ROCK HILL  — Last Saturday, bass player David Baron was in a bit of a jam, not something a musician wants to be in. He had a gig at Resorts World Catskills with his band, the Georgia 5: 80’s Dance Party. When they arrived in Monticello, over an hour from his home in Rockland County, Baron discovered his bass didn’t make the trip with them. 

“I had no instrument and I started to panic,” he said. “I needed a bass and fast.”

Baron said that since the gig was over an hour away, the band was carpooling to Resorts World. When he loaded his car up to go to their keyboardist’s house, Baron said he folded the back seats down so everything would fit. 

He in turn left the bass at the bottom, tucked away in it’s gig bag on the floor of the car. Since it was behind the seat, he said that upon transfering everything over to  the minivan his keyboardist owns, they missed moving the bass over. 

“Remember the movie ‘Home Alone’, where the parents were frantically getting ready to go to the airport, and somehow in all the chaos they left one of their kids behind? That’s pretty much what happened here.”

That’s where Steve Schwartz from Steve’s Music Center in Rock Hill, comes in. Schwartz said that he received a call at 5:55 p.m., which was five minutes before his store closes. Baron told the music store owner his situation and said that he played a Fender Jazz bass. 

While Schwartz didn’t have that exact bass, he said that he had something comparable. He told the musician that he would stay open if Baron left for the store right away. 

Following the phone call, Schwartz did a quick background check to make sure that the story lined up and Baron wasn’t trying to pull a fast one on him. After verifying the story, Schwartz then pulled down the bass that was closest to what Baron was used to and checked it out to make sure that everything was working properly. 

“He got to the store a little after 6,” Schwartz said. “He seemed like a good guy. I showed him the bass and asked if he needed a cord or strap. He said he was good.”

Deciding on how Baron would return the bass to him, Schwartz wound up giving the musician his cell number and said to shoot him a message when he was done. 

So, at 11:45 that night, the pair met at his house, while Baron handed it over to him. Very appreciative of the kind gesture, Baron also threw Schwartz some extra money. 

Just when Schwartz thought that was the end of it, the bass player found the music store owner’s Instagram page and shared the story. 

“It’s worth noting that when I called him, he didn’t know me from a hole in the wall,” Baron said in the Facebook post. “He could have easily said, ‘Sorry, we’re closed’ and I would have been up the creek. Instead, he treated a complete stranger like I was a rock star and totally came through in the clutch.”

Schwartz really appreciated the kind shoutout and wanted his friends to know the story. As the saying goes, “Kindness, like a boomerang, always returns.”

“I figured if he was nice enough to spend the time to write such a nice piece, the least I could do was share it,” Schwartz said. 

He then shared it on his Instagram page, and said that a friend saw it and shared it on Facebook. A great response came back after Schwartz, in turn, shared it to his Facebook. 

“It must have really resonated with people because the response to it was bigger than anything I have ever posted before,” he said. 

Local music stores are few and far between, and Baron was lucky enough that the band’s guitarist, Michael Wilson, knew that Steve’s Music Center was just a few miles from the venue. 

“It’s a good thing there are some physical ‘Mom & Pop’ music stores around, because even Amazon can’t get you a bass in a half hour,” Baron said.