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Chances are you’ve never set foot in Buddy Stewart’s Rock Shop and Rhythm Museum, a vintage blues record shop and mini museum tucked away on North Acadian Thruway, in a neighborhood that’s seen better days.

But spend a little time browsing its dusty album racks and you'll find a trove of vintage R&B, some of it by Baton Rouge artists who did more than their share to shape R&B for the rest of the world.

The humble little shop can count among its customers Jurrassic 5’s Cut Chemist and Scottish DJ Keb Darge, who put together the influential Legendary Deep Funk compilation series.

Andrew Goodrich made the cover of Business Report years ago, with his story about selling records found at The Rock Shop on eBay. “Without a doubt, the best record I found there was an unreleased acetate of an instrumental by Walter B and the New Breed Band. It made the house come down in Berlin.”

The small shop and museum may no longer be a mainstream record shop, but it does serve as a vital connection to Baton Rouge’s musical past, a heritage the rest of the world may appreciate more than Baton Rouge does. The shop even puts on drum clinics for young kids.

William Taylor and Buddy Stewart's widow, Elnor Stewart.

Baton Rouge musicians helped mold R&B. From Slim Harpo, who inspired a little band called the Rolling Stones to get up and shake their hips, to legends such as Little Milton and Henry Gray, who helped keep things funky.

It’s the sad truth much of our rhythm and blues heritage is slipping away: Rockin’ Tabby Thomas’ Blues Box closed its doors, the Neal family has suffered its share of losses over the last couple years, to name just a few.

Buddy Stewart’s Rock Shop and Rhythm Museum has stood strong now for 25 years. It was opened in 1980 by Stewart, who led the big band The Topnotchers in the ’50s, playing the army base circuit. His big hit was “If I Will” with vocalist Lee Tillman. Buddy passed away eight years ago, adding his name to the memorial wall on the north side of the building that is starting to run out of space. It’s a constant reminder of Baton Rouge’s fading blues memory.

This place is all about keeping those memories alive.

“We call this the Blues Boulevard of Baton Rouge because this street at one time was a Mecca of nightclubs in the ’60s and early ’70s,” says Philiper Stewart, who runs the store her father opened on North Acadian back in 1980.

When you pass through its threshold into its dusty environs, you are assaulted by the relics of a bygone era. 45s hang from the ceiling like birds against the cloudbank of posters for old blues acts and recent local hip-hop. “We get plenty of kids that point up to the records hanging from the ceiling, wondering what they are,” says Stewart as an old TV blares away daytime court shows, whiling away the hours for her and her mother as they hold down the fort.

Stacks of vintage soul/blues/rock vinyl occupy the store like they grew there. Classic posters of Little Milton and Guitar Watson lay around waiting for their spot in the museum next door. The dense row of 45s is a glowing vein of gold to a music hunter, holding seven-inch relics from stars such as Nina Simone, or R&B rarities like Swamp Dogg and Lonesome Sundown.

“Our best time for vinyl has always been during the Jazz and Heritage Festival,” says Stewart. “Our international shoppers come through every year. I think they know the store better than I do. It’s fascinating to me for them to tell me that every time they come, they find something.”

The highest price for a record from the Rock Shop was a copy of Roy Stewart and the Herculoids’ instrumental 45 “Get Back” (Herculoid Records 2202), which fetched $200. “We had people coming in looking for 2201, but Roy only had the one record, so they were interested in this because of a misprint. But it had a real funky beat, and they told me they would play that song in Germany or in Scotland and the floor was just packed.”

Next door in the Rhythm Museum is a fascinating selection of photos and artifacts documenting Baton Rouge’s blues legacy. But the place is more than a testament to the past: It hosts drum classes for children on weekends, and every Monday, it’s the home of arguably the funkiest blues jam in the city, hosted by Pharoah Johnson. And in the fall, the Museum hosts Octoberfest. Now in its eighth year, it’s a series of gospel, funk and blues concerts that harken back to the days when all Buddy Stewart had to do was pick up the phone to get a concert going.

The best way to get a feel for the place is come to one of the blues jams, which get rolling around 9:30 to 10 p.m. Grab a plate of hot sausage and a cheap beer sold out of a cooler and just walk around the room. Soak up the love glowing from the countless old press photos for past stars and folks who should’ve been. Jot down a couple of the names and spend an afternoon pouring through the stacks, maybe dropping $25 for an album of blues and funk that, if its doesn’t re-animate that turntable in the attic, is worthy of a spot on your wall. At the Rock Shop, you can put your hands on Baton Rouge’s bluesy roots. That history is sitting there for us, but it will fade away like the static in the run-out groove if we don’t explore it.

The Rock Shop is open Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Credit cards and checks are accepted.