At 169 W. 4th Street in the West Village is one of the most unusual shops in NYC. The Music Inn is, as one writer put it, "a claustrophic hovel." The outside of the shop should tell you that before even going in - it's so tight, that at various times when it gets busy, I have seen the owner charge $1 to walk through it. It has probably the most extensive and eclectic collection of percussion and world instruments you'll find (they also sell some recorded music and do instrument repair.) The place is a real relic and throwback to the 60s when the street was a nexus for the counterculture. Bob Dylan lived on 4th Street and the Music Inn was one of his haunts. If your looking for a link to the store's website in this post you won't find one - this is the kind of place that doesn't bother with websites. If you are in the city, take a look - it's another one of those places that won't be around forever....
Monday, July 03, 2006
The Music Inn
At 169 W. 4th Street in the West Village is one of the most unusual shops in NYC. The Music Inn is, as one writer put it, "a claustrophic hovel." The outside of the shop should tell you that before even going in - it's so tight, that at various times when it gets busy, I have seen the owner charge $1 to walk through it. It has probably the most extensive and eclectic collection of percussion and world instruments you'll find (they also sell some recorded music and do instrument repair.) The place is a real relic and throwback to the 60s when the street was a nexus for the counterculture. Bob Dylan lived on 4th Street and the Music Inn was one of his haunts. If your looking for a link to the store's website in this post you won't find one - this is the kind of place that doesn't bother with websites. If you are in the city, take a look - it's another one of those places that won't be around forever....
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8 comments:
it looks like a musicians paradise but not for me. I cant play any instrument, I listen instead.
Fascinating.
It's more than fascinating - you can barely walk in there - the aisle space is only as wide as one person and the instruments dangle overhead - you have to duck in many places. If there is more than one person in the store, you can only really walk in one direction. Not a browsing kind of place - I always feel like I should leave to not cause any possible congestion. But - it still deserves a visit!
Brian
it may not around for long, but like you said, visit it and savour it until the day the rhythms fade away. I can imagine the scent of the all the skins...
Here are some links that I believe will be interested
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They have a great variety of the percussion instruments around the world. Over priced though...and of poor quality. If you need to play on an instrument you've never played before go here, you might be fooled to thinking that they are of good quality too...but any professional musician would never play on any of their drums. Did I say that they are over priced? Demand at least 1/3 off on anything you buy!
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