SOUTHERN PINES — Local boy excels in the arts, masters multiple instruments and takes his talents to New York City. Bands like the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol and LCD Soundsystem are exploding on the scene, reshaping independent music forever. There, he gains notoriety as a formidable musical artist, collaborating with the aforementioned bands, forms indie outfit The Blondes Inc. and tours with Richard Lloyd, formerly of seminal New York band Television.
He eventually returns to the Sandhills, carrying with him the erudite coolness and experience of a graduate from decades as a New York musician. He opens a humble establishment and teaches lessons in the bedroom community of Southern Pines. His dreams of finding beautiful guitars for players of all skill levels to fall in love with come true as Casino Guitars takes off. He and his partners, all studied guitar enthusiasts, launch a YouTube channel that gains nearly 70,000 subscribers and pulls hundreds of thousands of viewers tuning in from all over the world.
Locals and visitors pop in for a lesson, demo any of Casino’s growing collection of fine electric and acoustic guitars or talk music with the jovial staff of local experts. His wife of 16 years is co-owner and handles accounting for the store. She’s also the mayor of Southern Pines, dutifully handling the rigors of public office. One minute, its zoning boards and building codes, the next its tracking an invoice for a 1952 Fender Telecaster.
It may sound like a screenwriter’s pitch to TV networks to make the next “Parks and Recreation” or “The Office,” but the story of Casino Guitars and Baxter Clement, the young musician who grew up in Southern Pines, is true — and twice as interesting.
The entity he created and nourishes with his family of partners, the stunning inventory of instruments Casino stocks, and its reputation as a welcoming, community-focused establishment is unlike anything in the Southeast or maybe the country.
Authentic as the people who work and shop there, the space was dubbed “Casino Guitars” in 2015 to honor the structure’s history.
“The name, Casino Guitars, is derived from the original building, which housed a casino when it was built in the 1920s,” Clement said. “We restored the building in 2015 to reflect its historic origins, using 100-year-old repurposed wood and exposing the original old ceiling and support beams.”
Any passersby would notice the wood carved Gibson, Fender and Martin & Co. signs outside the shop on Broad Street in Southern Pines and not think too much of it. Yet behind the glass doors await walls and hallways adorned with a veritable banquet of exceptional musical instruments. Stratocasters, Gretsches, Les Pauls, Paul Reed Smiths — some custom designed for the pro level player or out of the box for the hobbyist — the variety is eye popping.
That’s just the front room. Further back, a hallway where Martin and Taylor acoustics hang like paintings leads into a gallery of vintage guitars. Still, intimidating it is not. Upon entry, the authenticity and genuine nature of Casino’s team breed a welcoming environment seldom seen in the days when the guitar-buying experience has gone the way of Walmart.
Mom and pop stores are a rarity, and most consumers are left to contend with the Guitar Centers of the world, negotiating a 10,000-square-foot maze of manufacturer-priced guitars, dodging pushy, know-it-all salespeople only to take a wrong turn into the hangar-sized drum room.
“We love guitar hunting and shopping, but we hate a lot of guitar shopping experiences,” Clement said. “We wanted to figure out a way to do this and make mom and pop the greater universe but offer the finest instruments that are made today.”
During the pandemic, luck and misfortune intersected when former Gov. Roy Cooper declared essential businesses could stay open while others were to remain shut — and Casino considered itself essential, like a bookstore.
“I was thinking we’re essential and close enough to education, so we can do it,” Taylor Clement, Baxter’s wife and Casino’s co-owner, said.
Foot traffic slowed, but ideas began to percolate. Baxter, Taylor and the team had previously tried their hand shooting videos for their YouTube channel.
“We tried before Derrick was around, and they were awful,” Taylor laughed.
Content creator and owner of the Neon Rooster in nearby Aberdeen, Derrick Numbers now heads marketing and Casino TV. His expertise in video production and experience in the recording industry was instrumental in the shop’s skyward trajectory on YouTube.
“It was an evolution. It started as just demoing the guitars so people could hear and see this incredible kind of custom pieces.” Numbers said. “COVID was really where the channel grew and our biggest growth spurt. Everybody’s channel was growing at the time, but it was good to catch that wave.”
Isolation and decreased foot traffic onset by pandemic fears and regulations only brought the team closer and collectively more creative. Casino became one of 20 Fender “showcase” dealers in the country, which gave the shop access to Fender’s exclusive pieces. As the YouTube channel garnered attention for its down-to-earth nature, humor, knowledge and brutal honesty the Casino team brought to the masses, its customer base grew.
The store began to offer fully customized and designed guitars to a customer’s liking. If your fancy is a 1961 Gibson Les Paul, retrofitted to look like Pete Townsend smashed it over a stack of Marshall amps, consider it done. A1960 Fender Stratocaster strung upside down for a left-handed genius named Jimi Hendrix after being doused in lighter fluid and set ablaze? Say no more. The team at Casino Guitars in Southern Pines is there to walk you through every step of your journey, no matter your location. If all you require is a few lessons, new stings, repairs or simply want to stop by, pull a beautiful guitar off the wall and strum away, come on in.
“It was kind of always like a dream in the back of the mind,” Baxter said. “But it was sort of an unrealistic and stupid dream.”
Stupid and unrealistic that dream may have been, it came true.
