Like many independent record stores, based in Nashville New and favorite Grimey music and books sometimes offers giveaways for customers, with prizes like tickets to local shows and vinyl presses. But given his location in the creative hub of East Nashville, co-owner of Grimey Doyle Davis he says these gifts have led to some unusual moments.
“We'll take a picture of the winner and tag them on social media when they pick up their prize,” says Davis Advertising sign. “Once, we posted a picture of a guy showing off his award — and [rock icon and former Led Zeppelin lead singer] Robert Plant was walking up the aisle right behind him. When we published it [photo]all the comments were like, “Robert Plant bombed your man.”
Grimey's has been a hotspot and haven for music lovers – celebrity or not – for 25 years. The East Nashville store is Grimey's third location: it launched in 1999 in Nashville's Berry Hill neighborhood, before moving to 8u Ave. S. and eventually to its current location at 1060 East Trinity Lane in 2018.
“John Prine used to shop here regularly, especially at our old location. We were just down the road from [meat-and-three restaurant] Arnold's, where he got his meat every week,” Davis recalled, also noting artists like Kacey Musgraves and Emmylou Harris who stopped by Grimey's over the years.
Grimey's is housed in a former Pentecostal church offering an intimate atmosphere, with stained glass windows. arched, wooden ceilings. a performance stage (Davis remodeled the area into a space for more intimate musical performances); and two floors filled with vinyl, CDs, books and more. The 4,000-square-foot space continues to be a staple of Nashville's music community, with Davis estimating that about 70% of the store's sales come from vinyl, with the remaining 30% coming from books, CDs, DVDs, etc. etc.
Based in the heart of East Nashville's creative community, the store considers Americana the best-selling genre of music, with the store's best-selling artists being Jason Isbell, Musgraves and Sturgill Simpson.
“We recently signed with Kacey and her [2024] Deeper well album and it was the only signing he did for the entire release cycle of the album,” says Davis. “We had over a thousand people sign for four hours. That was the most records of a new title I sold in a week. Jason Isbell was my previous record in the 850.”
of Grimey
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Davis co-owns Grimey's with the store's namesake and founder Mike Grimes, who started the store in a small house in the Berry Hill area. In 2002, Davis, who was an executive at another Nashville record store, The Great Escape, joined Grimes as a co-owner. At the time, Davis suggested they focus on selling new vinyl.
“Nashville had great record stores. The Great Escape was a great record store, but it was all taken [records]says Davis. “If people wanted new records, you either mail-ordered them or bought them from Tower Records. Tower had a pretty lame option in my opinion at the time, and it took them forever to refill something if they sold it. Being a real record guy all my life, I just thought, “There's a niche we can fill here. We're going to carry all the cool independent music that the chain stores don't carry.” We really focused on the new vinyl, and that's when Steve Jobs the iTunes store had just opened, Napster was in recession and finding new ways to legally sell digital music — all appealing to no physical media.”
In 2004, Grimey's moved to 8u Location Ave. S., where it quickly became an indie music hub. Live music venue The Basement (founded by Grimes) was located downstairs, while the building at the time also served as office space for Thirty Tigers and indie radio station WXNA. As Grimey's expanded to 8u Avenue, they rented the building next door and opened Grimey's Too bookstore.
At the same time, Grimey's began supporting artists through in-store shows that allowed the bands to promote their new records. In 2008, the rock band Metallica recorded the album Live at Grimey's at The Basement before their performance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival.
“We carried it for 10 years until it sold out,” Davis recalls, also noting that Nashville native and Americana luminary Isbell once played a show in the back parking lot of Grimey's, with more than 1,000 people in attendance.
“[Jason] he did an in-store show with us for every solo album he released until the pandemic hit, and he wasn't able to do that,” Davis recalls. “We had the Black Keys early on when they were still playing clubs. Years ago, the band is having fun. did an in-store, and then the Black Pumas did an in-store show, and six months later they were huge at the Grammys, too. I always hoped we'd get Wilco to play here, and they finally did in November 2019, right before the pandemic.”
Since the landlord did not offer Grimey's a long lease on 8u Avenue location and noted that the building would be up for sale, Grimes and Davis knew they had to look for a new location for Grimey's, which led to its current location.
“The real estate agent showed me a picture of the building and it was the right size, it was beautiful and affordable,” Davis recalls, noting that he had some concerns at the time about relocating to East Nashville. There were already at least two other record stores in the area, The Groove and Vinyl Tap.
“What I was hoping might happen seems to be what happened: that the customers who came to East Nashville to visit our store would visit the other stores as well,” Davis says, noting that in the 1990s, he visited London's Berwick Street, which was known as “Record Road” for its large number of record stores. “Each shop had its own specialty and if you're an omnivorous music lover, you'd go to all the shops. I know from talking to people that on Record Store Day, for example, a lot of people will hit up Grimey's, Vinyl Tap and The Groove because we're all in the same neighborhood.”
Paramore + Doyle & Grimey
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While streaming rules the modern music market, vinyl has seen steady growth over the past nearly two decades, which Davis attributes to the popular Record Store Day that began in 2007. Grimey's focuses on buying from original source distributors, but also uses a distributors, with Davis estimating that the store has about 12,600 new vinyl records and 3,000 used records.
“By 2010 or 2011, we were seeing 30% and 35% year-over-year increases — and that's across the board, not just at my store,” he says. “Vinyl is back, but it wasn't mainstream at the time.” Since the pandemic began, Davis says vinyl has “reached a whole new inflection point,” nodding to pop artists like Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo carrying large numbers of vinyl units.
“We sell tons of Taylor and Olivia records. For a while, we couldn't keep enough Harry Styles records in stock,” says Davis. “This is new to me. We have high school kids coming into the store. We've always had a certain percentage of students, the first adopters. Vinyl has been seen as a hipster thing for quite some time, but I don't see anyone seeing it that way. If nothing else, it's considered a pop trend.”
While Davis acknowledges the commercial challenges in pricing and direct-to-consumer sales, he sees indie record stores as an enduring part of the music ecosystem.
“If you can only afford one record a month, just because of price, then even used ones aren't cheap,” says Davis. “You've always had the dollar bins, but the records that were straight in the dollar bin before are sometimes $5 records. I also see the direct-to-consumer initiatives, but we've pretty much covered it most of the way. And there's an experience in a record store that you can't get online — it's a physical, like-minded space. I love watching my employees interact with customers. If you're really into that culture, there's nothing like an independent record store, in terms of experience.
“Vinyl never went away and is here to stay. I believe that,” Davis says of the future of the format. “We've seen steady growth now for over a decade, and it's already carried over to a new generation. Now you have children [buying vinyl] whose parents didn't grow up with vinyl — their parents were CD and digital natives. Vinyl is a way to slow down. You get the lyrics, the inserts, the art — the whole vision of the artist.”
