Season 7: "Art, Music and Retail ; A Conversation with a Record Store owner Morgan Markowitz"

Inside this episode with your host, Mitch Hampton

I grew up with both bookstores and record stores.

Some of the first albums I bought were, aside from being large physical objects with quite elaborate artwork, were bought as part of the exploration inside of the record store.

More often than not this involved ten year old me talking to older people about the new Return To Forever or Weather Report album or what this direct to disc Dave Brubeck album was all about.

I loved speaking with Morgan Markowitz; this episode represents the most direct connection to how I learned about the arts in general and the importance of those physical spaces intended for public enjoyment that some of us call “third place”.

To love music was for sixty plus years to be involved in one way or the other with some record store

More on the wonderful Earth River Records

Asheville's largest selection of Vinyl, Tapes & CDs with over 20,000 items both new and used!

A second-generation vinyl legacy handed down from father to son! The first Earth River was based in Rochester, New York in the back of a headshop in 1968 and run by OG Owner Franklin Markowitz. Throughout the 70s & 80s the shop (and Franklin’s huge vinyl collection) moved out west and based operations in Newport Beach, California. Franklin’s family grew & Earth River Records expanded to multiple shop locations in Coos Bay, Eugene & Corvalis, Oregon.

In the 90s & 2000s the shop was passed to Franklin’s son Morgan and moved to Seattle, Washington.

Earth River Records finally landed in Asheville, North Carolina in 2021. Coast to coast, we've got the most! Can't make it to the shop? Check us out on Ebay and Discogs. We carry audio equipment, cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs, hundreds of vintage posters, signed memorabilia & more!

We want to express our deep gratitude to each and every one of you. Western North Carolina and Asheville took another unprecedented hit from Helene. Those of us lucky enough to have made it through depend on our immediate community to survive here. And we have survived! We are still here because of YOU! (And sheer luck! The roof almost blew off our building. But it didn't!)

The wonderful folks at Siam Thai fed the Woodfin community (and us) delicious food for free when our neighborhood was hungry. Mercy Chefs set up a kitchen two doors down. Travelling linemen, firefighters and responders came in looking for music and movies. Countless friends and customers reached out, checked in and helped each other.

We weren't sure if the shop would make it in the wake of so much destruction and grief. But you kept our doors open! When the power came back on without internet service, suddenly all of this physical media had relevance again. People still needed to hear music, watch a comforting movie or play an old videogame. The whole town was transported back to pre-internet days.

We are humbled and proud to be North Asheville's community record store!

Earth River Records wishes you and yours all the best this year.

See you soon!

Links to everything Earth River Records

Website ( it’s fab): www.earthriverrecords.com

Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/str/earthriverrecords

Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/seller/EarthRiverRecords/profile

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earth_river_records/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/earthriverrecords/

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