Listening Back

For Christmas I bought myself a new turntable system. The turntable and sound is only so-so, the real selling point is that it can burn LPs, 45s, 78s and casettes to CDs, converting them to digital formats. I finally set it up this weekend and it has been so great. I forgot that I had so much valuable (to me) material in these other formats that are not available elsewhere. Here is what I listened to/converted this weekend:

1. I have a set of boogie/jazz 78's that my father had when he was a kid in the 1940's. These were for him what my favorite records in the 80's were to me growing up.

2. There was a period in the mid to late 90's when I wrote quite a few songs. Many of them were working with my musical partner Dave, and others were either alone or working with other friends. In the mid-90's I bought a 4-track tape recording system so I could preserve my masterworks. I still look back on those days fondly, it was a time of fewer responsibilities, when I could hole up for days and nights at a time and do music 24 hours in a stretch. I pulled out all of those tapes and put them on disc today. What a trip back. ASWOBA, I've got you on vocals on a couple of tracks. Remember "Exchanges" and "When To Lose"? There are some songs there that I don't even remember, and some of them are pretty damn good! Dave and I were playing recently and were frustrated because we couldn't even remember some of our own arrangements. Now I've got them and we can figure it all out.

3. When growing up in Houston, some friends and I backed up a band called The Really Brothers in the summers. A couple of great guys who took some teenage musicians under their wing and let them play some laidback country every Sunday at their performances. I found their demo tape this weekend. I must have played those country tunes about 500 times. Larry is still one of my favorite guitarists.

4. While in college, I was able to host a blues show for a couple of hours every Thursday night on our college radio station that broadcasts in San Antonio. Fortunately, I taped a handful of my shows at the time. I transferred three of my favorites this weekend to CD. One in particular that really grabbed me was one that I co-hosted with an old friend, Brian. We have been estranged for many years for some complicated reasons, but listening to that tape last night reminded me how much fun we used to have. Listening to our Mardi Gras special that we did in February of '97, we had a great rapport on air and the show is a blast to listen to. I miss Brian.

5. FINALLY, I can have the holy grail of concerts for me on disc/iPod. I've told this story before, but my first concert was Dire Straits in Houston on their Brothers in Arms tour. That show was broadcast nationally on radio, and it has become a collector's item, acknowledged as one of their best available bootlegs. My brother in 1985 taped it off the radio, not knowing I was at the show. Later he gave me the casettes, and I have guarded them like I had the original Magna Carta for close to three decades. Now, at long last, I can listen to my first concert on my iPod. It still is such a kick ass show.

6. Then there's the stack of LPs, 45s and tapes that are not available on disc or iTunes that I am joyfully slogging through. From The Firm's second record (the long out of print and not very good Mean Business), to a stack of Bruce Springsteen mid-80's dance mixes, which he has wisely kept out of print, to Dire Straits's fun EP Twisting By the Pool (which they never released on CD), I've been having so much fun with this stuff.

ASWOBA, you aren't a bad singer, actually.