Yesterday was our first event. So I had a lot I had to get done. I’ll spare you all the details, but I had to move some furniture. Which meant selling some of it and moving that. And we had to go to the furniture store to get a new couch. And I had to get my tote bags made to give to my DJs. And probably a little house cleaning to get ready to have company.
Anyway, there was really no time for anything else during the day because I like to leave myself plenty of spare time. I don’t want to be rushed all day. But my wife told me the night before (Friday night) that we needed to leave the house at 7:30 to make a stop before we went to the furniture store. Okay, cool. I didn’t ask questions.
Until yesterday morning. Where the hell are we going, anyway? Well, it was a surprise. She had found that there was a record convention being held in Grapevine. Holy S. How did I get such a good woman? Phew. So we spent a couple of hours wandering around looking through records. That is some serious sensory overload. I always feel a little anxiety at places like that because dude – what if I miss something? But we got there by 8, so we paid the early-bird price. I found some good stuff though. Check out this haul.
I’m working on the entire discographies for all these artists on vinyl. So I was happy to find “Night in the Ruts” and “Done With Mirrors” for ten bucks each. Both VG+/VG+. Hell yeah. The Joe Walsh, Tom Waits and Janis Ian were super exciting too. It’s always a nice day when I can mark another one off the checklist of a disco.
So, since we’re on the topic of discographies, let me tell you a little secret I do. I created a Google Sheet for all the artists I’m trying to get full discos on. This is the Stones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Janis Ian, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Waits, Jack White (et al), Elvis Costello and Aerosmith. This way I can edit and add to it easily on my laptop, but I can also whip it up real quick when I’m in a store, on my phone. But the other benefit is that I can share it. So Melody can be at a record store on her way home from Florida and look at my sheet and see what I need. And she loves to do this. Did I mention how awesome my wife is?
She also got me “Taking Liberties” by Elvis, but I already had it. For that one she had not looked at the list. But it’s fine, she thought I might have it. And she paid six bucks for it. So I gifted that one to Ryan, hopefully to get him interested in Elvis. The record on the right is Bobby Rush singing Chicken Heads, and then three other artists singing it with him. It’s a Record Store Day release from I think last year. Excellent. It features my new boy, Kingfish on the last track. And if you can’t see them, those CDs are Elvis and the Brodsky Quartet’s “The Juliet Letters”, Mark Knopfler’s “Kill to Get Crimson” and kd lang’s “Absolute Torch and Twang”. My wife is so thoughtful and generous, and knows how much I love getting new music, so she does it for me often. I recommend to everyone, if you’re not married yet, make sure you get one of them good wives who do that.