MUSIC FEATURE
me and listens intently. He trains that same intensity toward playing records; they’re a media meant for much more that background listening. “It’s such an intentional experience to put a record on,” he says. “It’s the closest thing to playing music.” Smith’s enthusiasm is not just confined to music he likes. He’s proud that the store takes a “something for everybody” approach. “I think record stores have a bad reputation for being gatekeepers and elitists,” Smith says, laughing when I share a story about a quintessentially rude clerk at Chicago music store Wax Trax Records who called my purchase “absolute shit.” (The clerk, Alain Jourgensen, went on to front abrasive industrial metal band Ministry.) Smith actively discourages
deemed uncool. The best thing about vinyl was that it was cheap. “CDs were expensive, and records were a quarter each or people were giving them away,” he remembers. Smith went to thrift stores with his mom and snapped up all the vinyl he could fine, developing a taste for classic rock. “Whenever I got Noble Records offers up rare a CD, it wasn’t as exciting to me. They were smaller.” vinyl and good vibes He loved the detailed — and larger — artwork vinyl offered, getting immersed in gatefold BY PAT MORAN illustrations, lyric sheets and liner notes. Smith also began to play guitar, deepening his appreciation “Peel slowly and see,” read the instructions on for the musicians he discovered on vinyl. At the age the album’s cover — but no one has in the 54 years of 14, he decided he was going to own and run a since the sticker was placed there. Somehow, the brick-and-mortar record store, even though there previous owner or owners of this original edition were no stores anywhere near his rural hometown of the Velvet Underground’s 1967 debut of Midland, 25 miles east of Charlotte. album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, After being home-schooled through resisted the temptation to peel off the his middle school years, Smith attended banana-skin sticker on the record’s cover Central Cabarrus High School, where he to reveal the phallic-pink fruit beneath. bought, renovated and sold guitars as a That makes this particular piece of vinyl side gig. He also played guitar, and it was rare and collectible, but it’s also what through music that he met his wife Emily. makes it fun and exciting, says Dillon They both played music and performed at Smith, owner of Noble Records. their church. “That’s the kind of stuff I like to find,” “I was probably 16 when I met her,” Smith says. “You can’t just go on Amazon Smith recalls. “We played music and just and buy it new. You have to get lucky.” stuck together. We’re like-minded I guess.” Smith is the owner of Noble Records, Through all his business endeavors and situated in a shopping center on East life changes, Smith continued to listen Independence Boulevard on the border to and love records. He bought a topof Charlotte and Matthews in southeast loading turntable on which he could stack Mecklenburg County. After 10 year multiple records to drop down and play. of selling records online and hosting Smith remembers loading two copies of pop-ups at local breweries and other Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Damn businesses, Smith launched his brickthe Torpedoes — one on side one and and-mortar establishment in October the other on the flip side — so he could 2019. lay in bed at night and listen to the whole PHOTO BY PAT MORAN Having just celebrated its second DILLON SMITH, OWNER OF NOBLE RECORDS, IN HIS SOUTHEAST CHARLOTTE SHOP. album without having to get up. anniversary, Noble has more in common In 2010, Dillon and Emily married. Amid with the unassuming businesses it shares a building landed in an Atlantic Records executive’s home. such snobbery. all the challenges and changes in the newlywed’s with — ones like Beltway Gun & Pawn or Blue When the exec’s daughter spun the hot-mixed disc, “People like what they like,” he says. “They lives, records went on the back burner. Smith was Chameleon Consignments — than the shiny new it skipped like crazy on her cheap turntable. Atlantic should feel comfortable buying Spice Girls or only making $1,000 a month playing guitar at branch of Elevation megachurch that sits across the immediately halted production of the album and whatever.” Hence the shop’s homey sitting area. church on Sundays. He sold his collection of over parking lot. ordered a more subdued mix — the mix most Smith wants people to feel at home, and able to 1,000 records on Craigslist to drum up extra money. The unpeeled VU & Nico is not the only collector’s consumers hear to this day. strike up a friendly conversation about favorite — To make ends meet, he also sold cars at a dealership prize in Smith’s bright and cozy 200-square-foot “They stripped out all the stuff that made it so and sometimes rare — records. “I want us to have and worked in landscaping. In the meantime, he shop. On the same wall is a cache of rare vinyl that magical,” Smith concludes. a good reputation, where if you come in, you’ll find was trying to figure out what he wanted to do in can set a collector’s pulse racing and spark joy in the Stories like these cut to the heart of Smith’s love something you’ll get excited about.” life. Then in 2012, he hit the jackpot. hearts of music lovers. A copy of English psychedelic for records. The history of specific discs fascinates “It was the luckiest break in my whole life,” rockers Soft Machine’s self-titled 1968 debut sports him. A friendly 33-year-old bearded bear of a man, Smith says. He doesn’t remember the name of his rare dye-cut artwork. Next to that, mystical singer- he speaks with laid-back folksy ease as we sit in a Where Smith got his start CDs were the big thing when Smith discovered benefactor, nor much about his background, but a songwriter Judee Sill casts her eyes downward as comfortable seating area by the front of his store. man from Chicago sold Smith a huge collection of she graces the cover of her second — and final His eyes sparkle whenever he turns his attention to records at age 10. It was well before the vinyl revival, vinyl that set Smith on his current path. The man had and he didn’t care that records were at that point — album, 1973’s Heart Food. The holy grail among
A NOBLE ENDEAVOR
Pg. 12 DEC 15 - DEC 28, 2021 - QCNERVE.COM
these treasures is a record by Smith’s favorite band, Led Zeppelin. Smith digs into the origin of the coveted Robert Ludwig pressing of Led Zeppelin II on Hi-Fi Friday, a recurring feature on his YouTube channel, where he recommends records, arranges to buy vinyl collections and raises a little advertising revenue for his store. He also talks records and collecting with various guests on his podcast Vinyl Biography. “This is the very first pressing on Led Zeppelin II,” Smith recounts in the YouTube video. After Zeppelin’s second album was recorded then mixed by Eddie Kramer, Kramer hired American engineer Ludwig to cut a mix so loud and hot that the punchy platter would leap off the turntable — and that’s exactly what it did. A copy of the disc
