11 December 2007

Shake It Records

I quit buying music when the CD became prevalent. I'm exaggerating, but after college (when I had piles of cassette tapes), I bought some CDs, but never really loved them, and they seemed to get lost or scratched a lot. So for many years, I mostly just listened to the radio. Part of it might have been the noise in the city, and appreciating quiet, when I could get it. Or maybe I was just too tight to spend the dough on a stereo and new music.

A few times, I would find myself in a record store, and I felt so uncomfortable and befuddled, ending up in the oldies aisle, which is the only place I recognized any names.

But last year, my dear wife got me a turntable from Reliable at Court and Vine, and I hauled out the remnants of my teenage vinyl collection and had an enjoyable time becoming re-acquainted with old records.

Then, I started picking up a few records here and there at the Salvation Army and thrift stores. I did a little looking online for vinyl, but it seemed so expensive, compared to the 4 records for a dollar at garage sales. Yesterday, for the first time, I entered Shake It Records, which is in Northside, two blocks north of Knowlton's Corner. Wow. What an eye-opener. There were all kinds of people like myself sorting through the vinyl selection. I still didn't recognize most of the bands, but the setup reminded me of ye-olde record shop, like Moles or Everybody's records, so I felt at home. After only a few minutes I left with some vintage Chet (both the Atkins and Baker variety). 4 albums for $18. Very nice.

Can't wait to go back.

2 comments:

Beach said...

Reliable is going out of business. Sad to see, but they their confusing array of random and usually out of date products always made me wonder how they stayed in business.

CityKin said...

Beach; I've heard that, but resisted posting on it until I heard it from the source.

Gene, the owner I think sold the building a few years ago and just kept the business going part time. I think I will need to see him before he completely closes, as he has stuff that is very hard to find.