You need to apply the vertical align to the td
like so:
<table class="store-table">
<tr>
<td class="merch-name" colspan="2"><a title="Everybody Needs Love" href="http://kunaki.com/Sales.asp?PID=PX00XUQBLL&PP=1" target="_blank">Everybody Needs Love</a></td>
<td class="merch-name" colspan="2"><a title="Jimmy Clanton In Concert" href="http://kunaki.com/Sales.asp?PID=PX00Z59GSX" target="_blank">Jimmy Clanton In Concert</a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="pics">
<td style="width: 25%; vertical-align:top;"><a href="http://kunaki.com/Sales.asp?PID=PX00XUQBLL&PP=1"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-345" alt="everybody-needs-love" src="http://www.josephruscitti.com/clients/jimmyclanton/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/everybody-needs-love.jpg" /></a></td>
<td style="width: 25%;">$15.00</td>
<td style="width: 25%;"><a href="http://kunaki.com/Sales.asp?PID=PX00Z59GSX"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-312" alt="Jimmy Clanton In Concert" src="http://www.josephruscitti.com/clients/jimmyclanton/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/In-Concert-Cover-178x300.jpg" width="178" height="300" /></a></td>
<td style="width: 25%;">$20.00</td>
</tr>
</table>
By the way, applying css inline to every table cell is not a great method. You'd be better using separate CSS for some of this. For example:
.store-table td { width: 25%; }