Jim White keeps city rocking in the free world
Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 18/01) - Jim White is living the dream job.
As the owner of the only music store in the Northwest Territories, he is in a class all of his own.
At age 32, White purchased Fiddles and Stix, which has stood as the sole bastion of musical equipment in the North for over a decade.
According to White, being a music store owner only seemed the next logical step in a career long associated with the "biz."
"I've been interested in music since my early teens," says White, who bought the store in November 1999.
"I had some older friends who always had whatever albums were current at the time, especially Cheap Trick's Live at Budokon."
White got his start in the music industry after attending Trebas Institute's recording engineering program in Vancouver during the mid-eighties.
Being a recording engineer in Vancouver might sound glamorous, but White says the ladder he had to climb was long.
"You almost pretty much have to have a day job when you first get out of recording engineering school," White muses, "because you're really just an assistant's assistant."
After living in Vancouver for nine years, White returned to Yellowknife in 1985.
When he heard there was a job opening at Fiddles and Stix, he jumped on it.
After 13 years the previous owner, Philip Lee, decided it was time to move on, but was unsure of what to do with the store.
"Phil was going to either close the store or sell it," White says. "He asked me if I wanted buy it, and I figured the time was right."
The store has grown since White purchased it. He now carries such big names as Hamer and Ibanez.
"We've also added Yamaha guitars to our line up, and in a month or so we'll have Peavey too," says White.
Even though his business concentrates on guitars and amps, White sells just about anything that beeps, hums or chimes.
"Someone asks us for bag pipes at least every three months," says White. "Someone also asked us for a manjo, which is kind of mix between a banjo and a mandolin."
A daily routine for White, includes guitar repairs, taking appointments for music lessons and of course making sure all the guitars are kept in tune.
"We're basically just trying to keep up with what people in Yellowknife want," White says.
"For the next 10 years I intend to keep building up my clientele and inventory."
