The Return of the Storyteller

Since the earliest days of my vinyl collecting life, I've been a huge fan of 'singer-songwriters.' So, I am excited to add another .....  'See Here, I Have Built You a Mansion: Rare and Unreleased Songs' by Josh Ritter. From 2020 on red marble vinyl. 

Original songs, original lyrics, stories to be told and heard. It's always best to hear the storyteller express his/her own thoughts and tales in their own unique voice and style. I've been so heavily into jazz the last three or four years that I've largely gotten away from the storytellers.

It always feels like a genre of the 1970's but there's still plenty of these voices around.

The highlight for me though, is a cover version of the Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits song, 'Brothers In Arms.' Backed by an organ and mandolin, it's absolutely beautiful and had me lifting the tonearm and moving it back to listen again, multiple times.

Record Store Day

Peter Gabriel - 'New Blood.'

Another Record Store Day took place this weekend. I celebrated it on the day after and found the one record that I really wanted. Though not badly enough to stand in lines and deal with the numbers of people on Saturday. But I am a huge Peter Gabriel fan and attempting to be a PG completist. 

A live album .... three discs of blood red vinyl. 

I didn't expect to see it on a late Sunday afternoon and especially it being the day after, but I walked in the door of the record store, flipped through the second of two crates of remaining RSD releases, and just as I was beginning to lose hope, there it was, at the back of the crate!!. The only and/or last copy in the store. A thirty-five mile drive rewarded with a bit of good record collecting karma.

And tomorrow is 'Make Music Salem' day. Live music taking place all day over the downtown core. I'll try to get a few photos. 

Pedro the Lion & Buffalo Tom

'Control' by Pedro the Lion, from 2018. On colored vinyl. If I had to guess, a yellow-ish/gold-ish combination of colors. A sticker on the back of the album calls it "opaque yellow."

Indie Rock

I didn't used to care much for colored vinyl, but I'm becoming a enthusiastic convert in my old age.

I don't know much about the band, being fairly new to their sound. The cover art certainly grabbed my attention initially.

Also listening to a 2019 Record Store Day (One of my favorite holidays) release of the 1989 self titled debut album by Buffalo Tom.

I always arrive late, mid-afternoon, to these annual Record Store Day events as I don't care for the hours standing in long lines and crowds once inside my record store when the doors open in the morning. So I was extremely fortunate to find a copy of this. Though I'm thinking that I may have asked the owner to hold a copy for me under the counter. If true, than an advantage and perk to holding longtime customer status.

On a transparent colored vinyl that could possibly give a case of vertigo if stared at for long periods. Looks as if it's spinning in opposite directions.

More Indie Rock!! Not that there's ever anything wrong with that.

Bonuses!!! .... Inside the gatefold sleeve is a 12" print of the cover art. Inside the gatefold itself are two or three dozen photos.