Checking out record stores in Kingston a couple of weeks ago, “Ghost Town” by The Specials came on. I had to smile. It wasn’t so long ago the song could’ve been written about Kingston, but here it was a 93 degree Thursday and the town was humming.
Another irony: wasn’t there a corresponding time when record stores and vinyl itself were presumed dead? Every record store I went into was packed. How did this happen?
Kingston’s current record store renaissance has been in development for quite some time.
John Blue has been selling vinyl (along with sharp hats) at Blue Byrd uptown since 1992. Not too long after that, Ed Butler began selling vinyl out of Wright Gallery on North Front Street (some may recall the yellow “We Buy Records” sign mirroring the “We Buy Guns” sign at Sam’s Swap Shop next door.)
About that same time, indie music producer Doug Wygal was in Brooklyn dreaming about moving upstate and opening a record store. When the opportunity arose to buy Ed Butler’s shop, Wygal jumped at the chance.
“I was a big fan of Jack’s Rhythms in New Paltz,” Wygal says, “I wanted to do something similar.”
Wygal renamed the store Rocket Number Nine in honor of the song by Sun Ra. Rocket Number Nine is celebrating their tenth anniversary this summer.
“We have customers that regularly buy $100 records and customers that only buy from our five-for-a-dollar bin,” he says. “Some customers just want to be left alone to quietly flip through records, others want to talk music and politics. All are welcome.”
Also on North Front is Rhino Records. Rhino is likewise celebrating their tenth year in the neighborhood, but the store’s history goes back a lot further than even its sister stores in New Paltz and elsewhere in the valley.
“Rhino started as a record shop on Westwood Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1973,” explains owner Rick Lange, “it became a record distributor five years later. The story gets more involved from there, but the short story is the label was sold to Warner Brothers and in the deal we got to keep the name Rhino!”
Asked if there’s such a thing as a typical customer at their Kingston store, Lange replies, “Hell no.” This said, regular customer Alexandra Larios has been buying vinyl uptown since she was a teenager and recently did her first guest DJ spot at Stockade Tavern. Alexandra admits to listening to music digitally sometimes when working at her computer, but otherwise is a vinyl fanatic.
“I love listening to a complete album,” she says. “I have a lot of old rock-and-roll and country records, but also many of my favorite current artists, like The Felice Brothers, put out their new albums on vinyl.”
Vinyl shops elsewhere in the City of Kingston include Sound Shack at Red Owl Collective at the old Wonderly’s building on Cornell Street. Owner Sandy Rokoff refreshes the crates once or twice a week.
“Vinyl is Final,” Rokoff says. “It’s the way the artist intended it, the cover, the liner notes, the playlist. The sound is amazing on the right equipment, I like to say it’s like having the band in my own living room!”
And Kingston is far from the only town in the area with excellent record stores at the moment. Just across the river there’s Rhinebeck Vinyl Vault on East Market Street. T.J. Byrnes, who mans the store during the week, explains vinyl’s appeal to younger enthusiasts:
“All the Gen Z kids [born after 96], they’re the streaming generation, they never got to own their music and movies, so there’s a trend toward owning your music again and having a singular music experience rather than a curated playlist.”
Byrnes thinks the internet and indie record stores are actually complimenting each other at the moment.
“We’re at a really interesting point in music right now where it’s returned to a niche market,” he says. “The consumer is really knowledgeable about what they want, be it My Bloody Valentine or Motorhead. The internet has definitely posed some challenges to brick-and-mortar stores, but it’s informed customers about bands they might’ve never heard of. There’s an investigative element I’ve never seen before and it’s really cool to witness.”
Spike Priggen, who owns Spike’s Record Rack on Main Street in Catskill, agrees that the internet has boosted record stores in unexpected ways.
“I think it’s because we’re living in a digital age that vinyl is so popular,” Spike says. “It’s why cassettes are so popular, it’s not because they sound better, it’s a reaction to digital. Kids hate digital so they’re into cassettes.”
Spike also sees a sort of democratization in today’s world of vinyl collectors.
“Vinyl is all ages, all sexes,” he says. “It used to be you never saw a woman at a record store, now there’s lots of women in the store buying records.”
For those who’ve been collecting since the days when vinyl was the only option, today’s record stores provide not only a feeling of nostalgia, but a sense of continuity. It really wasn’t so long ago that towns like Kingston had almost more places to buy records than you could count.
I’m not the only one who grew up in Kingston who still has vinyl in his collection from when Truck Stop was on Fair Street in the 70s and 80s. Woolworth’s had a truly random collection of albums at half-price, if you didn’t mind holes punched in the covers. And, in a time before an infinite supply of info became available online, Cam-Bo-Rec down in the Plaza also sold magazines like Creem and Circus so you could educate yourself about what was out there (they sold cameras, too, which was the “Cam” part.)
Almost every store mentioned in this article is as eager to buy vinyl as they are to sell. If you’ve got some milk crates full of record albums in your garage or attic, don’t assume they’re just taking up space, hoist them into the car and go make friends with a record store owner in your neighborhood (be smart and do a little research first, that Beatles White Album might be worth enough to put your grandkids through college.)
Buying albums at gigs might be the safest way to make sure the money makes it into the musicians’ hands, but local record shops are entities unto themselves that thrive with support. Even if your turntable’s missing a belt at the moment, most stores sell music in other formats, and you can always buy a cool t-shirt.
Other dedicated indie record stores to check out include Ever Records in Woodstock or, if you’re up for going farther afield, there’s Hudson Valley Vinyl in Beacon, or Darkside Records in Poughkeepsie. There are also plenty of places that are selling vinyl in addition to books, comics, musical equipment, or vintage clothes, think Rewind on Broadway in Kingston, Oblong and Megabrain across the river, Inquiring Minds, or Woodstock Music Shop. Did we miss your favorite? Feel free to add it to the comment section of the online version of this article.
“I think there’s an uptick in vinyl’s popularity right now, but I also think it’s here to stay,” Alexandra Larios says. “There are record stores everywhere, they even sell records at Target. Bands sell their vinyl at every show I go to. I think as long as people love music, or their favorite band, or a 16-year-old finds their parents’ record collection in their basement, there will always be people buying records.”
Join the family! 
