Bill Keith - Something Auld Something Newgrass Something Borrowed Something Newgrass (Rounder 0084 - 1976)

Kind of classic Lans. A sleeper album but with David Grisman, Tony Rice, and Vassar Clements on it. "Caravan" seemed more Dawgmatic, whereas the rest of the album was just smokin' bluegrass. Rounder is still selling this on their site at 12 bucks. The vinyl condition on this one was pristeen.

Lefty Frizzell - The ABC Collection (ABC AC30035 - 1977)

Fancy packaging on this one from Lans. Pretty much straight country Vinyl quality was near mint. This album was previously released material and so how it might have come out on CD is unclear to me but I can't find this collection on CD under this title.

Doug Kershaw - Ragin' Cajun (Warner Bros BS2910 - 1976)

Kris Kristofferson - Surreal Thing (Monument PZ34254 - 1976)

Neil Diamond - You Don't Bring Me Flowers (Columbia HC45625 - 1978)

This one came from Richard D. and it's one of those half-speed mastered audiophile releases from Columbia. I need to remember to tell Carol about the Streisand duet on here. The disc was pretty dusty when I pulled it out of the jacket but it cleaned up very nicely and I thought the condition was nearly flawless (without headphones). Amazon is selling this on CD for 6 bucks. In an econonmic perversion, you can pay 10 bucks if you want to download it.

The Firesign Theatre - Nick Danger Third Eye; The Case of the Missing Shoe (Rhino Records RNEP506 - 1979)

I don't believe I'd ever heard this one that Lans had. The condition was excellent. The material was predictably weird. Amazon indicates that this one "has been discontinued by the manufacturer". No resellers are offering it either so this seems like it would make it hard to find.
Before I took the album art photos, I took off a remnant of cellophane that had a $3.99 price sticker from Wonderland records on it.

Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson - Waylon & Willie (RCA AFLI-2686 - 1978)

Lans again. I wasn't happy with the way the track information came down. I adjusted the "Contributing Artist" field on almost every track. There might have been a few artifacts on this one but still highly listenable and Mommas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys. Amazon wants 11 bucks for this or resellers are 5 and up.

The Doobie Brothers - Minute By Minute (Warner Bros. BSK 3193 - 1978)

I think Lans inherited this one from somewhere. He could enjoy the Doobies but I don't think he'd go out and buy one. There were probably some clicks or pops on this but not significant enough to make me think about fixing them. ie highly listenable. Amazon is at 11 bucks for this or 10 for the download or 6 and up from resellers.

Various Artists - The New Acoustic Music Sampler (Rounder AN-02 - 19??)

This one from Lans is a Rounder sampler which pulls tracks from albums by the likes of Tony Rice, David Grisman, Mark O'Connor, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Tony Trishka and others. A very similar release on CD was on the Rykodisc label and had 15 tracks but Llama's Dance, Flexability, Rotagilla, and Intro are missing on the CD and Deviation, Fat Kid, Two White Boys Watching James Brown at the Apollo, Bartok's Blues, For J.L., Gator Strut, Samantha Lynn are added. I count 8 tracks in common between the two releases.

Emmylou Harris - Last Date (Warner Bros. WI23740 - 1982)

From Lans, this one had a disapointing amount of vinyl patina, though still HIGHLY listenable. The Springsteen cover was stirring and of course the Gram Parsons numbers.... The CD release has two bonus tracks: Another Pot o' Tea, and Maybe Tonight. Amazon doesn't have it but resellers are asking from 28 to over 100 bucks for this one.

Google search: Amazon Emmylou Harris Last Date -> I'm feeling lucky!

Skaggs & Rice - Ricky Skaggs/Tony Rice (Sugar Hill SH3711 - 1980)

I would have to believe that this would have been one of Lans' favorites. The condition was nearly flawless. The material compelling straight-up old-time country music. The arrangements are spare and so the musicianship really shines through. The CD cover (what downloaded from the net) is different rom the LP cover. Amazon thinks it's worth 14 bucks. There's a reseller offering a sealed LP of this for $127.50.

Copyright issues

I've been swapping emails with Brad discussing questions of copyright infringement I'm hoping that what I'm doing here on this blog would fall under the realm of Fair Use. There are some lines which are a bit fuzzy to me and I'm mostly relying on my moral compass to guide me. I have to believe that I can use the music I have purchased (or perhaps more technically, licensed) as a sound track to a slide show that I created and enjoy in the privacy of my home, right? I'm assuming that I can invite guests to watch such a slide show in my home. Any sharing or distribution beyond that feels like it would probably cross a line. However, loaning books or albums is something people do all the time. Suppose I had the means to temporarily disable selected tracks on my computer and render them unplayable, would it then be OK to do that and then burn a CD copy for a friend and then re-enable those tracks when my friend returns the disc?

Tony Rice - Cold On The Shoulder (Rounder ROUN0183 - 1984)

This one from Lans is in typical "like new" condition. Wikipedia says:

Rice’s solo career hit its stride with "Cold on the Shoulder", a collection of bluegrass-inspired vocals. With this album, "Native American" and "Me & My Guitar", Rice arrived at a formula that incorporated his disparate influences, combining bluegrass, the songwriting of folk artists like Ian Tyson, Joni Mitchell, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan and especially Gordon Lightfoot, with nimble, jazz-inflected guitar work. Simultaneously, he pursued his jazz-infused, experimental “spacegrass” with the Tony Rice Unit on the albums "Mar West", "Still Inside", and "Backwaters".

New from Rounder, this one will set you back 12 bucks, downloadable from Amazon at 10 bucks, or on CD for 18.

Various Artists - Phil Spector's Christmas Album (Warner-Spector - 1975)

There was a fair amount of dust on this one from Lans, but Christmas in June just kind of made sense today. Amazon indicates that this album is available under "A Christmas Gift for you from Phil Spector" with a different cover for 13 bucks or 8 for the mp3 album.

Dave Mason - Let It Flow (Columbia C 34680 - 1977)

This one came from Lans. The condiiton was perhaps not flawless but no serious issues. Amazon is selling the download for $9 but if you want media, resellers are starting at about 5. When I think of Dave Mason, I think of the classic Alone Together (the puke album) and the self titled release but per Wikipedia:

In 1977, Mason had his biggest hit with "We Just Disagree", written by Jim Krueger. Reaching #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, it was later successfully covered by country singer Billy Dean.

Emmylou Harris - Gliding Bird (Emus ES-12052 - 1979)

Probably some time in the '90s, Lans put this on a tape for me. He'd put the Gram Parsons (International Submarine Band reissue) on one side and a Clarence White and the Kentucky Colonels on the other side and used this album as filler. I ripped it from that tape back in December of 06. Since it was filler, this album was missing one track. I went back to the original vinyl and re-transcribed to pick up the missing track and I photographed the cover. I once looked this album up on the net and somewhere found that there is a version which is very rare and worth a lot of money. This one is dated 1979 and so I'm assuming that this isn't the original and premium priced version. That would probably be the original release which would have been 1968 I think.

Mary Chapin Carpenter - Hometown Girl (Columbia PCT 40758 - 1987)

Mary Chapin Carpenter - Come On Come On (Columbia CT 48881 - 1991)

Yet another tape. I tried auto track marking this and it worked fine for the first side but it inserted extra track marks on the second side causing me to have to redo half the tape. It looks like this one is out of print on CD but available used from resellers for about 3 bucks (with shipping and handling). The download from Amazon is running at about 9.

Willie Nelson - Spotlight on Willie Nelson (Pickwick ACL-0705 - 1974)

I always thought these Pickwick releases were sub-par quality pressings but this one (of Lans') sounded pretty good. The jacket says this one was previously issued on Camden Records. A quick look on Amazon indicates that this hasn't been put out on CD and resellers are asking 9 bucks and up for the LP.

Blog blog woof woof

From Wikiquote attributed to Jimi Hendrix:

I'd like to do a song dedicated to maybe a soldier in the army singing about this old lady he dreams about, and hold that machine gun instead, or it could be a cat, maybe... Tryna fall in love with a girl, maybe but - a little bit too scared! That's the problem sometimes, isn't it? I mean they can't really interfere a little bit so they call girls groupies, and they call girls this, and they call passive people hippies, and blah blah woof woof, all down the line. Thats because they're talking nothing love man, that's what's happening. (Woodstock 69, before playing song "Izabella")

What gets Bill P. through a busy day at work.