After 44 years, downtown Boise’s popular record store has been sold

The Record Exchange in downtown Boise just got new owners, but customers will still feel right at home.

Co-founder and co-owner Michael Bunnell and co-owner Jil Sevy have sold the business at 1105 W. Idaho St. to longtime employees Catherine Merrick, Glenn Newkirk and Chad Dryden, plus Dryden’s wife, Erica Sparlin Dryden.

Bunnell and Sevy are retiring to enjoy travel and other pursuits.

“My vision for the store from the beginning was to create a place where people of all ages and musical tastes could discover and share their passion for music,” said Bunnell, who started the store in 1977 on the Boise Bench before moving it downtown the next year. “I wanted the store to be an ‘experience,’ and I hope on some level we’ve succeeded in that goal.

“It was always my hope that when Jil and I were ready to retire, the store would continue in the hands of employees who care about the culture we’ve created. I couldn’t be happier about the employees who have stepped up to take the helm and guide the store into the future.”

Bunnell and Sevy own the building, which they will continue to own in retirement. Well-known for its music inventory, the store has diversified over the years to include gifts, apparel and downtown Boise’s first espresso bar. Sevy, Bunnell’s wife and partner, officially joined the staff in 2001 as the gift shop buyer and manager, and was instrumental in increasing the store’s non-music offerings.

The Record Exchange also has featured many live music performances over the years. Notable acts have included Smashing Pumpkins, Ed Sheeran, Built to Spill, Josh Ritter, Ben Harper, They Might Be Giants, Brandi Carlile and Luke Combs.

“We are very grateful to the Boise community for its support over the years, in particular the local musicians who have played our stage and contributed their talents to countless store events,” Sevy said. “We thank the wonderful employees we’ve worked with over the decades, including our two sons Ian and Eric, who have all been a vital part of The Record Exchange family.”

In addition to running The Record Exchange, Bunnell was a founding member of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and served on the CIMS board of directors for 13 years, until he was named executive director in 2008, a position he held until 2019, when he retired to focus solely on the store. In addition, Bunnell also served on the Record Store Day board of directors for 11 years.

Under the leadership of Bunnell and Sevy, the store has earned accolades from grammy.com and several national publications, most recently No Depression magazine, which named The Record Exchange one of the top 75 record stores in the country. Locally, The Record Exchange won both the Idaho Statesman and Boise Weekly’s Best Record Store readers’ poll awards for so many consecutive years that the category was retired.

The new ownership group, with a combined 43 years of experience at the store, is eager and excited to take the reins.

“As a youth, I spent many hours in this building — it was a safe space for me, particularly as a female music enthusiast who didn’t fit in elsewhere,” Merrick said. “The Record Exchange has always encouraged women to be a part of this industry, so to be able to be part of the RX team, as a young customer to long-time employee-turned-owner, is really validating.”

This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 3:26 PM.