Vinyl in Vogue: With a Giant Leap of Love, Matt Manry Heads into Both the Business and Museum Worlds
MOUNT DESERT AND ELLSWORTH—Check out Matt Manry’s TikTok and you enter part of his world: vinyl, random chill dancing as an evolutionary response to good music. Maybe a snippet of the Talking Heads or the Doors will grace your ears. Maybe the reel will feature Matt dancing or one of his many projects repairing really old record players and audio equipment.
Whatever it features, it features a vision.
“Support the vision,” reads Matt’s Vinyl Vogue account. Once you dive in, you really want to.
Matt Manry, a Georgia boy, came to Mount Desert Island for love, stayed for love, and is about to spread that love around through music and space and retail. And as he opens a retail music store and working museum in Ellsworth, he’s hoping others will help, too.
“I originally came here just to visit Jackie for a week. One week turned into two, and next thing I knew, I was driving to Georgia to get my stuff,” Matt said of when he first came to Maine and his wife Jacqueline Hurley Manry
He fell in love with Jackie. He fell in love with the MDI community. A lot of the people fell in love right back, with Matt, Jackie, her sister Natasha, their dogs.
“I love the small town community vibe where small businesses can still thrive. I also love the scenery, the landscapes, and experiencing all four seasons,” Matt said about why he’s stayed and why he wants to give back, too.
Since he arrived a decade ago, Matt worked in many Bar Harbor institutions. You could see him at Epis or Island Imports or just walking down the streets with Jackie and the dogs, sporting a mellow vibe and a pretty constant smile.
Restaurants closed. Others opened. Matt moved on—not from the island and definitely not from Jackie—but in employment ventures. Also a photographer, he took part-time work in Portland. He ended up a retail and marketing manager for a cannabis store. That changed, too.
“For all of 2023, I was working for a medical cannabis brand doing all of their sales, marketing, photography, etc. As you probably know that market is very saturated, and I ended up working a lot more than I was paid for, hoping things would turn around,” Manry said.
The work-life balance wasn’t there, but it was bigger than that. The money wasn’t quite there either.
“As winter closed in, I started to get nervous about cash flow and let the owner know that I needed to spend some time doing something else to try and make some extra money for the winter. I started fixing all kinds of nonworking audio stuff and selling it for a profit on marketplace,” Matt said.
As this was happening, he started seeing Facebook posts for a space—a really cool space—in Ellsworth, where they were looking for someone to open a music and vinyl shop.
“There really wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I was supposed to be in there. I sent a message describing my experience and what I would do with the space if I had it,” Matt said.
It was a leap of faith, but it felt right, he said.
“I ended up going to meet the people with the space, and there was just so much synergy. I don’t feel anywhere as nervous as I should,” he said. “I do feel very excited to be bringing this idea to Ellsworth.”
“I FEEL IT IN MY HEART”
Matt's opening the shop at the secret Ellsworth location, but he’s Matt, so he’s doing something more. Matt has chosen to give back to the communities that have given so much to him and he’s doing it through music.
“For the first week or so, I would get so verklempt trying to talk about the idea of donating some profits to buy instruments and lessons for kids in need. I’ve found through past experiences that the right throat feeling is your subconscious telling you you’re onto something,” he said.
“I was fortunate enough that my parents were able to pay for me to participate in band in elementary and middle school, but there were so many kids that were not,” he said. “I think music and instruments should be available to anyone and everyone who wants to learn, and this project seemed like a great way to tie everything together and help solve that problem.”
A big part of that is allowing kids to follow their passions without guilt.
“It is so important for kids to be able to pursue their interests without feeling like a burden,” he said. “There were so many students at my school that didn’t even think to participate in band because their family couldn’t afford it. I think everyone deserves the same opportunity to learn an instrument regardless of their parents circumstances. So many great artists have come along because someone gave them an instrument and encouraged them.”
Ten percent of all profits from the museum and music store will go directly to funding instruments and lessons for local kids whose parents cannot afford them
“Music brings people together in a way that you can’t really compare to anything else. The energy you feel at live shows and the memories instilled are all very powerful. Such a great way to connect and relate!”
“THIS MUST BE THE PLACE”
Matt’s starting a store, relocating a museum collection, helping kids get instruments and lessons, and also restoring vintage audio equipment. It’s a lot, but it’s a labor of love and a passion.
“Music has always had a profound impact on me,” he said. “My mind is very busy, but music takes me to a place of calmness where I can daydream and visualize without all the ‘extra noise.’”
There’s more to it, too. Music has the ability to boost mood and help retrieve memory. Music has revived him, invigorated him, boosted his mood. He wants to share that.
Dr. Anne Fabiny, Editor in Chief, Harvard Women's Health Watch writes,
“Listening to and performing music reactivates areas of the brain associated with memory, reasoning, speech, emotion, and reward. Two recent studies—one in the United States and the other in Japan—found that music doesn't just help us retrieve stored memories, it also helps us lay down new ones. In both studies, healthy elderly people scored better on tests of memory and reasoning after they had completed several weekly classes in which they did moderate physical exercise to musical accompaniment.”
Learning to play music has been linked to positive cognitive development. A 2013 paper by Ewa Miendlarzewska and Weibke J. Trost writes in that paper’s abstract,
“Children who undergo musical training have better verbal memory, second language pronunciation accuracy, reading ability and executive functions. Learning to play an instrument as a child may even predict academic performance and IQ in young adulthood.”
People, no matter what their age, who listen to music, according to Andrew E. Budson, MD, in another Harvard Health Publishing article have better mental health well-being scores and “slightly reduced levels of anxiety and depression compared to people overall.”
The more people were exposed to music as a child, the more they self-reported that they can easily learn new things. People over 50 who interacted with music were also reported to be happier and had better cognitive function. Is it causation or correlation? That’s not completely clear, but there’s something beneficial there.
Matt knows it; he feels it.
“I think it is so amazing that certain songs and albums take you right back in time. I remember hooking up my dad’s old stereo system as a teen and being blown away at the fullness and sound quality of the vintage gear. Any time I would come across old speakers or receivers, I would always hook them to check them out. There is something special about the audio gear made throughout the 60s and 70s, and they just don’t make quality stuff like that anymore. I also love that everything can be repaired and will probably outlive everything made in the last two decades,” he said.
“RADIO HEAD”
Jackie and Matt moved from Bar Harbor to Mount Desert and that move also helped promote this next step.
“We actually live right next door to our landlord, who is also the owner of the amazing radio collection!” Matt said.
Matt’s collecting and fascination with audio systems has grown and grown no matter where he’s been in Maine.
“I was part time living in Portland for work the last couple years and ended up going into a few of the shops downtown. I found a decent system on marketplace and took the records home to listen. I was amazed at how great the vinyl sounded on stereo compared to what I was used to with digital streaming. I was hooked from that point onwards and just love the idea of listening to the music the way it was originally recorded,” he said
Matt’s the first to admit that vintage audio equipment repair is hard.
“The learning curve has been quite steep, but I have learned a TON in such a short amount of time. I would say the hardest part is probably just having all of the right tools, equipment and parts available,” he said.
That’s where his landlords come in. George was a radio engineer in the Coast Guard. For more than half a century, he’s gathered vintage radio and audio equipment. George went into electronics repair when he retired and started an antique radio museum.
“Most of this collection is sitting in storage just waiting to be shown to the world!” Matt wrote in a GoFundMe about the project.
“For the last few months, George has been extraordinarily generous with his collection of gear, parts, and test equipment. He has given me the opportunity to restore many items and has been helpful answering any and all of my questions. He agrees that it is important for young people to learn about this stuff so that it can be maintained and continue to amaze,” Matt wrote.
“George (Jones), and his wife Wilma, are amazing! We have been renting from them for five years or so, and it has been fantastic,” Matt said.
“He has an insane amount of cool stuff dating all the way back to the 1920s. Radios, amplifiers, turntables, speakers, and every part and piece you could ever imagine,” Matt said. Wilma told Matt that George will be willing to sell that massive collection to Matt.
“My basement is also packed to the brim with stuff, and when everything happened with my other job, I finally got the courage to ask George if I could clean up and work on what was stored in my basement and split the profit with him,” Matt said. “He was very excited about the idea. I quickly learned that I was short on the tools I needed and asked him if I could borrow them. He took me into the other shed where he had everything I could ever possibly need.”
“Thanks to George being so generous with his tools and collection, I was able to work on a lot of stuff without any cost. This has been so crucial in the whole process and me being able to bring this idea to life. His wife Wilma told me a few weeks ago that it was George’s dream to preserve and showcase all of this stuff for younger generations. That’s when my wheels really started turning on bringing it back to life!”
The music shop space has a huge wide open basement that Matt is hoping to have access to.
“I want to decorate it like a 1920s speakeasy and have radios and record players set up for people to come down and take a walk through time. It would be so cool to see all of the technological advances in music and audio from the 1920s to the 1990s!” he said.
So far, his favorite piece that he’s already fixed is an old Rek-O-Kut transcription turntable from 1956.
“After I restored it, I showed it to George and was amazed to find out that it was actually his stepfather’s turntable! It plays old 78s and it’s one of the items I plan on having up and running in the museum,” he said.
“I want the museum to be interactive so people can actually put the records on and drop the needle. They’ll be able to interact with the radios, and I’m hoping to get a 70s hi-fi setup so people can experience the true power of high fidelity stereo sound.”
“THIS MUST BE THE PLACE”
The exact location is still a bit under wraps, but it’s cool and it’s fun and it’s an important part of Ellsworth’s history and its future. That information should be released in the Ellsworth American next week, Matt said.
“The others involved are working on their press release for the city of Ellsworth and as soon as they let the cat out of the bag, I can go into more detail. I will say it is one of the best locations in downtown Ellsworth, and I’m really excited to be a part of the space. There will be a couple other things opening as well, but I don’t want to spoil their surprise,” he said.
He can’t wait for everyone to come and see what he’s creating. It’s about music. It’s about community. It’s about loving things so much that you devote your life to repairing them and then sharing the love. This Sunday, January 21, he was in the store prepping for painting, tunes playing, excitement growing.
Matt plans to offer hi-fi repair, as well as accept donations of books, broken equipment, instruments that can be fixed and passed on to others.
“I will also be looking to purchase record collections that might just be sitting in storage to display and get into the hands of someone that will listen! I am also planning to have a big wall of memorabilia from people all over the country that want to send autographs, stubs, and posters to display,” he said.
Jackie is supportive of all the changes and she and her sister are currently launching another business, Thick Thighs and Tie Dyes.
“We’ll be showcasing a nice selection of those as well!” Matt said.
Supporting each other, loving your community, your place, opportunities, your neighbors and spreading the love? It’s a mission bigger even than his new store, but with Matt, it feels more than possible. It feels probably.
THE GOFUND ME
There is a GoFundMe set up to help Matt set up. There’s also a give-away for some fine vintage sounds. He hopes to be open in late April or early May.
Matt writes,
“I am hoping to help my neighbor George by purchasing his massive collection of audio history dating back to the 1920's. It includes a HUGE assortment of antique radios, hi-fi gear and a variety of recorded music formats and genres (vinyl, cassette, etc.), which I will preserve, restore and proudly display at Vinyl Vogue, my music store and working museum in downtown Ellsworth, Maine that I will be creating this winter.”
UPDATE AS OF JANUARY 23:
As reported in the Ellsworth American, Manry’s business is one of a trio of businesses in the old Tracy Building or J.J. Newbury’s Building at the intersection of Ellsworth’s Main Street and Franklin Streets, which recently held J&B Atlantic and then SugarMags, a 9,100 square-foot space. The building is owned by Leslie Harlow, who will relocate her business, Trio, to the site. Suzanne Anderson, a jeweler will also be in the building. There will also be a bar that serves some food. The building is currently being called The Newberry Exchange.
Links to learn more.
All photos courtesy of Matt Manry!
Updated about two minutes after we posted. Thanks to David Short who pointed out that we wrote Talking Dead rather than Talking Heads. Sigh. Thanks again, David!
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser