When The Candyman—Santa Fe's self-described "community music center"—stopped selling albums to focus solely on "strings and things," the days of buying albums in brick-and-mortar stores where you could geek out with, or be demeaned by, the clerks seemed all but lost.
Sadness reigned, but recently, a handful of small retailers have begun to stock music and, more specifically, vinyl. Housed downtown within Constellation Home Electronics, The Guy in the Groove is one such retailer. The shop is more of a a vinyl corner than a full-on store, but proprietor Dick Rosemont has 35 years of experience and enough ambition to hit the ground running.
Hailing from More info')">Lansing, Mich. , Rosemont moved to Santa Fe in January. “My wife and I have owned a small vacation home in town since 2002, so we’re not starting from scratch or anything,” he says. “Plus, everything I’ve done since the ’60s has been music-oriented, so I do know what I’m doing.”
In addition to its selection of turntable upkeep paraphernalia, The Guy in the Groove boasts a vinyl collection that veers from rock and pop into a few choice selections in the jazz and country genres, such as Miles Davis and Waylon Jennings.
"I'm a music guy, not a business guy, so I know how important it is to be fair," Rosemont says. "It's better to have a reputation as someone with the goods than it is to turn a buck…I just want to share my love of music with everyone."
During my visit with Rosemont, we briefly discussed the kind of people who buy vinyl. So with this in mind, I sketched up a few record-lover profiles—y’know, just for fun. Read on and recognize yourself.
The Audiophile: You know more than anyone, and your impossible standards are a point of pride. You spent more on your sound setup than your kids’ education because listening to some old recording in crystal-clear quality is truly more important—that, or you’re filling some void. I suggest opening up to friends and family, coupled with a spending cap.
The College Kid: It doesn’t matter that you don’t actually know anything about anything, you’re going to prove to that record-store guy that you are the coolest. Sure, you don’t have a turntable and your roommate is a dick about his, but you’ll wait till he’s out and hang a sock on the door. Added bonus: Many record labels now include download codes with their vinyl, so your precious iPod can continue to compress all the juice out.
The Completionist: No, dude, we don’t know where you can find that weird bootleg copy of John Lennon blowing the intro by laughing. We didn’t hear about that rare find at a garage sale, and we’re not sure why people don’t realize mono pressing is better.
The Parents: Oh, wow, you didn’t realize that record labels still pressed vinyl. Yes, it would be fun to pull the turntable out of the attic and maybe pick up a few records from when you were my age. Yes, dad, I’m listening—really listening. No, dad, I didn’t know The Turtles’ members were friends with Frank Zappa. Interesting.
The Guy in the Groove is open 10 am-6 pm, Tuesday-Saturday, inside Constellation Home Electronics, 215 N Guadalupe St., 699-3332.
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