“What do you call an accordion player with a beeper?”

“An optimist.”

Does this side-splitter, one of several found in the book “Best Musician Jokes,” seem like the perfect gift for your favorite guitar-strummer or harmonica-player? Then the Pickin’ Porch, Floyd’s one-stop shop for acoustic musicians, is the place for you.

Opened in May 2004 by professional blues and roots guitarist Scott Perry, the Pickin’ Porch has made itself a regular haunt for any musician, budding or established, in search of all the materials necessary to improve their skills.

“I was struck by the amount of music in Floyd, and it seemed wrong to me that there weren’t music stores like this here already,” Perry said of his inspiration for opening the Pickin’ Porch.

His store now has four times the inventory that it did in the beginning, and while he caters to a certain style of music right now, Perry hopes to one day expand enough to make the Pickin’ Porch a place where musicians can find everything they could ever need.

“We have the best selection of instructional material in the area,” Perry said, noting the shelves and racks overflowing with DVDs and tapes with titles such as “You Can Teach Yourself Mandolin” and “Learning to Flatpick.”

“I’m really interested in fostering and supporting traditional music and music-makers here in Floyd,” he said .

Perry recently completed renovations to the store, creating space for consignment instruments and streamlining the arrangement of the handmade guitars on the walls.

The Pickin’ Porch is an authorized dealer of instruments such as Blue Ridge guitars, Johnson ukuleles and Rover banjos. He also reorganized all of his locally made instruments, including several dulcimers, to inhabit their own special section on the wall.

During the first few months of operation, Perry experienced the normal woes that plague most entrepreneurs attempting to establish themselves, including working with a not-so-helpful business partner.

But with the help of his wife, Lisa Kae, and his sons, Emerson, 10, and Spencer, 16, Perry’s business began to thrive.

Within six months, the Floyd community’s strong support and patronage of the Pickin’ Porch began to have a major effect on the store’s success, and the Perry family’s business has been coasting along smoothly ever since.

In January, Perry decided to begin offering lessons and workshops for practicing musicians in the Floyd community, a venture he had been hoping to provide from the beginning.

He approached such well-known Floyd musicians as violinist Mike Mitchell and harmonica player Phil Woddail to add to his guitar lessons on the schedule of workshops. Perry now has more than 20 regular students who come through the store for lessons.

“January and February tend to be pretty slow for retail, so I thought this would be a good time to start,” Perry said of beginning the workshops .

However, the Porch’s business continued steadily straight through the holidays and into the New Year.

Rather than providing the bulk of the income for the store during the winter months, Perry’s lessons have created bonus business.

“This is gravy,” he said about the unexpected extra income.

As if he weren’t busy enough, Perry also sponsors the “Masters of Acoustic Blues” concert series.

The Wiyos, a ragtime blues and hillbilly swing group, will kick off the series Feb. 26, when they will perform at Oddfella’s Cantina.

While still juggling the operation of the store and his sons’ home-schooling, Perry continues to operate Oh Papa Music , his traditional music company through which he released his most recent CD, “Hero Worship.”

He conducts educational workshops for Oh Papa Music, but he admits that he’s taking his time to focus on his business and his family.

“Of all the balls I have in the air, Oh Papa gets tossed up the least,” he said .

Lately, most of the gigs that he’s done have been the result of businesses approaching him to perform, instead of vice versa.

“I used to play six nights a week,” Perry said. “Now, once or twice a month is a lot.”

When comparing his work as a businessman with his former life as a full-time performer, he says that neither is better or worse than the other.

“They’re both equally stressful in different ways and equally rewarding in different ways,” Perry said. “The store gives me a lot of satisfaction since I’m helping people pursue their love of music.”

The former American and European history teacher is once again excited about helping others learn, thrilled to watch the progress and potential in his students at the Pickin’ Porch.

“I have a few younger students that are really talented and are really going to be something when they get older,” he said.

Although Perry said that he had “a gypsy soul” during his younger years, he and his family have come to call Floyd and the Pickin’ Porch home.

He insists that his store would never have been as successful as it has been were it not for the support of the Floyd community.

“Everything grew twice as fast as we had expected,” he said . “We love Floyd, and it has been incredibly good to us. … We provide goods and services that were unavailable before.”

Perry has plans to enlarge the space of the store later this year, while adding banjo and bass lessons to his list.

“Basically, we’re planning to be more of what we already are,” Perry said.

Upcoming workshops

• Saturday: 4 p.m., Old Time Banjo with Mac Traynham

• Feb. 25: 4 p.m., Crossover Violin with Mike Mitchell

• March 11: 4 p.m., Harmonica with Phil Woddail

Each workshop costs $25 and lasts 90 minutes. Call the Pickin’ Porch at 745-8863 to reserve a spot.

To find information about the Pickin’ Porch, check out www.thepickinporch.com.