Jerry's Records is a used record store in Pittsburgh. Jerry used to have a shop or two in Oakland but now he's got one big one in Squirrel Hill. He sells music in other new and used formats but vinyl is his specialty. Like a lot of quality used stores, he does business on the Internet (the photo is from his web page.)
I shopped at his Squirrel Hill store when I lived there, and sold him about half my record collection when I left. He dealt fairly and I enjoyed talking to him. He's about my age and when the conversation drifted to how the ecological shit was certain to hit the fan someday soon, he owned what is our generation's secret guilty thought--fortunately by the time it gets really bad we'll be dead.
Recently Jerry has had one of those rare and maybe once in a lifetime experiences--in a pile of old records, most of them in bad condition, he founds gems--and one major gem in particular: a very rare original Robert Johnson record: the 1936 Vocalion release of "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom," the second song the reclusive Johnson is known to have recorded. All Robert Johnson records are rare. This one, says Jerry, is the "Holy Grail of 78s."
True to his nature (and besides, it's good for business) Jerry is sharing this wonder by playing it for anybody who comes by the store on the next few Saturday nights. I'll be there in spirit. The last time I talked to him (about 2 or 3 years ago, when I went in to buy back an album I sold him years before--might have been the same copy) it was clear that the used record business was becoming a tough one. Now that the sale of new vinyl records has reached its highest volume since the 1990s, maybe interest in the old stuff will also increase. This one record is bound to pay off pretty big.
So good for Jerry is all I want to say.
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