Deep Groove Records

Travel thirty minutes north of Portland, Maine, follow the seacoast, and you’ll arrive in Brunswick. Brunswick isn’t very big, with a population hovering around 20k, but it has a large history. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin there, and film crews have drifted in and out of the city for location shots. It’s a quiet place to live. You can find the Maine State Music Theater there, and its administrative offices are located on Elm Street, right across from Hannaford’s supermarket. What you’ll also find on Elm Street is a little white building with a lot to offer. This is the home of Deep Groove Records. When you walk in, you’ll find three rooms bursting with an assortment of unique finds of all eras. And it’s been this way since Dave Kowalski purchased the building in 2018. Kowalski himself is no stranger to the trade, having also sold records at a local market pop-up for a couple of years previously, although he has been collecting for decades. The wonderful thing is, and Kowalski is the first to admit it, with collecting, the education never stops. “We try to maintain a two-way educational approach,” he explains. “And I am always learning and growing musically.”

There’s a lot to be proud of in opening a record store these days. It’s not about the money (although that’s nice); it’s about the music and the joy of owning a piece of it to bring home, display, and listen to. It’s an endless journey. As Kowalski puts it, “The beauty of records is that there are always more out there that you don’t know about… enjoy the journey and know that sometimes you’ll find the right record just when you need it most.”

Case in point, Kowalski recounts the time an older patron came in asking about a record he’d been hoping to find for over fifteen years. Deep Groove records was one stop on that journey. It turned out to be the last. Kowalski handed him the record for $7, and the man cried “tears of joy”.

“Never underestimate the value or power of a record that may not be important to you,” he adds.

I have many records in my personal collection, and there’s a story behind every single one of them. Most are interesting only to me, and some have funny little anecdotes to accompany them. They represent bits and pieces of my history and journey through life. Kowalski understands that journey and incorporates it into his business and how he curates (and cleans!) the records he offers. “Yes, a record is an object ultimately,” he says. “But it’s also a journey conduit that changes with each listen, particularly as we change in our lives.”

After giving that some thought, I have to agree with his philosophy. The size of my collection means some records haven’t reached my turntable in years. I played one recently that I’d probably last listened to in the late 1980s. Every note was as I remembered it, as were the lyrics, but it was deeper somehow. I’ve changed a lot since then and so apparently had my relationship to the music. Kowalski knows this and is quick to smile, wink, and say that records “hold serious mojo.”

The next time you’re in Maine, follow the coastline north to Brunswick, pop into Deep Groove Records, chat with Dave, and experience some of that mojo.