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Walls of sound stored inside a Coop Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell John and Trina Brenes have moved their Northern California record shop to Ashland's A Street Marketplace, opening one of the valley's largest purveyors of music with 16,000 titles and more on the way. New Ashland store gives record-hunters, fans and musicians a place to call home By TONY BOOM Mail Tribune A four-disc, boxed set of "Hitless Yet Priceless Singles" from the 1960s is available at a new compact disc store that offers more than 16,000 titles and walls covered with original album art and gold records that famous musicians have given the owner to display. Music Coop in Ashland is the first shop to open in the A Street Marketplace, former home of Oak Street Tank and Steel. Store owners John and Trina Brenes moved the business from Petaluma, Calif., where it operated for 27 years. "By the time I was 15, I knew this was what I was gong to be doing," said John Brenes. Except for military service in Vietnam, Brenes has always worked in record stores. He was hooked on music as a boy growing up in Los Angeles. Brenes' knowledge brought him work with Rhino Records, compiling songs for collections of New Orleans music featuring the Neville Brothers and Dr. John. Brenes' connection to musicians began through John Cipollina, lead guitarist for Quicksilver Messenger Service and a customer at his Petaluma store. "Musicians walk into a store like this and we become friends," says Brenes. "A generic record store ... is very disappointing for a musician." As word spread, Brenes customers came to include Linda Ronstadt, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Emmylou Harris, Norton Buffalo and others. Ronstadt shipped Brenes all her gold albums. "She thought we should share them with people," said Brenes. He also has original art from Neville Brothers albums on display. Brenes carries many CDs from Europe and Japan, were companies will produce as few as 15,000 copies of hard-to-get music. "Record companies (in America) don't put out CDs and music they can't mass market," said Brenes. Unique items themselves played a role in the creation of the Ashland store. Brenes says the store's CD racks were built with the sale of one unique Bob Dylan album. It was an unopened copy of 1963's "The Freewheeling Bob Dylan" that contained four controversial tracks not on the track list, including "John Birch Society Blues." One of only about 250 copies in existence, it sold for $10,000, Brenes said. A business card lists 33 categories of music. Jazz fills bins along nearly the entire back wall of the 2,000-square-foot space. Blues CDs take up the far end wall of the store. There are two large, back-to-back sets of bins in the middle that include reggae, African music categorized by country, and music from other foreign lands. The oldie section is categorized by record company. They have everything from big band to punk. "I've been looking for this record for 20 years," a customer told Trina Brenes recently when he found a copy of "Duke Ellington Live at Newport." One boxed CD set, "The Ultimate Soul Collection," looks like a group of eight track tapes. Another set is inside a small case that people used to carry 45 records. Another Ashland store comes near to Music Coop's title volume. CD or not CD has about 12,800 different titles in stock. Music Head in Medford has approximately 8,000 different titles among its 10,000 CDs. A manager for Sam Goody in the Rogue Valley Mall said she didn't know how many CDs or different titles the store had. The Breneses moved to Ashland because they outgrew their old location, liked the town and had to find space for their horses. The store has a Web site. It will begin accepting e-mail orders in the near future. The Breneses created the site for their former Sonoma County customers, but expect sales to come from across the country. The Web address is www.musiccooponline.com Reach Ashland bureau reporter Tony Boom at 482-4651, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.