from the July-August 2006 issue of Naperville Magazine
By Dawn Klingensmith
Photography by Sally Ryan

Allan Shaw jokingly blames the Kingston Trio for what he describes as his “grave situation”. You see, Shaw owns two record labels and a mail-order music business, all based in an unlikely location – the Naperville Cemetery. Were it not for the legendary folk band, he might still be practicing law, he says. In 1958, the Kingston Trio’s recording of “Tom Dooley” sailed to the top of the charts. Shaw, then a college freshman, loved the band so much that he taught himself to play guitar and formed a copycat group called the Highlanders. The Kingston Trio went on to earn 13 Gold Records. Shaw went on to become a corporate attorney. The British Invasion brought an end to the decade-long folk boom that the Kingston Trio ignited. The band didn’t fade away, but over time, their albums did. Record stores were stocking Top 40 fare instead. Summoning the courage to approach the stage after a show, Shaw met the band in 1976. He parlayed the encounter into an abiding friendship with founding member, Bob Shane. Still a folkie to the core, Shaw had accumulated hundreds of records, and through fellow collectors he’d learned which stores would special-order Kingston Trio albums. When Shane started referring album-seeking fans to Shaw, the lawyer sleuthed out wholesalers that would sell to him directly, and the mail-order business was born. Called Kingston Korner, Shaw’s first catalog featured a scant ”eight or 10” albums, he says, and hit 100 mailboxes. Word spread. It wasn’t long before folks demanded more: “Do you have the Limeliters’? What about the Chad Mitchell Trio?” So Shaw started stocking other bands’ albums and renamed the catalog Rediscover Music. It has since ballooned to 80 pages. In 1985, after landing licensing agreements with major labels, Shaw founded Folk Era Records to re-release out-of-print albums. Today, he has more than 70 reissues and previously unreleased albums on his Folk Era label. “Thanks to him, bands that are still touring have albums to sell at shows and album sales can make up a good portion of their earnings,” Shane says. But will the beat go on for Shaw’s business, as it has for his beloved Kingston Trio? ”Pretty soon,” he says matter-of-factly, “the people busing this type of music will all be dead.” A grave situation indeed. For several years, Shaw has been looking for ways to revitalize business by broadening his customer base and reaching out to younger music lovers. In 1988, he launched a second label, Wind River Records, to showcase under-the-radar contemporary artists. Today there are 18 artists on the roster. In addition to starting Wind River, Shaw diversified his catalog offerings in hopes of increasing revenues without alienating his loyal customer base. “Folk music and bluegrass are so closely intertwined that I thought we’d do well with bluegrass,” he says. The bluegrass hasn’t done well as well as he hoped, nor has classical or jazz. But Shaw didn’t make like Tom Dooley and hang his head and cry. Instead, he’s decided to test out what he calls his Dating Years Theory. “People develop music preferences during their dating years,” he says. As people get older, their tastes may expand, but the music they grooved to between the ages of 15 and 25 leaves the deepest impression, he adds. After dating comes marriage and kids. For years, people get caught up in the challenge of childrearing. Not necessarily by choice, they listen to what their kids listen to. They long for the sound of silence. But after the kids grow up and move away, taking their ruckuses with them, parents start reflecting fondly on their own youth. Shaw figures that’s a 25-year lag between the dating years and this onset of nostalgia. By his calculations, the latest batch of empty nesters came of age listening to the likes of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Since most music stores cater to teens and young adults, not their nostalgic elders, Shaw is zeroing in on an underserved niche. As such, his latest catalogues feature a large selection of classic rock CDs and DVDs, which he’s counting on to boost sales. Meanwhile, the 65-year-old contributes to the continued livelihood of the folk community. Every first, second and third Friday of the month, he hosts a song circle at this office, where participating musicians joke about waking the dead. And Shaw continues to reissue music that has languished for decades in major labels’ vaults. “ He takes the time to put out records that haven’t been around for a while,” Shane says. “ No one else does.” Shaw’s office overlooks traffic, not tombstones, and though he jokes about his cemetery location, he says he doesn’t dwell too much on his surroundings. But once you know his story, it’s hard not to see the cemetery as symbolic. After all, were it not for Shaw’s efforts, a treasure trove of vintage music would for all intents and purposes be dead and buried. Marty Kraus, from left, Allan Shaw and Gregg Morton play their respective parts during a Friday night hootenanny at Folk Era Records in Naperville. Shaw founded the folk music label in the mid-1980s.