For The Record Chattanooga

For The Record in Chattanooga carries new and preloved vinyl across jazz, pop, rock, local artists, and plenty beyond that. Gwen Bell describes the shop as eclectic and friendly, with listening events, local releases, and bins that can send first-time visitors in several directions.

Interview with For The Record

For The Record carries jazz, pop, rock, and local artists in Chattanooga. How would you describe the shop, Gwen?

For The Record is musically eclectic, carrying everything from Jazz and pop to classical and country, hip hop and rock, metal and big band and then some. Our guests and friends (customers aren't just customers) and sales associates are friendly, knowledgeable in different genres of music and helpful. We have listening events regularly to acquaint our friends with new music and preview some of the artists they already know and love.

You buy collections and welcome people to bring them by or email for an appointment. What makes a collection an easy yes?

And easy yes to a collection that has been brought in or we come across is clean records (well cared for) that are by artists or that are titles our friends have requested or expressed interest in the past. Heavy metal, Beatles, Taylor Swift, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, Thriller and Rumours immediately come to mind, but there are countless other artists and album titles.

You carry both new and preloved vinyl. How do you balance the two?

When we started 20 years ago, we were almost all preloved vinyl. As the years have passed we have expanded our new vinyl as that's pretty much the only way to get the newer artists (Taylor Swift, Tyler the Creator, Gracie Abrams...you get the idea). At the present time I would estimate we are still 2/3 preloved vinyl and 1/3 new vinyl as it has become more difficult to find quality popular vintage vinyl (again think Heavy Metal, The Beatles, etc.), so we do supplement those with new vinyl as well as any vintage we are able to obtain.

How important is stocking local Chattanooga artists to you?

We offer several releases of local artists, however we don't seem to sell many of these releases. I'm not sure if these artists are bought at other local stores or at venues where the artists appear for shows. We have had some local artists perform in the store (Ryan Oyer, Jason Lyles and others) and when they appear their releases sell better.

What do your customers reach for most in the bins?

What do our customers reach for in the bins? A little bit of EVERYTHING. Rumours, Thriller, Abbey Road are the 3 my husband says anyone who has 50 copies of each could open a record store, but we have had a recent uptick in people coming to purchase hip hop and we have frequent requests for heavy metal. Taylor Swift (Though not Tortured Poets or Showgirl) is always a crowd pleaser as well.

What comes through in local collections that surprises you?

We've had lots come through in local collections that surprise us. There are recordings from local artists from different states, albums that are in Japanese, German, French, Spanish, etc. Probably the most excited we have been about releases that come in local collections has been a copy of Fraction Moon Blood that came in a couple of years ago and then there was the Beatles double t single of Please Please Me that came in over 10 years ago.

What's been quietly strong lately?

Lately Taylor Swift, Rumours, Thriller, The Beatles have all been strong sellers. The Heated Rivalry soundtrack has been a release we haven't been able to keep stocked as well.

First visit to For The Record — what should someone dig through first?

My own personal feeling is a person should dig through the sections that have the artists or genres of music (or comedy or spoken word, etc.) in which they are most interested. The new arrival boxes are another good place to dig and a person never knows what they might find in the $1 albums. Unless you are interested in a newer artist, I would also suggest staying in the bins to the back of the store where the 70s and above are filed, as well as children's, classical, jazz and country.

Last updated: 2026-07-31

Store owners

Add a VinylPackman badge

Use this small badge on a Press, About, Links, or News page to point visitors back to the feature.

Show badge code

Need to fix store details?

Owner or staff? Send a correction for review.

Correct this listing