Music is one of the most important things in my life. For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved discovering new music and listening to my favorite songs on the radio and on whatever music device I owned at the time (which, for a while, was my iconic dark blue iPod Nano).
As I got older, I realized that I wanted to do more than just listen to music – I wanted to create songs of my own. At age eight I learned to play piano, by thirteen I was on the ukulele, and at sixteen I had my very first acoustic guitar. At age twenty, I can’t imagine my life without musical influence.
When I got to Loyola, I received the amazing opportunity to become a DJ for WLOY, Loyola’s very own radio station that featured a variety of student DJs with their own shows. My roommate Nez and I were ecstatic – we immediately pitched our show idea to WLOY and started recording for our show.
When we were looking for music to play, we realized we might have to venture outside of the hundreds of CDs the WLOY library had. We wanted to find albums that featured our favorite songs or were our personal favorites. We had heard of a place in Baltimore that had a variety of CDs and even vinyl’s that we could buy to play on the radio. After looking up the location and seeing photos of the interior, we knew we had to visit.
The Sound Garden, located in the heart of Baltimore City’s Inner Harbor, is a small music shop that sells albums from almost every artist imaginable. There is music from a variety of decades, and even a section that sells DVDs and other tapes to watch. There is also a variety of merchandise around the store, including pins, t-shirts, magnets, and other super cool products.
The Sound Garden allows shoppers to sell their old CDs or vinyls to the store and be bought by customers second-hand. The shop also features CDs on sale with affordable pricing for customers. There is so much to look at and so much to choose from. It is truly a treasure chest for any music lover.
I was lucky to be able to walk out of the shop with the album Future Hearts by All Time Low, which is still one of my all-time favorite albums from middle school and a very exciting find within the store. I also was able to buy a cool pin for my backpack with a colorful record player design.
My experience at this shop was one that I will truly never forget. It has become one of my favorite places to visit in Baltimore and somewhere that I plan on going to again and again.
If you love music as much as I do, this place is a must-visit!