Black Hills Vinyl

Black Hills Vinyl is a Rapid City record store shaped by distance as much as by taste. Jennifer Calabrese describes the shop as one of the few record-store stops for hundreds of miles, with ranchers, families, Ellsworth AFB service members, university students, tourists, locals, and road-trip diggers all influencing what has to be on the floor.

Interview with Black Hills Vinyl

You're serving a region far off the usual coastal record-shop map. How does Rapid City shape what you stock?

I think it’s our remoteness that truly shapes what we carry in the store. We’re one of two stores for hundreds of miles, and we make it our mission to make everyone and the vast music tastes that accompany them feel welcomed and represented in our store. Isolation actually forces me to be a generalist in the best way, and shapes us by who actually lives here: ranchers, families, service men and women out at Ellsworth AFB, university kids, and lastly the tourists funneling through the Hills.

Who comes through — local regulars, tourists, road-trip diggers making a deliberate stop?

All three, and the mix shifts hard with the seasons. In the winter, my regulars and locals keep us in the black, and the reason we’ve been so successful for so long. Once the spring hits and through the fall, we see people from across the country (and world) walk through our store, and be amazed that Rapid City could have such a robust selection under one roof. The crate diggers travelling through will plan an entire day around being able to flip through our bins, and be so surprised (and excited) to find a grail hanging out that would never last in a big city shop. We’ve been told countless times that Black Hills Vinyl is a better record store than Rapid City deserves, and while that’s humbling to hear, we know that we are exceptional because of Rapid City.

What records really connect with Black Hills customers?

Everybody wants to assume that they’ll only find dusty country records in our neck of the woods, but Rapid City has always been progressive with their music tastes. Sure, we’ll sell the classics you’d expect (Waylon, Merle, Johnny, Floyd, Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac), but people underestimate the diversity of our area. We’ve actually started to highlight our top ten best selling albums each month, to really showcase this. But honestly, just like everywhere in the world, the majority of my customers are chasing the records that scored their own lives: the album that was on in dad's truck, the first concert they went to; the music that evokes emotion for them. And while albums have become collectible and can drive interest, buying music has always been about the connection you have to it.

How do you keep the store stocked when the nearest big-city markets are hours away?

It’s a lot of work. We have distributors, just like every other record store, to keep popular new albums and reissues in stock, but finding collections locally requires a bit more ingenuity. We are lucky that being a small community (about ~150,000 in the greater area) word travels fast that we are kind and treat people with respect who have a collection to rehome. So most of the time, the good stuff walks through the door, but we have some other tricks up our sleeves to be sure we find desirable records for the floor.

Do you see collections from small towns and rural corners of the region — and what should someone out there know before reaching out to sell?

Constantly, and those are some of my favorite calls. A collection out of a ranch house in the middle of nowhere can be untouched in a way you just don't find in a city that's been picked over for fifty years. If you're sitting on records out there and thinking about selling, a few things help: don't clean them or "fix" anything yourself, don't toss the covers even if they're rough, and don't assume worn records are worthless or that a stack of scratched Top 40 is a goldmine. And we’re always willing to make the drive to check them out.

South Dakota winters and dry summers — what do they do to records over the decades?

Honestly, our side of the state really has the optimal climate for records. Rarely do we see collections with mold or excessive heat damage, and if we do, it’s because they were improperly cared for and letting the elements get to them.

Are there regional artists or old radio memories that still matter to your customers?

Absolutely! There's real love for Native American and powwow recordings, and for the local and regional acts that never went national, but packed venues across the mid and mountain west. We regularly have old KTEQ (our college radio station) DJs come through and dig for albums that they played on air, or geek out over the fact that we have their old record shelf in our store, pointing to the message or name they carved into it. People come in looking for a specific record because it takes them straight back to a car ride through the hills, a kitchen, a Saturday night at a venue that isn't there anymore. That regional memory is a big selling point for a lot of folks.

What's a collection that could only have come from your part of the country?

The one that sticks with me is the ranch collections. Somebody's grandparents pass, and the family finds a stack of records in a farmhouse that's been in the family for generations. You'll pull out worn honky-tonk and Western swing, Hank and Bob Wills played half to death, and then right alongside it something you'd never predict: a run of powwow LPs, a stack of the jazz greats, a handful of European presses carried home from their service overseas. It's a snapshot of exactly who settled this country and what they listened to on a Saturday night a hundred miles from the nearest town. You don't find that mix anywhere but here.

FAQ

Do you buy vinyl records from individuals?

Yes. Black Hills Vinyl buys from individuals depending on the artist and condition of the records.

Can I drop records off, or do I need an appointment?

You can drop records off during store hours. If you want to stay while the collection is assessed, schedule an appointment so the shop has enough staff on hand.

What are the store hours for drop-offs?

The listed drop-off hours are 10-6 Monday to Saturday and 11-4 on Sunday.

Last updated: 2026-08-14

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