St. Patrick's Day, 2005 found me southbound on
U.S. Interstate Highway 65 near Birmingham, Alabama, so I
stopped in to visit with Bob Tedrow at Homewood Musical Instrument
Company.Bob is becoming pre-eminent in America as a concertina maker. He and I have been chatting about concertinas for years, so I was eager to meet him! Unfortunately I didn't bring along a good digital camera, but my wife, noted Colorado potter Sumi von Dassow, did have her cellphone with her. Click on any of these pictures to see them larger.
This is the front window at Homewood Music.
They focus on acoustic instruments.
There are luthiers in house as well as Bob pumping out the concertinas.
They focus on acoustic instruments.
There are luthiers in house as well as Bob pumping out the concertinas.
Here we are inside Homewood music.This front room has fiddles (really nice ones!) and guitars.
The cute doorway leads to the workshop where fiddles and concertinas are repaired and built.
Here's Bob Tedrow at his
workbench.Bob describes his work building quality instruments as primarily a labor of love.
He tells me he probably couldn't keep it up if he depended entirely on manufacture for a livelihood.
Here Bob and I are jamming.I'm playing the Hayden Duet that Bob built.
What a sweet instrument, just the
right weight and size and ease of play!I'm saving up to buy one for myself.