postal services, the internet and the Front Range's proximity, Summit County would be a difficult home for its professional musicians. Aside from the feeble offerings of Radio Shack and Wal-Mart, there are the more accommodating and local choices at Affordable Music in Dillon and The Sound Room in Frisco.

Ever since All Music, an instrumentalist's emporium and lessons hub, closed down last year, Affordable Music has tried to pick up some of the slack. CDs are the most inventoried items. Affordable Music carries a large variety of guitar accessories, including high-end strings like Elixirs and Martin, picks, capos, harmonicas, didgeridoos, hand drums (djembes, bongos, etc.), low-end guitars, vinyl and turntables designed for recreational use. So, while one may not find a top-of-the-line Technics pro table or Vestax mixers, the shop will order professional-quality turntables for anyone who asks.

Guitar-related products represent the store's most comprehensive offerings because that's where the county's demands lie at this time, according to Gary Koenig - the store's owner and primary operator.

"I've been trying to fill the shoes of All Music by expanding the collection of guitar accessories," said Koenig, who has called the regional mountains home since 1977.

So far, Koenig has ordered drum heads, amplifiers and clarinet reeds per customers' requests. Also, local gigging musician Arnie J. Green provides instrument and equipment repairs with a drop-off point at Affordable Music.

"I'm a listener; not a player," said Koenig, who lists jazz, acid jazz, Pink Floyd, Richie Havens, The Grateful Dead and Michael Franti & Spearhead among some of his favorites.

The Sound Room, an electronics store, has plenty of audio equipment, surround-sound stereo equipment, though there are few options for music-production equipment (i.e. soundboards, recording equipment, etc.).

Local piano virtuoso, former Miami club DJ, member of Summit County's National Federation of Music Club and all-around musical maestro Caroline Foley was recently returning from a run to Denver for a jazz book, a drum key, sheet music and exercise books when she agreed to give some input on the county's offerings.

"You don't have to drive down to the Front Range. But if you don't, you have to pay shipping and handling," said Foley, who shops primarily at Flesher-Hinton and Rockley Music in Denver for the music lessons (piano, keyboard, guitar, drums, etc.) she offers locally. "There's nothing up here for DJs, and there are a lot of stores on the Front Range with great prices, though I don't like having to drive down."

Local guitar guru Matt Lanning, who plays regional gigs on a regular basis and gives lessons for "all things with strings," does all of his business on the Front Range.

"Why waste your time waiting for something you want to potentially come up here?" said Lanning, who never bought instruments up here even before All Music closed its doors.

Lanning buys all of his instruments down in Denver, listing the Olde Town Pickin' Parlor, Acoustic Music Revival and Guitars on Broadway.

Local pro DJ Adam Rush runs Summit DJ Academy out of his home. Rush has been a DJ for seven years, starting off as a basic bedroom-style DJ and progressing as far as to earn his DJ certificate from Technics DJ Academy in Manchester, England. He decided that he liked the option of teaching other people how to DJ instead of just spending his time DJing at clubs.

"There's not much access to anything a DJ could use besides home-stereo equipment," said Rush. "There's nothing DJ specific in the county."

However, changes may be on the horizon with the likes of Shaun White and other celebrities modeling with turntables in recent publications, not to mention the fact that DJing continues to cultivate public respect as an art form.