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Finding Spanky’s and Gus isn’t easy.

Tucked behind a gas station and a coffee hut at the corner of U.S. 93 and W. Reserve Drive, the tiny building is virtually anonymous from a distance.

But drive up closer and 14 years worth of collectibles, signs and other decorations surround a shop that houses — for a vinyl record fan at least — nothing less than hundreds of musical treasures.

WHAT YOU’LL also find inside the shop is it’s eclectic and enthusiastic proprietor, her voice tinged with an East Coast accent and her speech dotted with clever asides.

Sandra “Spanky” Guzman has been in business since 2002, although the latest incarnation of Spanky’s and Gus opened just four months ago. She originally sold toys in Eureka, owning and operating the delightfully named Little Wiggly Fingers when her son — the Gus in Spanky’s and Gus — was an infant. Through the years, Guzman has set up shop in nine different locations, three in Eureka and five in Whitefish before the current store opened.

“It’s a long story,” Guzman said with a laugh when asked about her career as a shop owner.

What started as a toy store slowly added clothes, then morphed to a Western outfitter, then sold rodeo tack, eventually added rodeo rough stock and then, one day, vinyl records.

“My brother sent me a box of records and he said ‘congratulations’ on your store,” Guzman said. “I was like, ‘What? Records?’ And they sold in a week. So I said, ‘all right’ and we kept going with that idea.”

THE TWIST of fate that turned Guzman into a record-store owner wasn’t completely out of nowhere. When she was growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Guzman estimated she took in two to three concerts a month in venues from the Meadowlands to Madison Square Garden. And the lineup of bands and singers she saw reads like a who’s who of classic rock and roll.

“Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett,” she rattled off. “You name the greats, I’ve seen them.”

Guzman, too, is a believer in vinyl. She owned a close-and-play record player as a kid and has a turntable in her shop that she uses, on occasion, to wow young children.

“I get families in here, with little guys, five or six, going ‘come on, this is what mommy and daddy used to do,’” she said. “They’re amazed. They watch it and they’re amazed.

But the clientele isn’t all impressionable young children, of course. Guzman and her collection of records ranging from the classics to modern presses attract a fair share of music buffs.

“I have guys that are white-glovers. They’re aficionados, they’re audiophiles is what you call them,” she said. “‘Don’t ever touch my record’ kind of guys and they’re coming in here for really eclectic stuff.

“Then I’ve got people who come in, these kids from high school, they don’t [care] they just want to hear a record.”

BUSINESS HAS been somewhat slow in the early going at the hard-to-find location but Guzman is undeterred by her start. She’s added locally-made jewelry and clothes to her inventory, including crocheted scarves and hats she made herself.

“I’m just getting going so I’m really trying to carve out a different feeling for this,” she said. “It’s so small that I have to be really selective on what I want to do here,”

“What am I?’” she continued. “I’m everything that I love. That’s what I am. Whoever comes in, if they dig it, they dig it, if not, that’s cool.”

SPANKY’S AND Gus is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the winter. Fore more information, call 406-314-6266 or visit www.spankysandgus.com.

Entertainment editor Andy Viano may be reached at 406-758-4439 or aviano@dailyinterlake.com