Phil Nusbaum MM: Marv Menzel

Marv Menzel Narrator Phil Nusbaum Interviewer March 24, 2010 PN: Phil Nusbaum MM: Marv Menzel PN: It's March 24th, 2010. MM: Wow, where does the time go?! [Laughter] PN: ... and we are a few doors down from the store of the Homestead Pickin' Parlor. Do you know the address of this place? MM: This is 6629 Penn Avenue South [Richfield, Minnesota]. PN: Marv Menzel is here. I'm Phil Nusbaum. This is some Bluegrass oral history that has been funded by the Minnesota State Legislature Legacy Amendment, and we're going to talk about Bluegrass in Minnesota. PN: How did you start your Bluegrass life? MM: Well, being 66, as I am, I grew up in northern Minnesota, Hibbing is my hometown, in a period of time when AM radio, WMFG [1240 AM] in Hibbing, Minnesota, had a lots of Folk music, Classic Country. You'd wake up in the morning and hear Hank Williams, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and The Kingston Trio. So, I grew up with that all around me, but then it was suppressed when I came down [to Minneapolis] to go to the University [University of Minnesota], and started working in the military industrial complex. It wasn't until mid to late '70s, through some friends, I was reintroduced to the rich Folk music tradition here in the Twin Cities, first through the singer/songwriters - Jerry Rau [Minnesota Minstrel], and eventually I got into the Dulono's scene and found out the Bluegrass and went crazy for it. I wound up eventually taking the Schmidt crash course in banjo, and started playing the banjo in '78, and ultimately in 1979 we opened the Homestead Pickin' Parlor. PN: To you, is Bluegrass its own thing? Is it Country? Is it Folk? MM: I look at it, in my more philosophical moments, as part of Folk music. But I think definitely, among the devotees, it is its own thing. There's not a lot of overlap between players and listeners of and to Bluegrass and other forms of music; very seldom will you see a hardcore Bluegrass musician listening to James Taylor, or anything else - it seems pretty consuming. It's a healthy thing to be consumed by. 1 PN: Why do you suppose that is? MM: Well, in this day and age, we only have so much time to devote to non-vocational endeavors, and it is kind of consuming, particularly as a player, and I don't think you have that much time to spread yourself too thin. And it's fortunate for those of us that like to listen, because we get some pretty good quality Bluegrass around here. PN: When you moved down to the Twin Cities from Hibbing, it was to go to school. MM: Yep. PN: Could you describe this Bluegrass and Folk music reawakening? MM: Well, it wasn't immediately when I came down to school, in fact, I was already married and had a family by the time I was reawakened. It was vocational pursuits that took all my time. PN: I should ask you your birthday. MM: July of 1943. PN: ...and you graduated from the U [University of Minnesota] about when? MM: It would have been '66. PN: And you studied? MM: Engineering. PN: And you went to work for? MM: Honeywell. PN: Oh, and that lasted how long? MM: 9 ½ years. At 10 years I would have been vested and probably would have spent my entire life at Honeywell. But, with several other engineers, I started a part-time endeavor which eventually became a full-time endeavor. I left Honeywell after 9 ½ years. PN: What was the part-time endeavor? MM: We called ourselves "Engineering Unlimited," and we had a couple of proprietary products we manufactured. We made gaskets and did a lot of custom wiring; many different hats we wore. PN: Then what happened? MM: One of my employees, who eventually became an employee of the Pickin' Parlor, played guitar - Tom Broman, you may have met Tom. I grew up playing accordion; that was my first 2 instrument. Tom was the first guitarist I got anywhere close to, and he started me playing guitar; we'd sit around at noon hours and after work playing guitars. At the time, Schmidt [Schmidt Music stores in the Twin Cities] was doing their crash courses, where you sign up for eight weeks of lessons; you get the use of the instrument, $39.95, or whatever it was. I was smitten by the banjo, and took the crash course in banjo. I wound up taking two or three sequential courses at that time. At the end of the first eight weeks I knew I didn't want the banjo that they'd allowed me to use for the first eight weeks. So I knew a friend that had a music store in Edina (western suburb of Minneapolis) at that time, and I went to him and said, "Hey! We gotta find me a banjo." And all he had was catalogs; he had no banjos on the wall. There were no banjos anywhere in town, which is part of the genesis of the Homestead Pickin' Parlor. So I found a banjo out of a catalog, used that to play, and initially I was playin' 6-8 hours a day. My frustrated search for banjos, for recorded music, you could hardly find anything around here commercially that was connected with Bluegrass - and that's what planted the seed for the Homestead Pickin' Parlor. PN: Was there some point that you stopped playing altogether? MM: Not until the Pickin' Parlor was well down the road, when I found how consuming it was to keep a Bluegrass store afloat…so, just for lack of time to do everything. PN: What made you stay with Bluegrass ahead of the other Folk styles that were and are around? MM: I wish I could answer that. All of them are wonderful, and I'm surrounded here by all types of what I call Folk music. I think that Bluegrass is sociologically the most rewarding. It's almost like an extended family. You've, I'm sure, experienced this yourself, going to jam sessions, going to festivals. It makes no difference if you're going to a festival a thousand miles from home and it's the first time you've been in that part of the country - you're immediately accepted, just by nature of your interest in Bluegrass you're part of the family and accepted. That's pretty rare in this day and age; and, I think, unique to Bluegrass. I never got that deep into Cajun, it may be true in Cajun, as well, and Old Time, but definitely in Bluegrass, and I like it. PN: The Homestead Pickin' Parlor started about which year? MM: 1979. PN: Did you do market research and that kind of thing? MM: I'd like to say yes, but I was really pursuing my own interests. I knew, through the people I met in Bluegrass, that it was difficult to find instruments, accessories, recordings. That's all I really needed. I just wanted to provide a vehicle to get that in the hands of the people that wanted it. PN: Has the store always been in the same location? 3 MM: Yes. PN: I'd like to ask you about Bluegrass socializing; your store is a part of that with the jams. What made you decide to host jams? MM: That came about early on; both hosting jams and providing teachers became apparent as a need very early on. We opened in the fall of '79, and by the spring of '80 we had teachers and jam sessions going. I think that the people that are attracted to Bluegrass have an innate sense of belonging, they want to socialize. I don't think we did anything overtly, we just allowed it to happen on our premises. We've had everything from bands to marriages form in the middle room there during jam sessions. PN: Any compelling examples you could mention? MM: I think Bill Nicholson met his wife here. Rich Smith and Holle Brian met here - many instances like that. PN: Jane and Ken? Did they meet here? MM: I don't know, may have. PN: When you watch the jams, are there any lasting memories of particular occasions? MM: Well, obviously there's been some really wonderful musical sessions to come out of it, but as I get older I tend to philosophize a little more, and I'm heartened by people gettin' along, doing something in common, having a good time, leaving feeling exhilarated, and establishing contacts that are carried far beyond the walls of the Homestead Pickin' Parlor. There are other jams that have spun off from this jam, and other social relationships that have become pretty profound in many instances. That's heartening to me, I like that. PN: Where else on the Bluegrass scene do you see this kind of musical sociability? MM: Anywhere I've ever been where there's Bluegrass played, be it a concert, a festival, just about any gathering of Bluegrass people you will see an affinity one for the other. PN: Let's talk about business. MM: Ok. PN: You serve a niche interest, and it has, I would presume, ups and downs. What is the key to your business' longevity? MM: Determination and willing to go without. You must have a modest lifestyle to survive in the Folk music business. What we've tried to do, and there have been changes in the business, whether it's the instrument that's in vogue at the present time or the accessory, we try to listen to our customers.

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