From Left: David Jahnke; Doug Lady, Senior Vice President of Sales at Hal Leonard; Jane Traum, Co-Founder and VP of Homespun Tapes; Happy Traum, President and Founder of Homespun Tapes; and Larry Morton.
Hal Leonard and Homespun celebrated their 20th anniversary of working together at the NAMM Show 2016. Homespun has been a respected creator of instructional video and audio materials for over 40 years with a catalog of 500+ titles featuring prestigious bluegrass and folk musicians, as well as a variety of other artists from all musical genres for all instruments. Homespun started out by providing instructional materials on reel-to-reel tapes manufactured on their kitchen table. They continued to change with the times, always providing top-quality audio/visual instruction in the manner modern musicians want it, including today’s DVD and online video options.
Previously, primarily a mail-order company, Homespun tapped into the Hal Leonard distribution network in 1995 to get their products more widely distributed into the music trade, which allowed them to focus on product development. “Right from the beginning, the entire staff at Hal Leonard was excited about the Homespun brand and our mission to produce the highest-quality instruction in roots music styles and techniques. As our distributors to the music trade, they have successfully brought our products to dealers large and small, and we look forward to continuing this fruitful association into the future,” said Happy Traum, President and Founder of Homespun Tapes. Jane Traum, Happy’s wife and Co-Founder and Vice President of the company, added, “Working with the Hal Leonard team has been a terrific experience. As a company, Hal Leonard is passionate about music education. The excellent sales team has been very tuned into the kind of music instruction Homespun provides to learning players at all levels.”
“Happy and Jane are the most genuine deal in the music market today,” said Doug Lady, Senior Vice President of Sales at Hal Leonard. “Their unique history in the folk and bluegrass music scenes and their respected products hold an important place in music history. We’re honored that they trust us to help them continue to keep these legacies alive and thriving for today’s up and coming musicians.”