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Mar 8, 2009 10:57 pm US/Central
Finding MN: Making Music 'Til The Cows Come Home
RED WING, Minn. (WCCO) ―
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An old cattle barn is the home of Hobgoblin Music and Stoney End Harps, owned and operated by Gary and Eve Stone.
There are certain sights, sounds and smells you'd expect to come from a Minnesota barn. But every now and then, one will surprise you.
Just outside of Red Wing, there's an old cattle barn that's now churning out music instead of milk. It's the home of
Hobgoblin Music and
Stoney End Harps, owned and operated by Gary and Eve Stone.
On the bottom level, where cattle used to be stored, you'll find Gary Stone hard at work building harps and mountain dulcimers.
The second level is their showroom, where they sell the instruments that Stone makes along with others from around the world.
The barn's upper level now has a stage for concerts and parties.
"Our mission is for people to play music for themselves and their friends," said Gary Stone, who used to be a handyman who installed cabinets and repaired broken furniture.
In the 1980s, he bought a folk music shop and learned how to craft something much more interesting. In the past 25 years, he has made thousands of dulcimers and more than 6,500 harps.
His shop is now producing about 450 harps per year. Currently some of his biggest customers are in England and Japan.
"There's a strong interest in Celtic things in Japan. And also I think it's just that the harp seems to be at the popular wave right at the moment," he says. "We've got the quality that they want. They're very fussy; they're very strict as far as quality materials."
The company is seeing a recent increase in the use of harps for therapeutic music, in hospices and hospitals.
"Music can save the world," noted Eve Stone. "That was our original logo."
Gary Stone single-handedly created an international market for himself in 1988. He boarded a plane for England with a few harps in his luggage, and started calling music shops from the airport. The owner of Hobgoblin Music in the United Kingdom liked what he saw, and the two eventually formed a partnership.
Since then, customers in other countries have learned about Stoney End Harps, through word of mouth.
The Stones moved their operations to the barn on Highway 19 in 2001 after extensive renovations. Gary Stone has a special place in his heart for barns, after growing up in a farming community of Goodhue County, and he wanted to save one from being demolished.
Now, they bring in instruments from around the world to sell in their sizeable Minnesota showroom, everything from European to Asian styles. Gary Stone also makes several styles and sizes of harps there, with names such as the Brittany, the Braunwen and the Eve -- named, respectively, after his daughters and his wife.
Ironically, he himself can't play the instruments he sells or makes. He has the hands of a woodworker, not a musician. But he's content to let others play.
"That's what makes it rewarding," he says, "is to be able to provide the tools for people to make music."
When the weather warms up, the Stones will put another part of their farm in play when they host outdoor concerts just outside the barn in a makeshift amphitheater. Meanwhile, they have indoor concerts scheduled in the winter and early spring.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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