Standing behind CDs and DVDs stacked so high on his counter he can barely see over them, Greg Gabbard rings up his customers one by one. A short-haired girl with a tattoo buys the newest Decemberists album; a balding man buys a live Springsteen vinyl; and a boy in a blue hoodie buys CDs by Nada Surf and Talking Heads.

Gabbard makes small talk with all of them, complimenting each of their purchases, not because he is pandering, but because if he didn't actually like an album, he probably wouldn't carry it in the first place. As he talks and works the register, a cordless phone is nestled between his shoulder and tilted head because he is talking to someone there, too. Then the credit card machine breaks.

This is typical of what Gabbard deals with on a regular basis. What would you expect of the man who runs the downtown City Lights Records by himself?

"At one time, I had five people working for me, but now I don't have any," Gabbard said behind dark sunglasses, looking like a soul-patched hybrid of late-'70s David Bowie and early-'90s Jack Nicholson. "Times change."

Gabbard said the main reason for the decline in business is the music-downloading trend that has apparently plagued the entire industry top to bottom. But while record companies and the Recording Industry Association of America grumble and sue people, record store owners like Gabbard take it as it comes.

"Downloading and burning stuff is like having a blank tape," the 54-year-old Gabbard said. "If you're going to have your favorite albums on blank tapes, you're not my kind of customer anyway. My people are crazy about music. They want to hold it in their hands, read the liner notes, get to know the artist."

After they've made their purchases, the customers leave the store, walking up the flight of cement steps to get to street level. Gabbard hangs up the phone soon after. He had been talking with local music promoter Ted Swanson, who had booked a concert that took place at Lulu's Nightspot, 129 1/2 S. Pugh St., the night before.

"It's the usual State College conversation the day after the show," Gabbard said. "It's always, 'Why were there only 14 people there?' "

Swanson, who worked in City Lights, 316 E. College Ave., himself for a time, said he learned everything he knew about music from Gabbard and still seeks him out for advice. Swanson said most of the people involved in the music scene in State College have a similar reverence for him.

"Everybody -- [local promoters like] Garrett Bogden, Jeff VanFossan, myself -- we all talk to Greg about what's going on," he said. "If something happens with a new artist, it happens here first."

Swanson noted that even though the record industry is not thriving the way it was when he was a City Lights employee, the store has managed to survive the ups and downs.

"He's been in business for like 800 gazillion years, since before there were even records," Swanson said. "Even when there was Arboria Records and Mike's and all these other places, Greg always had the hippest stuff. And now everybody else has gone out of business, and somehow Greg keeps enough clientele to keep going."

The reason for this, Swanson said, is the atmosphere Gabbard brings to his store: an air of authority and expertise without an ounce of elitism.

"People still go in there just to hang out," he said. "It's boutique retailing at its best."

Gabbard came to State College from Columbus, Ohio, in 1985 with the sole intent of opening a record store and "carrying things other people don't carry."

"You're not going to find Serge Gainsbourg at a big box store," Gabbard said as the Frenchman's music carried through the store.

In his more than two decades in State College, Gabbard has seen the local music scene boom and bust.

"The scene was really good when I got here," he said with a look of nostalgia in his bespectacled eyes. "There were some really good local bands, and the bar owners were bringing in great music. There was jazz all the time at the university, and they had rock shows once a month at the HUB."

Then, he explained, there was a lull until the Crowbar, formerly at 420 E. College Ave., opened up. It was there that Gabbard saw some of the best shows he's ever seen in this town: bands like Son Volt, the Jayhawks and Matthew Sweet.

And then the Crowbar closed in the summer of 2006, and there was yet another lull. But now, he said, things are on the upswing again.

"The State Theatre opened, and they've been doing some good things. And the Roustabouts are always good," he said, referring to a concert series with regular shows at Chronic Town, 224 W. College Ave., and Bar Bleu, 114 S. Garner St.

Gabbard, an obvious music fan, likes it when the music scene is thriving here.

But don't just take his word for it, because his actions speak even louder. He's on an advisory committee at the State Theatre, 130 W. College Ave., and after the success of the Andrew Bird show in October that was booked with his blessing and sponsored by City Lights to lower ticket costs, the State Theatre has a laundry list of bands to bring in that Gabbard personally recommended. Included on the list was Band of Horses, who had a sold-out show at the State Theatre earlier this semester, and Richard Thompson, who will perform in April.

"Richard Thompson is always on my shortlist for people I'd like to appear in State College," Gabbard said. "He's a great singer, a great songwriter and a great guitar player."

Without Gabbard's financial backing, these kinds of concerts would never be feasible. City Lights Records regularly sponsors local shows and is often the sole ticket vendor for other area concerts.

Garrett Bogden (junior-marketing) said he met Gabbard when he first moved to State College in 2005 and started buying tickets to shows at Crowbar. When Bogden began booking shows with his Nittany Booking agency, he chose City Lights to be his ticket outlet. Bogden found that when he stopped by to drop off the tickets, he would often find himself talking with Gabbard for up to an hour.

"I always try to get his advice before I book a band to see if [Gabbard] is selling their records or if people are talking about them," Bogden said. "He always has an idea of who has a buzz about them."

For a time, Gabbard even booked concerts at bars by himself and the local VFW post. After fewer than 10 shows, however, he gave it up.

"It was getting hard to do," he said. "I just didn't have the time to work on it that I would have wanted to get it right."

Though Gabbard wears many hats, his graying hair looks best within the dimly lit, wood-paneled walls of City Lights Records, and it's in the cluttered confines of a record store, among DVDs, CDs, vinyls, posters and all sorts of other memorablia, that he is most comfortable. He's a music fan with a litany of favorite musicians.

"It crosses all genres," he warns of his tastes before offering a long list that includes names like the Clash, the Replacements, John Coltrane and Hank Mobley.

Though Gabbard said he works a lot more by working for himself -- about 45 hours a week inside the store, to say nothing of the work he does from home for the store and various other endeavors -- he enjoys the freedom it grants him, and he couldn't think of a better job.

"Working with the art I love most is easy," he said.