Meet Emily Lyon, a thrifting flight attendant, pilot, flight instructor, and co-owner of Records The Good Kind, a record store she owns with her husband in Vernon Connecticut. The story of the shop, and Emily’s journey into the world of buying vinyl and used goods began back in '93 when she scored her first job at an antique shop igniting her lifelong love for collecting. Fast forward to 2014, after a mix of flight attendant gigs and grad school, Emily and her now-spouse, Ian, decided to bring their shared passion for records to life with the opening of Records The Good Kind.

This Connecticut gem offers fresh records daily, as well as used CDs, cassettes, and stereo equipment. From seasoned vinyl collector to just starting your collection, Emily and Ian's store is a welcoming space to explore, trade, and find hidden treasures, mostly of the pre-loved variety. With a commitment to keeping things fresh and fun, it's not just a record store—it's a little piece of nostalgia, wrapped in the magic of music.

Outside of work, Emily is most likely in a plane, or pursuing her love of thrifting. She also likes to crochet, mail art, and practice printmaking.

How did you get into your industry / What motivated you?

My first job, that I began on my 15th birthday in 1993, was at an antique shop, and a year later I was hired at my favorite used book shop. I learned a lot about the lifecycles of used goods at both of those jobs. My boss at the bookstore, John, was one of my favorite people of my entire life. He was so kind and we had tons of fun together. I miss him all the time, and I think he, in some ways, ruined me for real work because that job was the absolute best. We used to go on buying trips, ostensibly for books, but I'd find records too, and all kinds of other cool things.

Once on a buying trip, we visited the Book Mill in Montague, MA, and there was a little record shop, Ecstatic Yod, inside one of the rooms. I found a copy of "Just Like Gold" by Aztec Camera on Postcard in there for $5 and was so overcome with joy I almost cried (I have two Postcard-themed tattoos! I am a fan)! Ian, my now-spouse, had a record store in 1996, when I met him. He ended up being bought out of that store, and returning to the American retail hellscape for employment, but I mentioned to him that I was seeing records often in my travels with John. John and I would go to estate auctions and see boxes of records. I brought Ian with John and me once and Ian started going with us to auctions, then by himself, buying records and setting up at shows. Ian always said he wanted to open a store again, and I told him that once I was done with graduate school (because I was on his health insurance) that I'd get insurance and we could open another store.

After graduate school I was adjuncting and the insurance would lapse between semesters. I had always wanted to be a flight attendant, so when my contract adjuncting was not renewed due to under enrollment, I started applying for flight attendant jobs. Once I had a job and knew we'd have health insurance (such a stupid story), we decided to open a new store, and that's Records The Good Kind. We opened in 2014. One of the best things about flight crew jobs is that you have a lot of days off, even on a full-time flying schedule. I never get tired of dealing with records, so it doesn't really feel like work to do it.

What is a day in the life like?

It depends which job I'm at; if I'm at flight attendant work on a layover and I have long enough to explore the space, I always visit record shops and thrift stores looking for goodies. Tokyo is my favorite place on earth to dig, but I've also found great stuff in Marrakech, Minneapolis, Cinci, Phoenix, Seoul.

If I'm at home, I'm either instructing or working in the shop. Both Ian and I like to go on house calls (I am also super-interested in peoples' living spaces and love any opportunity to see personal furniture, artwork, and things like that) and to thrift shops, estate sales, and flea markets. I am trawling for stuff or in an airplane (usually both) almost every single day of my life.

At Records the Good Kind, because my other two jobs are so customer-facing, I prefer to stay in the back room, cleaning, pricing, and packaging our records. I really love going through a box of records and cleaning and pricing them. I love the element of surprise when I don't know what's in a box. I also love seeing stuff I have never seen before.

Favorite sale / relationship made from behind the counter?

There are a few customers I always like to see. My favorite is probably a customer, Dave, who we also knew in passing from local flea markets and things. He just has interesting stories about his life and has never talked to me like I'm oblivious or incidental. During covid we used to meet him almost daily and go on trail walks with him on our local rails-to-trails. It was one of those things where, if I had a crystal ball in 2000 that showed me running through the forest with Dave, I would not have been able to even imagine how we got there. Years earlier I viewed him as competition at the flea market. I once saw him running while carrying two crates of 45s and was both impressed and afraid; looked like a sure bet for injury. He's a nice person and has truly deep and encyclopedic knowledge of the most random and obscure titles.

In your opinion what has been the coolest thing to come through your shop / thing you had to keep / almost couldn't put out for sale:

Some guy with an entire truckbed full of the most random assortment of stuff, including a copy of Yeni Bir Gun by Baris Manco. Nothing else like that at all in the whole truck. Completely unexpected.

What has been / is the most difficult part of your job?

I once had a customer who was putting expensive titles from our backsplash into a tote bag. I told her "Hey, feel free to make a pile on the counter of the stuff you're interested in." She said "I'd prefer to put them in this bag if that's ok." I said "It's not, really, that's why I asked you to make a pile." She got super-offended and slammed the pile down next to the counter and approx 5 seconds later was posting salty online reviews from the parking lot, saying that "If Ian knew how his employee was behaving..." Ever since then, I call myself the "Mean Employee." The most difficult part of my job is, to be honest, being the Mean Employee.

As a flight attendant, I have to do this all the time, but I have the nebulous power of my airline and the FAA behind me, and am usually able to diffuse drama by putting it on them and "policy." At our shop, it's theoretically "up to me" whether I want to give discounts or buy trash. I don't like to disappoint people, but I also don't like when people try to play me or talk down to me. Because this is my store, I can do whatever I want, but I don't like conflict, even if I am totally in the right. Service work is difficult!

I also hate dealing with typical sausage antics, such as asinine trivia games like, "I bet you don't know what this is!", and hearing about the minutiae of peoples' stereo equipment. There's also the "The owner/guy who works here lets me do x/gives me a discount/told me xyz bullshit." The inflight equivalent is "They let me [do prohibited thing x] on the last flight." I'm sure every job has a version of this exact line. Even though I hear it every day that I work, I roll my eyes regardless.

What has been the craziest experience that has happened at the shop?

This is a lame answer but I can't really think of anything too crazy! I have some insane airplane stories though.

What advice do you have for someone wanting to get into pursuing what you're doing?  

Time spent digging for goodies is directly translatable into labor capital for your business.

I really view our shop specifically as a secondhand shop. We sell some new titles but this aspect of the business is not interesting to me at all, so I don't do it. In terms of secondhand markets, the best way to succeed at it is to have honest passion for your product.

I love records, I love looking for them, I love dealing with them, so even though I spend a lot of time outside of flying doing things like visiting markets and making house-calls, it doesn't feel arduous. Time spent digging for goodies is directly translatable into labor capital for your business. Even on vacation, I am looking for stuff because I truly enjoy this hunt. I think that we can put so much time and labor-hours into this business without it feeling like a grind is what has brought us success.

What types of things are happening in your industry / with vinyl that you're excited or worried about?  i.e. innovation, or trends you're seeing.

I wish stuff was returnable to distros.

Are you a vinyl collector yourself?  What drew you to it?

I am! My parents did not have a record player but when I was 10, my neighbors gave me a little suitcase player, a mustard-yellow RCA Vibra, and a little clutch of records. In high school I started getting into zines, thanks to one of my childhood friends, and learned a lot about indie and punk music that way. I guess what got me into records specifically was that some of the stuff was only available on vinyl. I bought it on 7" because that's how it came. I never got rid of my records, from high school until now. After owning a store for almost 11 years though, it's become a space problem.

Who has been influential to you and your growth as a professional in this industry?

When I was in high school (1996), I saw a guy carrying an op-art 7" case at the flea market and I stopped to talk to him. He told me he sold records, I told him I was looking for "Kites Are Fun" by Free Design, and he told me he had one for sale. That guy is our now-friend Paul. He was actually Ian's first show partner, so he sorta set the stage for this foray into dealing with stuff. Incidentally, Paul has given me some of my most prized non-record possessions, including a Peter Max poster for the Boeing 747 and some Pan Am pilot belt buckles.

Anything else you want to share? If not, tell us what you're listening to right now?

I love fingerpick stuff at the moment; Takoma and non-vocal bluegrass. I feel like I can still find some killer bluegrass stuff for reasonable prices. I very recently bought a pile at the local flea for about 50 cents each; I can't wait to sit down and dig into it.