Leah L. Jones/The Gazette
Michael Earle, owner of Memory Lane CDs & Records, shakes hands April 9 with a customer, Lamont Mattison of Forestville.
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Until Harold Rice, 73, of District Heights met Michael Earle, he may have gone the rest of his life without hearing "Just An Angel" again, a song he recorded in the 1960s as member of local doo wop group The Five Pastels.
But in 2008 Earle, owner of District Heights' Memory Lane CDs and Records, surprised Rice with the gift of his own voice.
"I didn't even have a copy," Rice said. "He found it. It was like another section of my life came together."
Earle, 51, of Springfield, Va., and Memory Lane's employee Marshall Parson, 34, of Oxon Hill enjoy going the extra mile to find a record like Rice's that triggers an unforgettable memory. Earle, a fan of classic soul music since third-grade, said he wanted the store to have a "mom and pop" feel.
"A lot of people told us it's not just about selling records, it's about selling memories," Earle said.
Memory Lane will recognize Record Store Day on April 18 along with 700 independently owned record stores nationwide. The event is meant to unite and celebrate independent record stores. Stores participating in Record Store Day cannot be part of a company that is publicly traded and at least 50 percent of what it offers must be music retail, according to the Record Store Day Web site. Hillcrest Heights' Kemp Mill Music is also participating.
The Prince George's County Chamber of Commerce and the county's Business License Section office did not have a total number of all the county's record stores.
Earle said he began the business in April 2001 after purchasing the original Memory Lane Records in Walters Lane Plaza. Earle bought 60,000 records from the original owner's son, who took over the 15-year business from his father. He said he always dreamed of opening his own store after 15 years of traveling to record conventions and 25 years overall of record collecting.
Today personal collections, yard sales, resident donations and estate sales contribute to about 100,000 records and 30,000 CDs yet Earle and Parson said they only buy "the cream" or the best of the best in jazz, R&B, funk, soul and more.
One pride and joy is a record of doo wop group The Epsilons' "Mad At The World" on the Shrine Records label. Earle said Shrine Records, a Washington, D.C.-based company, is one of the rarer soul labels. The company lasted for about three years until 1968 when a fire destroyed the business.
"Part of the charm of this place is coming in any time and finding stuff like that," Earle said.
Earle and Parson arranged the records, CDs and cassette tapes in a little more than a year but are constantly alphabetizing their collection as new items roll in. The store receives shipments twice a week of 2,000 to 3,000 CDs from local flea markets where they sort to find albums in their original CD jackets and cases.
Earle realizes not everyone listens to records anymore but there is an audience that prefers the feel of a record instead of being plugged into music on a computer. Earle said the nation's unsavory economy actually helped them "to the extent that if somebody loses their job they come to them to sell their records" and to rest assured there is a place in the world for his business.
"A lot of people just like to have the record," Earle said. "We're not going to be millionaires but we've got enough records to keep us going."
Flozell Washington, 64, of District Heights said he comes to Memory Lane to find out-of-print records in jazz, country western and R&B such as X-Man Parker's "Southern Soul." Another prized possession of his is a CD of music by the Raylettes, the back-up singer for R&B Grammy winner Ray Charles.
"I have yet to come in here and ask for something and he can't find it," Washington said.
