Vermont Talent Celebrate Record Store Day in Maine

Grace Potter and Scott Tournet

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals and Anais Mitchell performed free mini-concerts for a crowd of over 250 people at the Bull Moose Record Store in Scarborough, ME on Saturday April 17, 2009.

Record Store Day was the brain child of Chris Brown, an employee of the independent record store chain, Bull Moose, which has locations in Maine and New Hampshire. The day was conceived in 2007 as a celebration of the unique culture independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally. Record Store Day is celebrated the third Saturday in April.

Record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day, and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances.

When Tower Records closed in 2006, many saw it as a sign that record stores were dying out altogether. The age of online ordering through huge discounted warehouses threatened the existence of the local record store. In my area, many independent stores have closed over the last few years with only Newbury Comics in West Lebanon NH surviving.

Benny Yurco, Chris Brown, Grace Potter and Matt Burr

This year at the Scarborough ME location of Bull Moose Anais Mitchell and members of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals came out to celebrate with the record store. Grace Potter was accompanied by band mates Matt Burr, Scott Tournet and Benny Yurco (missing was bassist Catherine Popper).

Potter and crew performed a song from their special Record Store Day release “Live From Skowhegan” including “Ragged Company” and a song on their new CD due out June 8, “Tiny Light”. In addition, Potter had the crowd singing along to “Paris” with a rousing chorus of “Oh la, la, la, la, la, la”

Following their set, Potter, Burr, Tournet and Yurco greeted the fans and we busy signing autographs and chatting for about an hour. They concluded their visit to the record store by buying some vintage vinyl and DVDs.

Scott Tournet

Chris Brown and Anais Mitchell

Anais Mitchell

Anais Mitchell, who’s on the road promoting her folk opera “Hadestown” also made an appearance at the record store. Her set consisted of a few from her Hadestown CD including “Why we build this wall.” Mitchell also greeted fans after her set and signed autographs. She later had a performance at One Longfellow Square in Portland ME. She returns to Cambridge MA Sunday April 18 for another Hadestown performance at Passim School of Music Workshop.

More photos from the day's event maybe viewed at: http://www.photosbynanci.com/recordstoreday.html