Vinyl Revival

Resurgent interest in the once-obsolete medium is deeply rooted in Memphis.

by

“It’s real learning-curve stuff for me. Geez, what was I thinking?”

Steve Selvidge, the Memphis guitar wiz and member of the Hold Steady, who learned about music firsthand from his father, the late Sid Selvidge, sounds like he’s having second thoughts about jumping into the record label game, but he’s not, really. You can see the gleam in his eye as he holds the debut LP by MEM_MODS, his ad hoc group with Luther Dickinson and Paul Taylor, freshly minted on the Peabody Records imprint his father started in 1976. All concerns with jump-starting the label aside, releasing MEM_MODS on vinyl has clearly been a labor of love.

Selvidge is but one pilgrim on the road back to vinyl records, a journey that musicians, labels, and fans are taking in greater numbers every year. Since 2008, consumer interest in that twentieth-century dinosaur, the LP, or long-playing album, has only accelerated, with market analyses predicting continued annual growth between 8 and 15 percent for vinyl musical products over the next five to six years. That’s a notable statistic for investors, and a sign of hope for those who prefer to hold their favorite music in their hands.

Memphis is at the center of this vinyl revival. Every step of the record-making process — labels, recording, mastering, record pressing, distribution, and retail — can be found here. Johnny Phillips, co-owner of the longtime Memphis-based record distributor Select-O-Hits, says, “Not very many cities can offer everything we offer right here. Everything you need, you have right here. Memphis is like a one-stop-shop for vinyl right now.”

Tangible and Durable

Steve Selvidge and the many other local owners of small, independent labels — Archer, Madjack, Back to the Light, and others mentioned below — are clearly in the right place, and they’re in the game for more than sentimental reasons. As Selvidge sees it, vinyl albums are inherently appealing, aside from any nostalgia or associations they have with his own family history.

“Just look at the tangibility, beyond any generation gap,” he reflects. “It’s younger people that grew up in the post-CD age that want vinyl now. It’s not just a fad or a niche. It’s a durable medium, the same as recording tape.”

In contrast, he notes, digital music can fall prey to the relentless march of planned obsolescence. “I’m sure you have hard drives that won’t spin up from 2005, or outmoded software,” he says. “But when I transferred my dad’s tapes that [Ardent Studios founder] John Fry cut in 1966, they were bulletproof, man! They sounded amazing. It’s the same thing with vinyl. If you’re geared up to play it, whether it’s a current artist or an old classic, you have that, and you’ll have that to pass down for God knows how long, provided you take care of it. And if you’re an artist making vinyl now, even if sales are low, you’re creating the chance for someone to stumble on the physical thing, put the needle on, and have their lives changed.”

By 1956 Plastic Products was pressing records round the clock for more than 49 labels nationwide, including Chess, Atlantic, ABC, Ace, Hi, Meteor, and Veejay records. In that same year Williams doubled production, turning out more than 65,000 records a day.

The sheer physicality of grooves cut into vinyl is one reason Memphis became a haven for independent labels like Hi, Sun, and Stax in the first place. Many of them relied on the services of a business at 1746 Chelsea: Plastic Products, established in 1949. Indeed, that one company may be the root cause of Memphis being Vinyl City, U.S.A. As a historical marker at the address notes:

R.E. “Buster” Williams, a self-educated engineer, opened Plastic Products in 1949 with equipment he had researched and designed himself. ... Knowing the struggles of small, independent recording studios, such as Sun and Stax, Williams offered them generous credit terms. By 1956 Plastic Products was pressing records round the clock for more than 49 labels nationwide, including Chess, Atlantic, ABC, Ace, Hi, Meteor, and Veejay records. In that same year Williams doubled production, turning out more than 65,000 records a day.

Peter Guralnick, author of Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll, puts Plastic Products in perspective today: “You can’t overstate the importance of Buster Williams, and his generosity of spirit. He extended Sam credit, and Sam was always grateful. Sam went to his funeral. Buster Williams was integral, not just to Sam’s success, but to his feeling of individualism in the extreme.”

Phillips’ dogged individualism, of course, fueled the independent spirit that led Sun and other small local imprints to release music that was far off the beaten path, which nonetheless might turn into a hit. And Plastic Products enjoyed that gold rush of the original era of vinyl but, as Robert Gordon writes in It Came from Memphis, “the proliferation of cassettes and the demise of the seven-inch [record] forced them out of business.” But lately, in perfect sync with vinyl’s revival, another player has emerged to keep Memphis in the game.

Memphis Record Pressing (MRP) arose from a partnership between Brandon Seavers and Mark Yoshida, whose AudioGraphic Masterworks specialized in CD and DVD production, and Fat Possum Records, whose co-owner Bruce Watson first suggested that they move into vinyl production. Now, the company is in the hands of Seavers, Yoshida, and GZ Media, the largest vinyl record manufacturer in the world, and is expanding dramatically.

Seavers points out how the world of vinyl has evolved over recent years. “When we started, we searched the world for record presses, which was really a challenge. Back in 2014, there were no new machines being built. You had to scour the corners of the earth to find ancient machinery and bring it back to life. Fast forward to 2018, when a few companies emerged around the world that invested in building new machines. We started bringing in these brand-new computer-controlled machines that were very different from our old machines. And that started the process of expansion. Through 2018-21, we replaced our aging equipment bit by bit, and in September of last year we replaced the last of our old machines.”

Throughout these changes, even going back to the CD era, Seavers and Yoshida have prioritized local, obscure artists and labels. As Seavers notes, “We’ve always been focused on independent artists. We kind of grew up together as companies with one of our clients, Fat Possum Records, and they grew to be a powerhouse in the indie spectrum. This year marks our 25th year [since AudioGraphic Masterworks launched], and we’ve produced a thousand titles. Just to see the volume of work we’ve produced over that 25 years is amazing. And the vast majority of that was for independent artists.”

Declaration of Independents

These pressing plants’ support for locals underscores another bastion of vinyl culture in the Bluff City: the many small labels that remain doggedly committed to releasing music on records. And that ethos goes hand in hand with taking aesthetic risks. It certainly spoke to Steve Selvidge, as an artist, when he decided to revive the label his father started in the 1970s.

“Peabody was always a bespoke, curated label,” says Selvidge. “A ‘we’re not going to worry about what you look like or how many units you’re going to shift’ kind of thing. It was just what piqued my dad’s interest.”

And there was always plenty of music to choose from, thanks not only to the city’s raw talent, but to the milieu of recording and mastering studios based here. To this day, studios that helped forge new sounds and genres in Memphis music’s golden age are still in operation, including Ardent Studios, Royal Studios, and Sam Phillips Recording, the latter even hosting a mastering business, Take Out Vinyl, which prepares discs for mass production.

Even labels that are now the stuff of legend started off in much the same way as Peabody. While they certainly had commercial ambitions, they were driven by their own particular aesthetics more than the big labels of the day, like RCA-Victor or Columbia.

The elder Selvidge was immersed in this world of studios cranking out music, and from the start he used Peabody to expose other local artists, embracing their idiosyncrasies, including what was once considered Alex Chilton’s commercial suicide, the shambolic Like Flies on Sherbert. Thanks to Chilton’s unique vision, the album has lived on through reissues over the years, even though, as the younger Selvidge puts it, the record’s genesis was “not coming from a place of commerce.”

That could be said of the many small, independent record labels that have long characterized Memphis music. And they have always flourished here. A 1959 article in the Memphis Press-Scimitar lists a baker’s dozen of them: Albe, Cover, Diane, Fernwood, Hi, Lee, Pepper, Phillips International, Play Me, Stomper Time, Sun, Summer, and Tom-Tom. They don’t mention the tiny Satellite Records in nearby Brunswick, Tennessee, soon destined to relocate to McLemore Avenue in Memphis and change their name to Stax. Even labels that are now the stuff of legend started off in much the same way as Peabody. While they certainly had commercial ambitions, they were driven by their own particular aesthetics more than the big labels of the day, like RCA-Victor or Columbia.

The same holds true of the many local, vinyl-centric independent labels in business today. Archer, Back to the Light, Blast Habit, Big Legal Mess/Bible & Tire, Black & Wyatt, Madjack, Misspent, and Peabody are just some of the imprints releasing new works today, with all of them issuing LPs and/or 45-rpm singles. Other local labels operate on a more national or international stage, such as Goner, Made In Memphis Entertainment, or the late Young Dolph’s innovative (and massive) indie label, Paper Route Empire.

America’s (Vinyl) Distribution Center

Once these independent labels record their artists and press their LPs and singles (not to mention produce CDs and digital albums), how do they get them onto the turntables of music fans? The answer, as with so many things Memphis, is distribution. And by a classic combination of vision, family connections, and ambition, record distribution has been a part of the Memphis vinyl equation since 1960. The chain of friendship, encouragement, credit, and aesthetics that led Plastic Products to indirectly foster Sun Records also led to the creation of a distribution company, Select-O-Hits.

“In 1960, my dad, Tom Phillips, was Jerry Lee Lewis’ road manager,” recalls Johnny Phillips, nephew of Sam, the co-owner of Select-O-Hits. “When Jerry Lee married his 13-year-old cousin, he couldn’t be booked anywhere. My daddy had put all of his money into promoting Jerry Lee, and he lost it all.”

The family had been living in Mobile, Alabama. “So Dad came up to Memphis and went to work with my uncle Sam, taking returns back — 45s, 78s, and a few albums. Dad started selling those from the front of our store on 605 Chelsea, and we gradually grew into one of the largest one-stops in the South. A one-stop is someone who supplies all labels to smaller retail stores. There used to be like 25 retail stores in Memphis, believe it or not. And then in the early ’70s, we started distributing nationwide. When Dad retired, my brother Sam [named for his famous uncle] and I bought him out. So Sam and I have been running it since 1975 or so.”

Over the years, Select-O-Hits has seen every ebb and flow of the vinyl market, including a major uptick after the advent of hip hop. “We were the first distributor for ‘Rapper’s Delight’ by the Sugar Hill Gang in 1979,” notes Phillips. That tradition continues today. “We’ve released about half of Three 6 Mafia’s catalog that we control in the last two years, on colored vinyl. And we distribute it all over the world.”

And if the distribution numbers are not what they used to be before CDs and then streaming took over, they are climbing steadily. “Back in the late 1980s and early ’90s, we were selling half a million vinyl records,” says Phillips. “But now we’re doing 5,000, 15,000. Still, last year was our biggest vinyl year ever [since CDs became dominant], and this year is looking just as good.”

Furthermore, the other local businesses related to vinyl records benefit from a kind of synergy with Select-O-Hits. As Johnny Phillips explains, “Since MRP’s gotten involved, it’s brought us more business. And we’ve turned on more of the labels that we distribute to MRP. So it’s been a great partnership with them and all the other facilities in Memphis.”

Record Store Days

While Select-O-Hits sends records all over the world, that includes their own backyard. Indeed, Memphis has become something of a magnet for those looking to purchase and enjoy vinyl records. Though the city can no longer boast 25 retail outlets for vinyl, as Memphis once did, several retailers sell records here. Many tourists are delighted to find the Memphis Music shop on Beale Street stocked with an impressive array of vinyl, and just a stone’s throw away is the relatively new River City Records, on South Main. But the granddaddy of them all is Shangri-La Records, founded by Sherman Wilmott in 1988, then taken over in 1999 by Jared McStay, who now co-owns the shop with John Miller. And though the store has always sold some CDs, vinyl is at the heart of their business.

“The first couple of years,” says McStay, “I had to bet on vinyl because I couldn’t compete with the CD stores, like Best Buy or whatever. I was getting crushed, until I realized I could never compete with them. In the early 2000s, they were phasing out vinyl, and even stereo manufacturers stopped putting phonograph jacks on their stereos. But I had tons of records.”

Around the same time, Eric Friedl was running a small indie label, Goner, which ultimately became the Goner Records shop on Young Avenue. Zac Ives teamed up with Friedl in 2004, and they leaned into vinyl from the very start.

“I think Eric had done maybe two CDs at most when we joined forces and started expanding the label in 2004,” says Ives. “The rest were only on vinyl. And the stuff that we sold was always primarily vinyl. In our neck of the woods, it existed throughout all this time. There was no giant resurgence of vinyl for us. Those things came up around our industry, but we never left that model. And that’s how it was for most smaller, independent labels, especially in punk and underground realms.”

“They come in and say, ‘Wow, I’ve never played a record. I just wanted to see what it’s like.’ Almost every day, you get that. So people definitely love vinyl. You engage with the music a little differently when you’re holding that square foot of artwork in your hand.” — Jim Cole, head archivist with Memphis Listening Lab

Combining a record shop with a record label is a time-honored tradition in Memphis, going back to Stax’s Satellite Records shop. The pattern carries on today through both Shangri-La and Goner, which both have been named among the country’s best record stores by Rolling Stone. Their shared dedication to vinyl mirrors their investment in live bands. Gonerfest, which brings bands, DJs, and record shoppers to town from around the world, will celebrate its 20th year next month, and Shangri-La has hosted smaller music fests even longer.

Both Goner and Shangri-La predate Record Store Day, the nationwide celebration of vinyl and the shops that carry it, now featuring many limited-release albums and singles from even major labels, as well as the usual indie suspects. The annual or biannual tradition has benefited countless shops like those in Memphis. As Seaver explains, “The industry has seen consistent growth since 2008, with the advent of Record Store Day.” And that’s further encouraged more shops to spring up, as consumers of vinyl have grown beyond the small niche of collectors and genre devotees to more casual shoppers, even tourists.

River City Records’ Chris Braswell notes, “I always wanted to be Downtown, and focus more on the tourist side than others. And it’s worked out great! Better than I could have hoped for, to be honest. For most people coming to Memphis, music is a big part of why they come, and I get a lot of tourists. And the people that are really driving the increases are teenagers, 20-year-olds, and 30-year-olds. They’re becoming avid vinyl collectors. A lot of people think streaming services like Spotify hurt physical sales, but I think it’s the exact opposite. Every previous generation has had the ability to possess some physical media of the bands they love, but this most recent generation didn’t have that. So they started looking for a way to physically possess their music, and vinyl is just the coolest medium there is. I think the streaming services are the best thing that ever happened to the vinyl industry.”

The resurgent interest is not limited to commerce. The Memphis Listening Lab (MLL) nonprofit is one of the few libraries of its kind in the world, a collection of thousands of LPs and singles (not to mention CDs and music books) open to the public, complete with multiple turntables and listening stations. Opening just over a year ago in Crosstown Concourse, it’s drawing considerable crowds for its listening events, as well as more casual drop-ins.

Jim Cole, MLL’s head archivist, says, “Vinyl is more and more a part of the listening experience. We get a ton of people in who grew up with records, but also a lot of kids who have record collections. You’re seeing all kinds of demographics. I think the novelty side of it has waned, and it’s considered more mainstream. People have accepted that it’s here to stay, and that it’s a valid way to listen to music. They come in and say, ‘Wow, I’ve never played a record. I just wanted to see what it’s like.’ Almost every day, you get that. So people definitely love vinyl. You engage with the music a little differently when you’re holding that square foot of artwork in your hand.”