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Have
you ever been to a restaurant where they not only remembered your
name but they remembered how you liked your food prepared and what
salad dressing you prefer?
Birdland Music started in the late fifties on Church Street in
Norfolk. It was named after Charlie "The Bird" Parker. It was famous
for finding Jazz that no one else seemed to carry. Tom Friedman
bought the store in 1968 and moved it to Kempsville a few years
later. Birdland has been a family owned business for over 30 years.
Barry Friedman started working there when he was
Don Womack - Rabid collector of music and webmaster for RELOAD
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It
makes you feel at home doesn't it? Well, Birdland Music is such a
place for music lovers. Barry Friedman and the gang at Birdland
have a way to make you feel like family. It's been said that if you
have been in the store twice Barry remembers your name and if you
have been in there three times he knows what you like. Music stores
like that are hard to find with all the big chain stores. When you
visit Birdland Music you will not only find all the latest and the
greatest but can find the stuff that has been missing in your
collection for a long time. Quite often I have browsed through the
thousands of titles to come across something
that
just blew me away at the very thought that I was holding it in my
hands. ( Oh man... a copy of "Fanny Adams" can you believe this!)
Not only will you find what you are looking for but Barry is a data
base of musical knowledge that could fill your hard drive. I have
tried to stump him. I can't do it. He may be part machine, I don't
know. Barry has surrounded himself with a great crew also. You
presently have Kip Ludwig who is the 12" Vinyl King (Birdland has
the biggest selection of 12" vinyl in the state.), Craig Cope the
Rundgren, Prince, Pop and Zappa fanatic, Ian Allen for trip-hop and
alternative, and Caroline McDonald our "Heavy Metal Rock Goddess"
.
only
14 years old. When Tom opened the store his philosophy was to know
your customer and to work very hard to always provide what they
need. He believes that hard work goes further than hype and that
commitment has kept Birdland in business longer than any other music
store in Tidewater. Once Birdland Music donated over 500 titles to
the libraries aboard aircraft carriers Roosevelt and Kennedy while
they were in the Persian Gulf. They had heard from customers that
the men often complained that there wasn't an abundance of good
music on board so the team at Birdland decided to do something about
it. That's my kind of music store.