Myhre's Music Ltd

With decades in business, Myhre's Music has endured psychedelia, disco, metal and even electronica. That's no small feat, considering the shop has always sold strictly acoustic instruments from guitars and banjos to violins and upright basses, such as the gargantuan four-string showpiece that first attracts attention the moment customers walk through the door. "We stick to our niche, like acoustic, bowed and fretted instruments, which are things we are able to work on and fix," says owner Byron Myhre. "You're not relying on the newest technology that seems to change every month it seems.  And it's real. People are coming back and playing wooden instruments, almost as if they're getting away from electric instruments."

It's also helped that a huge roots music boom across the country has inspired folks to check out instruments. "The resurgence of folk is huge, thanks to the folk festivals and even bluegrass," says Byron. "And when the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? came out, we were really busy."

"I remember the year the movie Deliverance came out," adds Alfie Myhre, the store's founder and Byron's father. "I had a difficult time stocking banjos because they were just selling like hot dogs."