Record Shops That Are
Paranormal Hot Spots
There was something magical about placing a round black chunk of vinyl on a turntable and suddenly hearing disembodied voices and heavenly ensembles of musical instruments fill the space around you. Records were like mystical, musical Ouija boards to perpetually connect you to your favorite artists.
Long before CDs and MP3s, iPods and Nanos, Spotify and Pandora became the listening medium of choice, crowds of country music fans shopped at record stores to buy black vinyl discs of their favorite songs.
Just as musical vibrations cause the impressions within the grooves of these records to permanently preserve the voices and talents of artists who may no longer be with us, paranormal researchers say that the spiritual energy of the departed can etch their impressions into the very fiber of our reality. If we’re lucky—or unlucky—enough, or if we are just particularly receptive to these vibrations, we may be able to witness the manifestation of people who etched their spirit grooves into the very environment that surrounds us.
As we have read so far, ghost hunters tell us that spirits have carved their energy into some of Nashville’s most famous landmarks. Some of those landmarks just happen to be, aptly enough, record stores. We’ll tour two of the most famous haunted record stores in Nashville now.
Ernest Tubb Record Shop
Ernest Tubb was one of country music’s most beloved stars and his eponymous record store soon became a favorite hangout for music lovers in a city populated largely by music lovers. As time went on, though, these music connoisseurs began to notice that not all the vibrations in the shop were caused by the stereo system.
The shop, located on Broadway, is one of Nashville’s most notoriously haunted hot spots. Current and former employees are among the most knowledgeable sources on the supernatural occurrences and they believe the property is veritably spinning with spirits. If the employees aren’t having run-ins with ghosts, they are fielding reports from customers who have had their own spooky encounters.
Witnesses have claimed they have suddenly felt rapid changes in temperature. The space around them would become unexpectedly hot or unexpectedly cold—a classic sign of a ghostly presence. Other people felt someone touch them, only to turn around and discover that they are completely alone. Still others say that, despite being in a good mood, they were completely taken up in feelings of grief as they shopped or worked at the record store. Then, just as suddenly, the grief seemed to dissipate.
The supernatural activity can reveal itself in other forms. Sometimes, for example, the CD player took requests, even when there was no DJ around to man the device. Customers holding conversations with fellow customers or a friendly employee will mention the name of an artist. Without warning, the CD player spontaneously begins playing a song by that very artist. It has happened so many times that it goes beyond coincidence or Jungian synchronicity, staff members say.
A few experts on the case pinpoint the basement and the staircase that leads to the basement as hot spots for the record store’s haunting. The heightened activity in those spots appears to be related to the building’s Civil War history. Long before it became a record store, the building was used as a hospital during the ferocious battles that raged around and in the city of Nashville. The basement, which is cool and dark, local historians point out, may have been used as a morgue. It’s no wonder, then, that spirits seem to be more attached to those areas of the property because they are quite likely the last place their mortal selves inhabited, according to these experts.
Lawrence Record Shop
One of the oldest record shops in Nashville doesn’t just share the same stretch of street as two of the city’s most famous haunted locations—Tootsie’s and the Ernest Tubb Record Shop—but it shares some of its Civil War past with those places, as well. Historians believe Lawrence Record Shop, just like Ernest Tubb’s shop, was once used as a hospital.
But the casualties of war are only one potential cause of the supernatural goings-on that are reported in the building. Most people theorize that it’s the spirit of a former owner that’s stirring up all the weird activity. The owner, known for his cigar-smoking, makes his presence known in an odd way.
Customers will complain to employees that they smell cigar smoke. Since smoking is not allowed in the building, staff members used to investigate. I said “used to” for a reason: while employees once rushed to the site where witnesses claim they smelled the cigar smoke hoping they could catch the scofflaw stogie-handed, they aren’t in such a rush anymore. Typically, when employees investigated, they didn’t find a cigar smoker. In fact, they couldn’t find anyone near the scene—or maybe the smell—of the crime. These haunted snipe hunts happened so frequently that workers just nod to the complaining customer and say that it’s probably Mr. Lawrence, as they call him, the long-dead owner of the record shop.
Other phenomena include mysterious light flickers and odd knocking sounds, the sources of which no repairman can seem to find. Witnesses also hear noises that they can only describe as footsteps marching up and down the steps leading to the shop’s upper floors. When they look to see who is coming up the stairs, no one ever arrives.
Paranormal researchers say that more than one ghost can inhabit a space and Lawrence Record Shop may be a perfect example of this. As we discussed in the section on the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, the neighborhood that surrounds the record shops was near the scene of brutal fighting during the Civil War and many of the buildings in the area were used as hospitals for the Battle of Nashville, as well as other battles that consumed Tennessee during those violent months and years. In fact, according to several historical sources, the building where Lawrence Record Shop is now based was a hospital. The treatment that the men received there was primitive—and painful. There were no advanced types of anesthesia, or highly effective painkillers, as there are now. Often, the pain in the hospital was worse than the pain on the battlefield.
According to the researchers, this type of trauma creates the conditions for hauntings. It may be that, in addition to the record store’s owner, ghosts of Civil War soldiers continue to tromp up and down the steps of the building.