Rockin’ in Concord
Robin Eig and Carole Davis are the co-owners of a popular local music store and instrument repair shop in Concord – Rockin’ Robbie’s East Bay Music. Despite one of them being an East Coast transplant and the other a Concord native, their love of music and creating community brought them together. We sat down with them for a fascinating chat to discover more about how it all got started, what fuels their passion, and what makes Concord a special place to be.
Every story has a beginning – what is your connection to music and working with instruments?
“I started playing piano when I was three years old. A few years later my brother came home with a trumpet and I said ‘hey, I can play that’, and after a summer in music school I was on my way to being a brass player,’ Carole shared. “From the beginning I was fascinated by the mechanics of how things work and set out to learn as much as I could. A few years later, now in my teens, I was playing with a few touring rock ‘n roll bands that included Country Joe and the Fish and Michael Bloomfield. When my alto sax broke during a show I found a local shop and took it in for repair. After being told they would look at it, I came back four days later and they hadn’t even touched it. It was then that I decided that was it – I would never let something like this happen again and set out to learn to do this myself.”
Robin underscored this anecdote and said: “This kind of history is what makes us who we are today – it’s really quite magical and it’s the result of the many years of us doing this. I started playing when I was eight years old and played in symphonies and in a bunch of different bands. And Like Carole, I too play a lot of different instruments and became a music teacher, which in turn led to me having a very interesting career. After I came to California I started selling music books wholesale to schools and made a lot of connections throughout the Bay Area, and that is how I met Carole.”
Carole – can you share with us how you learned to repair instruments?
“Well, after the shop that said they were going to fix my horn didn’t, I took it in to another shop and just kind of barged in,” Carole recalled. “So of course this is in the mid-sixties, I’m sixteen, and the men in the shop were all like ‘no, no, no, you can’t come back here – this is a man’s place’, but that didn’t stop me. All up on the walls of the shop were pictures of scantily clad and naked women, which I found offensive, but I went to a shop in San Francisco that catered to a mahu (gay and transgender) clientele and bought a bunch of posters of naked men and put them up on the walls next to the naked girls! Then one day the breakthrough for me came when this big guy from the Hawaiian islands who worked there said to me; “You like do this, huh?” And when I replied that yes, I did, he said; “Come – I show you.” And that was my introduction to all the tools and techniques that I use to this day.
“Well, after the shop that said they were going to fix my horn didn’t, I took it in to another shop and just kind of barged in.”
A couple of years later the owners of the shop closed it down and moved to Costa Rica, and my neighbors helped me create my first repair bench in a tiny room. This led to me creating my own repair shop and teaching under the banner of East Bay Music in Walnut Creek. A few years after that I moved to a location in Dana Plaza, and then to this location on Colfax in Concord, where I’ve been for forty years.”
Schools throughout the Bay Area entrust you with tuning and repairing their instruments. How did you build up your business and how many schools do you work with?
“Dozens and dozens!” quipped Robin. “As a result of me being a music wholesaler for many years and developing a relationship with all these people over time I created quite a base of clientele. We work with districts all over – from Santa Rosa and San Rafael to Redwood City and Dublin. We also service Vacaville, Piedmont, Vallejo – it’s just all about the connections. And here’s something that sets us apart; even though we’re in the heart of the Mount Diablo Unified district, we’ve never gone after any of their schools because they’ve been working with a local shop that is a third-generation family-owned business for years and years. And we respect that – we certainly wouldn’t want anyone doing that to us, because that’s just not nice.”
“Robin is the one who brings in all the instruments and makes all the connections,” Carole shared. “And me? I’m an island girl that is happy to hide in my shop and do what I do, but she’s definitely the outgoing and chatty one.”
Your back room is always stocked floor to ceiling with instruments lined up for repair – about how many individual pieces do you work on annually?
“Well, last year I broke my calculator trying to figure this out!” Carole remarked. “My best estimate is somewhere in the thousands I guess.”
“Oh no – it’s more like ten thousand and counting,” Robin chimed in. “I alone bring in several thousand through rentals, plus we have all these school districts… and you know, Carole is a real-life wizard, she has a bank of mouthpieces for every single instrument that comes through and she’ll test it to figure out right away what needs to be done. You know, there’s nothing that Carole works on that she can’t play? She’s amazing.”
“Robin will often pull up to the back door and say, ‘get ready for another load!’ and then bury me with a wave of stuff that needs to be fixed,” Carole added.
“Carole is a real-life wizard; she has a bank of mouthpieces for every single instrument that comes through and she’ll test it to figure out right away what needs to be done. You know, there’s nothing that Carole works on that she can’t play? She’s amazing.”
A lot of top-tier Hawaiian artists stop by and play when they visit the mainland each year. What is your connection to Hawaiian culture and how did this venue become a go-to place to perform?
“For years I’ve been the sound engineer at the Concord Pavilion (now the Toyota Pavilion) for any performances that were not a Live Nation production,” Carole explained. “A lot of times I would be given a CD and asked ‘can you play this’, and sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn’t. But I’ll never forget there was this one graduation ceremony when I was given a CD of music I’d never heard before and I was swept away by the sound – it was kind of like in cartoons when a wisp of smoke comes up out of nowhere and leads you someplace magical. Yeah, it really was like that! So after the event – nobody ever asked for the CDs back afterwards – I took it to my music teacher and asked him what kind of music it was, and he said, ‘it’s slack key’, and that was how I discovered Hawaiian music. He then gave me a clipping about a slack key guitar lesson happening in Napa so I figured out how to tune my Martin guitar in open tuning and went to the event.
“That first experience was incredible – I walked into a room of individuals who were warm and welcoming and said things like ‘hey Auntie – that’s a really nice guitar’ and ‘what kind of tuning do you like?’ and ‘where are you from’? And my first lesson was with Cyril Pahinui – one of the best slack key guitar players and son of the legendary Hawaiian music hall of fame artist, Gabby Pahinui.
“Then I went to see a show where I met Patrick Landeza, he was playing in a duo, and afterwards we got to talking and as they say, the rest is history. He came to see the performance room with his family – and I mean all his family! Patrick and I were standing on stage and I was not sure if he would be like a number of others who always wanted to change things around when they came to check out the room. But when I asked him how he envisioned things he said, ‘just like we are standing on stage, right now, side by side’ and this led to the formation of the House of Hawaiian Music. We do get a lot of big names who come through, and the Bay Area is usually the first stop before they go to Japan or Europe other parts of the U.S., and although we’re not a big venue or have the prestige of places like the Blue Note, this place is unique. It’s a sound-treated room and I know what the music is supposed to sound like, and when the house lights go down – that’s it. No blenders in the background or servers running around – it’s just about the music.
Let’s talk about Concord. Can you share what you think makes this community unique and your role in it?
“Although I’m from New York – can you tell? I’ve got the gift of gab! I have come to truly love Concord through my involvement with schools, the people who live here and the families,” Robin shared. “There is a great quality here because it’s a tight-knit community and I just love the level of parental involvement when it comes to kids and learning. It’s a very open and welcoming community. I did my first Kid’s Fest over 15 years ago and I still run into people I met at my tent. I particularly love lighting the spark with first-timers, beginners and hobbyists and am grateful I have the opportunity to impart in them the love I feel for music. Like when I play my guitar – no matter what mood I’m in when I start, I’m always in a great mood when I’m done. Every time!”
“Sometimes we feel like we’re the best-kept secret in the East Bay,” said Carole. “Just about every day somebody will walk in and discover us. It’s just such great chemistry between me and Robin – from the day when she finally agreed to open up her retail business in the front and we sealed the deal with a handshake we’ve never looked back and always kept things simple. We have perfectly complementary skill sets – she’s the one who goes out and talks to people and makes things happen, and I fix stuff and do my thing. And we also definitely share the same work ethic – we work hard and give everyone the same level of attention and service they deserve, no matter if they’re starting out or are a touring musician. And no, I’m not going to name-drop anyone because that’s not my style!”
“Sometimes we feel like we’re the best-kept secret in the East Bay. Just about every day somebody will walk in and discover us.”
“I love the fact that when we walk around everyone knows us by name,” Robin shared. “Both of us look forward to coming to work every day because it’s what we love to do. From setting someone up with their first instrument, to teaching them how to play and performing in our community music programs, to fixing it when it’s broken – we provide this beautiful continuity that nurtures our community. We’re very fortunate and thank our lucky stars. And we just signed a new lease so we’re just going to keep on doing what we do!”
Before we wrap up, can you share how you came to know about Creative Concord and your experience with the mural that was painted last year? And do you have any advice for anyone thinking about getting into music?
“A mutual friend of ours – Tiffany – connected us with the Creative Concord people through her love for art and music,” said Robin. “It took a while before things took off but her persistence paid off, and when they approached us about doing a mural we were on board and so was our landlord.”
Carole chimed in to add: “I have to admit I was a little concerned, because although we had right of first refusal I wasn’t sure the theme would be in touch with who we are and what we represent. But that all went out the window when one day the artists were checking out the space and I invited them in to take a look and see what we do and all of the instruments. Then they showed me the sketch they created and I was like ‘wow!’ they nailed it. The symbolism of the Goddess Victoria is such a wonderful statement and I love the hall of learning and the columns which capture Robin’s universe – and I especially like the pua – the beautiful flowers they created. We get a lot of compliments and it’s definitely added a great deal to our little corner of the world. Both artists were wonderful to work with, very talented and polite and respectful.”
Mural by Shaye Maxey and Jeffrey Geronimo
“For some of you, today is the is the beginning of something you are going to pursue and love for the rest of your life. You are about to meet and fall in love with something that will be with you for your whole life, and today is that day.”
“As for advice? Well, I’d say – don’t quit your day job!” Robin exclaimed with a laugh. “Music is a tough way to make a living and it’s definitely not for the faint of heart. But music – and art – is also for everyone and it’s a huge part of life. As for me and Carole – music chose us, and that’s the path we followed and we’re grateful for everything we’ve experienced along the way.
“Here’s something I take a great deal of delight in sharing with my new students on their first day of lessons, I tell them: ‘For some of you, today is the is the beginning of something you are going to pursue and love for the rest of your life. You are about to meet and fall in love with something that will be with you for your whole life, and today is that day’.”