Vintage Music Shop Keeps Roots Music Thriving

Staff Photo Nick Brothers
Allison Williams, owner of May Bell Music, plays clawhammer banjo inside her store amidst the vintage instruments on the wall.

Walking into May Bell Music on Block Street feels like stepping into an Ozark music store from the early mid 20th century.

The just shy of a century-old building the vintage music store is housed in makes for a fitting environment for the shop’s vibe. Beginning with the feel of the front door’s loose old door knob, to the creaks and cracks from the wood floor that give way under your feet as you walk inside. Refurbished, used and decades-old guitars, violins, amplifiers, tenor banjos and dulcimers line the main display wall. Behind them are framed posters of vintage ads. If there wasn’t a Macbook computer on the counter, the store would look timeless.

Among the racks you can find rare guitars from the 40s and 60s and violins from the 20s in great condition, and at affordable prices.

Allison Williams, the owner of May Bell, often acquires most of the shop’s merchandise from trade shows and swaps, and buys several broken instruments and restores them back to quality. So, you can expect a new inventory of instruments with just about every visit.

The shop offers lessons any day of the week from local teachers in several styles including blues, bluegrass, country, folk, rock ‘n’ roll and classical. Williams herself teaches clawhammer banjo, upright bass, ukulele, guitar, voice and beginner old time fiddle. If you have a broken instrument or amplifier, Williams can fix those at May Bell, too. She has a degree in audio engineering from Evergreen State college in Olympia, Wash.

Staff Photo Nick Brothers
Allison Williams makes repairs to a 1958 Gibson guitar amplifier. In addition to instrument sales, May Bell Music also offers repair services and lessons.

Starting with the events planned that will coincide with the Roots Music Festival at the end of the month, the stage in the back-left corner of the shop will be cleared and used for live acoustic performances and potentially listening parties of rare, age-old records.

Most importantly, the shop is about providing a welcoming downtown music store and preserving the traditions of Ozark roots music and instruments. Having a music store that was inviting and encouraging was important to Williams when starting out.

“I wanted a music store where everyone felt comfortable, where women could feel comfortable.” Williams said. “As a female musician going into the other music stores, it’s just never been pleasant. You get condescended to, or they won’t show you what you’re looking for. I want this to be a community space.”

A life of playing music precedes Williams. As important as roots music is to her now, her music career started out as a drummer and bass player in punk rock in a couple bands, her favorite being Devil Bean. She toured all over the country with them while writing her own acoustic songs on the side. When Devil Bean broke up, she decided to start an acoustic punk band and toured for a couple years. During that time, she got into Woody Guthrie and political folk music, and that opened the door to old time music.

“The first time I heard that stuff, it blew my mind,” Williams said. “I’d listen to a Tommy Jarrel and Fred Cockerham fiddle and banjo duet record, and I didn’t even know. To really hear old masters doing it the way their parents taught them, it’s something unique and you know it when you hear it — you haven’t heard anything like it.”

Staff Photo May Bell
owner Allison Williams sits outside the store’s new location on Block Street in the World Treasures building.

It wasn’t long before she had the opportunity to join as a banjo player in the Forge Mountain Diggers in Asheville, N.C., where she toured the world with them for about three years. After the group ended she put out a solo record and continued to tour. When she wasn’t playing, she worked as a sound engineer and even ran sound for the Carolina Chocolate Drops for a time.

Folklore became a profession for Williams when she moved to east Tennessee. There she worked with the Tennessee State Parks Folk Life Project, where she digitized historic images, recordings and the like.

After about 20 years of being a touring musician, sound engineer and fixing her friend’s instruments, Williams returned to Fayetteville and saved up some money while working at the University of Arkansas to open a music store of her own in downtown.

“I’ve always wanted to be part of the music community in a more substantial way than just playing music,” Williams said. “I wanted to give back to it, to build something where I could build a strong community. I’ve lived in places like Asheville that have a very strong traditional music community, and Nashville and Brooklyn, too. I just wanted to see something like that in my own hometown.”

Staff Photo Nick Brothers May Bell Music has several string instruments dating from the 1920s to today.

In its initial form, May Bell started out as a little vintage music shop in the Quonset hut that houses The Nines and May Apple Boutique off Center Street. Before opening, Williams scoured the Internet buying used and broken instruments on Ebay and restoring them to their former glory.

“I turned my apartment into a hoarder’s nightmare,” Williams said. “Mostly I was researching, figuring out the repairs I was going to do, how I was going to price them, buying instruments that I knew something about and buying tools and supplies. I definitely bought a lot of instruments that were not fixable. I learned the hard way.”

At the end of each month, Williams leads a traditional square dance at The Backspace with the help of regional folk musicians. The dances are all passed down traditions from old Missouri and Arkansas rural culture.

“I’m thinking the key to success in Fayetteville is just to stick around,” Williams said. “I think people need to trust a business like a person. I’ll go the extra mile to get people what they need because I care. I really care about people learning to play music and having the tools available to them. I’m in this for the long haul.”