Hi -  thanks for reading my About Me page.  Let me just tell a little of the history of our music store.

Doyle's Music and More actually started out as Doyle's Music Store in the Spring of 1956.  My father, Doyle Rinehart, had been working for Conoco Oil as a seismographer and traveling to various parts of the country to perform those duties.  The men that were in the oil fields worked very hard and liked to play hard too, but the towns where they lived were often smaller ones so they would get together to play songs, sing and have a good time.

My father had a talent for performing and found this to be his love.  He had played harmonica since he was very young, subsequently taught himself guitar and played throughout his time at Conoco.  When he had a chance to move his family back home to Central Oklahoma, he decided that it was also time to cultivate his love of performing.  He would play in various venues throughout the Central U.S.; sometimes fronting for national acts.  He also recorded on the Shore label in the late 1950's and early 60's.

(the store before our move to an online only company)

When dad was on stage, people would come up to him and ask about the instruments he and his band played and would sometimes just buy them after the set (thinking they could go home and sound just like that, no doubt).  Because of this, dad started ordering two or more of everything, keeping an extra instrument in the trunk of his car.  He eventually needed space to put it all so that's how Doyle's Music Store started.  Over the years, the store grew to a place for school programs and hobbyists, as well as professional musicians, and dad would even enlist those musicians to give lessons to the 'up and comers.'  He was such a fan of the fine art of music that everyone who came in would be treated with a story about each instrument they were looking at and, if they purchased it, he would write their name down and follow up with them to see how they were doing with their item. 

When my father passed away, my mother ran the store by herself for a while, but it's quite a task for one person, so after 50 years we closed the physical storefront, I purchased interest in the business from her and we opened the online continuation of our family's passion with Doyle's Music and More.

I have worked for various companies, most notably bookstores, as a manager, trainer and consultant and have always tried to teach the principles to others that my father lived by every day.  'Treat others without the baggage of any negative experiences in the past and know that you're transacting more than an item.  You're transacting a relationship as well.'  I decided that I was at a point in my life where I could continue that in my own business, not just teach it in other companies, so now I am striving to write a new chapter in my family's musical and retail legacy.

thank you for reading -

- Tracey Doyle Rinehart