Unboxing hidden music history: Lou Curtiss’ Whimsical Collection and vinyl’s survival.

The Finest (podcast, 2026). Lou Curtiss dedicated his life to preserving forgotten music — and now his extraordinary personal collection is being shared with the community he nurtured for decades. At Folk Arts Rare Records, thousands of vinyl records, CDs, tapes and rare recordings are being unboxed, cataloged and placed on shelves for music lovers to explore and purchase. In this episode, we meet Brendan Boyle, who began shopping at Folk Arts as a teenager and now owns and runs the store. Along the way, we explore how vinyl survived the '90s and 2000s and why physical media still matters in an age of streaming and digital fatigue.