“I’m lucky to come from a family of multi-generational music lovers and musicians. From my grandfather’s jazz and classical 78s to my uncle’s Elvis Costello records, vinyl was always there growing up. My earliest memories are the sound of Willie Nelson’s voice spinning out of a massive sound system and the smell of marijuana smoke filling up our old New Orleans home. Everyone seemed happy and the world was a mystery.”
“Barely old enough to walk, I had a yellow plastic portable record player and would listen to a lot of Carol King’s Really Rosie and Sgt. Pepper. (Later I realized that I had the stereo mix of Pepper and the record player only played mono—blew my little mind when I finally heard the full thing.)
The first vinyl record I remember asking for was Tattoo You by The Rolling Stones. I would take it to school and stare at it. Of course I was ostracized. I didn’t care, I was proud and felt grown up to own it.
I’ve never not had vinyl records but I’m not much of an audiophile. I still don’t own a very nice hi-fi set up. It’s a tactile experience. Big art. The way they look while they spin—like the most elemental of dances. The potential of the waiting disc on a still plate. On your mark, get set and go cat go. Plus it’s just really cool and elegant technology.
It’s interesting, as more people consume recorded music as individual downloads, we’re nearly back to the pre-album experience. I never owned a lot of 45s but since the advent of iTunes and Spotify, I listen to a ton of singles. There’s an argument to be made that to divorce a song from its parent album is to strip it of contextual ambience. In my playlists though, that song makes perfect sense and is very much part of an “album.”
It’s the inconsistencies I love. The scratches and fuzz, the warps and skips. We all get stuck in ruts. It’s very human. I need a little nudge to help me into the next groove now and then.”
—Morgan Geer
Drunken Prayer—AKA Freakwater’s Morgan Geer—releases its fifth album, Cordelia Elsewhere, on Friday, April 5, 2019 via Deer Lodge Records—on vinyl.
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PHOTO: CHRISTA de MAYO
