Interview: Clint Strait - Owner of Strait Music Company

Thanks to the generous support of our friends at Strait Music Company, we're thrilled to be able to offer FREE TICKETS to middle and high school students for all of our International Series concerts during the 2019-20 season.

On Saturday, we will be hosting International Acclaimed Guitarist, David Russell - and we will have a record number of students from Austin ISD and surrounding school districts in attendance. This is in large part due to Strait Music Company. 

Interested in the inspiration for the ticket program, ACG Development Associate, Ciyadh Wells, headed out into the field to talk with the owner of Strait Music Company, Clint Strait.

Ciyadh Wells: Since this business has been in your family for 3 generations, can you provide some background as to how this business started? 

Clint Strait: It’s actually crazy because we were at TMEA this past year and the theme of our booth was, “Set the Record Strait”. We did a 57 year museum-like timeline of Strait music company to tell the true story about this company. It was pretty cool. There were some instruments for instance, like this bugle on my desk that was my great grandfather's WW1 bugle. I never met my great grandfather, but he worked for a Lyons music company in Chicago.

My grandfather was in WW2 and when he came back he was living in Houston. I think he pestered this one guy enough to where he gave him a job selling pianos. So my grandfather was a pretty good salesman and back then the main piano franchises were Baldwin franchises. So he started selling those, and then he received the opportunity to open up his own franchise in Austin. Austin was a much smaller town back then - just a little college town. So he moved the family here and started Strait Piano and Organ. He had a bookkeeper, repair person, and he was the salesperson. That was it. That was pretty much the original staff. 

What happened is that the Beatles started playing Vox amps, and Baldwin Piano owned Vox amps. We were able to get them pretty easily. So we started selling amps and guitars, and that was pretty much our first expansion. Beatles exploded, guitars exploded along with it. Then we started getting into the band instrument business and then we just expanded over time. 

The 80’s happened and then we had big synths and keyboards and all that stuff. We really pride ourselves on being able to service everything that we sell in the store. So I have a full service repair shop . We’re really big into rock and roll stuff because this market supports that. The school, band, and orchestra side is a really big part of our business too. Rentals beginner rentals and yeah that is our music store. 

CW: Do you have a first memory or experience about Strait Music that you would like to share? 

CS: Oh man, definitely the store at 9th and Lamar. That’s the store I grew up at. So, honestly my first memories are of going to that store with my dad when the store was closed. We had an organ room, all those organs with all the buttons, and I would go back there and turn all the buttons on and just make noise. I was just banging on stuff to see what sounds they made and that’s kind of what I remember, the organ room. 

I spent a lot of time there with my dad when I was a little kid. Whether we were open or not open. I really liked it when we weren’t open because I could just go around the store and make noise on anything. Play the drums or whatever so that’s kind of my first memory. Also that store was next to the original Whole Foods and my dad gave me money and I would go next door to buy fruit leathers - that’s what I remember. 

CW: So you have some guitars on the wall in your office. Do you play guitar at all? 

CS: I do not. I am not a musician. There really aren’t a lot of musicians in my family. I don’t know if that’s a bad thing. It might not be a bad thing really and it’s been good for business I think. You know, I’m so passionate about music and I think even more so than a lot of people in my family. I am a crazy music nerd. I have an amazing record collection that I still add to on a weekly and monthly basis. 

Growing up I was super into music. I really identify with the different types of music that I listened to growing up. Like whatever music I was listening to at that time really defined that time in my life. Whether it was first when I got into Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Dead and then going to college I was really into jam bands - so I would go on tour a lot and saw a lot of different bands in a lot of different places and now my musical taste is so wide open to hip-hop to jazz to whatever. 

So I’m really crazy passionate about music. I see it sometimes through a different lens as the owner of this store. I’ll see people on stage and think about what they’re playing and their gear set up. I've developed a good ear for sound quality and stuff. So it’s weird, I see it through a different lens. It’s a fun place to work and I get to see all these great musicians who come by the store. I definitely do not take it for granted that I get to work in an industry like this because it’s a really good industry to be a part of  and this is a fun place to work. 

CW: Where does music education and the Strait music tickets for kids start? Did you start lessons here? 

CS: So, we’ve never really provided lessons because the Austin School of Music has always been our partner. Dave started the school of music with one recital that was connected to our 9th and Lamar store. When we built out of the 5th Street store, we built out the school of music to be a part of us. So they have that entire side of our building - so Strait Music has never really provided lessons. For every iteration of this company and where we have been, the Austin School of Music has always been with us. 

From a music education standpoint, I have kids now and so I now have a much deeper understanding of what music can mean for children. Everything from confidence and cognitive abilities just everything, music helps them. I was into sports, and I had a lot of friends who were into music and went to college on music scholarships. I have friends that still play a lot of music now even though that’s not what they do now for a living. 

You know, music is a lifelong thing. It’s really amazing and just the impact it can have on a young child’s life, and through adolescence as well just for helping with everything and it’s really amazing. I’m on the board of directors of Kids in a New Groove. It’s an organization that provides mentorship through music to youth in foster care. So I get to see first hand what that impact is. So for the students, they have a dedicated music teacher that comes to them every week. Kids in that program have a 100% high school graduation rate compared to a much lower rate for kids who are not in these types of programs. So that alone, that stat to me, is mind blowing. I’ve really been subjected to the power of music through that organization. It’s amazing to see what those students can do. 

I also spent time on our industry the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) board of directors. I did a three year term as a board member of NAMM. Their motto is more to start, fewer to quit. And we feel that it is every child’s right to have access to music education. It’s our job to fight for that right. I grew up with great music programs, and there’s other parts of the world inside and outside this market where we just want to make sure that as a member of NAMM that those kids have access to a quality music education. And once again we know what that can do for children. So I’m very passionate about what music education can do for kids whether that be in the public education sector or privately. 

CW: How did you get involved with ACG? Where did that relationship begin? 

CS: I don’t remember where I got involved originally. Probably just meeting ACG’s Executive Director, Matthew Hinsley. As far as the Tickets for Kids program is concerned, it’s just a natural fit. To be able to provide the opportunity for these students to be able to go see these amazing performers is just amazing. I think Matt said the next show might have as many as 100 kids - that’s just amazing. Additionally, to be able to go see that quality of performer, to be inspired and to be able to take that inspiration back to your own life and your own practice, it can have an amazing effect. 

Even if only one of those kids is affected in a deeply positive way, whether it gets them to take that next step in their music playing journey is just awesome. So I am just really proud of that program, and that they thought it was really cool. I’m just so proud that we got to put our name behind it, because it’s going to give kids access to both directly through the Tickets for Kids program, but just being able to support ACG and being able to help to provide that access to kids is amazing. 

CW: What about Strait Music is uniquely Austin?

 CS: Well I think that Strait Music is the epitome of uniquely Austin. We’re a 3rd generation family owned business. We have been in Austin since it was so much smaller. My dad and I went to the same high school. When he went there, Westlake was finished being built and it was just a school far from everything. When I went there, I graduated with 600 people. Where houses exist now, there were just barb wire fences and ranches. And it's hard to imagine.

I think we’re helping keep Austin weird. We’ve always been a weird company. We have been forever. We’ve had to grow over time and we like to refer to ourselves as a professionally managed, family owned business. We’ve just grown so much that we’re not just a mom and pop shop anymore. We can’t run our business like that. Just alone in that 57 year business, Strait Music Company has bought out or absorbed 6 companies. Most recently, we bought Music Makers in 2013 and all of their employees are still here with the exception of 1 of them because he’s on tour with a grammy award winning band, but they're all still here. This past year we bought Violins Etc. and all their employees are still here. I have a brand new orchestral luthier shop with 2 luthiers. Their instrument manager is still here. 

So we’ve been able to grow and then also continue to support the musicians who are working at these companies that for one reason or another haven’t continued on. I identify myself as an Austinite and I can’t think of anything that is more uniquely Austin than Strait Music Company. I hear stories all the time of how someone’s family member or friend bought a piano from my grandfather. There’s a lot of history here. My grandfather's line, that we still use today, is where customers become friends. And we’ve been lucky enough to make a lot of friends and we hope to continue to make more with people from where and that move here. And we just do us really well. We have a deep rooted culture as a company that we will never lose sight of and that’s a culture that’s based on customer service. The customer always comes first. We’ve got the best and most knowledgeable people working for us. I think as an employer we take pretty good care of our employees and we’ve got people who’ve been here for 10, 20, 35 years.  We have just grown with this city, but we have kept our principles in tact.

by Ciyadh Wells