For any West Seattle resident who has even a slight interest in music, Easy Street records stirs up feelings of nostalgia. It has become a cultural center for the neighborhood, where you can wander through an eclectic mix of new releases or go treasuring hunting in the used section upstairs. On any given day the shop is brimming with customers searching for an old Neil Young album, warming up with a cup of "Mudhoney" espresso or chatting over a "Green Day" salad.

As the shop on the corner celebrates 20 years of business, owner Matt Vaughan, as well as employees, customers, and local music aficionados look back on Easy Street records history.

Looking back...

Today Easy Street is one of the most highly regarded independent record stores in the United States, but when the shop first opened 20 years ago, Vaughan was not even sure his shop on the corner would survive.

In 1987 Vaughan was working at Penny Lane records half a block north of Easy Street's current location on California Avenue when the store's owner, Willie McKay, was trying to get out of the business. A sophomore at Seattle University, the 18-year-old dropped out to take over the store.

"As a teenager, I was a record store junkie," says Vaughan. "I wasn't finding any motivation in college and was undecided on what I wanted to do. The opportunity presented itself and I didn't have time to waiver."

For those first two years Vaughan ran the store by himself. Unable to afford any employees, he worked there every day and kept a bed in the back. Not sure if his store would last, Vaughan began managing and booking local bands, and even headed out on the road with Alice and Chains between 1992 and 1993.

In 1989, property on the corner of California and Alaska became vacant and Vaughan jumped at the opportunity to move his shop.

"I believed in this location," says Vaughan. "I fell in love with this building. It had a nurturing affect on me."

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Junction was not the thriving business district it is today. Vaughan watched many older businesses close their doors for good while frequent crime and shoplifting plagued the area.

But West Seattle was home to many aspiring musicians, and eventually the music scene across the bridge began to pick up. Charles R. Cross, a local author who has written extensively about Seattle music, remembers members of Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden all living in West Seattle during the 1990s. He believes that Easy Street helped build an aesthetic around West Seattle that made the neighborhood "an acceptable place to be a rocker."

Before long Vaughan saw his shop become a beacon for Seattle's thriving grunge scene.

"I only thought I'd do this for a short time until I really knew what I wanted to do," says Vaughan. "Seems as though this is what I wanted to do after all."

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