Record Store Day marks 10th year

Crate divers unite!  Saturday, April 22, 2017 marks the 10th annual “Record Store Day,” conceived in 2007 by a few independent record store owners and employees.  The owner of Denver’s Twist and Shout Paul Epstein shared plans for this year’s celebration with Arturo Gómez on his mid-day radio show, “Lunchtime at the Oasis.”

“Record Store Day has paralleled the rebirth of vinyl,” said Epstein.  ”Vinyl did outsell CDs in 2016, but CD sales are also down, so it’s a good news – bad news story.  But the overall trend for our record store is up.  I’ve had the best business years in our store’s 29-year history recently.  But we never got out of vinyl.”

In the audio interview posted below, Epstein and Gómez discuss and the bevy of new and re-releases on the racks especially for today, “in very small numbers, things that are hard to find or have been out of print for a while,” says Epstein.  ”They’re throwing every high-end technique, session and heavy-gram pressing into these special releases.”

Among the special issues for Record Store Day are “The Art Pepper Quartet,” “The Allen Toussaint Collection,” Sun Ra’s “Janus,” Wes Montgomery’s “Smokin’ in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse,” Jaco Pastorius “Truth, Liberty & Soul – Live in NYC,” and more.

One of the projects released nationwide on Record Store Day 2017 is a previously unreleased Louis Armstrong LP on Dot Time Records called “The Standard Oil Sessions.” (CD and digital releases are scheduled for a May release.)

There are an estimated 1400 independent record stores in the U.S. (and thousands more worldwide).  The official website for the event is www.recordstoreday.com.  (A search function at that website revealed 14 record stores in Colorado’s Front Range region.)

interview with Paul Epstein