45s, Vinyl and more!

As I head towards 1300 blog posts, dating back to a time when no one really knew what a blog was; I am feeling nostalgic towards the old "Canadian Jazz Life blog".

As I often do I apologize to the old digital box of personal stories for being so absent. Social media really has taken its toll on my blogging. The good news for my readers out there (Dad?) is that I am trying to spend less time on the old Facebook and that could lead to some more time and creativity put towards this space.

I suppose I am at an all time low of digital-togetherness (or lack there of). For example, the Guildwood Records website (my main website for my musical activity) has been offline for months now. I think it is just a simple phone call away to get them to put it back up. It may even be a mistake on their part but I am not rushing to get that done.

A website has a different context now than when I started mine. (also early in the days of digital going-ons) I would like to rethink the idea of a website. This would include re-thinking the idea of my record company and even the idea of myself for that matter. Questions would arise such as; why haven't I made a record in over five years?  How much of my life is focused on hockey these days? What is the name of my newest project with Ravi Naimpally and Neil Hendry? (better hurry up and figure that out as me are making our first record in June.

Digital smigital...I really just want to listen to records anyways when I am not playing music or hockey. Vinyl is so great and I feel lucky to say that I have never stopped listening to vinyl since I was a pre-teen. If you are a regular reader you probably know that we have three functioning turntables in our house right now. (As I type I am listening to a great recent find of Jelly Roll Morton's band on vinyl)

Some of the more recent things I picked up include Dillard/Hartford/Dillard. I had been looking for that one for a while and finally found it for a good price. (I have trouble paying more than $15 for a record) I still think back to the old $6.99 price tag at the Burlington Mall.

Also on my list of recent aquisitions are Commonwealth by Sloan. (as good as my fave Wings records!), Le Sitar De Nikhil Banerjee (a gift from Ravi that features his tabla teacher Anindo Chartejee) and Same Trane Different Time. This is Merle Haggard singing Jimmie Rodgers songs. So simple. So good.

All this vinyl talk makes me want to give a shout out to my pal Dave Bidini's cool blog One45everyday.com. Dave always combines his love of music and sports for some entertaining writing and this blog includes some great special guest writers too.

Oh it feels good to be back here. I just need to ask my kid to borrow his computer more often and we can keep this relationship on the stove. Until next time. -tp

p.s. Some of the most exciting news this week is that the Cluttertones debut recording (recently released on Healing Power Records) is coming out soon on vinyl. This will be the first vinyl release I have been part of (unless Graeme Kirkland released Compositional Collage on vinyl. Anyone?)