Wade Wellborn, the owner of Dr. Music Records, says he doesn't often take time to think about his legacy, but he probably sees it every day he's in his little shop in the heart of downtown Fairhope. 

He will quickly tell his older customers that the younger generations deserve a lot of credit for their open-minded and diverse tastes in music, and you've got to figure that he's one of the reasons. After all, he's been open for business for all of many of his younger customers' lives, actively encouraging the same exuberance for discovering new sounds that he's enjoyed for most of his own. 

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Dr. Music Records, and Wade has planned a public celebration for this Saturday (May 30) at District Hall on Nichols Street. Music will naturally play a big part in the event, with six bands taking the stage in five hours and an air-guitar competition between sets. It doesn't cost anything to join in the fun, which starts at 7 p.m. The scheduled acts are Grayson Capps and his band, The Pine Hill Haints, Reconciler, Bankhead Boys, Rufus McBlack, and Marla and the Singers.

"I've never turned 30 before, so I wanted to have a party," says Wade. (He means the business, of course, and isn't referring to his own age, which is probably not quite double that.) "I just reached out to some bands that I love and asked them to come and play."

Sharing music is what he's been doing since he opened his first Dr. Music location in 1996 on Greeno Road near Fairhope High School. He moved downtown to North Church Street nine years later and has been happily situated on Section Street across from Page & Palette for the last decade. 

He's seen many music-buying trends come and go, some of which have taken him by complete surprise. One constant that's helped to keep him in business all these years is people's continuing curiosity about hearing music they haven't heard before. Daily, they trickle into his friendly shop, often with a friend or two, and excitedly thumb through new and used records, tapes, and CDs.

He's marking his milestone with more than live performances. He describes the upcoming 30 Year Throwdown as a heartfelt thank-you to the fellow music lovers who have kept him in business.

"I really just want to celebrate my customers," says Wade. "We're going to give some stuff away and have some other fun components." For instance, Dr. Music employee Greta (the Great) Fritz and her mom, artist and musician Christy Wells-Fritz, will have art supplies on hand so guests can creatively decorate old records and album covers. Colorful local character Dirk McCall will be on hand to quickly draw what he calls Bad Portraits. Wade says he expects many other longtime customers and friends to show up and contribute to the festive occasion.

As the site for the celebration, District Hall fit the bill for several reasons: "It's a great venue because they handle the food and beverages, and also they have the indoor and the outdoor spaces, so that makes it nice, too."

Wade went to high school in Fairhope and studied English at the University of Alabama. He was running an electronics store in Pensacola when he felt the urge to return to his hometown and open up a cool and inviting record store, which he said was something the small city sorely needed. As he told Scenic98Coastal previously, he wasn't calling himself Dr. Music when he set up shop. Instead, he named the business in honor of an older acquaintance who was a retired doctor who had strongly encouraged him to pursue his dream.

"When I named the store, I was so naive that I didn't realize people would call me Dr. Music," he says, "but I guess a lot of my customers don't actually know my name. Many refer to me as Dr. Music, or they'll call me Doc." And that happens when he's outside the environment too, whether he's out and about in the community or maybe running sound at an event. Sometimes he will clarify that it's the store, not him, that's the real Dr. Music. 

Either way, he's made a name for himself as a knowledgeable, reliable, and respected authority in the listening arts, and he's adapted to many changing trends. 

For the first few years, CD sales were a major part of his business, but he saw a steep decline because of Napster and other online downloading services, as well as people burning their own CDs at home. He diversified around that time with his other music-related skills. He worked as a DJ and soundman, consulted with businesses and churches on sound equipment, installed home systems, and designed and built his popular Sonic Suitcase powered speakers. And then came a retail revolution that still kind of spins his head. 

"In 2010, people started coming into the store and asking about records, and I was dumbfounded," Wade recalls. "My first thought was that it would be a short trend, and I didn't want to get stuck with a bunch of records when it died. And that was 16 years ago, and vinyl is still growing."

Until that transformation, his clientele had mostly been Baby Boomers. "Young people didn't come to the record store at that time. It was no longer a rite of passage to be in high school and go to a record store because they could get their music online," he says. "With the resurgence of vinyl, that's when the younger people started coming to the record store."

And these days, he's seeing a full-circle situation that's taking him back to his beginnings as a hopeful but cautious record store owner three decades ago.

"We're selling CDs like crazy and can't keep used cassettes in here," he says. "One of the reasons is that they took away phones in schools, and the students don't have access to music. So they're buying Walkman-style cassette players and CD players, and they're buying CDs and cassettes."

The variety of their selections can often make him smile or shake his head in wonder. It plays right into what has become his own philosophy toward faithfully running the thriving town's record store year after year.

"I've come to this idea that loving music is a journey and that journey involves discovery as much as it involves loving what you already know," says Wade. "You can get jaded working in the retail world for so many years, but I never get too far from remembering how very fortunate I have been. I've worked really, really hard to keep this place going and to share my passion."