Artists, coffee and more at the Kilburn Mill in New Bedford
Explore the Kilburn Mill in New Bedford, where historic charm, waterfront views, and creative energy come together.
- Todd Foy opened a new record store, Record High, at the Kilburn Mill at Clarks Cove.
- Foy’s personal love for vinyl was reignited by Taylor Swift, and he now collects artists like Prince and Joni Mitchell.
- The store supports local charities by donating half the proceeds from a bin of discounted records.
As a boy, Todd Foy would listen to cassette tapes and make up words so that he could listen to his favorite music. These days, he’s sharing his favorite music and a love of physical media.
Foy grew up in a 1980s music house, and his mother was always getting special music to share with him. He had a cassette player and would make up a word that signaled to his mother to put the tape on. Songs from “The Lion King” were his favorites for about a year, and years later he enjoyed watching “American Idol” instead.
“I was a big ‘American Idol’ kid, I voted for Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson, and my first concert was Kelly Clarkson,” he said. “When I was 15 or 16, my mom got us really good seats, and I still have my tour book somewhere at home.”
Foy lives close to the Kilburn Mill at Clarks Cove and is happy to have found the perfect location for Record High in the first-floor hallway.
The Taylor Swift effect
These days Foy is, unapologetically, a Swiftie.
He started collecting vinyl in 2022 and his mother bought him his first turntable. He said it all started with Taylor Swift, and it sprawled out from there. His top three artists are Swift, Prince and Joni Mitchell.
“What I like about albums and vinyl is that you really have to commit. You have to listen. You have to hear the whole thing and take it for what it is,” he said. “I understand the term the B-sides now. Some of these albums, you can really do without the B-side.”
For the new records he carries, he works with a distributor, Alliance Entertainment, ordering from them weekly. He also asks people in the store what they would like him to carry or order.
The bulk of the used records he has — about 500 to 750 from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s — were donated to him by the father of a college friend who didn’t ask for money but found in him a kindred spirit who loves records. He has mint Tracy Chapin, Beatles and Rolling Stones records.
“He had all the records you could think of, so it’s been great,” he said. “That’s not even all of it. I’m still rolling stuff out from his collection every week. Every Friday, he puts out new records.”
Meet Record High co-owner Copper
Faithful to his music, he is also faithful to his dog Copper. Not only is Copper a faithful companion, he’s also co-owner of Record High.
They are rarely separated, and Copper sits on his couch and gets ready to welcome customers around their midday walks.
When streaming music became popular
Foy was big into CDs until streaming music became popular.
“When streaming came, that changed everyone’s way of consuming music, so I’ve tried to pivot back to the physical media,” he said. “It’s a way to express yourself. You throw it up on the wall and you display your albums.”
He said he hopes that in January and February he will be able to start a program of buying collections from people, and has started making those connections. He has been thinking about it for over a year and felt it was the right time to open up in the first-floor hallway.
“I have some classical jazz and some Sinatra and Basie from the late ’50s that were donated and were really old,” he said. “My biggest ask so far has been Billie Holiday, and I have one on my wall behind the register. I think it fits with the vibe.”‘
He also finds it important to make a statement.
New Bedford artist Jeff “Pixel” Palmer creates handmade art, screen prints and home decor in his shop and Foy carries his work in the record store.
Dan Wood, owner of The Linotype Daily in Providence, also creates prints for him on an old-fashioned printing press.
“It is important to me to also carry some political and progressive art, because I think that the relationship between music and art and resistance in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s produced some of the greatest albums of all time and came out of really, really tough times and turbulent and political social moments,” he said.
Taking a welcome break
Foy sees his new venture as a passion project while still maintaining his commitment to charity work.
“It’s a passion project. It’s a labor of love,” he said. “I spent many years working in nonprofits and social services, and those causes are still important to me, but I just got very, very burnt out and very tired and I thought what makes me happy in this moment is turning this into a livelihood,” he said.
He also has a bin of “more loved” records for sale for $3, and every month he will give half of the proceeds from that bin back to a local charity. This month it is the Coastal Foodshed also located in the Kilburn Mill.
“It is important for me to incorporate some sort of activist component into this store more long-term,” he said.
At the end of the day, he said he also wants customers to think of it as their space, too, because music can be more unifying than divisive, he said.
Standard-Times staff writer Kathryn Gallerani can be reached at [email protected]. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.
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