Boulder music lovers say goodbye to Albums on the Hill with love
BOULDER — Iconic Boulder record store Albums on the Hill, owned and operated by Andy Schneidkraut for the last 35 years, sold its final LP over Labor Day weekend, and local music lovers flocked to the shop and to social media to share their memories and love for a store that was one of the last of its kind.
Schneidkraut decided to permanently shutter Albums on the Hill after a kidney transplant and heart surgery earlier this year, according to a Boulder Daily Camera report.
Here are some reactions to Albums on the Hill’s closing culled from local news reports and social media:
SPONSORED CONTENT
Empowering communities
Rocky Mountain Health Plans (RMHP), part of the UnitedHealthcare family, has pledged its commitment to uplift these communities through substantial investments in organizations addressing the distinct needs of our communities.
- “Record stores have historically been community centers. It’s a universal experience to be moved by music,” former employee Courtney Law told the Daily Camera.
- Twitter user Walter Chaw: “Heartbreaking. This store is part of my DNA. I saw Toad the Wet Sprocket play on the sidewalk in front of it when I was at CU in the 90s. I bought my first Tom Waits album there. Andy is a fantastic human.”
- “I didn’t realize that I mattered as much to as many people, but I do, I guess,” Schneidkraut said in an interview with CBS Colorado.
- Facebook user Matt Need: “I moved to Boulder in 1991 to work for Big Head Todd and the Monsters. Andy has been my go-to for essential music in my life since then. Any time I’d come off tour and hit Albums on the Hill, I’d go in, browse a bit, and then ask Andy, ‘What music do I need right now?’ Invariably, he’d point me in the right direction … Walter Salas-Humara, Son Volt, and other killer guideposts that reset my ears and brain. There is no digital experience that compares with being a friend of Andy and a patron of Albums on the Hill. Those memories live forever. May we behave in ways that make us as immortal as Andy. And as Andy, may we be possessed and inspired by our passions, and leave such a huge mark of love on our immediate world.”
- “You feel at home and yeah, Andy’s one of the good ones. He’s a good guy. He loves the music. He lives the music,” customer Julia Dandio told Colorado Public Radio. “And I don’t know, I wanted to be here, not for the end, but kind of, you know. Vinyl shopping is my favorite. Music is life.”
- Facebook user Michael Drumm: “Certain individuals have had a BIG impact on the Boulder and Colorado music scene. Andy Schneidkraut and his Albums on the Hill’s closing is the END of an era nobody is asking for. Irreplaceable.”
- Twitter user Shad Murib: “It’s fair to say I spent the majority of my money in college at Albums on the Hill, discovering all sorts of new music and diligently begging Andy for midnight sales of new records. What a loss for the community and music-lovers everywhere in CO.”
