Homestead Pickin' Parlor

Way back in the last century, in 1979, almost at the dawning of the Reagan era, a (somewhat) younger couple settled in a small shop in Richfield, Minnesota, just south of the Minneapolis border. Marv and Dawn Menzel set out to serve the acoustic musical needs of the Twin Cities, and they have succeeded in creating a most unique place.

Homestead Pickin' Parlor has become a center of activity for those interested in folk music, blues, bluegrass, and every other genre which has grown up from those. It hosts music instruction, jams, workshops, finds obscure recordings, provides the supplies needed by musicians, and sells banjos, guitars, autoharps, hammer dulcimers and a host of other noisemakers not easily found elsewhere.

But the Homestead Pickin' Parlor is much more than a store -- it is a community resource. Countless times, someone calls the store looking for a record, and they only remember one line, but they think they heard it on MPR's Morning Show, and couldn't someone please help them? And most often, they find that music and probably much more.

Marv and Dawn hope to continue that tradition for a good while longer, and invite you to join in.