Record Exchange owner ready to play new tune; store to open Feb. 4

Jan. 24—When the Record Exchange was damaged during a fire in August, owner Sam Lock said, he was ready to work at Home Depot.

"I was like,'You got to pay the mortgage in six days,' " he said. "'What are you going to do?'"

But the Frederick community rallied behind him. Overnight, the GoFundMe page he started racked up $15,000, he said.

With that money, Lock could rent out a new storefront at 410 N. Market St. He's been fixing it up since September 2022. He said the new Record Exchange is scheduled to open Feb. 4, coinciding with the Fire in Ice First Saturday event.

"There's been so many kind gestures from every angle," he said. "I couldn't have done it without any of them."

On Aug. 24, 2022, a fire tore through a building in downtown Frederick, damaging apartments, the Record Exchange and Tiara Day, a store at the corner of North Market and West Second streets.

The damage in the Record Exchange was not from fire, but from water that seeped through the ceiling and poured into the store. There wasn't just water, but also detritus from the 100-year-old building coming down, creating a sludge, Lock said.

Lock said a firefighter at the scene, who was a Record Exchange customer, tried to cover the vinyl records with a tarp, but the store still lost 80% of its 6,000 to 7,000 records.

Lock had to start from scratch.

He is trying to make the new space look like the old space, which was at 151 N. Market St. Though the new space is smaller — 1,400 square feet versus 1,800 square feet — Lock said he likes how wide the new place is.

Customers will recognize the red walls and the same square ceiling pattern. There are only one or two pieces from the original store, like the metal rotating display stand and a couple of shelves.

But there are also new touches. The floor is made up of vinyl records covered in a layer of epoxy.

He plans to have a stage for DJ's and bands to play on for meet and greets, album releases and general events. He wants to showcase local art in the new store.

"I've got to give them what they paid for, you know, so gotta give them something that they're proud of," he said. "That's why I put more effort into this store."

Lock said he's mostly excited to open back up, but there are still days where he wakes up and mourns the old store. He wonders about what else he forgot that was in there, or what couldn't be salvaged.

"There were $200 to $300 original show posters from the '60s, you know, and I remember trying to get them out of the cardboard tube and they just disintegrated," he said.

While working on fixing up the new location, Lock and a longtime employee, Zach Willems, have taken time to appreciate the vinyl. They'll pick a record and play it all the way through, front and back, while they work, he said.

"I couldn't have done it without him. He's been my rock," Lock said. "So me and him both are excited to start getting paychecks again."

As a record store owner, Lock said, he's seen a lot more younger people buy vinyl, which he loves.

He said a record is a snapshot of time, and playing a record is like a ritual. His ritual takes place every time he does the dishes.

He takes the vinyl out of the casing, puts it on the record player, places the needle down, and listens to the music while he scrubs as the familiar pops and crackles announce themselves at the same point on the vinyl each time.

When a child comes in and gets excited over a Jimi Hendrix album because it's what his father shows him, Lock sees that appreciation and ritual moving through time.

"It's good to see that, you know, wave of time from one generation to another," he said.

Follow Clara Niel on Twitter: @clarasniel