Recorded
Bliss
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One
of the Quarter's specialty music stores, the Louisiana Music
Factory. |
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The
lack of formality that pervades New Orleans’ live music scene
also distinguishes the city’s most rewarding retail music
shops, most of which are located within blocks of one another in
the French Quarter, and all of which are small spaces crammed with
specialty offerings that make deep inroads into one musical genre
or another. These little independent proprietorships exist in the
shadows of Big Retailers and owe their continuation to devoted music
fans and collectors who favor the kind of chatty, knowledgeable,
enthusiastic customer service only those rumpled, fervent music
buffs staffing these places can provide.
There’s little doubt: The characters
working these shops aren't in it for the money. They are passion-driven
on a mission to locate whatever piece of music minutiae you may
seek.
Lost in the Local Vibe at LMF
Nowhere is this more evident than the Louisiana
Music Factory (210 Decatur Street 586 1094). Just step inside to find local
musicians and fans hanging out at the counter, gabbing about
club gigs and gossiping with members of the staff, all of whom
are fixtures on the local music scene (read ‘club rats’).
The place has a timeless quality and the general vibe is sort
of bump-y and jive-y, like you might close your eyes only to
open them and suddenly find the place has simply morphed into
a juke joint. It’s New Orleans boiled down into a microcosm
and embodied in The Record Shop.
The claustrophobic space is literally packed
with stock encompassing the entire history of recorded music
from New Orleans and related to New Orleans - extensive jazz
and blues selections and bins of Cajun, zydeco, R&B and gospel
abound. The second floor attic is a regular stop for collectors
of vinyl who come to peruse the vast, diverse and often rare
assortments of quality second-hand albums, which tend heavily
toward obsolete jazz.
You can test anything before you buy and the
staff is eager to pop the wrapper and plug you into a listening
station for either CDs or vinyl. The result is lots of happy-looking
people standing around wearing headsets with their eyes closed
and their feet shuffling beneath them.
Promoting Local Musicians
This pleasant vibe erupts past the front door every Saturday
when musicians play free concerts, which often serve as record
release parties, and Abita beer kicks in with free brew. Performers
range from local folk, jazz and blues acts to seemingly impromptu
new combos and well-known national recording artists.
The Louisiana Music Factory is a tremendous
resource for many local artists who produce and sell their own
CDs, which are only available for sale directly through them
at their respective gigs or at LMF. On Saturday afternoons CDs
from the performing musicians are offered for a sale price.
Beckham’s
for Classical
Down the block at Beckham’s Book Shop (228 Decatur St.
522-9875), the vibe is tranquil by comparison though no less
satisfying to the aficionados of rare classical music who bolster
their collections with visits to the first and third floors.
There, Carey Beckham warehouses a wide array of second-hand classical
records, CDs, albums and classical and semi-historic sheet music.
Rock & Roll Collectibles’ Monster
Inventory
Since 1986, old school rock and roll has ruled the lower end
of Decatur Street at Rock & Roll Collectibles (1214 Decatur
St. 561-5683), where the vinyl inventory is estimated at 250,000
LPs and about 500,000 smaller 45s. Owners Richard Turnbull and
Michael Aaron, both of whom began collecting in the early 1980s,
amassed the monster inventory. “Obviously, we are particularly
strong in vintage rock and roll,” Aaron said. “But
we really have more than a bit of just about everything.”
Among their more unusual offerings are 500
still-sealed Hanna Barbera cartoon story albums. This is the
place to find the ever desirable “Huckleberry Hound Tells
Stories of Uncle Remus” you’ve been searching for
so desperately.
Ride the Magic Bus
Off at the other end of the spectrum is Magic
Bus (631 Toulouse
St.522-0530). Three cool English guys started the business
in 1994 in an old – you guessed it - school bus that
was parked in the back of the French Market parking lot. Today
the determined beatniks have over 50,000 used records and CD's
that cover a wide selection of musical styles that span the
last 85 years with a particular emphasis on rock and pop. Due
largely in part, no doubt, to their very Englishness, the selection
here tends heavily toward rare recordings from obscure Brit
performers. The physical space is long, narrow, rather dimly
lit and, of course, crammed with stuff. It’s rather like
the interior of a bus or, as one might imagine, a yellow submarine.
Jyl Benson is a New Orleans-based writer and
publicist and frequent contributor to Time, New Orleans, St.
Charles Avenue and the Times Picayune. She also regularly contributes
to travel and guide books on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
