24 South Main

The first time I went to the 24 South Main location of Gallery Of Sound was in August 2010. My local Gallery Of Sound location in Westfall closed in April 2010 and it was the first time a local record store I went to closed. My mom and dad used to go to the Westfall location all the time when me and my brother were growing up.

During the summer of 2010, as a family, we went to 24 South Main for the first time. This was right when "The Final Frontier" by Iron Maiden came out. Every month, as a family, we'd travel to Wilkes Barre to go to the 24 South Main location and see Jim who has become a close friend of our family.

I went to 24 South Main from August 2010 to November 2013. A lot of music came out during these couple years including "Nothing" by N.E.R.D., "Born Free" by Kid Rock, "Escape The Fate" by Escape The Fate, "The Lady Killer" by Cee Lo Green, "Here Lies Love" by David Byrne & Fatboy Slim, "Calling All Corpses" by Wednesday 13, "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" by Alice Cooper, "Sounds From Nowheresville" by The Ting Tings, "Lex Hives" by The Hives, "NEW" by Paul McCartney, "Mechanical Bull" by Kings Of Leon and many more.

I also started collecting records at 24 South Main. I would always go through the pop/rock used vinyl and that was how I discovered Jack Jones, Katy Moffatt, Polyrock, Nat King Cole and Walter Egan. I also saw titles that my dad has in his record collection including Scandal's 1982 EP, "Get Lucky" by Loverboy, "Live" by Foghat, to name a few.

I remember that the used records that used to be displayed on the walls in the store was so diverse. It ranged from Lou Rawls to Atlanta Rhythm Section to Neil Diamond to Bad Company to Al Stewart to The Greg Kihn Band. I think that all record stores be like this, and they should have a diverse selection of records rather than only promoting one genre.

24 South Main was a place where I discovered so many artists, new and old, and I got to work on my photography skills. I was given permission to design the walls of the store to show all the awesome music the store had for sale.

Gallery Of Sound lives up to its name and has artists of all eras and genres for sale. All record stores should be diverse. These are places of discovery and not just for finding the album you're into right now.