I look for good little record stores everywhere I go.

Not that I don't have one of the best just a few steps away from where I live at Jerry's Records, but record hunting is good sport!

I found a good one on a recent trip to Youngstown, Ohio. On my drive back from a meeting in Youngstown, I Googled “Record Stores Youngstown” and, sure enough, on the road that leads back to 680 South, there is a good record store. Underdog Records is the brainchild of Ron ‘Sonny’ Hrehovcik, who has owned and operated some version of Underdog Records for 40 years. He started it with a friend when he was 25 and never looked back, surviving the introduction and demise of 8-Track tapes and the introduction and demise (?) of CDs as well. So, the little shop is mostly records, mostly used, mostly in excellent condition. There is a recording studio in the back, which pays half the rent, so Sonny is free to focus on the vinyl.

From the road, Underdog is unassuming. Underdog Records is located in tiny single-story strip development on Hubbard Road that also hosts a few other small businesses. On the modest brick façade, a molded plastic sign with the store name is flanked to the left by two classic round images of cartoonist Joe Harris’ 1964 ‘Underdog’ character. A glass door beckons with the words, ’Yes, we’re open.’ Who can resist?

The small, dimly lit store is overflowing with records. On the wall opposite the entrance a selection of vinyl re-issues is displayed. I see – and hear - the new ‘Moby Grape Live’ collection – some recorded in Amsterdam’s Paradiso in the early 70s. Turns out to be the CD version playing, but more on Sonny’s turntable  later.

The racks are neatly organized and alphabetical with the usual suspects in very good condition. Most albums are eight or ten bucks, some twelve, fifteen , or twenty. Sonny doesn’t sell online, so the ‘good stuff is mixed in with the more mundane. Makes the search that much more fun. On the floor are duplicates in crates and special crates with Dylan, The Beatles, and a few other popular groups featured. There is also a crate or two full of comedy records and funk.

On the window side of the store, the old 8-Track glass fronted case is filled with CDs, mostly artists from the 60s and 70s, CD versions of some of the same records you can find on vinyl. Sonny refers to this case as a sort of graveyard for obsolete technology – first 8-Tracks and now CDs. But, vinyl keeps bouncing back!

I found an original 1966 Seeds debut album, in worn but playable condition, a near mint of McDonald & Giles’s only release, and McKendree Spring’s 1972 Tracks release with a mellow cover of Dylan’s ‘The Man in Me’ (New Morning, 1970). Lead singer Sky Saxon’s passing almost a year ago  (June 25, 2009) has elevated The Seeds in peoples’ consciousness. It is a seminal garage/psych album and definitely worth a listen. McDonald &b Giles is a story in itself for another time.

Sonny’s turntable is another story. Concerned about the playability of The Seeds, I ask Sonny to play it for me. Surface-wise, better than I expect but the sound wavers.  It sounds like a worn out belt to me, but what do I know. ‘Sonny, it sounds like you need a new belt on that turntable or something,’ I say. “Yeah, but if I shift it to 78 and back to 33 1/3 it usually fixes it.” He jiggles the speed shifter rapidly. And sure enough, Sonny was right.