As one guitar player and huge fan of Lark Street Music said to me: “The best way I can describe the experience of walking into Lark Street when you are a guitar player/lover/aficionado is this way: imagine someone who is a car enthusiast walking into a car showroom and in that showroom is an original 1966 Batmobile, an Aston Martin DB 4, exactly the same as Sean Connery’s, a 50’s Porsche Spyder just like James Dean’s, the Knight Rider’s Trans Am (AND a Burt Reynold’s version too), a Shelby designed LeMans-winning Ford GT and ChittyChitty Bang Bang, all in the same room. And in addition to the cars, the owner tells you that you can take any of the cars out on the track, as long as you want. THAT is what it feels like to be a guitar player in that store. To us it is Disneyland And that is how special it is. Pretty enticing.”
Lark Street Music is the baby of Buzzy Levine (my favorite all time name), who has become an icon in his own field. Lark Street Music was opened on Lark Street in Albany, New York. When we lived in western Massachusetts, Albany was a town we visited often and always drove past the shop.The name had a ring to it that I loved. So just imagine, moving to Bergen County and finding this same wonderful store in Teaneck on Cedar Lane, giving the entire street a bit of panache. Buzzy has a great reputation as a guitar repair person aside from the fact that, like at Alice’s restaurant, if you are looking for a certain guitar, it a good bet you will find it at Lark Street. Interesting fact – Buzzy has a French guitar from 1799 with the original label attached. So Lark Street Music is a bit of a museum too. This curator’s knowledge of his inventory is breathtaking.
Buzzy opened Lark Street about twenty six years ago after living and working in the Albany area for eighteen years. Albany has a great downtown entertainment venue, the Palace, not too far from Lark Street where Buzzy had built a reputation as a talented guitar repair person. When famous musicians rode into town, where else to go for help. One day Robert Plant came into the shop and Buzzy’s assistant could hardly speak. According to Buzzy he is just a great guy. And maybe, surprisingly, he says that most of the most famous among us are all pretty ok. He did not have a bad word to say about any of the stars he has helped. He said that while in Albany, because he was a unicorn, he met more famous people than in his present location, so close to New York.
Musicians like ZZTop, Cheryl Crow, Jackson Brown, Mary Chapin Carpenter and of course Led Zeppelin’s own, Robert Plant. Now, when a well known person needs guitar help he or she will usually send their tech.
During the making of the bio pic about Bob Dylan, “A Complete Unknown,” it was discovered that Buzzy had in his possession a 23 0-45. This was the guitar needed for the Joan Baez character. The production company had hit gold. Buzzy had many of the guitars needed to make everything in the film authentic. The public is very tough. They found the guitar for the Johnny Cash character and an D-18 which Brownie McGhee played in the film. The production company bought some and rented many others that were used as props. Nice to be in the right place at the right time. If you have not seen the film, you should. One disappointment for Buzzy was that they promised him credits in the film but this did not happen. He did get to meet some interesting people and watch a shoot in Hoboken with his 17 year old grandson, who would have loved to be in the film.
Buzzy grew up in western Massachusetts. After leaving college because of an accident, he was playing in a jug band and learning how to repair guitars from someone who played violin in his band . He eventually went out on his own and wound up not only repairing, but also selling guitars. There are people who have no plans and drift into things, Buzzy found his calling He is one of the lucky ones.
He is calm and cool and fun to talk to. He seems unimpressed with how far he has come His family is everything to him and in his spare time he is grandpa. He and his wife moved to Teaneck for their kids because of the excellent choices of schools they were looking for. It all really worked out.
Lark Street Music
479 Cedar Lane
Teaneck, New Jersey
(201) 287-1959