Entry No. 69 — the Portland file — filed under: record shop
Mississippi Records
Eric Isaacson started this in 2003 and the label has since put out over 200 records of gospel, blues, folk and global obscurity, on a stated principle of never buying masters off the artists who made them — they help musicians register their own rights instead. Ownership passed to filmmaker Cyrus Moussavi and musician Gordon Ashworth in 2019 and the label's offices drifted to Chicago and Red Hook, Brooklyn; mail order now ships out of Illinois. The Portland shop stayed exactly where it was, on N Albina with Sweedeedee sharing the building and the Red Fox across the street, open every single day from noon to seven. There is no online inventory to scout beforehand and effectively no feed to scroll — what's in the racks is knowable only by standing in front of them, which is either the whole point or an inconvenience depending on your temperament. Willamette Week readers voted it a Best of Portland winner in 2025, which it has managed to survive.
→ Three more vintage, record & maker shops in Portland — never the same twice
The story
Eric Isaacson had managed Saturn Records in Oakland before opening this in 2003 on N Mississippi Avenue, which is where the name comes from and where the shop no longer is. He ran it for years with co-founder Warren Hill, and built a label that has put out well over 200 records of gospel, blues, folk and global obscurity on a principle it still states plainly: it does not buy master rights from artists or their families, calling that a holdover from the bad old days of the industry, and instead helps musicians register their own rights. Isaacson has always been reluctant to explain any of it — his line is that the records are a better messenger than anything he could say.
The cheap end has always mattered most. The Mississippi Records Tape Series began in 2005 as an open-edition run of low-priced mixtapes, an idea a shop employee named Karen Antunes proposed to Isaacson; it is still going. For five years the shop's basement also housed the Portland Museum of Modern Art, founded in 2012 by curator Libby Werbel and staffed by record store employees, until it closed in 2017. Hill had already left in 2011 to start Little Axe.
On January 1, 2019 filmmaker Cyrus Moussavi and musician Gordon Ashworth took ownership, Isaacson stayed on as a label project manager, and the label's center of gravity drifted east — a Red Hook, Brooklyn office and a Chicago warehouse shared with International Anthem, which is where mail order ships from. Ashworth has since gone off to run Olvido Records. The Portland shop simply stayed put, now on N Albina in Humboldt with Sweedeedee in the same building and the Red Fox across the street, open every day from noon to seven. Willamette Week readers put it second for Best Record Store in the 2025 Best of Portland poll, an honor it has survived intact.
What it's like
There is no online inventory and effectively no feed to scout, so what is in the racks is knowable only by standing in front of them. That is either the entire appeal or an inconvenience, and you find out which within about ten minutes. Expect no listening station and no wall of shelf-talkers telling you what staff loved this month; expect to ask a person, which is the transaction the shop is built around. Bring cash as a courtesy and a bag, because sleeves add up fast. An hour is about right. The phone is the fastest way to ask whether something is in — the website is the label's mail-order catalog, not the store's stock, and the two have not been the same thing since 2019.
The move: Get there by 6 so you have a full hour, hand each other $20, and the rule is you have to leave with a record chosen for the other person — not for yourself — and you're allowed to ask staff exactly one question to narrow it down. Then walk across N Albina to the Red Fox, put the two sleeves on the table, and defend your picks over a drink before either of you has heard a note.
📍 Before you go Open every day, 12–7 Pacific; the shop line is 503-282-2990 and calling is genuinely the fastest way to ask about something, since the website is the label's mail-order catalog and not the store's stock. Ships from Illinois now, so ordering online is not a way to 'hold' anything at the counter. Bring cash as a courtesy and a bag — the sleeves add up. Sweedeedee next door is breakfast and lunch only, so it pairs with a morning visit, not an evening one; the Red Fox across the street covers nights. Free-ish street parking in Humboldt, tight on weekend afternoons. Don't expect a listening station or a curated wall of staff picks with shelf-talkers — expect to ask someone.
- 📍 Portland
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Low-key
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 5202 N Albina Ave, Portland, OR 97217
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- McMenamins Chapel Pub — A four-minute walk up to N Killingsworth into a 1930s funeral chapel with its refurbished pipe organ still standing — an easy dinner stop that keeps the afternoon's mood of things preserved rather than replaced.
- The 1905 — Just over half a mile south on N Shaver, a narrow jazz room DownBeat has twice named to its Top 100 — buy the records at 6, hear people play at 8, tickets sold online rather than as a cover at the door.
- Paxton Gate PDX — On N Mississippi Avenue, the street the shop was named for and then left, so the half-mile walk doubles as a look at what that stretch became — and taxidermy and carnivorous plants are their own kind of archive.
More weird in Portland
Good to know
Can I check what they have before I go, or reserve something?
No. There is no online store inventory, and ordering from mississippirecords.net ships from the Chicago warehouse rather than holding anything at the Portland counter. Call the shop at 503-282-2990 — it is genuinely the fastest route to an answer.
When are they open?
Every day, noon to seven Pacific. That daily schedule is unusually reliable for a shop this size, but the 7pm close is firm, so a 6:45 arrival is not really a visit.
Where is it, and what is parking like?
5202 N Albina Ave in Humboldt, in the same building as the Sweedeedee cafe. Street parking is free-ish and tightens up on weekend afternoons. Note that the shop is not on N Mississippi Avenue despite the name — that was the original 2003 location.
What should we do around it?
Sweedeedee next door runs 10 to 3 Monday through Thursday and 9 to 3 Friday through Sunday, so it pairs with a morning visit; the Red Fox across the street covers the evening. Plan the food around which end of the day you are shopping.
Is the label still based in Portland?
Not really. Since 2019 the label side has operated out of Red Hook, Brooklyn and a shared warehouse in Chicago. The shop stayed, which is why the store and the catalog no longer line up one to one.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia
last checked: 2026-08-26