Your Mom & Pop Shop for everything music
With the onslaught of new technology coming at us as fast as a broken tree limb hits your windshield during a hurricane, stories that once might have seemed boring and mundane take on a different value. Tales of honor, dedication, hard work and love stay longer and hit harder than 30-second snippets of, well, everything else.
This story begins in the early 1990s, when Wayne Sorbelli was attending Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania. Wayne had become an industrious young man, always looking for ways to supplement the costs of college and always working while in school. He also managed to pursue his first passion, guitar. In pursuit of his musical goals and through his love of music, Wayne had procured quite a collection of records, cassette tapes and the newest musical medium, compact discs (CDs). It wasn’t long before the music lover and the industrious worker melded into one. Wayne began to frequent farmers markets and flea markets to sell his stuff.
Jamie and Wayne met in college, where she was studying for a history degree. Like Wayne, Jamie worked several different jobs to help offset the costs of an education. She also loved music and played keyboards, with Wayne on guitar, in one of their first professional bands. The bond was deep and natural and the two fell in love. It was about this time that Wayne had first started buying and selling and Jamie was integral to the success of the endeavor. In 1996 they rented a store and the world got its first glimpse of Wayne’s World of Used CDs.
Jamie would go to school, then to work, then to the store to help Wayne. Wayne says it all became official when on April 1, 1997, he received his sales tax license. This marked a turning point in the business as Wayne and Jamie bought a modest building in 1998 in Pittston, Pennsylvania.
Back in those days, Christmas shopping was a bigger deal that required more effort than swiping and clicking on a phone. There was no internet to make shopping from the comfort of one’s own home a possibility. Christmas was a very busy time of year and Wayne was constantly on the move. Jamie became a full-time partner in the business and has been ever since.
As time went on, Wayne’s World of Used CDs went through some changes. As Wayne’s proficiency on the guitar grew, so, too, did his appetite for new musical gear. Now that he had a shop to display them in, his used guitars and accessories began to appear on the walls. People began to ask about other gear and where to get it, and soon Wayne and Jill were selling used instruments as well as used CDs.
Wayne’s reputation grew and a musical scene soon developed at the store, which hosted jam sessions and local rock bands promoting their music. It was a good time for music and it was a good time to own a store that centered on it.
Ten years passed. The Sorbellis upgraded to another store in Dallas, Pennsylvania. Life had added two beautiful children to their mix. In 2011, they made their way to Key West for vacation. Within two days, the couple was discussing the probabilities of starting a store and a life in the Keys. Could this life plan coincide with the business plan? The answer was yes, and the move was made. It didn’t take long for Island Guitar, located in the Key Plaza shopping center, to establish itself and become a hub for the Key West music scene.
Tragedy struck in 2016 with the loss of their son Nicky to cancer. While there are no words to describe the devastating loss, the Sorbellis were able to summon from the pain something to benefit others who are going through the same struggles. Nicky’s Celebration occurs once a year at the Key West Theater. Wayne heads a band that pays tribute to his favorite band, Led Zeppelin. An exciting and emotional night, the band is composed primarily of musicians who have also suffered loss due to cancer. The event gets bigger every year and has helped to further cement the family’s place in the Key West community.
“We moved here because this is a music town. We stay here because this is a music town,” Wayne said. “Through the lessons we give at the store, we have been able to watch our students go from the early stages of musical development to playing professionally throughout the city. It is a major source of satisfaction and we love it, and we love this town.”
