April 17 is Record Store Day, so please head out and support your local indie record stores. Without them, it’s all Walmart and Target people.

In addition, on my radio show this Monday, April 12 at 3pm, I’ll be giving away one copy of the cool new book “Record Store Days – From Vinyl to Digital and Back Again.” Be the 5th caller to call in between 3-3.30pm CT and the book is yours. Tune in at 91.7FM or online at www.koop.org.

Good luck!

So I was heartened to read this news item about the continued renaissance of vinyl.

“Record labels have been treated to a number of unexpected growth stories over the past decade, perhaps the most out-of-the-blue being ringtones.  But as the ringtone wanes, the trajectory on another unexpected contender, vinyl, remains on the up-and-up.

Make no mistake, vinyl is still niche, though it has now grown beyond its initial small footprint of deejays, die-hard collectors and other aficionados.  According to the latest data from Nielsen Soundscan, wax has already set a sales record in 2009 – at least for the 90s and 2000s.  Specifically, US-based sales recently crossed into the two millions, beating a 2008-year total of 1.9 million.

All together, HIP HIP HOORAY!

Part of that is coming from the retro-cool of it all, though other factors – including spacious artwork, lyrics, and lots of tangible satisfaction – are also playing a role.  Actually, that is great for niche retailers, and instructive for artists.  Outside of that, the payoff remains limited – in perspective, year-to-date album sales are now past 320 million, also according to Soundscan.”

This Saturday, November 28th, the Austin Independent Business Alliance presents Austin Unchained, a day of celebrating independent businesses by shopping locally. You can participate simply by doing all your shopping at locally owned businesses on Saturday and throughout the holiday season.

Take the Austin Unchained challenge! Start with one day and unchain yourself by purchasing only from local retailers. No need to purchase additional items, just purchase what you normally would. If everyone in Austin bought their goods and services at locally owned merchants for just one day, it would not only preserve Austin’s local character but it would put $14 million into our local economy!

This is based on actual sales tax figures and illustrates the economic impact of shopping locally owned. Just imagine what $14 million a day would do for our local economy!

I do it because I have a lot of old records that are not available on CD or for download, so it’s my way of preserving them. Plus I now get to load em’ onto my trusty iPod or use elsewhere.

So you get a sense of what I’m talking about, here’s a song I digitized today. It’s a version of a song Nina Simone made famous, “My baby just cares for me.”

Anyone want to take a stab at who this is? 2 stalwarts in their fields…and that’s a hint.

I only made it there for 1 day, but joined by Rene “the rock” Carlin and Armando “let’s make a deal ” Rayo, we perused and scoured the racks of albums until our fingers bled….well almost.

I spent $47, procured 17 albums and 1, 12″ single, that I used to own, but alas, like so many others, been lost along the way. Here is what $47 buys you in the currency of vinyl.

The Johnny Cash Children’s Album

Griff & Lock – Eddie Lockjaw Davis & Johnny Griffin Quintet

Battle Royal, the Duke meets the Count – Duke Ellington and Count Basie (no cover, have to take pix)

Sing Along with Basie – Joe Williams, Dave Lambert, Jon Hendriks, Annie Ross plus the Basie Band

Crisco presents Loretta Lynn’s Country Classics – Loretta Lynn

I Ain’t no Bad Girl – Memphis Minnie

Blues Before Sunrise – Ray Charles & Solomon Burke

For the Good times and I Won’t Mention it Again – Ray Price  (no pix, have to take it myself)

The Divine Sarah Vaughan Sings with Margie Anderson – Sarah Vaughan

The King of Zydeco – Clifton Chenier

Oscar Peterson & Nelson Riddle

The Greatest!!  – Count Basie plays, Joe Williams sings standards

Stay Loose – Jimmy Smith Sings Again

Rock This Joint – Big Joe Williams ( no pix, will have to take it)

Ooops! – The Swinging Sounds of Bill Doggett and his Combo ( no pix, will have to take it)

Liberation – Bunny Wailer

Johnny Cash & Jerry Lee Lewis sing Hank Williams

and the 12″ single….Afrika Bambaataa & James Brown – Unity

Serge Gainsbourg – Gold (madman who became a national hero in France, sample his trademark musical debauchery)

Economics – Economics (Canadian bedroom pop, file under relaxing)

Les McCann & Eddie Harris – Swiss Movement (live from 68 Montreaux Jazz Festival, seminal soul jazz)

The OKeh Rhythm & Blues Story (classic, vintage history of R&B)

Beach House – Devotion (dreamy, haunting lo-fi)

The Birthday Party – Prayers on Fire (nick cave’s 1st band, when I feel like screaming, this is what I listen to, he just screams better than me)

13th Floor Elevators  – The Psychedelic World of the 13th Floor Elevators (Roky Erickson and his fellow travelers travel from 60′s Texas into inner/outer space)

Townes Van Zandt – Delta Blues Momma (Van Zandt’s lyrics and melodies were filled with a kind of haunting truth and beauty)

Ryuichi Sakamoto – Sweet Revenge (ex leader of Yellow Magic Orchestra lush, sophisticated pop)

That’s all for now. Support your local indie music stores!

When I found out about this story earlier this week, courtesy of Goldmine magazine, I definitely reached for all 3 of those superlatives.

A virtual treasure trove of vinyl, some 25,000 LP’s and thousands more 45′s, were unearthed from an Austin collectors home, Bob Nash, and will be available to buy at the next Austin record fair. Suffice it to say, the local news media ignored or probably were not even aware of this news, but for the geeks, shellacs and muso’s who move in this music town, the wires were abuzz with unbridled joy.

Bob Nash when asked why he had accumulated so many records and other “stuff”, said it was something to enjoy in his old age, but at 86 he’d run out of time, and apparently his family now needed the room.

The collection is a fascinating window into several different genres of popular music through the decades, and includes Paul Revere, MC5, Chet Baker, rare psychedelic, soul, garage, Fred Wesley and the JB’s, Lightening Hopkins, Anita O’Day, Thelonius Monk and so on.

I hope Bob is ok parting with his collection, and the memories they hold. But aside from it ending up in The Smithsonian or similar museum, I for one will cherish any purchases I make. I am sure other vinyl junkies will do their part to ensure his legacy lives, and is played on.

Oh, and for purely selfish reasons, you’ll have to find out when the next record fair is on your own…..

1. Much of my collection is not available on cd or as a download (legal or not), so I see this as an obvious way to preserve it
2. I actually listen to a ton of it, and sure its nice to be able to listen to it where my turntables can’t go
3. I kind of enjoy the ritual of taking the trouble to go through side by side, track by track, digitizing it in real time. It relaxes me. Listening to it takes me back to when I first heard it, like flipping through my musical memories.

I use a ION turntable with USB straight into my laptop and use the software (audacity) provided, to capture the album, scrub out clicks, hiss and kind of major blemish.

Then manually go through and enter track breaks and names. Finally, copy the WAV files with tags onto m hard drive and then into iTunes.

Usually, the tags get lost (anyone any tip how to avoid this?), so I run through in iTunes info, update each track, and voila, c’est ca.

Will post a recent end product of my labor next time.