BOULDER – You could call it a five-day marathon of 78 RPM love. Andy Schneidkraut called it “a living wake.” But in the final hours before closing Boulder’s iconic Albums on the Hill for good on Monday, Schneidkraut allowed himself a brief moment to idle in the sweaty, human traffic jam of friends and loyal customers who stopped by his beloved basement record store to pay their respects – and scoop up some sweet merch for up to 80 percent off.
“It's a bit uncomfortable to discover after all this time that you meant so much to so many people, especially when you may not mean enough to yourself,” a visibly moved Schneidkraut said as Elvis Costello’s “My Aim is True” appropriately spun over the loudspeakers.
They came from across the street and across the country. Whether they had bought records or concert tickets there, or maybe caught a comedy set or jam session, they had to say goodbye to the man who lived in their music basement – whether they had ever met him or not.
Longtime and loyl Albums on the Hill customers Tony and Nicole Zotti.
“As far as I am concerned, he is the mayor of the Hill. He’s the anchor of this neighborhood,” said Tony Zotti, who was among dozens wearing T-Shirts that said, “I Know Andy Schneidkraut Personally.” “Andy has taught me enormous things, not just about music but about life.” Added his wife, Nicole: “He’s also opened up some great music to us as well,” citing Elephant Revival as one example. The couple were leaving with a goodie-bag full of albums by Frank Turner, Panic! at the Disco, Superchunk, Japandroids and many more.
“Look at me: I am an old punk rock guy – and Andy’s got me listening to hippie music,” Tony said with a laugh. “I tend toward rash and angry, and he has always been a calming influence.”
Schneidkraut was soon stopped by a customer carrying an Al Hibbler album, and Schneidkraut said he had a story for him about the popular R&B vocalist who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra in the 1940s. “When Hibbler sang with Duke, they would literally nail the microphone stand to the stage so he would have something to hold onto without falling over because he was so drunk,” Schneidkraut said to laughs.
The record store actually closed back in April, when Schneidkraut, 69, began a harrowing medical odyssey that included a life-saving kidney transplant and a heart triple bypass. Schneidkraut had gone into unexplained kidney failure three years before and had exhausted nearly every option when, this past spring, a lifelong friend who had worked for him decades before at the Harvest House came back as a match. “Greg Estes is a hero to me, and I love him a great deal,” Schneidkraut said.
A few weeks later, facing a rejection infection, he had to undergo heart surgery as well. He’s on the slow road to recovery, he promises. But, as anyone who has had major surgery can tell you, running a record store when doctors won’t let you carry more than 10 pounds is all but impossible. This after an extended COVID store closure, his college student clientele going remote, and all of the other market factors that have been working against record stores for the two preceding decades combined to make the choice clear.
“We got hit by a lot of things that were beyond our control all at once,” Schneidkraut said. “Sometimes you are forced to make a decision that you should have made some time ago.”
Friends (and their babies!) came to say goodbye to Albums on the Hill, owned by Andy Schneidkraut, left.
That decision was to re-open for a five-day window to move stock – and then move on.
The surgeries, ironically, are not what forced Schneidkraut’s hand as much as the past five months of having only one revenue source – from online sales. It’s the everyday living expenses, more so than the medical expenses, that have put him in financial peril.
That’s why some of his best friends in the Boulder comedy community are banding together to host a comedy fundraiser on Friday headlined by Nancy Norton and John Novosad at the Dairy Arts Center.
“Andy has contributed much to the cultural well-being of Boulder,” Novosad said in announcing the show. “He has been generous with time and resources, supported many of our creative endeavors, and supplied a universe of elevation and inspiration. His recovery is long, and he could really use our help.”
The Zottis, for two, will be there. “This is a guy who deserves every little bit of help he can get,” Tony Zotti said. “I hate the idea that he could get ruined by this. Any of us could get ruined by something like this. So if I can help a little bit and laugh a little at the same time? It’s a win-win.”
A look through the mirror and closing-day crowd at Albums on the Hill, with Suzanne Vega looking on.
Schneidkraut can’t even begin to guess how much stock he moved over the five-day reopening sale, but it was considerable. “Well, we were practically giving it away,” he said. The rest will be made available in bulk to other record-store owners or to buyers online.
When asked what album he might put on to process all of his feelings after he got home from his long last day, Schneidkraut said: “It will probably be something that brings tears to my eyes.” And tears, like tastes, can be eclectic: "Child's Song" from Tom Rush’s eponymous 1970 album, he suggested. Springsteen's "The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.” Maybe a John Gorka record. Something from (jazz trumpeter) Lee Morgan.
“My parting message to anyone who has ever shopped here in the past 35 years is one of appreciation,” he said. “I appreciate your support. I appreciate that many people have allowed me to help them to discover new musical directions. And I appreciate everyone who ever turned me onto something.”
Nearby, helping a massive line of customers to process their orders (and yet still not wanting much to leave), was daughter Emma Schneidkraut, who flew out from Haverhill, Mass., to help her dad manage this final flurry. “This is hard because I grew up in this store, and it was my life,” she said. "But what’s important now is dad’s health.
“It’s time.”
Ashford is returning to Broadway
Wheat Ridge native Annaleigh Ashford, recently featured here as the subject of the CBS reality show “Secret Celebrity Renovation,” is returning to Broadway as the human-pie-making Mrs. Lovett opposite Josh Groban in the classic Stephen Sondheim musical “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” The revival opens March 26 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Ashford won the Tony Award for her performance in “You Can’t Take it With You” and also appeared in Broadway’s “Sunday in the Park with George,” “Kinky Boots,” “Hair,” “Legally Blonde” and “Wicked."
Mandy Moore’s Emmy haul
Summit High School graduate and choreographer to the stars Mandy Moore, sister of Thunder River Theatre Company Artistic Director Missy Moore, did not win an Emmy Award when the first half of this year’s winners were announced over the weekend,. But her two latest nominations for “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” brings the three-time winner’s overall total to 12 noms. And this was her first-ever nomination for producing.
Let’s get small
A photo from the 2022 Fall Miniature Festival.
I am promised that “some absolute legends in the Mini World” are here for the 41st annual “Fall Miniature Show,” hosted through Sunday by the Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys at 7801 E. Orchard Road in Greenwood Village. That is … if you can find them! (Sorry, couldn’t resist). Legends like woodworker Gideon Wolf, silversmith Pete Acquisto and local artists Spirit Song Watercolors and Standing People Designs.
Death of Barbara Ehrenreich
The death of author, activist and self-described myth-buster Barbara Ehrenreich this week was cause for a look back to 2003, when Denver’s Curious Theatre Company staged an adaptation of her book “Nickel and Dimed.” Ehrenreich committed to working undercover in minimum-wage jobs for a year. Her takeaway, after working as a maid, waitress, nursing-home attendant and Wal-Mart clerk? “There is this repetitive stress injury of the spirit that sets in when your entire life is work and getting ready to work,” she said. Here’s a link to our conversation.
A collection of 22 Archtop Guitars are coming to Arvada on Sunday (Sept. 11).
Briefly …
Archtop guitars are electric guitars with hollow bodies and standard pickups, and if you are into them, you should also be into “The Blue Guitar Collection,” coming to Olde Town Arvada on Sunday (Sept. 11) via the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. This is the first time the entire collection of 22 guitars has ever been on display outside of the Smithsonian, and many of the original guitar-builders will be reunited with their guitars for the first time. It’s part of the Archtop Festival from 2:30-5:30 p.m. at the Olde Town Pickin’ Parlor, 7515 Grandview Ave. …
Denver Film honored actress Rita Moreno and civil-rights influencer Carlotta Walls LaNier at their Women+Film awards luncheon on May 13, 2022. Denver mayor Michael Hancock and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis were among those on hand to present the awards. (Video: John Moore/Denver Gazette)
Rita Moreno, star of “West Side Story” (both of them), who received Denver Film’s Women+Film Inspiration Award in May, returns to Colorado on Sept. 20 to speak at the University of Colorado Boulder's Glenn Miller Ballroom. This is a free, first-come-first-serve, non-ticketed event hosted by the Cultural Events Board. …
Follow-up to the Denver Center’s recent 2023-24 Broadway season announcement: Barring unforeseen changes, next year’s slate will bring several Colorado actors home, including Mehry Iris Eslaminia as Thomson in the all non-male production of “1776,” Cydney Kutcipal of Mountain View High School in “Jagged Little Pill” and Evan Lennon of Pine Creek High School in Colorado Springs will be in the “Book of Mormon” national tour.
By the way, if I were still a theater reviewer (which I'm not), I might say of the national touring production of Hadestown: "Go to Hell!" (And I mean that. Go there. It’s amazing.) Through Sunday at the Buell Theatre.
Denver's official Poets Laureate plaque only acknowledges one poet ... although there only have been two.
And finally …
As Jerry Seinfeld might say: What’s the deal with the sad sack of a plaque, the first thing you see once you get through the metal detector entering the Denver City and County Building? It promises to all of honor Denver’s Poet Laureates, and it honors … well, one of them. That’s poet, activist and professor Abelardo “Lalo” Delgado, who was the first person named to the position by then-Mayor John Hickenlooper. It was a posthumous honor in September 2004 – just months after his death. Delgado's 1969 poem "Stupid America" is recognized as a hallmark of the Chicano movement.
But there has been at least one other Denver Poet Laureate: Longtime Lighthouse Writers Workshop Professor Chris Ransick, who held the title from March 2006-10. He died of cancer in 2019 – and the least he deserves is his name on the plaque!
No word on whether the city Poet Laureate program actually still exists, but I have a feeling “Colorado” Poet Laureate Bobby LeFebre might have a few choice rhyming words to say about all of this overlooking of poets.
Denver's Regan Linton was cast as an understudy in the recent Broadway production of 'Cost of Living.' This photo was taken on her first day of rehearsal. You can read all about her here.