Vinyl Tap

There are two quotes when I think about Vinyl Tap in Nashville. You can find the first right on their website.

“If you ever get lonely, just go to the record store and visit your friends.” – Cameron Crowe Almost Famous

The second is…

“Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.” – Gary Portnoy “Theme From Cheers”

If you’re wondering why it’s because Vinyl Tap brilliantly combines a taproom and record store. The only problem with that is it’s not located near me (I live in NH). But first, a brief history….

In 2016, the Lord created Vinyl Tap. Well, not really. In 2016, entrepreneur Todd Hedrick created Vinyl Tap. 

“We had the name long before we were able to open the store,” Hedrick says. “Vinyl was just starting to reemerge into society, and we knew we’d need something besides vinyl to survive, so we took our favorite two things in the world and merged them together.”

Beer is an easy one. It will always draw in customers thirsty to discover a new brew (like Rogue Brewery’s “Dead’ N’ Dead”) or try an old one. To combine it with vinyl is a stroke of brilliance. The thing is, you have to love vinyl records to see the brilliance. What’s wonderful about that is the store opened at a time when music lovers a rediscovering the joys of vinyl.

As Hedrick puts it, “Sitting down with the album cover, the liner notes, and listening from start to finish as the artist intended, and not just picking a song here and there is the ultimate at-home musical experience.”

Well said. 

Vinyl Tap (the official name is Vinyl Tap Wax and Drafts) is situated in an unpretentious dark gray building on the corner of Porter of Greenwood. The logo, however, with its record and solitary drip of beer, is eye-catching. It also makes the perfect T-shirt.

Are there challenges to owning and operating a record store/bar? Yes. Yes, there are. They can be summed up in one word – “Spillage”. As Hedrick puts it, “Folks in a ‘reduced state of learning’, shall we say, are often not careful….”

The horror!

That’s not to say all beer/vinyl stories end badly. They almost always end very well for both the customer and the store. Like the story about a customer from New York who stopped for a beer and some music. As Hedrick reminisces, “Watching someone almost do a spit take of their beer while looking at the display shelves and seeing the original pressings of the first 3 Brazilian Sepultura albums and then dropping A LOT of money on the spot and freaking out was pretty great!”

What’s also great is the recent album from Nashville’s own Lera Lynn released in November 2021 for Record Store Day. It was a live performance recorded at… you guessed it… Vinyl Tap. 

“Welcome to your new lifelong obsession!” Hedrick says to those customers discovering vinyl for the first time. After forty-plus years of collecting myself, I echo that sentiment.

If record stores had a “cool factor” knob that went to “10”, this one goes to “11”.