Record Collecting Miscellanies: Shuffling Through The Wax in Search of Obscurities and Forgotten Favorites

I recently hooked a portable record player up in my office, so I could listen to more music while I work. Before I was relegated to listening to MP3s and podcasts, but now I can listen to most of my music collection, allowing me the opportunity to listen to scores of records that somehow got lost in the shuffle.Thus, I've been rediscovering many records that I barely remember listening to. Many of my LPs have been purchased either in bulk or at the thrift store over the years, so there are a lot of older records that I have not spent an appreciable amount of time exploring. Needless to say, it has been an excellent experience, and I have been able to run the gamut on genres, listening to every weird little record and major seller in my collection, even finding those albums that should reward repeat listens, but have barely made a blip in my daily soundtrack.

Of course, genres such as traditional folk, punk, classic rock, metal, rockabilly must live on my shelves in an interesting symbiosis, and they also must blend acceptably, or not so acceptably, in earshot of my wife and cat. Both Carrie and Otis dig horns, but I am still not sure if they are sold on extreme metal.

Being able to listen to records in my office again has helped me relax and get more work done, while allowing me to discover and rediscover music. I have rekindled my love for Joe Jackson, Nick Lowe, and even Gerry Mulligan by constantly shuffling through my wax. I also found some obscure gems that I virtually ignored because I forgot about them: several Ella Jenkins' Folkway records, Poetry Readings in the Cellar with the Cellar Jazz Quartet featuring Kenneth Rexroth and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Verve records of live jazz in Japan, Jeremy Gluck's Buffalo Bill with Nikki Sudden and Rowland S. Howard.The list could go on: Live Stiffs, Siouxsie and the Banshees, etc. I'm hoping to get through everything again and start posting more "Track This" entries and album reviews of older records in the vein of my Jerry Reed and Ben Atkins reviews. Excuse me, I'm going to throw on something else that I forgot about. I think there's an Edna St. Vincent Millay poetry record or a Dave Edmunds LP I have not really listened to yet.


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