“Vinyl to me is like caviar, the Taj Mahal of the musical experience. A fully formed love affair, beautiful and elegant. It’s the full sensory experience.”
“I suppose my first memories of vinyl records are from visiting my aunt and uncle when I was very young. They had an old wooden milk crate full of the classics. I was in love with Diana Ross’s voice from the second I heard it at 3 or 4 years old and all those old Motown tunes were the soundtrack of my early childhood.
The thing that sticks out the most to me from that period was the covers of the albums in relation to the music. You got this huge picture of a person and that was who was coming out of the speakers. It really leaves a lasting impression on a young mind when it’s presented like that. I remember rocking a bandana everywhere I went when I was a little guy just because Willie Nelson had one on in his album cover and Willie was my main man when I was a toddler.
I never owned a record player myself until I was around 16. Before then my only contact with vinyl was at other people’s houses. Which was cool because you got to see what people were into and someone showing you their record collection is a real bonding experience. I remember tripping mushrooms at this guy Butt Naked Ed’s house and it was the first time I had seen the cover of The Rolling Stones album Tattoo You. I looked at that cover for hours on end, mesmerized.
Ed was a cool cat and he had a vast record collection. We called him Butt Naked Ed with a Hand Gun because a couple of years prior he’d been found wandering naked in a field wearing nothing but a gun belt. Regardless of the fact that he was a few slices shy of a full loaf he was a very hospitable host and he was selfless with his record collection. That summer forged a life-long bond between me and vinyl records.
My first record player was a Lloyd’s ’70s model with the receiver built in. It didn’t have a casing around it so you could see all the electronic guts inside, and I had an old Optimus 6 x 9 car speaker hooked up to it that was mounted in a shoe box. It was a very Frankenstein looking thing but I was pretty proud of it.
I had confiscated a few records from here and there—The Allman Brothers Eat A Peach, The Big Chill soundtrack, Led Zeppelin 3 with that crazy cover, Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, John Prine, Michael Jackson “Rock With You,” and of course Sgt Pepper’s, but the first record I ever bought was Outkast Aquemini. That album turned me upside down and it was the first time I’d ever had my hands on a brand new record. The excitement of taking the plastic off, opening the gate fold, putting the record on the turn table, and listening to it as you take in the artwork is an experience second to none.
Now every city we tour in I make it a point to seek out the local indie record stores. It really seems to summarizes the essence of a place. The local record store is usually the epicenter of what’s happening in a town. And I’m proud to say that my record label Forty Below decided to put my latest album A Light That Never Dies on vinyl so I finally get to be a part of that very special wax legacy.
Never in a million years would I have dreamt that when I was a kid, but hey, you never know where you’ll end up when you follow the sound.”
—KaiL Baxley
A Light That Never Dies, the new full-length release from KaiL Baxley is in stores now. On vinyl.
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PHOTO: KRISTINA LISA
