I believe Steve Oz is the only authorized Stick dealer in the US. That might account for the high concentration of Michigan Stickist.

Steve Oz is ... indeed ... the only authorized Stick dealer in the US. Virtually every Stick player in the area has gone through his door at one point or another. Oz has been playing since the late 70s and recorded the "Michigan Stick Trio" CD along with Wes Teregan and the late Pete Gilbert.

I don't know if Oz accounts for the high concentration of players here or not. I didn't know about Steve until after I picked up my first Stick. Although between those guys, myself, Gary J, etc, there were plenty of "sightings" in the area which likely peaked peoples interest. And of course the workshops have helped. Steve did the first Ann Arbor workshop in 98. He and I partnered up in 2000 and we held them virtually every year until 2009 when we moved from Ann Arbor up to Interlochen.

I think the biggest factor here is the popularity of the kind of music that attracts the kinds of players who gravitate toward the Stick. While we've always been popular for a gritty kind of rock music, the Detroit area has always been very good to acts like King Crimson, the California Guitar Trio, the Tony Levin Band, etc.

Whatever it is that brought you to the Stick ... welcome Mike.

Mike!


Welcome, welcome!

You seem to have stick in your dna already. This is the best online community on the planet, enjoy!

Welcome!

There's an enormous amount of Stick owners in Michigan. I've met quite a few that we never see at seminars. Before I relocated last year to Traverse City, going to Oz's every Thursday night was my regular music activity from 2008 to 2018. If it wasn't the monthly Stick gathering it was the adult group guitar lessons that graduated into mostly myself and two - three other guys that showed up on a regular basis. Those weekly classes turned into more of song writing and performance based activities where we did several fund raisers for Know Obstacles* that not only myself, but Glenn Poorman, Stephen Sink, Peter Gilbert played in. Nowadays since last May I've been applying lot of what I learned in Open Mics - via someone I met at the Interlochen Guitar workshops who also relocated up here. If you also play guitar, also consider doing the Interlochen Adult Guitar Fingerstyle workshops. I believe there's also a separate classical workshop also.

Make sure to contact Oz around the time of the Ann Arbor Art Fair. Bob Culbertson has a regular gig there and often there's going to be some activity with Bob at his store. And go see Bob play in A2 at the Fair as well.

*Oz is getting a lot more recognition in the press for his work with his special needs band called "Know Obstacles". Last year I believe it was ABC/Channel 7 that interviewed him, and now his band has almost doubled in size. Cool watching some of those kids with disabilities I never imagined existed growing into adulthood. I happen to stop by a month ago and drop something off for Oz and said hi to a few of those kids who just finished a practice session.

Outside of Oz, there's also a lot of musicians in your area that know Gary Jibilian. Gary was originally from Ferndale, and I have way too many stories to type here about that. At least once a year I meet someone by chance who brings up Gary's name when they find out I play Stick/NS.

Welcome... maybe we can start a support group.