Camrose Has Better Taste Than You Think

Maybe We’re Underestimating Camrose

When you first think of Camrose, it probably doesn’t come across as a hub for the arts and music scene.

It’s a small city of just over 20,000 people, sitting right in the middle of the Alberta prairies, surrounded by flat land and farms. There are no skyscrapers, and there isn’t exactly a ton of nightlife. It would be easy to assume that some of the more eclectic parts of urban culture, like independent music, live performances, record collecting, etc. aren’t necessarily things you would expect to find here.

But if you spend a little bit of time in Camrose and do a little bit of digging, you start to see that isn’t quite true.

There are nearly constant performances in music and theatre, often hosted by venues like the Bailey Theatre and the Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre. Everything from country music, to plays, to comedy comes through Camrose at some point during the year, often drawing a crowd and bringing some genuinely high-quality performances into a relatively small city.

The culture isn’t necessarily concentrated into one neighbourhood or obvious entertainment district. It’s scattered around town, on stages, inside small businesses, at community events, and through people who continue to create things just because they care about them.

And if you look a little deeper into the local music scene, you’ll find that Camrose is home to an independent record shop that feels like it could just as easily have appeared in a much larger city.

It’s called Moonstone Records, and its owner, Cullen Halvorson, has a theory.

And he might be right.

Cullen isn’t originally from Camrose, which may give him a slightly different perspective on the city than someone who was born and raised here. Having lived here since 2018, he has had time to watch the community from both inside and outside of the music scene.

And instead, he sees value in Camrose simply being itself.

“It’s almost like we should give ourselves some credit here. This little city is… It’s pretty cool.”

And music, for Cullen, is a particularly good example.

Moonstone Records

Moonstone Records operates from inside Walrus Bay Trading Co., surrounded by other vendors and independent businesses.

In Cullen’s corner of the space, bright neon lights and crates of records contrast against brick walls and dark accents. It feels cozy enough that you could easily spend some time there digging through albums and finding something you didn’t know you were looking for.

It’s quickly obvious that Cullen is passionate about the space.

He is a husband and father of four who also works full-time at the local Long & McQuade, so it’s safe to say that Moonstone takes up a pretty significant portion of the free time he has left.

“One of my hobbies has always been music in some capacity. I play drums, and guitar and I sing.”

It’s no surprise, then, that Moonstone seems to have manifested almost unintentionally out of that passion.

Cullen began experimenting with selling records and CDs through a small market, and what started as a hobby slowly became something more substantial.

“Yeah. That accidentally turned into something that is actually viable.”

Even growing up, music was simply part of his everyday life.

“Music was always around the house… We had CDs, tapes, and would listen on every road trip our family would be on.”

Certain songs and albums attached themselves to memories, but his passion for music really started to shift when he began playing drums in high school.

It was no longer something that he only listened to. It became something he could actually participate in and use as a form of artistic expression.

“I’m not just a listener now. Oh, I’m actually making music now, too.”

That experience broadened his taste and appreciation for music, eventually leading him toward collecting physical media and, years later, Moonstone Records.

And of course, music has always had a way of connecting people.

Moonstone carries music from local artists as well, which brings that connection down from a massive scale to a local one.

Local businesses and creative people often depend on collaboration in ways larger organizations don’t. You hear about things through word of mouth. People know one another. They share audiences. They recommend each other. They show up for each other’s events.

Cullen has seen that happen firsthand through Moonstone.

“I’d say it’s connected me personally with so many people.”

And in a community the size of Camrose, culture isn’t necessarily built by a massive entertainment industry.

Sometimes it’s built by people supporting one another, appreciating who they are as individuals and artists, and creating things simply because they think those things should exist here.

Sometimes that’s a musician playing a small show.

Sometimes it’s an artist putting their work out into the world.

And sometimes it’s an independent record shop tucked into the corner of another independent local business.

Own the Music You Love

Cullen is a firm believer that collecting music and physical media isn’t something reserved for one specific type of person.

There isn’t some personality test you have to pass before you can own a record player. And with music, there is pretty much always something for everyone.

We also live in a world where most people already have access to millions of songs across every device they own. Streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music can deliver almost any song you can think of within seconds, even some of the most obscure stuff imaginable.

But Cullen believes there is something different about actually owning your music.

“The slogan of Moonstone Records is ‘own the music you love.”

There’s something special about having an album that actually belongs to you.

It can sit on a shelf waiting to be dusted off, or it can be played every day. It can move from house to house with you. It can collect memories along the way. Years later, you can pull it out again and immediately be reminded of where you were, who you were with, or what that music meant to you at the time.

Physical music also changes the way people interact with it.

You can hand someone an album. You can pull out the booklet. You can read liner notes. You can look through the artwork. You can put a record on, lower the needle over the edge, and actually spend some time listening to it.

As Cullen puts it:

And that doesn’t mean streaming is bad.

Cullen isn’t arguing that everyone needs to cancel Spotify tomorrow and start carrying around a binder of CDs again.

“So it’s not like it’s a, ‘down with the man’ kind of thing. Spotify or Amazon, there’s a place and time.”

It’s just a different way of experiencing music.

Stay Curious

We asked Cullen what someone should do if they walked into Moonstone wanting to discover something new, and his advice was pretty simple.

“Keeping an open mind and stay curious rather than sort of ‘staying in’.”

Browse outside the section you normally visit. Ask for a recommendation. Pick up something unfamiliar. Give something a chance that you might normally walk right past.

He also says:

“When you buy an album, spend some time with it.”

Music doesn’t need to be rushed.

It’s something to be appreciated.

And maybe that advice works outside of music too. Stay curious. Go to a local show. See a performance. Or walk into the independent shop you’ve passed a hundred times.

Get outside of your comfort zone and try something new. Because the culture is already here, and sometimes you just have to look for it a little.

Cullen says:

“Turns out, if you’re willing to look, you’ll actually find that there’s a lot of stuff that’s going on.”

Camrose isn’t a big city like Edmonton, and it also doesn’t need to be.

There can still be great art here. There can still be interesting people, live music, passionate creators, and a little bit of culture hiding in places you might not expect.

Camrose might just have better taste than we give it credit for sometimes.