All Music keeps rock 'n' roll alive in Plainview after 40 years

The first time Guy Brogna walked into what would decades later become his music store, times were different. The shop, in the 1970s known as Straub Music, sold records, musical instruments and T-shirts in a space that also included pinball machines and was a fun place to hang out.

“I grew up coming to this store,” Brogna, 59, of Franklin Square, said of the Plainview location since renamed All Music. “Back in the ’70s, everything was in one place. I loved music.”

He returned to the store as manager in 2001, then partner and owner in 2012. All Music, which took that name in 1984, turns 40 this year, a testament to Brogna’s ability to keep this 4,000-square-foot store alive. At a time when many people wait for boxes shipped from Amazon, Brogna has adapted by offering repairs and lessons, remaining open for business while other music stores have closed.

Brogna stayed connected to the South Oyster Bay Road shop during his high school years, going to rehearsals there to hear friends in a band called Blue Spirit. After their bass player didn’t show up for rehearsal, he filled in and joined the band playing songs from The Beatles, Cream, The Doors and more. He went on to play bass and tour with heavy metal bands Ludichrist and Scatterbrain.

“When I was on the road, I came in and said, ‘If you work on my guitars for free, do my set ups, I’ll put your name as a thank you,’ ” Brogna said. “On all my albums there’s a thank you to All Music Inc., before I was even involved with the store.”

The industry is a difficult one; the century-old music store chain Sam Ash announced earlier this year that it will be closing all 42 of its stores.

"I DIVERSIFY"

Brogna noted there is “no magic bullet” to keep a music store going. “I diversify,” he said. “We draw on all different things to bring people in.”

All Music and its musician-turned-entrepreneur have changed with the times. The shop doesn’t carry records or CDs. Instead, it sells instruments and offers lessons in six soundproof rooms.

“I concentrate on bringing people into the store [for] an experience,” Brogna said. “Instruments should be touched, felt and heard before you buy them. . . . We sell the experience that having a box delivered to your doorstep can never provide.”

The shop recently hired former Sam Ash staffers, who brought students with them. All Music supplies about 1,500 musical instruments to students at local schools. And in 2017, Brogna and musician and music publicist Rick Eberle formed G&R Events, an agency that books the Jones Beach Bandshell summer concert series, plus concerts at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, Oyster Fest and Heckscher Park in Huntington.

And though the store has kept current, reminders of the former era remain. A poster commemorating the 40th anniversary, with the store’s logo (which resembles a tattoo with a guitar at its center), hangs behind the counter. Brogna’s office is filled with music memorabilia from his days touring, along with a record, possibly the last in the store, converted into a stopped clock. A poster with Frank Zappa cutouts, a birthday gift from his daughters, hangs on a wall. A bust of a sunglasses-wearing Elvis sits on a counter watching over the shop, a memento from a former customer and friend who passed.

BASEMENT LOCATION

On a recent day, the basement store was busy with children, parents, beginners and accomplished musicians. Word-of-mouth, longevity and marketing help people find the store behind its small door. Brogna said he plans to move to a main floor of the shopping center, which will offer greater visibility.

“You know how many people come in and say, ‘I lived here 30 years. I never knew you were here?’ ” Brogna asked.

Brogna grew up in Hicksville, Billy Joel’s hometown, but he didn’t take music in the local school where the Piano Man learned under music teacher Chuck Arnold. Brogna picked up a guitar, then a bass, joined a band and learned.

“We were kids, but we brought our cassette to bars,” he said of his four-person band, which earned several hundred dollars per gig in the early 1980s. “We used to pack them in there. We were always making money.”

A PERFORMER FIRST

He toured the world from 1987 to 1994 with Ludichrist and then Scatterbrain, at their peak playing gigs for thousands and opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Ramones.

“I spent three months at a time in a tour bus,” he said of his 20s, traveling with bands signed to Relativity and Elektra Records. “It was tough living out of a suitcase, but you’re touring the world.”

Grunge hit the scene as Nirvana and Pearl Jam attracted huge audiences and heavy metal demand dwindled. “The record labels went from dealing with bands like us to trying to find the next Pearl Jam or Nirvana,” he said. “They chased the next big deal, which was grunge music.”

THE BAND WAS A BUSINESS

In his early 30s, Brogna came home to Long Island, starting a landscaping business and opening a used car lot in West Babylon. Then he signed on as All Music manager, became a partner after five years and owner in 2012.

“The band was a business. We worked a lot to do what we did. We used to rehearse Monday to Friday, 10 to five, like a job, when we wrote a record,” Brogna said of his business roots. “Almost all of us went into our own business or a professional career when we left the band. I had a business mindset.”

He said the store went from 100 guitars to as many as 700 “before the internet really took over.” Today it carries about 300.

All Music rents instruments to students, ranging from $159 annually for the most inexpensive flute to $399 rentals for a stand-up bass or tuba, along with violins, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, basses, guitars, violas, cellos, banjos, pianos, ukuleles and drums.

The store sells guitars from $200 to $15,000 — the record is a 1950s-era that went for $47,000. The shop has sold instruments to musicians including Joe Satriani and Keith Urban, the latter of who bought a used Gibson Joe Bonamassa Les Paul Goldtop guitar All Music sold through eBay.

“He was playing a gig the next day at a big arena,” Brogna said. “They called and had us ship it to the arena.”

SAM ASH WORKERS SIGN ON

The school is a big part of the shop’s success, in addition to supplying instruments to students studying elsewhere.

A lesson coordinator from the Sam Ash store in Carle Place came onboard along with nearly a half-dozen teachers and 100 students, increasing their count to a few hundred taking half-hour private lessons, mostly in guitar, violin and flute, Brogna said.

“It’s creating accessibility for people who can come in and take lessons,” said Jen Sonesen, a musician who works at the store. “Someone might say, ‘My kids want to play guitar. How do we make this happen?’ It’s making it happen.”

Store manager Bryan Okrent said private lessons keep people connected with music who might otherwise let that passion pass. “One of the reasons a lot of kids stop playing musical instruments in school is they’re ahead of the curve or they’re so far behind they can’t catch up,” he said. “We can give them a personalized experience.”

All Music also repairs guitars, including Brogna said for Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple, Jesse Lacey of Brand New and heavy metal guitarist Michael Angelo Batio.

“This one isn’t too crazy. I’m just restringing a cello with nice strings,” employee Patrick Halcott said as he finished one repair. “This one was a little bit of a job. I had to glue the neck back on.”

PERFORMANCES AND CLINICS

The shop brings musicians such as Devon Allman and John Moyer of Disturbed in to perform, and it has hosted clinics with Larry Mitchell, Greg Koch, Bakithi Kumolo, who played bass on Paul Simon’s Graceland, and Mark Mendoza of Twisted Sister.

Brogna and Rick Eberle are booking national as well as local bands, such as Living Colour, which played Eisenhower Park last summer. But Brogna said he sometimes is recognized from his gigging days.

“People still come in and say, ‘You’re the bass player from Scatterbrain or Ludichrist.’ People still listen to us,” he said. “Someone was in here today, going, ‘I was driving down the road. I pull up next to this guy and he’s blasting Scatterbrain in his truck.’ ”

He has reunited with Ludichrist bandmates, playing venues such as Mulcahy’s in Wantagh, but doesn’t play much for fun these days. “I don’t have any time,” Brogna said. “I’m running two full-time businesses.”

Brogna sees himself and his store as very much part of the community, chipping in to help after Superstorm Sandy in 2012 by donating 10 guitars to a fundraiser to be auctioned off after they were signed by members of Twisted Sister, including Long Islander Dee Snider. And he’s looking forward to a new space, but one that would remain filled with old memories and, with some luck, new ones too.

His focus still surrounds one thing.

“Music. I’m still around music, you know,” he said “That’s it. My life’s been music all these years.”