On September 1, 2002, Dr. Ted’s Musician’s Center opened for business in
Hammond. Formerly Hayden’s Music Company, The Musician’s Center will remain in
the same building and continue the 27 year long tradition of serving the musicians of this
area.
One of the interesting stories about this changeover is that Dr. Ted Hudspeth, the new
owner, once worked at Hayden’s Music Co. “I started working at Hayden’s
when I was 14 years old. I used to have to have my daddy drive me from Amite to come to
work. I taught guitar and piano lessons for 3 years prior to me leaving to go to LSU to
start my medical career. It was from that experience that I always wanted to come back
home and provide music lessons for kids of this region.”
Two years ago, Dr. Ted started The Northshore Regional Endowment For The Arts festival
which has helped raise money for music and art education and he has also formed the
Strawberry Jam’n Toast To The Arts Festival in Ponchatoula which features local
artists and musicians. “It is my goal to not only help educate but also to promote
local musicians and artists. I feel that this will be a good thing for our community and
will help of people in this region” Says Hudspeth. Dr. Ted plans to increase the
number of teachers and the amount of stock that is a the Musician’s Center. It is his
goal to be able to teach just about any instrument and musical technique. He is also
planning to provide some added value services like band promotions and bookings, CD
recording and mass production, and musician web site services. Providing this will help
local musicians become successful, adds Hudspeth.
On Oct. 19th, Dr. Ted's Musician's Center held its grand opening to a steady flow of
traffic including friends, family and curious customers to see what all of the fuss was
about. Red beans and rice enticed the crowd to linger but the talent that was staged in
front of the store is what kept them around. Featured musicians included Brittany Jenkins,
John Mark Gray, Becky Eymard, Mark Everett Traylor, Peter Simon, Taylor Horn, and Dimitri
Trush. Even Dr. Ted Hudspeth played with his two sons, Ted Joseph and Christopher Thomas.
A raffle was held and a Peavey Raptor Plus EXP was given away to lucky Sidney Egnew who is
sure to be our newest student.
The major focus of Dr. Ted's Musician's Center is music lessons. Lessons in
piano, guitar, bass, drums, voice, violin, saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, mandolin are
taught at the Musician's Center. In addition, a 16 track recording unit can record
soloitst or bands. In addition, we can take a recording project to the next level by
mass producing the CD's in-house so that bands can have a saleable product.
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