Some of my records, part two

Dear Readers,

For part some of my records, part one, go here.

I love my records. There's something about vinyl and record players that's just so magical, and more appealing than CD's and mp3's.

For this post I'm going to listen to a bunch of my records, take pictures of them, and write down some of my thoughts about them. Enjoy.

Bombo y maracas: Climica Sarmiento y su orquesta



I got this record from a thrift store, like the vast vast vast majority of my record collection. I can't remember if I got it at Bookman's or White Elephant or Goodwill or Deseret Industries or the Mesa Thrift Store or the St. Vincent De Paul Thrift Store. Those six places are pretty much the only places where I get my records. I would love to buy a bunch of cool new records, like Bob Dylan's first seven albums re-released in mono format, but that would cost a bunch of money, and I don't have a bunch of money. New records are actually more expensive than CD's and mp3's these days. Isn't that funny?

I'm listening to Bombos y Maracas now as I type, and it really makes me want to get up and dance. But I've never been much of a dancer. It sounds like a really big mariachi band, lots of trumpets, lots of maracas, simple drums, and there's not much singing, but there's people yelling, "Wee hee hee" and "Ay yi yi" now and then. Well, some of the songs have lots of singers, and some of them are hombres and some of them are mujeres. ?Comprende?

This album is completely in Spanish. There's not even any English on the packaging. I never really listened to Spanish music before the summer of 2008, when I was a cook in the kitchen at Camp Raymond Boy Scout Camp near Flagstaff. That summer I had two Mexican co-workers who could barely speak English, but we could communicate well enough to work together. They really liked Vincente Fernandez, so we would listen to him a lot as we stuffed trays full of corndogs into the ovens and stirred soup and flipped burgers. Have you ever heard Vincente Fernandez? If you've never heard Spanish music before, he would be the one to listen to to get you started. He's great. He's like a legend in Mexico. I mostly listen to music done in the English language, but one of the wonderful things about music is that it kind of transcends the language barrier. And while I talk negatively at times about multi-culturalism, the kind being perpetrated in our schools these days, I really like music from different cultures.

Lush Strings: Moon of Manakoora



Speaking of music from other cultures, the next record has a picture of a Hawaiian looking lady on the cover, so I assume this is Hawaiian music. How genuine the music is, I don't know. I mean, was this music made by real Hawaiians, or by college students from the Midwest trying to sound Hawaiian? For some reason there's a lot of Hawaiian music on vinyl in thrift stores, and a lot of it seems kind of cheesy. Like Lawerence Welk cheesy. I'm listening to it now for the first time, and while it is lovely music, I probably won't be frantically digging through my record collection to try find it any time soon. It's good background music. It's like a symphony plus that distinctive Hawaiian twang twang now and then. Very soothing. There's a song on here called "Hawaiian War Chant" that's surprisingly mellow. Maybe the indigenous Hawaiians are so mellow that even their war chants are like lullabies. OK, I just googled "Lush Strings" and it's an orchestra. I was hoping it was "authentic" tribal music in the style of Alan Lomax or Harry Smith. Oh well, this would still be good to play in the old folk's home.

The Sound of Gypsy Music by Dick Kesner his Magic Stradivarius and Orchestra



Notice that this is not Gypsy Music, but the sound of Gypsy Music. It's like at cheap breakfast restraunts they don't use syrup, they use "the flavor of syrup." Who knows what that stuff is that you're putting on your pancakes. So, kind of like the last record, Moon of Manakoora, it's not "authenic." But in it's own way, it is authentic. And who cares if it's authentic or not? It's nice, and it's pretty. It's funny that I mentioned Lawrence Welk, because it says on the back of the record sleeve, "The second factor [that made Dick Kesner famous] is television, through which, as First Violinist for the famous Lawrence Welk group, he was seen and heard by perhaps more people than any other violinist in the history of music."

This is the kind of music that calmed Dr. Frankenstein's monster. Whatever happened to shows like Lawerence Welk, anyway? Where are all the wholesome variety shows gone? What's happened to our culture? People don't listen to this type of music anymore. Not even I do. I'm only listening to it right now so I can be a hipster. But there's an un-pretentiousness to the music on old records that you find in thrift stores. It's very straightforward. It's like the musicians are saying, "look, here's some nice music we made for you. We hope you enjoy it." And it's not trying to be cool... but that's what makes it cool. It's not trying to send a message, or be all artsy and misunderstood, either, like Joe Pug is. It's not trying to draw attention to itself or establish a new culture, it's content to be in its own particular time and place, enjoying its own station in life.

Walt Groller plays for The Gals in Pennsyltucky.


Pennsyltucky must be a clever blending of Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Some of the song titles on this record are, "Play us the polkas" "Bowling Polka" "La la la Polka" and "Swing Your Baby Polka." Ha ha ha. This album has lots of women singing at the same time, shouting "Woo-hoo!" now and then. And there's lots of hand-clapping, and lots of accordion. It's fun, upbeat, old-fashioned music.

Speaking of unpretentious invitations, check out what it says on the back of the record sleeve: "We are sure that you will want to play this recording for yourself and your friends many times and we guarantee that it will give you many listening hours of pleasure without deterioration if your phonograph is in good condition." A modern CD case would say something brief and hip and purposefully obscure like, "Music for teenage dogs. Now. Think your woof enough?"

I really like "La la la polka." It reminds me a lot of "Elmo's song" because it says "la la la" so much.

Good Old Country Gospel



This record -it's actually a two record set- has songs sung by Loretta Lynn, Jimmie Davis, Red Foley, Ernest Tubb, Bill Monroe, Bill Anderson, Kitty Wells, Webb Pierce, and others. I recognize the name of Loretta Lynn, and I think I recognize Jimmie Davis... isn't that the name of a sausage company? I have the feeling that a lot of these folks were a big deal back in the day. I doubt many people know who they are nowadays. But I suppose that's OK. That's the way things go. People get forgotten.

This record has great old-timey gospel songs, such as "In the Sweet Bye and Bye," "How Great Thou Art," "Amazing Grace," "Dust on the Bible," "I've Got That Old TIme Religion in my Heart," "Peace in the Valley," "Just a Closer Walk With Thee." Oh my, these songs are just delightful. I didn't have any idea how great this good old country gospel could be until I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in West Virginia from 2002 to 2004. I remembering going to a family reunion where an old lady played the keyboard and sang, "Farther Along." It moved me to tears.

All the songs on this two record set are sung on key, in a beautiful, old-fashioned style. Not a lot of frills and acoustic gimmicks, just good old fashioned gospel music.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa