Chris Reisman (Photo by J. Simms)

Chris Reisman owns Hudson Valley Vinyl at 267 Main St. in Beacon.

Record Store Day is tomorrow (April 21). Why don’t you participate?
It’s designed to say that records are back “in” style, but I don’t think they ever went out of style. It also promotes limited editions, but you don’t need that to enjoy records. People should buy records every day, not just one day a year.

How did you get hooked on LPs?
There were two kinds of kids when I was growing up — the kids who liked sports and the kids who liked music. Music made me feel good, so I started buying records, and it turned into an obsession. As I got older I started looking for more obscure things, and it became an addiction. There’s something not right with us record people.

Will people ever stop buying records?
It’s never going to go away. I see everybody from kids just graduating high school to 70-year-olds in here. Everyone’s passing good music down. The MP3 is a convenience. You can’t put a record player in a car or wear one while you’re jogging, so there’s a need for digital but in the end, people love records.

What do you specialize in?
Vintage soul, jazz and rock. And obscurities. A week after we opened we bought a 7,000-piece jazz collection spanning the late 1950s into the ’80s. We had two Alan Watts records walk in off the street the other day. You don’t see them too often.

What are your desert-island discs?
For me, it would be John Coltrane, A Love Supreme or Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come. Metallica, Master of Puppets. From the Beatles, Rubber Soul or Revolver. And Abdul Wadud, By Myself. It’s an improvisational cello record and it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard.

Behind The Story

Type: News

News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Simms has covered Beacon for The Current since 2015. He studied journalism at Appalachian State University and has reported for newspapers in North Carolina and Maryland. Location: Beacon. Languages: English. Area of expertise: Beacon politics

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