Alpine: RingTail Records

Somewhere between El Paso and San Antonio, most of Texas goes without a record store. Alpine breaks that stretch. RingTail Records Alpine Texas sits at 203 East Holland Avenue, steps from the Granada Theater, surrounded by the Davis Mountains and the Chihuahuan Desert.

Owner Michael McCollum runs the store three days a week and takes orders for anything you can’t find on the shelf. McCollum’s collection spans 1940s big band 78s, psych rock LPs, reggae, showtunes, hip-hop, and cassettes. The store doesn’t chase any single genre. That breadth suits Far West Texas, where the next record store in any direction is a very long drive.

The Last Record Store Before the Desert

Marfa sits 27 miles to the south. Big Bend National Park is another 100 miles beyond that. Alpine is the hub — the place where visitors fuel up, grab a meal, and increasingly, flip through vinyl. Drivers on US-90 between El Paso and San Antonio pass through here. So do the artists and weekenders drawn to Marfa’s gallery scene and the Chinati Foundation. McCollum is ready for all of them. Classic 78s, deep catalog LPs, and a collection built for browsing make RingTail the kind of store that rewards a slow afternoon. Whatever isn’t on the shelves can be ordered. RingTail also participates in Record Store Day — one of the most remote Record Store Day locations in the country.

Alpine may be small. But it has a record store. Out here, that counts for a lot.

I’ve been here ♪