About Us
In 1973, Music Folk was founded by Bill and Janet Boyer who, along with their children had been performing folk music in the St Louis area for many years. The Boyers drew upon their family history and knowledge of folk music, to create a store that would serve as a center of folk music and arts for the St. Louis region. The shop fostered the same kind of relaxed, friendly atmosphere that the Boyers brought to their live performances at local festivals. Their reputation as musicians was soon rivaled by the one they established as the owners’ of the region’s most unique music store. In 1991, Janet Boyer retired and the ownership of the store passed on to Andy Ploof who had been working here in the store since 1976. Andy and his brother, Don, now own and operate Music Folk, keeping to the same ideas and traditions that the Boyers established years before.
During the early years of Music Folk, Bill and Janet Boyer founded another St. Louis institution as well, the Focal Point. Originally founded in 1975, Focal Point occupied the building immediately to the west of Music Folk. Assisted by a staff of volunteers they presented traditional American folk music and held jam sessions on the weekend evenings. As the intent of this activity was fun, not profit, the organization was chartered with the State of Missouri as a non-profit corporation. Focal Point is now a separate entity from Music Folk and has established a strong following in their own right. We still maintain a close, supportive relationship with them. For more information about Focal Point, visit their website.
The scope of the store has expanded greatly in recent years. Still devoted to being the region’s principle retailer of folk and other acoustic instruments, Music Folk offers a wide assortment of instruments including high quality ones from brands like Martin Guitars, Eastman Guitars, Deering and Enoch Banjos among others, as well as a huge selection of pre-owned and vintage instruments. In short, Music Folk seeks a balance of preserving our past, while keeping up with rapid changes in instrument development, and anticipating the future trends and needs of musicians.
Music Folk is committed to providing you quality music instruction and do it at a reasonable cost. We have many excellent instructors on our staff, and are pleased to offer private, one on one lessons for the following instruments: Banjo (Clawhammer and Bluegrass style), Bass Guitar, Dobro, Guitar (Acoustic, Electric, Classical), Hammered Dulcimer, Mandolin, Mountain Dulcimer, Ukulele and Violin/Fiddle/Viola.
Whether you need a minor adjustment to the action on your guitar or need to completely renovate your great uncle’s 75-year old banjo, Music Folk has the expertise to assist you. With our 49 years of experience repairing instruments, there isn’t much we haven’t seen or done and we also have the connections needed to find those obscure parts for them too. We are always happy to do restringing and instrument tuning for those who are just starting out and need an extra helping hand. In short, we’re your source for folk instrument repair. While Music Folk specializes in folk instrument repair, we also offer accordion repair.
Music Folk is an authorized repair shop for C. F. Martin instruments. Even if you buy your Martin elsewhere, we can perform the warranty work that you need on it. Of course, we have also worked with just about every brand name known to man and often stand in for the dealer’s shop for set up and warranty issues.
If you need additional information, please feel free to talk to someone on our staff, give the store a call at 314-961-2838, or email us. We would be happy to answer any of your questions.
