The Port Townsend Record Show drew as many vendors and attendees as ever in its fifth year, at the Marvin G. Shields Memorial American Legion Post 26 Hall on March 7, and as always, one of the best ways to start a conversation was to ask folks what they were looking for, on the tables and floors full of record stacks and boxes.

THE FANS

Port Orchard’s Tony Reed sold records for three years before finally attending as a buyer.

“I’m looking for ‘Los Angeles’ by X, the first Nick Drake album, and other stuff I might have forgotten about,” Reed said.

For the past four years, Tacoma’s Brian Weber has booked a room to stay in town overnight for the event.

“After 35 years of collecting, I’ve got all the common stuff,” Weber said. “I’m looking for the stuff that jumps out at me and makes me say, ‘What is this? This is crazy.’”

Port Townsend’s Matt Payne has only been attending the record show for two years, but he apologetically noted he’s only lived in Port Townsend for two years.

“I have my wish list I’m always looking for,” Payne said. “Steely Dan’s first album — their one and only — and Donny Hathaway Live in 1972.”

Burien’s Brad Woodlee and Amanda Kay attended their first Port Townsend Record Show this year, although they visit Port Townsend regularly for Propolis Brewing and Finistere.

“We even recognize our bartender,” Woodlee said, pointing to Port Townsend’s Chris Rehn, who was searching for noise and industrial albums two boxes over. “There’s some newer stuff that caught my attention. She’s more into ‘80s stuff. And we’ve seen a lot of nice imports.”

Gardner’s Jim Hueter not only stocked up on blues and folk albums during his fourth time at the show, but he also caught up with Mile “The Coog” Colgan, of Coog’s Budget CDs, Tapes & Records in Port Angeles.

“I got Blind Alfred Reed, and Van Morrison for my wife,” Hueter said, as he fanned out his albums like a deck of cards on top of Colgan’s boxes of records. “I also got some Lazy Lester, and Tracy Nelson when she was with Mother Earth.”

“This is my day off,” Colgan said, noting that Saturday is the only day his store in Port Angeles is closed. “I come here because I get to play all day, hang out and chat with these guys. It’s like a reunion every year, and I’ve been doing it for five years.”

Colgan rates himself a discriminating consumer who screens out all but the most “obscure and weird stuff” for consumption.

“When I was here last year, I bought five records for the store and 30 for me,” Colgan said.

Port Townsend’s Frank De Palma has been joined in attending all five years of the record show by his two daughters, 14-year-old Adeline and 10-year-old Freya.

Frank is always looking to replace the old vinyl albums he traded out for CDs back in college, while his daughter giggled and agreed when their dad affectionately described them as “spoiled” by the musical choices they have through Spotify and other streaming services.

Adeline and Freya have nonetheless grown up to become classic rock fans to make their old man proud, independently professing their fondness for Queen and the Grateful Dead.

“Sometimes, it’s just cool to have that old sound,” Adeline said.

“It’s nice when you can turn off your screens and do other stuff,” Frank said.

THE ORGANIZERS

Co-organizer Chuck Moses of Resurrection Vinyl was there for the first year of the record show, and he’s occupied the “turnstile” spot nearest to the entryway ever since.

“I’d rather talk with these folks than take their money,” Moses said. “Jim agreed to put me here by the turnstile, because he said, ‘I know you’ll talk to anybody.’”

“Jim,” in this case, is the LP Browser’s Jim Overly. Moses credited Overly and former Quimper Sound owner Mark Herring with initiating the Port Townsend Record Show.

Moses expressed pride in being able to do his part to carry on what Overly helped to start, and estimated this year’s record show attendance would likely exceed last year’s, once the numbers were added up.

“I saw one person wearing a mask, and two others wearing gloves,” Moses said, when asked if coronavirus concerns had affected the event in any way. “Gloves are actually a great idea regardless, because some of these album sleeves are filthy. I gave my fingers calluses from spending three days just cleaning the records I planned to sell here.”

One of the 30 vendors who had booked a table canceled before the event, citing coronavirus concerns as the cause, but otherwise, the biggest change Moses saw was the increased traffic he got from adding a $3-apiece discount section of records to his selection.

“You have people here who have no idea what some of the gems are that they’re buying,” Moses said, citing one buyer who found a first-press gold-label version of The Doors’ “Waiting for the Sun” album. “I want them to get albums that are in good shape, for a good price, and on the off-chance that I don’t know about something they’re looking for, I can point them to any number of other folks on the floor here who will.”

Moses offered effusive praise for not only Overly as “The Godfather” of the event, but also KPTZ 91.9 FM for providing on-site music for the day.

“Ruby Fitch is the best DJ,” Moses said. “She turns up the beat, and all the songs she plays are hip-shakers.”

While Overly makes shelves and other furniture for record collections, he’s never been a record seller himself, so he sees Moses, co-organizer Nate Malmgren of SoundXchange and current Quimper Sound owner James Schultz as far more suited to carry on the Port Townsend Record Show than he was, even before he became too busy to give it the time and commitment he knew it needed.

“These guys are part of this world,” Overly said. “They already know all the vendors. We didn’t know whether this would be successful at all when we started it, but it’s sold out all its tables every year, and it always draws a steady flow of people, hour after hour, year after year. It’s a good feeling to see people keep coming back to this, and five years is a heck of a milestone.”