The opening line is a lil bit of a joke, and I’ve actually been working on thinning out my musical collection lately, which is something I need to focus more on, actually. But I love music, and I love acquiring new music…what’s a boy to do?

As you might notice, I’ve been slacking on the ol’ blog, so we’ve got a lot to catch up on.

Sit down, and stay for a while!

I took a half day on Friday, and although driving to Columbus to see the Indigo Girls and Kathleen Edwards was on the schedule, I ended up deciding that I would enjoy a rare evening at home instead. I drove by the Lakewood branch of The Exchange, picked up a couple of things from the cheap bins, got some food from My Friends, and locked myself into the house for the night.

Later that weekend, Mom, Dad, my sister, and I, collectively known as “The Family,” got together at the family compound to celebrate b-days. My b-day is October 1st, and my sister’s b-day falls a coupla days later on the 3rd, so we have a traditional joint b-day celebration that generally occurs on the weekend after that.

Dad and I had already celebrated the b-day slightly by going to see Garrison Keillor at the Lakewood Civic Auditorium on Wednesday night, which was part of my b-day present that I already knew about. The weekend’s festivities accessorized that gift with an additional gift of Bruce Springsteen: On Tour 1968-2005, a beautiful coffee table book by longtime Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh.

The Springsteen book is one of two that I had on my Amazon wish list for quite a while, waiting for the price to drop. I acquired the first book on my list, Greetings from E. Street, by Robert Santelli , earlier this year. I was happy to cross On Tour off my list thanks to Mom and Dad, and thumbing through it briefly, I can’t wait to read it – anything that Marsh puts out on Springsteen, is always a good read.

My sis, on the other hand, gave me what is becoming a birthday/Xmas gift tradition – a $50 gift card to The Exchange – the plastic musical equivalent of a toy store shopping spree for someone like me. During my previous Exchange visit, I had seen a couple of items that I wanted that I passed on, making an effort to be financially smart. Enter gift card, and ditch previous efforts to be financially smart, back to The Exchange I went, with some additional musical items to put up for trade.

Here are a few selected purchase highlights from my two trips to The Exchange this weekend:

Willie Nelson – One Hell of a Ride

Never, has there been a more appropriately titled box set, especially when you’re talking about the career of Willie Nelson. This box set, which came out earlier this year celebrating Willie’s 75th birthday, features 100 tracks from Nelson’s career. The insert notes that it is “the FIRST Willie box set to include tracks from ALL phases (and stages) of his storied career.”

And yet, like the Songs retrospective release, One Hell of a Ride is yet another Nelson retrospective that omits “Beer For My Horses,” Nelson’s collaboration with Toby Keith. What’s up with that?

Many of my Willie favorites are on this box set, including “Hello Walls,” a track which reminds me of a departed former co-worker. As his family was trying to sell his old house, his wife told me a story about how much her husband loved that house. He would come home after a day at work, and say “hello, house.” Nelson apparently had conversations with his house as well, and wrote a great song about it. According to the box set liner notes, “Hello Walls” was one of three songs recorded that scored Nelson a recording contract with Liberty Records in 1962. The other two songs? “Crazy” and “Funny How Time Slips Away.” Not bad, huh?

Willie Nelson – Hello Walls

U2: Live: Under a Blood Red Sky

When the U2 reissue campaign kicked into gear with the great box set for The Joshua Tree, I was excited to think about the chance that U2’s classic Red Rocks performance might finally see release on DVD. U2 fans can now get this classic performance on DVD, and with five previously unreleased songs, to boot! There are a couple of edits, “Let’s Twist Again” is edited out of “Two Hearts Beat as One,” and “Send In The Clowns” has also been removed from “The Electric Co.” Several covers were also previously removed from The Joshua Tree box set.

While it’s a shame that they couldn’t (or didn’t) go through the appropriate paperwork that would allow them to keep the performances intact, the majority of the U2 fanbase seem happy just having the Red Rocks show on DVD.

Roy Orbison – The Very Best of Roy Orbison

As a George Harrison/Beatles fan, The Traveling Wilburys were truly a “supergroup” that fit every definition of the term. The Wilbury albums were my first introduction to Roy Orbison, and although I had certainly heard some of his hits prior, the Wilbury material officially made me a fan. “You Got It” from Orbison’s “comeback” album Mystery Girl, was one of a couple of Orbison 45s that I purchased growing up. A re-recording of “Crying” with k.d. lang was the other one, and is an example of a re-recording that I would argue to be just as good, or possibly better than the original.

Years later, I wanted to put the song on my Ipod, and discovered that The Very Best of Roy Orbison was the only compilation that had the track, and it wasn’t available as an MP3 download. Finding a cheap copy of the best of at The Exchange this past weekend, it was a no-brainer purchase. Some fans might have issue with the fact that all of the “classic hits” on this compilation are re-recordings or live versions, but if you want a nice one disc compilation that covers the Orbison essentials, this is the one to get.

That version of “Crying” with k.d. lang by the way, was recorded for the Jon Cryer movie Hiding Out. Luckily for you all, it’s the latest featured movie over on Popdose as part of their ongoing “Soundtrack Saturday” series. Check out the Orbison track (and the rest of the soundtrack) over here.

One more Orbison note for you all, you can also find that track, and every other Orbison song you could ever want to hear, on a brand new Orbison box set, The Soul of Rock and Roll, which now replaces the Willie Nelson box set on my want list. That’s the problem with me, as soon as I get an item off that want list, it is inevitably replaced with something else.

I’m still waiting for that complete Calvin and Hobbes box set…..

The Soul of Rock and Roll is similar to the Nelson set – four CDs, covering every phase of Orbison’s career, and all of the hits are the original recordings that you know and love. It really is a nice looking set.

Indigo Girls – Swamp Ophelia

This was a random pick. I bought this album in high school on vinyl, and LOVED it. I was without a turntable until about a year ago, so it’s been quite a while since I’ve heard it. I don’t know if this has happened to you, but sometimes you just forget about a song, and that was the case with Amy Ray’s “Touch Me Fall.” As soon as I saw the song title, memories came flooding back, and I had to hear it. I forgot how many different musical movements occur during “Touch Me Fall.” If you watch the heavily edited video for the track, you get the sense that the record company might have been scratching their head a bit trying to figure out what to do with it.

Indigo Girls – Touch Me Fall

When you talk about songs that sound better on vinyl (always a fun debate amongst music lovers,) I’d place “Touch Me Fall” in that category. And Swamp Ophelia had great artwork at a time when vinyl was starting to go away in the mid-90s.

If you feel like some additional surfing, here’s a great IG fan site that has large amounts of live material from the girls, and you can find plenty of live versions of “Touch Me Fall” that stretch from 10-12 minutes, all the way to one version I saw, that was past the 20 minute mark (with “Cortez The Killer” built in, as I recall.)

I picked up Rites of Passage (also by IG) to wrap up a conversation that AK and I had about the IG version of “Romeo and Juliet” originally recorded by Dire Straits. I had the Rites of Passage album in my collection for years, and hadn’t listened to it, so it left my collection many years back during a musical purge. I had no idea that IG had recorded a version until AK pointed me towards audio on Youtube. I had forgotten about it, until I picked up Rites of Passage and saw that “Romeo and Juliet” listed on the track listing.

I also picked up a couple of pieces of vinyl that I plan to display as additional pieces of “musical art” here at the house – Hall and Oates Livetime and Duran Duran’s Seven and the Ragged Tiger.

Need something cool for your walls? Grab any Hall and Oates album from the 70s or 80s!

Now I just need some more of those album frames!!

A couple more musical thoughts:

Jimi Jamison’s Survivor – Empires

After years of courtroom battles related to the Survivor name, Survivor guitarist Frankie Sullivan eventually patched things up with Jimi Jamison in 2000 for several years of touring that eventually led to the 2006 release of Reach, the first Survivor album in nearly 20 years. The album had been nearly 13 years in the making, and the Survivor saga took another twist with the departure of Jamison, who left the band again shortly after the album was released.

Was Reach worth the 13 year wait?

Not quite.

In fact, Jamison’s 1999 solo release Empires, released under the banner of Jimi Jamison’s Survivor, sounds more like the proper Survivor album you might have been expecting. Nearly 10 years later, Empires has aged well, and “First Day of Love” is still one of my favorites from the album.

Jimi Jamison’s Survivor – First Day of Love

Jamison is still one of my favorite rock vocalists, and I am really looking forward to the following pending new release from Jamison. Crossroads Moment is the new album from Jimi Jamison that will be released on November 7th. The project reunites Jamison with longtime Survivor comrade Jim Peterik, who co-produced and assumed a familiar position as songwriter for the songs on the project.

Peterik comments: “My main goal with this record was to keep it focused to what the fans want the most – that means strong beats, inspiring lyrics and soaring melodies. I feel Jimi really hit his stride vocally as well.”

Meanwhile, Jamison says “I feel I have something to prove with this record. It is my chance to say that I am back with a vengeance ready to rock harder than ever. I think my new passion can be heard on every cut. Singing those great Peterik melodies and lyrics felt like coming home.”

If you’re a Survivor fan, how can you not be excited after reading that?

Hear some song samples via this link.

Here’s a bit more for you, from the press release:

Although Peterik wrote every song on this collection, he channelled everything through Jamison’s life philosophy and experience. “Sometimes Peterik and I”, explains Jamison “would just get together for a beer and I’d spill out what’s going on in my life. Next thing you know he would play me a song directly inspired by that conversation. “Crossroads Moment” comes to mind as well as “Can’t Look Away”. Jim has that knack of setting my life to music”.

Kathleen Edwards:

The Kathleen Edwards Itunes session that I wrote about a few weeks back, is available now in the Canadian Itunes store.

Here’s a track listing for you all:

1. Run
2. Asking for Flowers
3. 12 Bellevue
4. Goodnight, California
5. I Make The Dough
6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Neil Young cover)

Edwards commented on the EP availability (and non-US availability) on the message board at the great Kathleen Edwards fan site:

i guess it is only available in canada right now. sorry. i will ask my itunes friend when it will be in the us store. but you can also change stores from US to Canada and see it and hear the samples if you like. and if you’re even more eager, you could just set up a canadian account with itunes and buy it now. but that is WAY TOO MUCH work.
off to open for Amy and Emily.

Chew on that kids, I’m off to listen to some more music!

P.S.

People love ’em, and people hate ’em – I’ve got two, that’s right TWO, guest blog entries coming up this week on ATV. Both are penned by old friends o’ mine, and I think you’ll enjoy ’em. These are the first-ever guest blogs here on ATV, for those of you that keep track of stuff like that.

Excited, aren’t you? I know you are.

Stay tuned!