New London, CT Record Store ‘The Telegraph’ Celebrates Its First Birthday!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Telegraph…

Sorry, but if New England Post were to use any more of that song, we might run afoul of copyright laws.

The music business has changed a lot lately due to this here thing we call the Internet.  Record stores have become downright endangered; swallowed up by big box retailers who also move refrigerators, video game consoles and eight different kinds of neck pillows. As a result, some mom-and-pop stores have had to close their doors.

Telegraph owners Daphne Lee Martin and her husband Rich Martin have seemingly bucked the trend, ignoring convention and heeding the advice of Henry David Thoreau who once said, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams!  Live the life you imagined.”

Last night, New London, Connecticut’s favorite record store marked its first anniversary.

“It’s small and intimate,” said Greg Conte of nearby Waterford.  “And it may sound totally corny, but it feels completely local.”

A balanced combination of used records, releases by local musicians and books, the Telegraph is the perfect place for Conte, a self-confessed “local recluse, and snot-nosed trash talker.”

“Last time I was here,” Conte told New England Post, “I knew exactly what I wanted, a Thelonious Monk record for a friend, and they had it!”

“I bought it and I walked out,” said the thirty-something  Conte, who added, “Honestly, if I still collected vinyl, I’d probably shop there exclusively.”

The Telegraph serves as a local reminder of the olden days of music sales; and Southern New England couldn’t be more pleased.

Short URL: http://www.newenglandpost.com/?p=5171

Posted by Soren Sorensen on Oct 6 2011. Filed under Featured - For home page featured article, Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry