When it comes to investments, no one ever will mistake a record store for an oil giant, but hardly anyone enters a local gas station with the joy that people show as they walk into Sound It Out Records in Stockton-on-Tees, the last record shop in a decaying town in northern England. "Sound It Out ," a documentary about the shop by Jeanie Finlay, opens tonight and runs through the weekend as part of the Webster University Film Series.
Finlay, who apparently also served as writer, cinematographer and occasional interviewer on the project, will attend tonight and tomorrow, and will speak and answer questions.
Owner Tom, a music fan whose heart, soul and bank account live in the small store with the huge inventory, knows (or claims to know, and probably does) the location of everything in the shop. He understands his customers, never questions their taste or preferences, has an even-handed attitude toward all. Finlay, obviously a fan of Tom and some of the others who frequent Sound It Out, offers a lovely, low-key approach in her questions and her attitude, and obviously has made a fan in a middle-aged regular customer who also is a fan of Meat Loaf.
Sound It Out plays tonight through Sunday as part of the Webster University Film series at the Winifred Moore Auditorium on campus.
—Joe