The Downtown Sounds Staff

Photos by Peter Smolenski

Joe Blumenthal, owner of the store, has been selling musical instruments for over twenty years. In his spare time, he also plays string bass for Klezamir, a local klezmer band, and XOPO, a Balkan dance band. Blumenthal is also treasurer of the Northampton Community Music Center.
Jim Weeks is one of the Valley's most versatile and respected musicians and recording engineers. He has been selling instruments at Downtown Sounds since 1982, and now runs his own recording studio, "Cloud Cuckoo Land". He plays guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard, and has contributed a great deal to the local music scene in such bands as R-Complex, Square One, Doom Nation, Behemoth and Dunce. He has recently recorded and engineered CD's for Ray Mason, Lonesome Brothers, Superkart, and Dunce
Keith Levreault is Downtown Sounds' resident drum expert, and one of the busiest drummers around, doing a variety of both live and studio projects. He has played with Square One, Doom Nation, Blood Oranges, Kevin Salem and Freedy Johnston. He currently drums for Robert Holmes' Love Bomb and Klezamir.
Dave Trenholm is one of the most versatile members of Downtown Sounds staff. He plays guitar, sax, flute, clarinet, bass, and drums, and is a member of the local band King Radio, and also teaches guitar, bass, and sax at the store.
Aaron Borucki plays bass, guitar, keyboards and drums. Outside of work, he runs his own small computer-based recording studio, and performs with his groups www.myspace.com/thesmokeywambas
and www.myspace.com/sueeverything
Robert Kapitzky is a local musician who plays in the pop-punk group The Skeptics, and a new project call Us Against the Archers.

Dave Boatwright has worked as a guitarist and vocalist out of the Pioneer valley since the 1970's with The Equalites, Loose Caboose, and many others. The newest member of Downtown Sounds, he worked at Dynamite Records for almost 2 decades.