Publication Date: February 10, 2026 on The History Press

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Gerald McCabe, a furniture designer, unexpectedly befriended the music community through his wife, the folk singer Marcia Berman, and soon found himself utilizing his expert woodworking skills to repair guitars and then, in 1958, opened a shop in Santa Monica, California to meet the demand….

…then 16-year-old Bob Riskin brought his guitar to the shop for repair, became an apprentice, ended up fixing his own instrument, and subsequently became a partner and eventually the store’s owner for decades…

…and when a Los Angeles performance by legendary folk musicians Elizabeth Cotten and Mike Seeger was cancelled at the last minute, McCabe’s stepped up and offered up the store for a venue initiating a concert series that has flourished in the shop’s back room for over a half a century.

However, It wasn’t all ‘right place, right time’ – expert craftsmanship and ingenuity, risk-taking business savvy and creative concert presentation – all grounded in a shared passion for American roots music – help to tell the unprecedented tale of one of the most cherished listening rooms in the country.

McCabe’s stage has been graced by hundreds of the world’s finest musicians, including legends such as Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Doc Watson, John Fahey, Ry Cooder, Roger McGuinn, Guy Clark and John Hartford and has been the setting for over two dozen recordings with discs by Norman Blake, Maria Muldaur, Mike Bloomfield, Townes Van Zandt, and many others.

The story of this landmark concert venue unfolds in the words of the musicians, shop owners, concert directors, booking agents, instrument repairers and teachers as well as audience members that have contributed to its unique history and explores why playing this room is on every acoustic guitar player’s bucket list and the reason that performing artists such as Richard Thompson, John Hiatt, Hot Tuna, Lucinda Williams, T-Bone Burnett, Loudon Wainwright III, Bruce Cockburn and Los Lobos return time and again to play live…. at McCabe’s Guitar Shop.