By Gina Gallucci-White Town of Mount Airy, MD Mount Airy, MD . Nov. 8, 2023 |
While music apps make it easy to stream a variety of songs, there is just something special about bringing out a record player and having the needle hit the vinyl to play beloved songs that can transport you back to a different era in your life.
A new business in Town will be able to help you buy those beloved vinyls as well as CDs, cassettes, VHS and more. Today, Bertha’s Vinyl Shop opens its doors at 309 S. Main St. to the public.
Owner Christy Kline first became passionate about music as a child as her mother always had music playing throughout their house while she was growing up. Music has always been a constant in her life as she worked in special education and software fields, respectively. Kline is passionate about not only the music but the process of making the recordings from the artwork to the musicians to the back up singers to the fonts used for the writing.
While working in software in 2020, she decided to start selling records on eBay as a side hustle to make extra money while her daughter was in college. She recently left her software job to pursue her desire to open a brick-and-mortar store. She and her husband, who is a musician, downsized by selling their Ellicott City home and moving to a historic home dating back to the late 1800s along Main Street Mount Airy.
The store offers an eclectic variety of music ranging from around the 1950s and up including music in genres such as Christmas, children’s, television, movies, rock, pop and much more. “What you see online – (does not) even scratched the surface of what we have in inventory,” she said. “During COVID, we were just buying up records whenever we could find them, buying collections. We still have a ton in storage.” Kline estimates about a fourth or a third of her inventory is out at the store. “I just hope (customers) have a good time searching through all the different types of music and looking at all the different things we have to offer.”
The name for the store came from Kline’s childhood nickname of Bertha. Her dad came up with the moniker but she’s not sure where he came up with it. Her dad would buy records for her store to sell so she felt like using the nickname was appropriate.
For the past several years, there has been a nostalgia trend. Record stores as well as arcades are becoming popular shops. Kline is unsure how this trend has grown in popularity but notes it is cool to have a piece of music in your hand rather than a digital copy. “I am happy (record stores are) making a resurgence,” she said.
For more information, go to https://www.berthasvinylshop.com/
Photos courtesy of Bertha's Vinyl Shop