Turning the tables: Vinyl lover brings old tech, new music to Hilton Head Island
There’s always something to listen to inside Hilton Head Island’s small but esteemed record store. If it’s not 80s rock ‘n’ roll emanating from a turntable on the back wall, it’s a spirited conversation about the tunes themselves.
Talking shop comes naturally for Tennessee native Josh Duvall, 53, who opened MoJo’s Island Records in late 2022 with his wife. He got his love of vinyl from his mom, a “music aficionado” who owned stacks of records and a hulking cabinet stereo.
MoJo’s is the only dedicated record shop in Beaufort County and the first business of its kind to operate on Hilton Head in decades, according to Duvall. It’s a carefully curated trove of both classic earworms and contemporary hits, from the Talking Heads to Taylor Swift. For a niche group of music collectors, it’s an impressive stockpile of hidden gems and rare releases.
It’s also the area’s sole relic of the once-dominant culture found in record stores, which are increasingly hard to find in nonurban areas despite the new millenium’s “vinyl revival” bringing a massive resurgence in sales.
“I think there will always be a need for physical media,” Duvall told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. “There’s something to be said about owning (a record) and being able to look at it and hold it. If the internet’s down, you can still play it.”
On Saturday, Mojo’s Island Records is participating in its first “Record Store Day,” which began in 2008 as a yearly event celebrating brick-and-mortar record stores worldwide. To get customers in the door, participating businesses receive a commemorative batch of rare and reprinted vinyl, some dubbed “RSD Exclusives.”
Mojo’s selection of records for its inaugural RSD spans genres and generations, with exclusive concert recordings from David Bowie and Joni Mitchell alongside remastered jazz classics from the likes of Thelonious Monk. Contemporary offerings include a 7-inch Anderson.Paak vinyl and a glittery pink-and-green pressing of the soundtrack from the new “Wicked” movie.
The store is also offering special discounts Saturday on used inventory, box sets and CDs.
A collector’s paradise
Duvall, a semi-retired veterinarian, moved to Hilton Head’s North Forest Beach in 2019 with his wife after selling their vet practice near Nashville. He hails from Manchester, Tennessee, the birthplace of Bonaroo, and attends the music festival yearly.
Before it was MoJo’s, the south-island location near the Sea Pines entrance was a bike shop. Duvall and his wife, Monica — whose first names combine to form the store’s namesake — made slight renovations to the space before the grand opening in December 2022.
The shop’s quaint, retro aesthetic is mostly the work of Monica, Duvall said. Its colorful walls are adorned with classic album artwork and concert memorabilia. Customers can relax in a lounge area behind the showroom or test out vinyl in the “listening room,” a quiet alcove stocked with a turntable, headphones and cheetah wallpaper.
MoJo’s also serves as a meeting space for Hilton Head’s music scene. The shop has hosted a “songwriting night” as well as small concerts for up-and-coming local artists.
Opening his own record store was a dream that began with countless visits to others, Duvall said. He recalled formative trips to the island’s bygone vinyl retailers — like Geiger’s Record Counter near the current Park Plaza Cinema and Disk Jockey Records at the late Shelter Cove Mall — during family vacations to Hilton Head back in the 80s.
“(Hilton Head) went for a long time without having anything like this, so it’s definitely an itch I had that I wanted to scratch,” Duvall said of opening his own shop.
MoJo’s main storeroom is home to hundreds of well-organized records, with thousands more stored in crates in a back room. The modern vinyl industry is a “collector’s market,” Duvall said, so he tries to shape his inventory around hobbyist favorites like rock ‘n’ roll, 80s R&B and old-school rap — music he’s also a big fan of.
Experiencing his first RSD as a shopowner will be a full-circle moment for Duvall. In previous years, he spent the holiday as a customer, waiting in line for hours outside a vinyl seller and “hoping to score a particular title.”
Now, the tables have turned: Duvall will welcome his own group of customers into his store at 8 a.m. Saturday. Some might be music enthusiasts traveling for spring break, while others may be regulars just looking for a chat about their favorite band.
“I have pretty much everything that people have requested,” Duvall said, listing off recent high-demand releases from artists like Billie Eilish and Charli xcx. “It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.”
This story was originally published April 10, 2025 at 2:52 PM.
