(upbeat groovy rock music) - [Papa] When it comes to Chicago, its history and American music is unquestioned.

It's a place where jazz, soul, rock and roll, gospel and blues was brought to the recording studios, the clubs, the stages, promoted not only by the big corporate recording industry, but iconic streetwise, independent labels; making bank on artists who gained a national and international audience.

And, no surprise, there are record shops here that are indeed legendary for their influence and longevity.

(bright upbeat rock music) In the world of independent record stores, there are many mansions, but Reckless Records has a very, very unique history.

Let's begin with the fact that the original Reckless Records was in the neighborhood of Soho in London, England.

- Yeah, Charles Taylor was the owner of Reckless Records, he'd opened up the London store sometime in the '80s, I believe.

He made a jump to San Francisco and then came to Chicago and opened up the Broadway location at 3157 North Broadway in 1989.

In 2023, he offered to sell his London interest and his Chicago interest to the lifers who've been there since seemingly the beginning of time.

Employee-owned, right, so there's four of us now who make this keep going.

(intriguing groovy upbeat music) - [Papa] What would you say is the best-selling genre?

- Around when lockdown was happening, and then after we started opening back up, there was a pretty big shift for not just Reckless, but I would say just the industry in general towards really big pop stars like Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter and Harry Styles and things like that.

Being the kind of store that does cater to a little bit of everything, our store has kinda shifted towards more of like that type of stuff while still carrying like the indie rock and jazz and experimental music that we love as music fans.

The last two years have been our best two years ever.

I can't really necessarily explain that, I just think Chicago is just such a big music town, we're kind of like in a bit of a bubble.

People are always gonna be buying records here, it's just the way it is.

- Given the primacy of major labels having offices here in Chicago as well, some of them as legendary independent labels, a place that not only has brought out rock, talk about jazz, talk about soul, talk about blues- - Yeah.

- Jazz and blues.

- It's ridiculous.

- Chicago's just a massive foundation city for all that.

- Culturally wealthy Midwestern crossroads of America are a kind of melting pot of every genre, but we're really lucky, we're super fortunate to be in Chicago where we just get incredible support from the people of this city.

Life-blood of our store is really is that, you know, used stuff coming in that we can sell to people that are interested in it, and there's just so much of it here in the city, there's so much opportunity for records to change hands.

- People here, like, that live here and visit the town come here because it's such a big music city.

Customers come into the store all the time and school us on stuff.

That's how we find out about stuff a lot of times too, is just from someone coming in and asking us for something we don't know about or whatever.

I mean, we're learning every day from people here, it's pretty cool.

- [Papa] The last few years has seen an increase of CD sales- - Oh yeah.

- Which is a nice thing 'cause there's a lot of them out there, and there's a lot of the music that is on CD that we will never see on vinyl.

- That's true.

- I see my younger customers picking up CDs, and it's a very, very lively part of our mix, and I'm assuming it is for y'all too.

- Our CD sales were up like 200%, like, on last year or something, I mean it's almost night and day different, it's crazy.

Like people are really into CDs again, especially kids.

(intriguing suspenseful groovy upbeat music) - As far as stores, such as ours, we really do create a sense of community- - Yeah.

- That you just cannot do online.

And more than once, I've seen people walk in my store after they've been there four or five minutes, they start to defrost, and they start kind of warming up to being around people and not being so standoffish.

I love watching that dynamic.

- Love seeing that.

I mean, that's the kinda store that I went to when I was a kid.

Trying to create a space where people want to go and learn about stuff, having in-store performances or signings, or listening parties or whatever, those things have really like picked back up again.

It's kind of like the '80s and '90s again.

We do listening parties like two to three times a week sometimes, and there'll be like a hundred people there.

- It's super heartwarming, right?

Like, young people- - It's just totally crazy, - Coming out, it reminds me of when I was a kid.

It's a safe place for them to come after school, pick up on things they don't know about and learn, but it's a safe place, right?

That's what I like about it, is you see a lot of kids in here, all expressing themselves.

- They'll exchange phone numbers and text each other.

And, you know, maybe they- - That's right, yeah.

- Maybe they met at this thing, and then they'll go to the show or whatever.

That is the kind of place, like this, that's what I want.

I've been doing this for almost over 30 years and I'm still super excited about learning about new music, and I think all of us are, all of our employees are.

(intriguing techno upbeat rock music) I think the biggest thing that I personally worked on for Reckless was we did like a Nine Inch Nails live Q&A, we let in like, I don't know, 200 people, and they interviewed the band.

And we have local bands play here all the time and record release parties sometimes.

- We set an Earl Sweatshirt signing, right?

- Yeah, we had... You know, we do a lot of hip-hop stuff, Earl Sweatshirt, last year, we did this local soul singer named Ravyn Lenae, she's super popular and she's totally blowing up, and we try to do a little bit of everything, you know, like, it's always amazing to me, like... 'Cause we're around this kind of stuff like every day, like seeing musicians come through and having bands and stuff, and it's kind of nice to be reminded every now and again how not normal that is for some people, like, we're they're like literally crying, like standing in line waiting to meet somebody or... But, yeah, in stores are huge for us.

- I think every artist at some point in their life, they may have worked in a record store, or they had a record store that when they were young that was their sweet spot of existence.

And as far as a sense of wonderment, hopefully all three of us will continue to have it.

- Yeah.

- Hope so.

- Chicago has produced music that is enjoyed and heard all over the world, and Reckless Records is a foundation record store in Chicago.

Gentlemen, thank you very, very much.

- Thank you, Tom.

- Thank you.

(techno groovy upbeat music) (mellow orchestral guitar music) - As I've often noticed, time is longer than rope; and when I was a young man, there was this particular label, and whenever I had a chance to hear what was on that label, I made a point of getting that LP.

Now the name of the LP label is Delmark Records.

We are here in the 21st century version of the Delmark label legacy with Mr.

Bob Koester right here.

How you doing?

- I'm doing all right.

- Your story that very, very much is specializing, you know, not in the pop flavor of the week music, but you have a really extensive jazz, swing collection, you do blues, rhythm and blues, gospel music, and it really reflects the music scene and the music legacy of this city.

And it was founded by your father, who, at one time, had a record store in my town, St.

Louis, and he had it on the street called Delmar, and then he called his label Delmark.

- Well, at first, he called it Delmar, you know, like you collectors out there, right away, you wanna find "the Delmar copies" of his first couple of releases.

But then there was a Delmar music shop, you know, that sold musical instruments, and they sent him a cease and desist letter, (chuckles) like, you know, 'cause they thought there would be confusion.

And so, he added the k from Koester, you know, his name, to the end of Delmar, and so it became Delmark Records from that point on.

- I don't know of any label in the 1970s that was releasing the breadth of music from one single city the way Delmark did.

Your dad obviously had his ear to the ground as far as what was going on here because it wasn't top 40 music, but it was music that eventually not only got out of Chicago but became known worldwide.

- I mean he always had an ear for like, you know, what is the music that nobody's like covering at the moment, and, you know, to get that music out there.

You know, Delmark was never that much about finding undeveloped talents and developing them, no, finding people who are masters of their craft; everybody who hears them enjoys, but not enough people are getting to hear them yet.

The early '70s were a great time for that because he, for the first couple decades really, of the business, you know, he was sort of taking money out of his retail business in order to do Delmark as sort of a, not exactly a hobby, but a side project that would, you know, make money in the very long run.

He had a big hit with Junior Wells' "Hoodoo Man Blues," getting into like the electric blues scene, which was something that he hadn't even really known about until he came up to Chicago.

And that was a big enough hit that Delmark was actually making money, and so that he could actually then really just seek stuff out.

And so, you know, he had sort of what he called like a committee of people who like shopped at his store who were like, you know, experts in different kinds of music, you know, that he might not have known quite as well; what's happening in modern jazz, what's happening in modern blues, in addition to keeping up with like traditional jazz, which was his first love.

- When you mentioned Junior Wells, that was the bestselling album this blues king of Chicago had I believe to this day.

I mean he recorded for other labels and became much better known outside of Chicago, but the album that was really his footprint in this music is the one that's on the Delmark label.

- Well, and I mean I think the quote that sums that up is him asking my dad, you know, "Can I do it like I want to?"

He didn't think his job was to like tell people how to be creative, you know, it was to like capture this creativity.

As far as he was concerned, getting to do the album, you know, was half the appeal for him, and I think that's why his Delmark album stand out.

(guitar strumming) (intriguing groovy upbeat music) - So in the world of Midwestern rock and roll, there was an individual I saw signed a poster in the back who was a very, very young man, in fact, as a teenager, before he started the band that made him notorious.

James Osterberg, aka Iggy Pop, one time, I think did a little work in the store and also had a place to crash in the original jazz mart.

- Yeah.

Dad had a cot in the basement under the store, and did, you know, just all sorts of itinerant music... You know, like Big Joe Williams would stay there, and, you know, all sorts of people.

So I think he wasn't quite even aware fully of what Iggy Pop was musically doing at the time.

But, you know, he was another guy, you know, who obviously had passion, you know, and who needed a place to crash.

And then Iggy apparently, you know, never forgot about it, you know, he was really pretty kind over the years.

(groovy orchestral music) - Now Chicago has always been a major, major city in the American music industry.

There's always been really good stores here, the labels, both independent as well as major ones, had their hand very heavily in Chicago, 'cause this was where it was happening, but there's not one of them that was in Chicago, no matter how good they were, who captured the essence of Chicago music the way Delmark did for many, many years, and your store here now is keeping the tradition going.

- Oh, we're trying.

- This is like one of the musical meccas for me to come visit.

- [Bob] Hmm.

- Thank you.

- Oh, well, thank you for coming.

(groovy orchestral music) (bright groovy orchestral upbeat music) - Hey, you know, "Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town," it's got a lot of great record stores, and we're in one of the best right now: the store is called Dusty Groove.

I am here with Mr.

Wojcik, who... I'd like to know, how long have you been in this business?

- I've been in the business since the late '80s, Dusty Groove's been around 30 years.

We started out trying to be the preeminent store of everything everybody else didn't carry as much, so jazz, doo-wop, Brazilian music, you know, salsa, you know, all the things you weren't finding the same at Tower Records, or some of the more rock-based indies.

And over the years, that's still what we are, but I think we've opened the door to more stuff too.

- Would you say that you're still pretty much 50-50 as far as retail sales here, or is it a bit more on the mail-order side?

- Mail-order is still about 90% of our business.

We ship hundreds of orders a day, most days, it's about 300 orders, the website gets thousands of people through it every day, even who aren't ordering.

So when I got my start, I would take suitcases of records to London, like, in the early '90s, I would get off the plane, I would go to the record stores and sell all the records.

But then I realized there were all these great records in London to buy to bring back to the US, you know?

And when we opened our doors, it was really not as a store, we started as a website-only for about the first four years, we didn't even have a store.

So it was really to sell to overseas customers.

(intriguing orchestral music) - [Papa] How did the name come about?

- We were selling online and we didn't wanna just be this genre or that genre, but we also didn't wanna be blah, blah, blah records.

In Chicago, dusties is a name for old soul records, like the steppers scene, so there used to be dusties radio, it was especially like '60s soul '70's soul, that was a big specialty of ours.

So we used Dusty, the idea of an old, dusty record, And then Groove sort of implies that we sort of sell things that have a bit of a groove; we sold a lot of funk, we sold a lot of soul, a lot of Latin music, a lot of salsa, a lot of jazz.

So Dusty Groove, and we put it together, and it's obviously a name that stuck.

(intriguing groovy upbeat music) - So guys like us who have great staffs, who know what to do, that means we're the people that get to go out and buy the record collections.

- Mm-hmm.

- And I understand you do that probably as much as any store owner I know of.

- I do it a lot.

I'm probably in another city two times a month, three times a month, so... I mean, last weekend, I was in Dallas, I've gotta go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and another South Carolina collection in two weeks.

So, yeah, we go all over.

- As far as age, the span of age groups that you have in here, what percentage are customers under the age of 30?

- A lot now, way more than 30 years ago.

I mean, the amount of kids we have... You know, the crazy thing we never had years ago was kids coming in after high school; there's a high school down the street, and every day there's high school kids here, on the weekends, there's young people, we have a lot more women than we used to have.

Now, it's such a diverse customer base.

- How many employees do you have here at the store?

- About 25 at the moment, we've been about the same.

You know, it takes a lot, you know, upstairs, we've got probably today 10 people doing nothing but putting things online, you know, the shipping department, you know, we've got other people, we've even got people working on the third floor cleaning and grading records, so... - [Papa] I assume, as it is with me, you've got people that have been with you for many years.

- [Rick] Oh yeah.

- But you got this core group of people that work in the store that know how things run, know the history of the town, know our customers.

- Yeah, well, you know, they raise families, buy houses, have kids, you know, all that stuff.

(groovy upbeat music) - Chicago has not only been a city where the major labels really had their footprint heavily here, it was also a place that just had some of the best indie labels- - Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

- In the world.

- And it's music that often has been picked up and now belongs to one of these large corporations.

- Yeah.

- But this was a town that was very, very musical from jump.

- Yeah, it still is.

I mean we've got the tradition of Chess, Vee-Jay, you know, later Delmark from, you know, Bob's.

But, you know, now we got International Anthem, they're a great label, you know, we've got Corbett-Dempsey, they're another great jazz label, I mean there's, you know, all sorts of small independent artists-run labels too, you know, and it continues to be just a great place to sell records.

(groovy orchestral upbeat music) - Well, I really appreciate you taking the time.

I know you're a busy man, and you're popping in and out of the store, and you've got one of the legendary stores in the city of Chicago.

Needless to say, we both get to have a musical day.

- Yeah, thanks.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for stopping by.

(groovy orchestral upbeat music) (mellow jazzy orchestral music) - In addition to serving up not only music, but great deep-dish pizza for those cold winds off Lake Michigan, the musical buffet table served up by Chicago's record shops has all the bases covered.

(mellow jazzy orchestral music continues) We are in one of the legendary record stores in the city of Chicago, one which has seen every era of music for many decades, and it is what I'd also call a three-generation store.

The members of the family stretch back and are still keeping it going strong.

The name of the place is Out of the Past Records, and I have the pleasure to be talking to Ms.

Marie Henderson.

Time is always longer than rope, but it is great that you and I get to be doing what it is we really enjoy doing, which is being involved in music and getting music out to music lovers.

- I appreciate it, because I'm glad that the younger folks now are beginning to learn the generation of what old records were.

Most of the young generation, they never know what 45s or LPs was, til recently last year when they started reproducing stuff.

Now I'm getting a lot of younger folks coming in looking for music.

- This particular store, you told me you started in about 1985- - '86.

- '86.

- Mm-hmm.

- There are so many labels and musicians that have been based out of this city, and whether it's jazz, soul, blues, hip-hop, and you've been here in the center of it, how would you say Chicago has been for you as far as recognizing you and keeping the doors open?

- Well, I can say one thing is that, as long as we have what they need, we can go back as far as the early 1939s, 'cause we have that old music, the old round 45, we call 'em 78s.

So when they say 78s, they thinking about LPs, but that's not, those are 33 and a half.

But we have the round records, when those first started out, we just started, you know, collaborating with getting the music in when we opened up our store, and we tried to keep it going because we started out with eight tracks, and then we just started out with cassettes, but we always have 45s and LPs and 78 records around.

So I enjoy the music, and I enjoy the people, and I try to keep 'em supplied, because older you get, you never get out enjoying music.

Music is something that brings everybody alive, so that's what I'm here for.

- To me, it was kind of heroic that mom and pop stores could hang on when there were corporate record chain stores that were located in the malls and would really not concentrate on the music wherever they were located, all they were interested in doing was carrying those 300 titles that were the hot object in that particular 90-day period.

Stores like ours, we go a bit deeper, it can't just be the flavor of the week music.

- Well, you know, we had to think about it.

The older generation, they always had this urge for the record.

When people started opening up stores, newer stores started opening up, they never realize that you gotta go back and pull what's back in with what's new, because you had an older generation of people that still enjoyed their blues, their doo-wops, their dusties.

People my age now, we still have that desire for this music, 'cause you have the old groups like The Dells, The Vibrations, stuff like that.

- The Chi-Lites.

- Chi-Lites, The Temptations- - Dramatics.

- Dramatics, you had the Delfonics.

So all those old groups, none of the younger kids now, they never knew about it, but as they come along now, that was what kept us alive because we never would give up that music, even though we were getting new stuff in.

And my husband always told me, he said, "No matter what comes in new, I'm not getting rid of anything old."

Every old record that you hear from the '70s or the '80s, from the doo-wops to the R&B, it all has stories to tell.

(mellow orchestral music) (intriguing groovy jazzy music) - [Papa] As far as an artist that you were impressed with, who comes to mind that come into the store that you were just like, "Oh my gosh."

- I really like Bobby Rush, because, you know why I like him so much?

It's because he was down to Earth, he never tried to impress you.

Bobby was Bobby, he was just like a down to Earth person with me and I really liked him.

- He wrote a memoir, and he said that at the age of 17, he had come up from the South and was performing in clubs here, and he was so young that he would come out as the emcee, there would be three or four acts in the club that night, and he'd come out later with a mustache, (chuckles) as if he was somebody totally different, and, you know, do his songs.

- Mm-hmm.

- And I understand that even at one time, he had a barbecue joint in Chicago - He did, he did.

- And he's still playing music and touring and performing.

- And then, are you familiar with Otis Clay?

- Very much.

- Now he had a cleaners over on Cermak, and he would come in.

But he's a nice guy too, I liked him too, 'cause most of my local guys whoever come in, they knew me, they knew my husband, they knew us, so we never had no crumbs; we had Tyrone Davis, he'd come in, he'd clown with us too.

And we used to always tease him 'cause, you know, he was a gambler, (chuckles) and we used to always tease him about stuff that he was losing.

And then when Otis Clay would come in, he'd come in and say, "Well, you know, Marie?

I got something out, do you want it?"

And then when Bobby Rush would come in, he'd say he got something out, "When do you want it?"

And then we had Cicero Blake, Cicero, he would come in too.

So they all would, you know, they're like local artists that would come in and would sit around and shoot the breeze with you, never had to put on airs with 'em, they was just good guys, you know, just good guys.

- They could come here and relax.

- This was their home, yeah, they could come in and relax, cross their legs, say whatever they wanna say, you know?

And they enjoyed it, and we enjoyed it, you know?

I think music is a joy to anybody.

You know, once you get the hang of it, you'll love it.

I'm trying to teach my great-great-grandkids now.

This is my granddaughter now that's running the place, but I have a little great-grand daughter, she's 10 years old, I have more than one, but she's in here all the time, so she's beginning to get the click of the music.

So if somebody asks for something, she'll kinda say, "I know what that is," you know, and she might can help 'em.

But I would love for my great grandkids or great-great grandkids to keep this going, you know, just keep it going as long as they can.

- Because music is the healing feeling.

- Yes, it is, all types, all types; from blues, to R&B, to hip-hop, to jazz, to gospel, to all other stuff, people, they're inclined to it, and it's something that I think when you're lonesome, if you just have nothing to do, you wanna sit around your house, throw a record on, get a record playing, throw a record on.

Don't get me wrong, guys, the CDs, the USBs, all of it is great, but you'll never get the sound you get out of a 45 or the LP, it's just a different sound.

- Isn't it?

- Yes, it is.

(static crackling) (groovy bright upbeat orchestral music) - The eternal question for this show, what was your... What was your first record?

What was your first record?

Very first record... - The first record that I bought here was interestingly sold to me by this guy.

Scratch Acid, paid $20 for it, I still have it.

- Great record.

- Great record.

Chicago adjacent turned into Jesus Lizard.

- And my first record I think was Van Halen's "Fair Warning."

- Miami Vice Season 1 soundtrack.

- I remember buying Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz."

- The first-first record was The Chi-Lites.

(groovy upbeat music) (vocalist vocalizing) - The first memory I have of buying a vinyl for myself, it's "Blackwater Park" by Opeth.

- The first self-P I ever bought with my own money was "God Bless Tiny Tim."

- It was "Replicas" by Gary Numan.

at The Exchange here at Chicago.

- The first record I ever begged my mom to buy for me was Taylor Swift's "Red."

- The first record I bought was a reissue of Tom Waits' "Nighthawks at the Diner."

- I think the first album I ever bought was "French Exit" by TV Girl.

- Michael Jackson's "Thriller" back in 1983 or so, 'cause who didn't want that?

(static whirring) (groovy jazzy music) (static whirring)