The Record Shop On 95th Brings Vinyl Revival To Evergreen Park

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — The lights are flickering ion and off inside The Record Shop On 95th in Evergreen Park. Sometimes the lights go dark in front of the store, sometimes behind the counter. Each time, Jeff Law, who helps his wife, Jessika, run the store, says “thanks, mom.”

The first record store ever to grace 95th Street in Evergreen Park opened Nov. 15 and has been drawing a crowd, particularly teens, ever since.

“We named it the Record Shop on 95th because you know what we do and where we’re at,” Jeff said. “When I was a kid, it was always ‘the video store on 95th,’ or ‘the bakery on 95th.’”

The Arizona transplants moved their record shop back to Evergreen Park when Jeff’s mother, Judy, became ill. A pair of record store veterans, the Laws are now living in Jeff’s mother home in Evergreen Park, who died a few months ago, and reopened as a female-owned business all in six weeks.

“My mom’s passing hasn’t been an easy task,” said Jeff. “I’m elated and happy that the mass majority of people coming in our store are letting me tell my story and giving us the opportunity to do what we’ve been doing something we love and continue moving forward with it.”

A 103-year-old working RCA Victrola with the original owner's manual.

“And then there was Christmas,” Jessika Law said, one of many sentences the couple finishes for each other during our visit. “The community has embraced us. Everything fell into place. We truly believe everything happens for a reason, good or bad.”

Jeff, 54, is a product of Evergreen Park public schools – Northwest, Central and Evergreen Park Community High School. As a teen, he hung out at Beverly Records. Jessika, 46, grew up in Arizona.

When Jeff was 21, he owned a record shop in Joliet for years. He closed the shop and took a trek around the United States finding himself in Arizona, where again, he ended up working in a mom and pop record store.

The two of them met at a record shop.

“It was before cell phones, so we passed notes,” Jessika said.

The couple got married and had a kid. For ten or eleven years, Jeff took one of those “suit and tie” jobs. Jessika was a stay-at-home mom.

“He was driving me nuts, so I told him we had to figure out something to do,” Jessika said. “He looked at me and said, ‘why don’t we open a record shop?'”

For a decade, they successfully ran the Arizona store before relocating back to Evergreen Park.

“Everything fell into place,” Jessika said. “We truly believe everything happens for a reason, good or bad.”

The vinyl record industry dominated the 20th century until the 70s and 80s, when 8-tracks and cassettes started creeping in, mainly because the formats could be played in your car. CDs and file sharing on such platforms as Napster. After nearly disappearing, the vinyl industry has come roaring back.

Taylor Swift’s album release of “The Tortured Poets Department” is credited with boosting vinyl sales to their highest in three decades during Record Store Day in 2024, reported Dork, a music webzine.

The Record Shop sells self-assembled crates that you can use for bookshelves.

Since The Record Shop on 95th Street opened in November, many of its customers are millennials and zillennials yearning to break free from their screens.

“Kids who have grown up with screens in their faces now want the physical,” Jessika said. “They are in such a fast-paced world that listening to a vinyl record makes them take that moment because you have to wait for the side to finish, then get up to turn it over. It’s the reading of the liner notes and looking at the cover. It's an experience.”

Jeff said his younger customers are “listening to everything.” Older adults coming in to look for that Led Zeppelin II album are finding that kids have already snagged it.

“This is the first generation that can literally look back 100 years,” he said, pointing out the 103-year-old, working RCA Victrola with the original owners manual. “You can look like any decade you want, you can dress like any decade, talk the lingo. They’re the first generation that can embrace it all for what it was and have access to it.”

“Back when I was a kid, you lived in the decade in which you grew up, even in the 1990s, you lived in the decade,” he continued. “It wasn’t until 2010 when you started to see more and more the twist of a generation, which is now happening, but they physically own their own stuff now.”

The Record Shop on 95th Street sells used and new records from all genres, along with analog HIFI turntables and speakers, self-assembled record crates so use them to display your record collection, T-shirts, bags and other accoutrements. The store also does buy-sell-trades. Custom orders are free.

“We’re the only record shop that organizes our vinyl by price point,” Jeff said. “Everyone has a budget, so if you only have $30 to spend, you get more vintage. “The price point has gotten good response from the community.”

“You don't go into a record for five minutes, you go to hang out.”

A lot of customers strolling into the store after the holidays are there because someone, usually a kid, got a record player for Christmas.

“They’re playing something grandma and grandpa knew, something mom and dad knew and suddenly all the cousins and grandparents, aunts and uncles are gathered around the record player,” Jeff said.

Jeff and Jessika want to fully participate in the Evergreen Park community and other nearby towns, whether it’s a presentation about the musical decades at schools and libraries, trunk-or-treats, or DJing a daddy-daughter dance, they’re available.

Hanging on the wall in the shop is a photo of Jeff and his mom, Judy, taken a year ago at Palermo’s. Underneath is his mother’s favorite slogan, “buy some shit,” when visiting their Arizona store.

“In today’s world where you see so many people ordering online, you have to give a moment to mom-and-pop shops like us if you want these things to survive. Don’t walk into a place and say this is great and then leave. Buy some shit.”

The Record Shop on 95th, 3576 W. 95th St., Evergreen Park, is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, and Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Keep up with Record Shop on 95th happenings on Facebook and Instagram. Or email them at recordshopon95th@yahoo.com.