Memories Of Music Buying - part 5

In the last year and a half a lot of online music stores have shut down. With the economy in the state that it is in and with the popularity of MP3s, the music retail community has been hit hard and is changing. But one online music store that has survived well is Rad Rockers.

Rad Rockers gained popularity in early day of the Cornerstone Festival in the mid-80s. They are known for carrying independent music, imports, and a lot of discontinued music from major labels.

My first encounter with Rad Rockers was at Cornerstone Festival. They have a booth there every year and I always bought tons of music from them.

But it was not until almost 10 years later that I placed my first order on line with Rad Rockers. The had Undercovers' "Anthology" at an excellent price. Since then I have ordered from them off and on. I must admit their selection is very impressive.

There are so many great place to find music. So often it is not the "normal" place. I have found music in pawn shops, second hand stores and at garage sales. Of course music events (concerts, festivals, etc.) are great places to find music. My wife has learned that if there is a stack of music somewhere for sell, I will go through it.

To all of you music hunters and buyers out there, happy hunting.

Friday Music Find

On Friday when I got off work my wife looked at me and mentioned the idea of heading down to Flagstaff. My mind went to that little store in the historical area of town, Rock-It-Man. So off we went. We did have some things to do there, but since I was in the neighborhood I stopped off for a short visit.

I found four cds that I picked up. Not a bad find.
This is the 1971 live classic by the Allman Brothers Band. It was recorded over two days at the Fillmore East.
How can one pass up the Grammy Award winning 2008 release by Jeff Beck!
I have been in a jazzy mood of late and some Chuck Mangione was right on target. I forget what an amazing musician he is.
To finish off my find, I had to pick up something from a native Texan (and Dallas at that!). This is a classic greatest hits album from Steve Miller.

Next time I go in there (or any other music store) I need to have a "want list" to look for certain cds. I guess I need to work on that. But a fun time was had at Rock-It-Man.

Memories Of Music Buying - part 4

In the mid 70's I started receiving a magazine called Harmony. This was a magazine dealing with Jesus Music and inside each issue was an order form for a mail order comapny called Daily Bread. Daily Bread dealt exclusively with Jesus Music. Their selection was second to none. I ordered from them a few times and their service was excellent. Among other good albums this is where I got "Brainwashed" by the All Saved Freak Band.

With the advent of the internet music shops on line became very popular. One of my favorites was True Tunes.

True Tunes was owned and operated by John J. Thompson. It was a retail store in Wheaton IL that had a magazine where it advertised it's mail order business. In 1999 they did away with the printed version and turned completely to the internet.

True Tunes carried a lot of your basic CCM and Christian rock, but they were mostly known for carring a lot of hard to find music and limited editions.

Memories Of Music Buying - part 3

In 1990 I was at a Larry Norman concert where I met a guy named Dave. We talked for a while and I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that he owned one of my favorite music stores in the Dallas area - Forever Young. At the time Forever Young was in two locations: Irving Tx and Arlington Tx. The Irving store closed down and eventually the Arlington store moved to Grand Prairie TX where they still are today.

Forever Young is a massive 11,000 square foot record store with just about every type and genre imaginable - rock, classic rock, country, classical, gospel, comedy - literally everything.
In 1993 I discovered a used cd store called CD Warehouse. CD Warehouse is a franchise that is scattered through out the US.

Word on the street was that CD Warehouse (in south Arlington TX) had a good selection of Christian rock. I had to go check it out. One afternoon I paid them a visit. I found the usual abundance of Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith. But there were other selections there that were true gems. I visited this store from time to time. But the real gold mine opened a year later.

On a beautiful spring afternoon in 1994 I was on my way home from work. My wife had asked me to stop off at the store, so I was pulling into the parking lot of a local grocery store when I saw a new business that was only a few doors down. The sign caught my attention. The business was called Sound Source and it was a used cd store.

I walked in and started looking around. Because it was a brand new store and just starting out they did not have a large selection. But what they had was some really good stuff! I found an amazing selection of music. I went back the following weekend and bought "The Broken Christmas" and Steve Taylor's "I Predict 1990."

Over the next four years Sound Source became my favorite cd haunt. We found a ton of great music there. The owner, Austin, was a Christian and he always had a lot of Christian rock there.

I remember going into the store once right after someone had unloaded his entire cd collection. Man did I score! I found tons of music that I had been unable to locate before. I found some Swirling Eddies, DA, Kerry Livgren\AD and much, much more. I dropped a lot of money there that day.

But all good things must come to an end. Towards the end of 1999 Austin sold Sound Source to a fellow named Michael that had bought a CD WArehouse in Dallas. Michael was also a Christian that enjoyed a lot of the same music that I did. I went into his Dallas store right after he took it over and found Chagall Guevara and also a radio special about the Mark Heard tribute album "Strong Hand Of Love."

Michael owned Sound Source for about two years and then sold both of his stores. The stores were never the same and eventually shut down. Sound Source was, and still is, greatly missed.

Memories Of Music Buying - part 2

When I became a Christian in 1971 my music buying continued. With the discovery of Jesus Music my buying and collecting expanded. One of my record shop haunts moved a few blocks down the street and turned into something other than just a record shop. But in that same block was a Christian book store that sold a lot of music. It was managed by a Pentecostal lady named "Sister" Donna. Donna realized that many people were looking for Jesus Music but were unable to find it. She worked hard at stocking possibly the best selection of Jesus Music in Dallas TX in the early 70s.

As time progressed forward the music buying landscape changed. Two large chains came into the area. One was LP Good Buy. The other was Peaches. LP Good Buy was only in the Dallas market for a very short time. Peaches survived and the locations were mostly bought by another record shop chain.

Going to Peaches was always an experience. I remember buying the first two Seawind albums there along with the Alpha Band album "Spark In The Dark." The selection was massive and going there was always fun.
Peaches use to carry crates where you could store albums. They had smaller ones to store 45 rpms in. When my wife and I got married 18 years ago I still had my crates. I had them stacked on top of each other. She was always afraid they would fall over. I eventually got rid of them.

Another music chain that was in my area that survived for many years was Sound warehouse. Sound Warehouse grew into a large chain long after LP Good Buy and Peaches were gone. They were known originally for being an excellent place for hard to find albums. But in time they began to carry movies and games. They were eventually purchased by Blockbuster and went out of business a few years ago.

Another store that is very dear to my heart was His Place in Dallas TX. It was located next to the old Texas Theatre. His Place was owned and operated by Bob Hatleberg. Bob hired me as the assistant manager. Along with a really good assortment of Christian music (and great prices) we did something very revolutionary at the time. We had a listening center so the customer could hear e music prior to making their purchase. We had a demo tape of almost every album in stock.

His Place continued to sell Christian music for many years. Even though Bob's customer based changed and the selection changed, he stayed open until 2009.

Memories Of Music Buying - Intro part 1

As a small child some of my fondest memories were centered on music. When I was about three to four years old my older sister would be at school and my dad would be at work, I would go to my other and tug on her apron and ask if we could play records. My mother would very patiently tell me "in a little while." After she would finish the dishes and other pressing matters she would get out "my records" and we would "spin some wax" together.

When I was about six or seven years old I got my first record player for Christmas. It had detachable speakers and full stereo! Man was I excited! Along with the record player I got some albums - Gene Autry singing Christmas carols, the Vienna Boys Choir and an album of children's songs. But a few months latter a musical discovery was made, and not just by me but by the entire world. The Beatles hit America and nothing was ever the same.
Buying music for me has always been more than just an occasional thing. I have actually spent entire days just going out and hunting and buying music all over town. As a young teenager in Dallas I remember going to the local record shops and thumbing through albums. Music buying has always been important to me.

In the next several blog installments I am going to take some time to look back over the years and think about some of the different places I have bought music, the experience of music buying and the fond memories. Next time, the journey will begin.