Mississippi Records, Portland Oregon
Open – 5202 N. Albina Ave. Portland Oregon 97217
On a trip to Portland in the summer of 2014, I had a chance to visit some of its finer record stores. Mississippi Records was the best by far. The pundits agree, as this record store was listed in Buzzfeed’s – 27 Breathtaking Record Stores You Have To Shop Before You Die as well as a USA Today article listing the Ten Best Record Stores In The USA. Heady company.
It’s a small shop, but has a lot of great records (and plenty of traffic in the store). Good selection, many genres and, most important for the discerning record collector, cheap prices. They also sell vintage equipment, and have a record label. And you can give a listen before you buy.
Portland is a very friendly record store town, with a number of good ones to choose from. Portland’s stores also have chipped in to provide a handy guide to all the local stores.
Have to thank The Vinyl Record Collector Blog, who did a great post on Portland record stores which I used as a helpful guide to my own local tour. You’ll find a link to their article on Portland’s record stores, below.
Found some really good records, as you will see below. Most happy with the copy of Elliot Smith’s Either/Or – haven’t seen one before or since.
An article informs that Mississippi Records got its name because it was originally on Mississippi Avenue when it was opened. It isn’t now.
Another good store I visited on my trip was The Vinyl Resting Place.
Wanna go? You can find Mississippi Records on our Record Stores Map
If you don’t know Elliott Smith, or are just in the mood to give him a listen, you can hear Elliott Smith’s Cupids Trick , from the Either/Or album, on our Song of the Day.
Vinyl Record Collector’s Blog wrote this most helpful article about Portland’s record stores. Their recommendations were spot on.
Store and label owner Eric Isaacson put together a 90 minute documentary titled A Cosmic and Earthly History of Recorded Music According to Mississippi Records. Any documentary featuring Lee Moses’ great soul ballad Bad Girl can’t be bad. You can see a clip from the documentary below.
And here’s a link to an article that appeared in the Portland Mercury in November 2018 Celebrating 15 Years of Mississippi Records interviewing Eric Isaacson about his store – at least as of November 2018 he reports the store neither has computers or credit card machines (so bring cash or check current policies before you pay a visit).
