Down Home Guitar is a great place for acoustic-music lovers in the south suburbs of Chicago.

1. They sell a wide variety of acoustic stringed instruments, from cheap beginner instruments to some very high-end instruments. Personally, I have bought a 12-string guitar, a ukulele, and a bass guitar, plus numerous sets of strings and picks from them.

2. Throughout the year they have about 10 to 12 concerts. The listening room holds about 80 people and is acoustically perfect for the shows. Not a bad seat in the room. And the acts that play there are often very high-level performers: Special Consensus, J. D. Crowe, Blue Highway, the Hillbenders, and more. I’ve never seen a bad show there.