SEASON ONE - A SYNOPSIS

  Papa Ray discusses the four plus decades journey from selling vinyl LPs at an open-air farmers market to a 7,500 square foot converted movie theater in St. Louis - the undisputed Home of The Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Soul, Hip-Hop, and Rock & Roll, home of legendary musicians such as Chuck Berry, Miles Davis, Oliver Sain, Scott Joplin, Ike Turner, and David Sanborn. There’s been an indie record store tradition of visits, Meet & Greets, as well as live performances,  resulting in hundreds (if not thousands) of bands and artists such as Mumford & Sons, Queens of the Stone Age, Beastie Boys, Eddie Levert, Reggae’s Gregory Isaac, The Black Eyed Peas, Eazy-E, Widespread Panic, Jason Mraz, Dierks Bentley, Linkin Park, and the Insane Clown Posse – to name just a few who come to the store to perform, meet their fans, or sometimes just want to shop. 

 Tom provides a quick overview of how St. Louis was a ‘Blues Town’ even before Chicago. Then, he and a few of his stellar employees at Vintage Vinyl explain the magic of working in a place that was voted ‘One of the 10 Best Record Stores in the U.S.’ by USA Today, while explaining how the store survived the greatly exaggerated DEATH OF THE RECORD STORE, when so many of the chain stores folded during the rise of the internet, downloads/streaming - leading to seeing the resurgence of vinyl’s popularity over CDs. Papa Ray also talks about the importance of how record stores create a sense of community for both customers, as well as local and national musicians. He also talks about how the creation of NATIONAL RECORD STORE DAY was a rallying cry heard all over the world promoting the vitality of music, as well as the importance of local stores to their community.  

 Papa Ray and his crew were blown away visiting the United Kingdom. In a ten-day visit, they barely scratched the surface of a nation filled with record stores that have earned world-wide reputations. The wealth of music is explored in neighborhoods such as London’s SoHo District – stores such as the formidable Sister Ray, as well as Lion Vibes and Pure Vinyl in Brixton, the sweet spot of Reggae/Caribbean music in the British Empire. Then to Manchester, the home of Rave Culture, the Northern Soul Scene, & cutting edge Rock bands with international followings. We hit the famed home of alternative sounds Piccadilly Records, along with bustling shops such as Vinyl Resting Place and Vinyl Revival. Seen on the wall in the downtown district - “‘On The Sixth Day, God Made Manchester”, we think it should have continued with - "And Manchester Created These Amazing Record Stores". 

 More than any other Texas town, Austin is the city most identified with music. From Willie Nelson to Stevie Ray Vaughan, the South By Southwest Festival, as well as the home for the award winning television series, Austin City Limits. It has the most vibrant examples of Texas music culture, with a homegrown scene supported by stores such as End Of An Ear, Antone’s, and Waterloo Records – the latter being perhaps the most well-known in Texas. Owner of Waterloo, John Kurz told us of the moments when Nirvana played an in-store in the early 1990s, along with how a young Norah Jones brought her Mom and piano teacher to watch her play at the store --- which just so happened right before her 5-Grammy award winning LP, Come Away with Me was released. Oh, there IS far more… 

 In Toledo, we find yet another example of a record store with a decades long history in its town. Beginning in 2004, Pat O’Connor opened Culture Clash Records, which gained a reputation for its vinyl selection as well as hosting live music in the store. Pat was both an advocate of local businesses and local bands. When he unexpectedly passed away in 2017, his wife Marcia was determined to keep the store open. Now owned by Tim and Lizzie Friedman, it is known as Toledo’s Best – continuing its advocacy of vinyl as well as local music. Cleveland - the city that houses the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, can also boast one of the planet's state-of-the-art vinyl pressing plants, a boon to many independent labels as well as individual artists. Renowned for its audiophile quality production, Matt Earley’s Gotta Groove Records, will be showing us the nuts and bolts as well as the Sonic Artistry in this time of the vinyl revival. And then, our crew found a shop that opens its doors at 6PM to 12AM - Late Nite Records, a nocturnal home for the city’s DJs and vinyl enthusiasts. 

 Papa Ray goes to Cincinnati and meets with Darren Blaise, owner of Ohio’s outstanding record shop, Shake It Records, where every genre of music is represented. It’s often so busy, you have to squeeze by customers drawn to its record racks. He also discusses the importance to the history of music that Cincinnati is the home of the legendary King & Federal empire, one of the greatest independent record companies in the entire world. The label was the home of James Brown, Ernest Tubbs, Ike Turner, and many other Blues, Rockabilly, and Country music icons. It runs deep, in this River city. 50 miles away, located in downtown Loveland, the music veterans at Plaid Room Records not only operate a state-of-the-art retail operation, it’s also the home of one of the most potent independent labels in America, Colemine Records.          Since 2007, it specializes in both bringing to the world rare Soul/R&B/Funk music from years past, as well as the contemporary soul jazz trio The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - whose first release on Colemine in 2018 - Close, But No Cigar hit Number 1 on the Contemporary Jazz Albums Chart. Plaid Room Records exemplifies the role independent record stores play not only as music retailers in their community, but also knowing curators, often more aware than the major corporate labels are, when it comes to what they actually have in their vaults!  

We are currently traveling around the U.S. visiting killer indie stores (Hey, someone's got to do it!).  You'll be able to check them all out soon on your local PBS station.                                                  Thanks to the best crew on the planet!

We've been blessed to have hundreds of bands and thousands of musicians play and visit our store:  To name just a few -   Mumford & Sons, Rudy Rae Moore, The BlackEyed Peas, Widespread Panic, Billy Bob Thorton & The Boxmasters, Jack Black & Tenacious D, Pokey LaFarge,  Insane Clown Posse, Queens of the Stone Age, Jason Mraz, Robert Cray, Matisyahu, Linkin Park, The Fantastic Negrito, SlipKnot, etc.

Wait until you hear how the Disney Corporation wanted to stop the in-store of The Insane Clown Posse.   When their fans found out that we had copies of the LP that was supposed to be destroyed, all hell broke out.  Have you ever seen that scene in "Day of the Locust"?