We are largely finding our way by trial and error — all of the staff, myself included, have quite eclectic taste, and we’ve been experimenting with what sells well and then we start to fill out particular sections. For instance, I’ve always been a fan of British folk rock bands, like Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Pentangle, those kind of groups, and we have always carried quite a lot of CDs in that niche. So slowly, we’ve been expanding the range of music that you might describe as new folk, Americana, acoustic singer songwriter type bands.

In some cases, it’s simply a question of carrying more bands from that same era in the early 70s — I’ve turned a lot of people on to John Martin, for instance — but we’re also trying hard to carry music by newer artists. Some of them are becoming quite popular, including Ani DiFranco, Elliott Smith, Dar Williams and others, but it’s been nice also trying get people interested in music that is less well-known.

For instance, lately I’ve been listening a lot to an album by Kristie Stremel called All I Really Want. A few years ago, she was with a band called Frogpond that achieved a small cult status with their album Count To 10. Her solo debut is a lovely country tinged album, and well worth a listen.