“I was raised on vinyl. In my memory there was almost always a record spinning.”
“My very earliest memory is of the Pete Seeger album my mom would regularly take out of the Milford Public Library for me to listen to, Abiyoyo and Other Story Songs for Children, it was called. I loved it. But I also recall, at a very early age, listening by myself (I was an only child) to The Beatles’ 1967-70, or the “Blue Album” of greatest hits. I remember sitting on the floor by the record player, trying to decipher the lyrics printed on the inner sleeves (“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together…”)
I felt I was glimpsing a very exotic and exciting aspect of adulthood. And the music itself– the melodies, the harmonies, the rhythms, and wondrous sounds transported me to strange and beautiful (and often humorous) places: an Octopus’s Garden, a Yellow Submarine, a place called Strawberry Fields. I always loved the idea of “eating chocolate cake in a bag.”
But there were other records that made a huge impression on me as well: Stevie Wonder’s Fulfillingness’ First Finale, Nilsson’s album, Harry, Paul Simon’s There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, and Dark Side of the Moon, to name a few that my mom played in heavy rotation in the early-to-mid seventies. Plus a lot of Joni Mitchell.
When I was recording my album last year in Nashville, it was my friend and co-producer, Court Little, who suggested I make vinyl. He didn’t have to say it twice. As soon as I imagined holding it in my hands, sliding the record out of its sleeve and placing it on the turntable, I was sold. It had to happen.
And it did. And I am so grateful that I had the wherewithal to make it happen. It is, quite simply, a dream come true.”
—Jon Patrick Walker
“House On A Hill” is the first single from Jon Patrick Walker’s debut album The Guilty Party, out March 5th.
