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Joining Tower Records in 1978 Jon Kerlikowske spent 14 years working and running stores like Tempe, Christown and Mesa (plus one year working for Handleman) before leaving for the bright lights of Nashville, TN.
Jon talks about the charm of running a store in Nashville where the country singers were real people you would see around town, bumping into them in the Grocery store or the local movie theatre.
In Nashville the yearly focus appeared to be on the week long Fan Fair (now known as CMA Fest) where the 1,000 square foot booth would do more business in 6 hours than the main Nashville store for the day. On top of that, the Nashville store would host multiple in store performances with established and up & coming country musicians making for a very busy week.
Jon winds down our conversation talking about being a clerk in the jazz section and the first time he met Russ Solomon in the Tempe, AZ store. This scenario ended up with Jon spending an hour with him at a local restaurant, discussing his thoughts and impressions on his store.
