The Record Collector's Guide to Nashville

Nashville is known as the home of country music, but there's a whole lot more for music lovers to discover in the "Athens of the South." For nearly 25 years, Nashville has been home to a thriving rock music scene that has yielded artists like Jason & the Scorchers, Webb Wilder, Threk Michaels, the Pink Spiders and the Kings Of Leon. The "Music City" has nurtured the growth of gospel music since the early 1900s and is also the business epicenter of the CCM industry. Blues, rap, electronic and "space music" all have a place on the streets of Nashville.

For the music lover and record collector, Nashville provides an oasis of possibilities. With just a few stops, you can find your wallet emptied and your trunk full of hard-to-find vinyl, CDs and other musical paraphernalia. If you're planning a trip to the "Music City" for vacation or for a weekend of digging through crates for vinyl collectibles, fire up your favorite online map and plot out your route, 'cause these are the places that you have to visit while driving around the city.

Ernest Tubb Record Store, 417 Broadway

For over half-century, Ernest Tubb Record Store has catered to the tastes of collectors of country and bluegrass music. When the Grand Ole Opry was located at the Ryman Auditorium, Ernest Tubb's was a required stop during any visit. The tourists don't make it downtown as frequently as they used to, but the savvy music lover always finds time for ET's, and the company has gradually expanded to include stores in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Fort Worth, Texas as well as near the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. The flagship store at 417 Broadway is still the place to visit for those searching for rare and hard-to-find vinyl. While in downtown Nashville, it's worth walking down the street to both Lawrence Brothers and the Hatch Show Print store, which offers fantastic block-printed reproductions of classic country music posters.

The Great Escape, 1925 Broadway

Nashville's first used music store, The Great Escape has a quarter-century of history stashed away in its storefront, with a truckload of vintage vinyl that runs the gamut from rock and blues to country and bluegrass. The G.E., as it's known to locals, also has a large selection of used CDs and often has new releases glommed from Music Row labels on sale at half what you'd pay for them down the street. Throw in a large selection of vinyl 45s, used DVDs, new and used comic books, paperbacks and old magazines stuck in boxes and on shelves and it's easy to spend an entire day digging through the corners of the store. A "half price" store down the street is open on Fridays and Saturdays and offers up dirt-cheap CDs and vinyl albums for a buck. The Great Escape also has a smaller location in Madison, northeast of Nashville, with lots of vinyl and CDs as well.

Grimey's Music, 1604 8th Avenue South

Founded by local musician Mike "Grimey" Grimes, Grimey's Music is Nashville's hip indie record store, on par with Criminal Records in Atlanta or Chicago's Record Emporium. Grimey's carries everything the alt-rocker could desire, from indie labels and import discs to magazines and DVDs. New and used compact discs are complimented by a fine selection of vintage vinyl. Co-owner and primary music buyer Doyle Davis, formerly of the Great Escape, has exquisite tastes and has loaded Grimey's racks with loads of funk, Northern Soul, classic R&B and blues to balance out the latest indie-rock buzz bands. The store frequently features live performances from up-and-coming performers and a massive, twice-a-year sale in the back parking lot where vinyl and CDs are sold dirt cheap while local bands perform.

Lawrence Brothers Record Shop, 409 Broadway

At one time, Mr. Lawrence would greet visitors in his store by handing them a glass of beer, fumbling the hand-off so that you'd think that it was going to spill all over your clothes. It was a fake glass, of course, and the portly, cigar-chomping Lawrence would always get a good laugh out of the gag. Collectors would usually leave the store laughing as well, as Lawrence Brothers features four floors of vintage vinyl (45s and albums), CDs and cassettes in country, rock and blues genres. Along with Ernest Tubb Record Shop down the street, this is the place for country music collectors, and they might even still have some 8-track tapes laying around that hardcore collectors of obscurity can grab for a quarter.

Phonoluxe Music, 2609 Nolensville Road

Owner and curator Mike Smyth has been in the music retail business most of his life, spending better than two decades in the Nashville building one of the city's best-kept collector's secrets. A large store located just minutes away from Grimey's, Phonoluxe offers scads of vinyl, from '70s and '80s rock and classic country to gospel and blues. The store also has a large selection of used CDs, attractively priced from $4 - $8 on average, with large roots-rock, classic rock, country, jazz and blues sections as well as box sets, vinyl 45s, autographed items and other odds-and-ends. Mike has an intimate familiarity of '50s and '60s rock, doo-wop and country music, and his long-time staff's knowledge of classic rock, indie rock and other genres is impressive. Phonoluxe is a great place to finish up any collector's visit to the Music City. Just make sure that you still have room in the trunk....