Everything is bigger in Texas… Inside Dallas’ massive 25,000 sq. ft. vinyl paradise.

If you ever find yourself in Dallas, Texas, we highly recommend hopping on the Lyndon B. Johnson freeway and checking out Josey Records, one of the largest independent record stores in the U.S. Something like the Amoeba Music of the South and Mid-West, Josey Records has locations in Dallas, Plano, Garland, Tulsa, Kansas City, and Sedalia. The shop also sells on Discogs and has over 28,000 items for sales (as of this writing).

Josey Records was founded in 2014 by Waric Cameron & Luke Sardello, two DJ’s who previously worked at the legendary Bill’s Records and Tapes. Josey’s story is very much connected to Bill’s, which was once named America’s largest mom-and-pop record store. When Bill Wisener passed in 2020, Cameron and Sardello worked out a deal with the family to acquire Bill’s music estate, comprised of nearly a million records and thousands of memorabilia items, and have slowly been pricing and putting the collection out for sale at Josey’s.

The first of their six locations, Josey Records Dallas is a massive 25,000 sq. ft. warehouse space with all the usual characteristics of a chain record store: giant posters promoting new albums, reissues of classic albums, music memorabilia, record store day releases, new/used CD’s, and rows of bargain bin records. You won’t find anything too out of the ordinary in these sections, but much like Amoeba Music, there are a few areas of the store worth taking your time exploring.

“We work hard to make this thing what it is, I think we always had it in the back of our minds that we want this to be the next Tower… We think we’re a pretty big part of keeping vinyl culture alive, not just in Dallas, but everywhere we’ve opened.”

Luke Sardello

Collectibles:

While it’s not unexpected for a record store of this size to consistently have rare records coming through, Josey’s “Collectibles” section is filled with unique and unexpected finds. Organized by genre including electronic, jazz, rock, folk, soul, indie, world, and unique pressings, the “Collectibles” section is the area of the store where all the more expensive items get placed, but there’s a level of personal curation here as well. Owners Cameron and Sardello’s decades of experience as DJ’s and record buyers come through in the selection, and there are plenty of records here that you wouldn’t find in your usual “expensive records” section.

On my past few trips, I’ve found numerous records that I’ve been after and never seen out in the wild before: blues guitarist Elizabeth Cotton’s Live! album, Australian esoteric alt-rock band Not Drowning, Waving’s debut Another Pond, and multiple copies of The Golden Palominos’ Heaven / Gun / Little Suicides 12,” which features that incredible remix (Brown Stain Walls, Red Jelly Corners) remix by Terre Thaemlitz aka DJ Sprinkles. Also, don’t miss going through all the rare electronic records ranging from Euro trance to Chicago house to UK chillout to Detroit techno. What’s even better, they have a dedicated listening section specifically for the “Collectibles” section…

12-Inch Singles:

Located in front of the Bill’s memorial sign on the back wall are rows upon rows of 12″ records. Dallas was a hotbed for electro, house, and techno music in the ’90s, and the massive collection of dance singles at Josey’s is a testament to the city’s underground rave past. Our good friend Jason Douglas (Deejay JD), who now sells records in Los Angeles and ran the formative vinyldj.com site, emerged from this scene and is similarly deeply connected to the many DJ’s who played around Dallas-Fort Worth and the surrounding areas.

Here you’ll find all kinds of cheaply priced (usually around $5) dance singles from New York, Chicago, Germany, UK, and beyond. The selection isn’t organized so will take time to comb through, but absolutely worth the effort. On my last trip, I came across various singles from the extended world of Second Summer of Love band Saint Etienne, Latin freestyle classics, deep house on iconic SF label Ubiquity, numerous UK breakbeat records, Detroit downtempo house, as well as an ’80s classic from Alan Vega and Martin Rev’s Suicide.

7-inch / 45’s:

Admittedly, I haven’t spent an extended amount of time at Josey’s 45’s section, but much like the dance section, there are surely discoveries to be made here. Thousands of 45’s are lined up in a row, again mostly cheaply priced, with slightly more genre organization than the dance section: soul, funk, folk, country, rock.

From my short time with this section, I noticed plenty of independent labels alongside all your usual major label promos. Maybe there are private press country 7-inches here? Or unknown Dallas indie, punk, and rock band promos ready to be discovered? My guess would also be that co-owners Cameron & Sardello, with their background as DJ’s, keep this well-stocked with soul/funk hits for the 7-inch selectors.