All The LP’s I Listened To In 2025

 Big year for school band records  

1. Gail Laughton - Harps Of The Ancient Temples
2. Green Dragon - Dead Of The Night
3. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan XX anniversary companion
4. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
5. Doug Hammond And Mo’ Folks - We People
6. The Trusty Knife - self-titled
7. Muneer A.F. and the Rhythm String Band Vol. III - For Them
8. Whitey Theador - Jes’ Me
9. The Brass Winds - Untouched
10. The Gwinn School Choirs - Messages In Melody
11. Trenton High School - Jazz Ensemble, Concert Band, Wind Ensemble…
12. DAS - Hope
13. Rev. Joseph Flush & Rev. James Pinder - Priest’s Chant of the Sacramentary
14. The Gospel Messengers - Sing About Heaven
15. Sonic Graffiti - Bad Twin
16. The Reneaus - The Mother
17. Various Artists - Detroit Theater Organ Club Command Performances Vol. 2
18. The Slabtown Marching Society - self-titled
19. Easy Pickins - In On The Edges
20. Claire Cirocco - Drawing Circle Around The Center
21. Fiddlin’ Steve Whalen - self-titled
22. Alice Coltrane - Ptah The El Daoud
23. Rev. TL Barrett - Like A Ship Without A Sail
24. Rual Yarbrough & The Dixiemen - California Cotton Fields
25. Various Artists - Friends of Brighton Vinyl Sampler
26. Olive Brown And Her Blues Chasers - self-titled
27. Patrick & Rose Marie - Born Movin’
28. Dr. Igor Sonevytsky Sings Volodymyr Tysovsky
29. Muriel Grossman - The Light Of The Mind
30. Nico - The End
31. Dar Stellabotta - Lo-fi Rejection
32. Lamposts - 100% Tuff
33. Terry Allen - Juarez
34. Troy Gregory - Xaviera
35. 1972 Youth For Understanding Chorale (Ann Arbor)
36. Lance Luce - Pied Piper Pizza Peddler Presents…Lance Luce Live
37. John M. Thompson And The Northsiders - Thanks For Loving Me
38. Ragtime Charlie And Sister Katie - Messin’ Around
39. Arnold Barker - Sings Sweet Holy Spirit
40. Jim Ayars - Again
41. Various Artists - My Greatest Revenge: Flamenco Recordings 1904-1938
42. Tall Black Guy - EIght Miles To Detroit
43. Various Artists - Belong To The Wind
44. Chris Gatton - My Favorite Razor’s Edge
45. Human Expression - Love At Psychedelic Velocity
46. Warm Drag - self-titled
47. Jack Johnson - Live At Third Man (new test pressing)
48. Marcellus High School Music Department - Symphonic Band / Jazz Band
49. Gasper Nali - Zoona Malawi
50. Royal Oak Dondero High School - Highlights of 1969 Performances
51. Hotline TNT - Raspberry Moon (test pressing)
52. Animaleja - Nostalgia De Mar
53. My Wall - Over
54. Frank Bridge And His Orchestra - Music For The Carriage Trade
55. Wiccans - Bad Habit
56. Archie Shepp - The Magic Of Juju
57. Various Artists - A Taste Of Iceland Airwaves 2024
58. Tarah Who? - The Last Chase
59. Thomas Kleinsmith - Distance Beyond The Point
60. J Rowe / Jordan Schug - Missant
61. Various Artists - Ghost Riders 
62. Barbie - Just For You, Dear Lord
63. Baby Boy Warren - Detroit Blues
64. Bob Milne - Boogie Blues & Rags
65. Garnet Rogers - self-titled
66. Arlington County Music Festival 1966
67. Annie Johnson - Little Organ Annie
68. Dino Valle and the Venetians - An Evening With…
69. Roy Cobb - Traditional Sounds Of Bluegrass
70. Only A Mother - The Romantic Warped
71. Roy Cobb & The Coachmen - Country Special
72. Phil Marcus Esser Musical Theater of Detroit - Brel Lives!
73. Various Artists - Subnormal Girls Vol. 3
74. I Cospiratori - 2013-2023
75. Rod Modell - Northern Michigan Snow Storms
76. Diane Green - Ghosts
77. I Cospiratori - Here Comes The Dark
78. The Southern Show Boys - Hills of Caroline
79. Muriel Grossmann - MGQ Live in King Georg, Koln
80. The Narrative - The Narrative
81. Various Artists - The Best Of Dope Folks Records
82. Ghost Wolves - Consumer Waste
83. Mike Good - The Establishment of Equality
84. Matt Cox - Let The Pigs Fly
85. Wayne State University Men’s Glee Club - Victory!
86. Various Artists - This Is Fame: 1964-1968
87. Intra-Faith Community Action Choir And Wind Ensemble - Christians United In Joyful Voice
88. The Germs - Germicide
89. Grosse Pointe South Girls Glee Club 1971-72
90. Elvis Shelton and the Country Crew - self-titled (untitled?)
91. Bleakness - Living Shadows
92. Our Lady Of Sorrows Parish Choir - Songs Of The Liturgical Year
93. Joey Van - self-titled
94. Romeo Jr. High Presents the Cadet Band
95. Jim, Nancy, Shawn, Nicol, Todd Smith - How Rich I Am
96. Jere Hutcheson - Contemporary Ensemble Works
97. Marion Brown - Vista
98. Metalife - Hit Of The Week
99. Mick Vranich - The Black Box
100. Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee
101. Scrapper Blackwell - Mr. Scrapper’s Blues
102. Lonnie Johnson - Blues & Ballads
103. Ralph M. Lewis - The Science of Mysticism (A Roiscrucian Recording)
104. The Tony Williams Lifetime - Emergency!
105. Buddy Guy - This Is Buddy Guy
106. Inspector Cluzo - Less Is More
107. Soft Location - Land Electric
108. Jeremy Waun - City Vibes
109. Jeff Wilkinson - Pitchin’ Pennies
110. Heatmiser - Mic City Sons 2xLP expanded reissue
111. Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Live 1960
112. Mississippi John Hurt - Today!
113. Jimmy Reed - I’m Jimmy Reed
114. Rage Against the Machine - Live on Tour 1993
115. Various Artists - Satan’s Party 16 Slices of European Early 70’s Proto Metal Madness
116. Jesus And Mary Chain - Psychocandy 40th Anniversary 4xLP
117. Soul Asylum - After The Flood
118. Dangermouse and Daniel Luppi - Rome
119. Jesus Moreno and His Barcelonians - s/t
120. Babs Gonzalez - Ghetto Street Poetry & Funk
121. Nomads - Unity
122. Jimmy Williams - I Walk Alone
123. Night Out - self-titled
124. Jimmy Williams - Originals
125. Maanta Raay - self-titled
126. X-Cetera - Summer 2000
127. ECK! - Behold…ECK!
128. Windbreakers - Terminal
129. ECK! - Flatland
130. The Lost Record Original Motion Picture Sountrack
131. Nirvana - Live at Hollywood Underground Club
132. Mask Appeal - self-titled
133. Bruce Bolen - Breaklight Symphony
134. Ban-Joes of Michigan - self-titled
135. John Humphries / Bruce Humphries etc - We Believe in Music (at Rips)
136. Snooper - Worldwide
137. Peter Stark - Mushroom Country
138. Komitas Choir St. John Church - Divine Liturgy Of The Armenian Church
139. Toad The Wet Sprocket - Welcome Home: Live 
140. Private Function - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
141. Ethan Daniel Davidson - Cordelia
142. Battle Elf - 10
143. Bogue - How’d You Feel About Talkin’ To Me
144. Infinite River - Dark Ages Ago
145. Doug Howell & Berti Hosford - Love’s Lights
146. Bilal Abdurahman - Sound, Rhythm, Rhyme and Mime For Children
147. Black Maracas - The Anecdote
148. B. Lynch - Circle/Spiral
149. Sole Waves - Remixes
150. Redford High School - Annual Winter Concert 1974
151. Stevenson High School - Jazz Ensemble
152. Ida High School - Sounds of ‘67
153. Mackenzie High School - Symphonic/Stage/Marching Band
154. Northville High School Jazz Ensemble
155. Mott High School Music Department - Bye, Bye Blues
156. Bel Air Lip Bombs - Again
157. Okemos High School Orchestra - Highlights from 1974-75
158. Grosse Pointe South High School Stage Band - 1971
159. Grosse Pointe South High School Jazz Band - 1981-82
160. Wayne State University Choral Union - Concert of Sacred Music
161. Grosse Pointe South High School Jazz Band - Straight Ahead
162. Billy Strings - Me And Dad
163. Andover High School Concert Band / Jazz Rock Ensemble 1970
164. Northville High School Stage Band - Swings the Wonderful Big Band Sound
165. Quintron And Miss Pussycat - Chrystal Crunchy
166. Port Huron High School Honors Band - Spring Concert 1973
167. CHILL - Take It From The Blind Side
168. Wesley and the Boys - Rock & Roll Ruined My Life
169. Scout Pare-Phillips - Lupine Daughter
170. Jack Brokensha - Modern Sound of Three Faiths
171. Redford Union High School - Chorale Sounds ‘72
172. New Haven Chorale - Tours England
173. Air Field - Vol. 2
174. The Velvet Underground - Live At The Paramount Theater
175. Lowrey Jr. High Jazz & Concert Bands - Best of 1979-1980
176. Geese - Live at Third Man (test pressing)
177. Fen Fen - In Your Sights
178. Wet Leg - Moisturizer
179. Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal
180. Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes
181. The Earwigs - Orange County 1981 The Lost Debut Album
182. Hayden Pedigo & Chat Pile - In the Earth Again
183. Billy Strings - Live in Rosemont
184. Oswald Slain - Bucky
185. West Virginia Snake Handler Revival - They Shall Take Up Serpents
186. Muriel Grossmann - Breakthrough
187. Esther Smith & Voices of Deliverance - Matite Moss Clark Presents…
188. Radcliffe Jr. High Bands - Sounds of ‘73
189. James Rodgers Jr. High Band - Spring Concert 1974
190. Kevin Ray - Love And Other Myths
191. Neil O’Neil - Memory Museum
192. Ottawa Hills High School - Dimensions in Jazz 1971
193. Hope Levy - Hope Levy Sings Connie Converse
194. Various Artists - Hillbilly Wolf
195. The Velvet Underground - The Other Side of The Mirror
196. Vorhex Angel - Heavenly
197. The Velvet Underground - Live at the 2nd Fret, January 1970
198. Big Star - The Show Must Go On
199. Connie Converse - How Sad, How Lonely
200. All Seeing Eyes - Trone Des Fleur
201. Billy Strings - Turmoil And Tinfoil
202. The Velvet Underground - Boston Tea Party, July 11th, 1969
203. Turnstile - Never Enough
204. Father John Misty - Mahashmashana
205. Parcels - Loved
206. The Wailers - Out Of Our Tree
207. King Tuff - Cozy & Twisted Vol. 1 Grandma’s Favorites
208. Galaxis - Galaxis
209. The Beaches - No Hard Feelings
210. Black Country, New Road - Forever Howlong
211. CMAT - Euro Country

Proposed Double Ironic Self-Deprecating Country Song

 “I Hope You’re Doing Well (Because I’m Doing Better)”

 This year Halloween fell on a Friday

Ghost of Frank Sinatra crooning “My Grave”

John Krautner "Cinnamon Lake"

John Krautner

Cinnamon Lake

scum stats: limited to 500 copies

John Krautner is the most criminally overlooked songwriter in Detroit from of the past three decades, possibly longer.

I had LONG tried to begged John (best known for his work in the Go and Conspiracy of Owls) to let me release some of his solo work, without any luck. Third Man put the video for his song "Buster You're A Real Cool Cat" as part of our pandemic Public Access video series and that song only hinted at the brilliance contained on Cinnamon Lake.

John and I were seated next to each other at a dinner recently when he told me about the album, he instantly sent me a preview link to listen to it. Ever impatient, while going to pull the car up from the lot down the block, I jammed the music immediately. When I got back to the spot, I asked him "Did you sing...I shared a dream with a lizard I know?"

He chuckled to himself, probably both at the lyric itself and the fact that I had just instantly absorbed it. Whimsical without being cloying, charming without reeking of effort. Just simple and easy. 

As I told John, my favorite part on the whole album in the guitar solo on "Stop Breaking Mirrors" to which he replied...

"I tried to tell Jamie (producer) to make Noah Eikoff play the solo because I'm not great at soloing, but he pounded his fist on the desk and said 'No! We're keeping it.' I'm glad he did."

Beautiful acoustic light vibes with a soft airy voice you can get lost in. I'm reminded a lot of Detroit's favorite son Rodriguez, but with all the overproduction stripped back, patiently adorned and as rewarding a listen as you could hope for all year. A certified must-have.

DJ Slugo "Godzilla"

 

DJ Sluggo 

Godzilla Remixes

scum stats: sold by the boatload

A few months back I read the wonderfully exhaustive oral history of Detroit ghettotech written by Ray Philp.

Ho-lee shit. I found myself absolutely smitten with the story, I was vaguely familiar with some of the narrative, but I just jumped in wholeheartedly. The most rewarding part has been going back and tracking down the records referenced in the piece.

None tend to loom any larger than "Godzilla" by DJ Slugo. I could attempt to contextualize, but I'll just copy-and-paste what Philp communicated at the bottom here.

Safe to say, it's been a minute since I've played some music that got a reaction out of Swank. Once the drums kick in on this one, I heard him exclaim from one office over "This goes HARD!"

I felt like I had some deep unlocked memories of this song...a YouTube comment mentions the that this played on WJLB every Friday and my immediate gut reaction was "OH SHIT, that's it! I remember this from when I was a kid" But once I realized the song was released the year I turned twenty years old (2002) I had to reverse wrap my brain around the fact that this just sounds SO timeless, SO perfect, SO inimitable that the genetic make up of the mix, the sample, all of it, as so precisely tweaked within an inch of exploding by DJ Godfather....nevermind the fact that I've never even seen the original (any?) of the Godzilla films, so it's not like this is some sort of lost recollection buried within my psyche cued by the mental trigger of the sounds. Shit is just solid.

I don't use the term "quintessential" all willy-nilly. But I mean it to the fullest extent here. Enjoy.

GODZILLA

Mr. De’

“Godzilla.”

Keith Tucker

The theme from Godzilla was another [anthem].

DJ Slugo

There ended up being a big hoopla about that record.

DJ Godfather

[Slugo] didn’t even make that record. From what I understand – and I kind of understood this later – a guy named RP Boo made that record. It never got released because Dance Mania went out of business. It was an old record. It was a B-side. It was on a DJ Slugo record. Finally, I called him. I go, “Look it. I think this record could be big. Do you want to release it? I think this will definitely be a big thing in Detroit.” He’s like, “Yeah, we could release it.”

RP Boo

Me and Slugo, we was real good friends. Even with “Baby Come On,” “The Ice Cream Truck” and the other tracks, he was the type of person who would always try his best to look out for people. Dance Mania had just collapsed. We wanted to push this to get it out on other labels and give other labels an opportunity. What had happened was that... We didn’t know that it took off, because I was at work. I didn’t go to Detroit. I didn’t go nowhere.

DJ Slugo

When I first started out, I was one of the ones in Chicago who had all the equipment before any of the other DJs. At the time, RP Boo was one of the people I was teaching how to produce, on a [Roland] R-70. I end up getting two of them. I loaned him one and let him use it to make beats. [Then] I needed it back because I sold the other one. So when he brought it back, it had the samples to the Godzilla record. When I heard it, I felt like he didn’t chop them up right. It was too muddy, and the samples wasn’t clean enough.

DJ Godfather

[Slugo and I] worked out a deal and then after it’s released he kind of told me that RP Boo made it. I’m like, “Wait a second. Is there an issue here? What’s going on?” He’s like, “Oh no, he owed me a favor.” He owed him money or a favor or something. I don’t know. Slugo was owed something from RP Boo, so Slugo released some tracks. Or he gave Slugo the tracks. I don’t know the exact story.

DJ Slugo

I went to the record store and asked them for [the original record], because I wanted to sample it from the record itself. So when I played them what I wanted, one of the guys that worked in the store was like, “Oh, that’s Pharoahe Monch, that’s off of the Pharoahe Monch album.” So I chopped it up, did it the way that I want to do it. I actually never released it – I released it on a mixtape one time, and that was basically it. So then I meet Godfather, and then he asked me for a song. But the song he wanted was the “Where The Rats?” record. So we released that and then we needed a record to be an album filler, because I didn’t have enough records that I thought were strong enough to give to him at the time. So I had [“Godzilla”] in the archive and I just threw it on there.

RP Boo

Word got back, it was, “Hey, Slugo, he’s taking credit for your track that you did.” I already knew that because Slugo asked me, could he do a remix. “Fine, no problem.” I actually gave him my record so he could do it, chop his samples up. I was like, “Yeah, I know Slugo has a remix.” Word got back like, “No, it’s not the remix that he’s claiming. It’s the one that you actually did.” When I saw the label, and I saw the print. It was DJ Slugo’s remixes, but that wasn’t the remix. It was the actual track. He was able to put out what he want because I had no access to Godfather. That’s when it just went, “No, I can’t do this no more.” Slugo was not the only person that I had these problems with. I had problems with this with other people.

DJ Slugo

The reason I felt like I didn’t care [about the track] was because of the samples. We’d never cleared the samples. So I was like, “I don’t care, I don’t want no problem from this record, you can do whatever you want to do with it.” [Godfather] was cool with that, and the record took off. Then the big old thing came out where people thought I sampled RP Boo’s record. I was like, “Well, all you gotta do is listen to the record, and listen to the record that I’ve done and you will hear that the production is the production I done.” And then if you look at the record, I even gave Boo credit. I gave him credit for the original concept, because the idea was his. I heard it from him first. I was like, “Oh, I like that but you did it wrong. So I’ma do my version. And I asked permission when I didn’t even have to.

DJ Godfather

The record started doing good but then I thought it could do better, so we did a remix record. I did a remix and a few other people did remixes. Then the remix I did was the one that got the most popular. Yeah. Story of my life: that had a sample in it and it could only go so far, because we got offered a lot of money to put it in a car commercial for an international commercial and we tried to clear the sample from the Godzilla people and they wouldn’t clear it.

The Cold Crush Brothers "Live at the Hoe Avenue Boys Club 1982"

The Cold Crush Brothers

Live at the Hoe Avenue Boys Club 1982

scum stats: this barely exists...

Real-time live action rapping oozing with vitality and impossible opportunity rough around the edges but magical and charming and infinitely funky the inimitable power of just a drumbeat and vocals timelessly powerful but when the delayed bass drop crossfade mix drops the groove in your hips floats into your heart and you're floating

Addendum - the Hoe Avenue Boys Club was the site of a legendary NYC street gang summit on December 8th, 1971, called in light of the murder of Black Benjji from the Ghetto Brothers. This would be the inspiration for the main plot point of the 1979 film The Warriors

Addendum #2 - I was a bit stymied in my effort to properly identify the specific song or songs included on this single. Its release being of the unofficial sort and the available documentation online being scant, I resorted to good ole' Shazam which identified T. Ski Valley's "Catch The Beat" as the backing rhythm track (a standard go-to of the era, no doubt) pitched up a hair to my ears, but I tend to think the rhymes themselves are essentially unique

Addendum final - I am scared to even further dip my toe into the waters of first wave hip hop live battle tapes....shiiiiit this gonna continue to flip my lid for the rest of my days no doubt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoe_Avenue_peace_meeting

https://kaydeerecords.com/collections/brand-new/products/1192-hoe-avenue-boys-club-1982-the-cold-crush-brothers

--

Sole Tech, Circle Game and the Joy of Record Store Inspiration

Spent my 43rd birthday in Detroit yesterday. Slept in, chased a six-year-old around a playground and of supreme excitement was my wonderful wife Malissa telling me to take the afternoon to go to whatever record store(s) I wanted. 

I’d been drooling at the Instagram posts for the Circle Game store for a minute. On the West Side of the city, it’s located in an area that I just don’t ever find myself in. My parents both worked in the around the corner some 35 years ago, but otherwise, the environs were unrecognizable and I can’t say that about many Detroit neighborhoods

As I pulled up to the store, I set a simple hope for myself…I just wanted to find a Sole Tech record. 

The outfit had only recently appeared on my radar as I delve further into ghetto tech at an age and geographic locale that belies the fact I could’ve explored the genre with comical ease in my youth. 

Within five minutes I find a Sole Tech 12”, then another and the store just melts into an indescribable whirl of amazing records of all genres and all price points. It was intoxicating. 

Owner Ben Hall pops out around 30 minutes into my visit and is surprised to see me. We’ve really only talked once in person previously. But this dude gets it and we are able to cut straight through the bullshit, a conversation riddled with shorthand for Archer Record Pressing, Sound Patterns, Griot Galaxy, Watts Club Mozambique and on and on and on. 

I got to hear a jazz version of a Ted Lucas song, was hipped to a gospel record out of Ann Arbor seemingly with only two known copies in the world and generally was just happy and enjoying myself in a manner that is unfortunately less and less frequent as I age. 

Overall, this was the most inspirational and satisfying visit to a record store in at least twenty years…and possibly ever. I’m holding up the two Sole Tech singles I grabbed, but really, the pile I walked out with was life-affirming in the best of ways. If you find yourself in Detroit, make way to Circle Game. It’s certainly worth it.

 

1971 Holy Redeemer vs. Catholic Central Men’s CYO Basketball Final Detroit, Michigan

When I was nineteen years old

I was with adults

They pointed at houses

And rattled off

Three digit numbers

Longingly

The only time

My parents

Ever said

Three digit numbers

Was bowling scores or batting averages

Things My Daughter Violet Has Said

 While attempting to make fun of me

"You look like 500 pounds of mac and cheese"

Immediately followed by

"You look like a camel on two legs"

I consider neither of these

As insults

I happily laugh

Ted Lucas "The OM Album"

Ten years of emails and phone calls, contractual negotiations, in person meet-ups, the physical relocation of a mess of tapes and probably a bunch of shit I'm forgetting. This is what it took to get Ted Lucas released on Third Man. And for me, spiritually, it was absolutely worth it.

There is so much I could write about this record, but at the moment it feels best to point you to an interview I did with local NPR station WNXP....

https://wnxp.org/on-the-record-ben-blackwell-on-1975-ted-lucas-re-release/

There's audio of me flapping my gums as well as fairly insightful text excerpts of said gum-flapping at that link. If I can further belabor maybe just two points touched on in the interview there, it's as follows:

- there is SO MUCH more Ted Lucas music to sift through and to share. Like, it might be more than 100 reels worth of material. Across every and all iterations of bands and styles that Ted embodied, from commercial jingles he wrote on spec all the way down to field recordings and answering machine tapes, Ted chronicled and saved just about everything. And film footage? You better believe it. Thank god. I said recently that Ted is the perfect combination of an artist who was prolific, an artist who was a genius, and an artist who was great at documenting himself. Those three things almost never intersect. If you're lucky you can get 2 out of 3. 

- the digital bonus track of "Love Took A Trip" is just magnificent in every way. I cannot stop listening to it even now, months after first hearing it. This is the song that overwhelmed me and brought me to tears in the Turnip Truck (local grocery store) parking lot. As a raga, as a blues ramble, as an acoustic paean to the twists and turns that are inherent to the nature of "love" as it were...this song inhabits at least three different personas and each one of them is independently brilliant. But married together they take on a profile larger than the sum of its parts. 

Cecilia Castleman at the Blue Room January 25, 2025

So...I took five excitable pre-teen girls to the Blue Room in hopes of inspiring them. 

My two eldest daughters and three of their friends were all giggling and laughing in the car ride over, going to see Cecilia Castleman for no other real reason besides it was at the Blue Room and an all-ages show and it seemed that they just might like it. My wife and I had separately come to the same conclusion that our eldest best connects with her friends via music, and given our direct connection to so much of it, we should be exposing these kids to any and all appropriate stuff every damn chance we get. So with my office mere yards away, it was an absolute no-brainer to drag a field trip on down to the Blue Room. 

None of us had listened to Cecilia prior to that night, but that kinda felt irrelevant. I remember that age, just seeing ANY live music would've captivated and enraptured me in a way that is just impossible now. The promise, the potential...it's intoxicating when you land it and some of us spend the rest of our lives dreaming of recapturing it. 

 

But 9pm start for a headliner can be a reach for the circadian rhythm of a body used to being in bed by that time. My eight-year-old laid on the floor and subsequently requested to be held all before Castleman sang a single note. The four older girls, fifth-graders all of them, held up a little better. I gave them the pep talk that the moment they wanted to leave, we could go. So after 40 minutes or so, they politely told me they were ready to go. 

The show was solid, Cecilia has a spectacular voice, it was her birthday, the band was locked in (I guess she usually plays solo?) and just a great example of an artist doing it right. And I think the girls appreciated it, in addition to the free Coca-Cola and Liquid Death I gave them (a ten year old holding a 16 oz. can will never "look" right, it just seems like a beer no matter what) and the game of Truth or Dare they played on the patio where, I shit you not, one of the dares was "say the word 'poop' as loud as you can." 

Stopped off at the merch table and I felt it was as good a reason as ever to blow some money on vinyl. So I bought multiple copies of Castleman's 8" lathe-cut single of "It's Alright" record and handed them to the girls, a little souvenir from their first-ever show at the Blue Room for the three of them whose last name is not Blackwell. I also let them each pick an LP from the storefront...two copies of "White Stripes Greatest Hits" and one copy of "No Name" if you're curious. 

Probably too soon to tell if any of my five young charges had that life-changing moment last week, but I could see other folks in the audience, adults, staring in their direction with a look on their face, not longing, but thinking back to that age, to the promise of everything that lay ahead and its ability to blow your worldview wide open. We'll get them there yet.