User:Ricoverton

Ric Overton (1962-) is the owner and Chief Executive Officer of PianoSD.com in San Diego, Ca. His love of music, passion for the piano and emphasis on music education makes him "the luckiest guy in the world". Having grown up on the coast of North Carolina, most of his influence came from Southern Gospel Music. He loved gospel music in all of its forms from the most basic of bluegrass gospel with a simple guitar to Southern Gospel and finally to the most impressive pipe organs in the world. Among his favorites were Vestal Goodman and the Happy Goodman Family. He loved hearing his mother playing the piano growing up in a small Pentecostal church in North Carolina and remembers a quartet his Mom and Dad sang in when he was a kid. Later he began to enjoy the gigantic Mass choirs of James Cleveland and finally experienced the sound of the Pipe Organ at the West End United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tn. Ric followed his love of music and his heart and eventually joined Baldwin Piano Company in 2003, just after the company had emerged from bankrupcty.

Ric started working in 1979 at the age of 16 playing Southern Gospel Music and traveling to churches, concert venues across the south east. In 1980 he graduated from Aurora High School in Aurora, N.C. with a graduating class of 52 students. His morals and manners were shaped in small town living in the south where everyone knew everyone else and took care of each other. He carries on that tradition of "southern hospitality" to this day. In 1980 he went to work at Flanders Filters in Washington N.C. as a quality control technician. Shortly afterwards his musical desires began calling him to Jacksonville, N.C. where he eventually went to work with Andy Owings Music Center. It was here he learned that the joys of the retail music business. Ric was eventually offered a job outside of the music business in specialty and department store retail and worked for Dillards Department stores for several years before following his heart back into the music business. He interviewed with Baldwin Piano Company and was eventually hired because of his "tenacity". He covered the southeast and southwest territory and went to the west coast for the first time in January, 2004. Having been away from the music industry for several years he began to learn that things had changed DRAMATICALLY and it would take some time to understand all of the changes that had taken place.

The industry overall had been several death blows. Music Education on the retail level was gone. Stores no longer concentrated on teaching. They were interested in getting pianos in the hands of the consumers, making the profit and moving on to the next customer. The manufacturers had lost the long range sight and were focused more on getting pianos sold to dealers and moving on to the next one. The Chinese piano manufacturers had begun to take over the market with high quality workmanship and several different models and styles. It was at that point Ric decided it was time to go back to the basics and figure out what he could do to help his dealers and understand more about what made his product different.

It was at this point Ric began to study all of the piano manufacturers that he could. The american brands were the first he began to study. Baldwin, Steinway and Sons, Charles Walter and Mason and Hamlin were last of the American Manufacturers. Japan only had Kawaii and Yamaha. Korea had Young Chang and Samick. Finally were the European pianos.

Biography: Born June 9,1962 in Aurora, North Carolina in the United States of America. Son of James L. Overton Sr. and Margaret Mayo Overton with one brother James L. Overton Jr. all of Aurora, N.C. U.S.A.