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What’s up everyone? I hope you’re all having a nice week. I’m going to the Dead and Co. show tonight here in Raleigh, so I figured it’s a good time to write about my favorite Grateful Dead record, Reckoning. I know some people reading this newsletter probably hate the Grateful Dead’s music, and that’s okay. Some people don’t care for it, and some people really enjoy it, and I happen to fall in the latter category. I remember listening to some of the more popular stuff when I was like thirteen and I liked it, but didn’t think much more of it than that. Then probably about five or six years ago I was visiting my buddy out in Colorado and we went on a hike in the mountains and when we were driving back down, he put on Terrapin Station and it just clicked for me. I started listening to all the live stuff and just went down the rabbit hole from there. Diving deep into their music has been very integral on my musical journey and led me to so many other artists and music I love today. If I never had this deep dive, I probably wouldn’t have discovered Billy Strings and been to all the shows I’ve been to this past year and become obsessed with old folk and bluegrass music. Which leads me to the album I’d like to talk about today. My brothers got me this copy of Reckoning (from Sorry State!) for my birthday a couple years back. I remember when I got it, I was a little thrown off by the tracklist. What the hell were all these traditional songs on here I didn’t recognize? An acoustic set? It was all a little different from the stuff I’d heard before from them. I remember I listened to it and thought it was good, but nothing that really stood out to me and it kinda just sat on my shelf for a while while my other Dead records got more love. Fast forward to my revelation with folk music and I come back to this album. Hold up, they’re covering Dark Hollow, Been All Around This World AND Deep Elem Blues on here? Fuck yeah. I love this record so much now, sometimes some things just need a lil bit of time to grow on you and this album has aged like fine wine to me.

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone is having a nice week. This past Saturday, me and Dom were working the store together, and it was pretty busy, as Saturdays tend to be. Artsplosure was going on downtown as well, so there were a lot of people out n about. I was in a Willie Nelson mood that particular morning and we had just got some of his records from a buy we did a couple days earlier, so I decided to give those a spin. At one point, a young girl and her dad came in and were doing some shopping around. The guy explained to me his daughter had just recently gotten a record player and was trying to build up her collection. I happened to be playing Shotgun Willie at this point and they had been in there for about ten minutes before she asked her dad, “Who is this playing?” He told her to go ask us at the front counter who it was, so we told her and showed her the record and she was saying how much she liked it and asked if she could buy it. Of course you can buy this Willie Nelson record. It always feels good to sell something right off the record player, but especially when it’s someone who’s hearing something for the first time and it just really clicks with them. As Dom said, “another soul saved.” I guess it would make sense for me to write about Shotgun Willie for my record this week, but I don’t even own that one. For my choice this week, I’m going with what I think is the coolest Willie album, Red Headed Stranger. I’m always a fan of murder ballads and this album is just one long murder ballad. It follows the tale of a preacher who’s become a fugitive on the run after catching his wife cheating with another man and killing them both. What more do you need? It feels more like watching a movie than listening to an album to me honestly. I also love the way he incorporates older songs like Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain and puts them in a whole new perspective to tell the story. There are so many Willie Nelson albums it’s kinda hard to know which ones are actually really worth checking out and listening to the whole way through, but I would definitely say this one is essential listening.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone is having a nice week. Last week I travelled to Colorado to visit one of my best friends who lives there and we attended the two nights of Billy Strings at Red Rocks. Ever since I learned about Red Rocks when I was probably like 13 I’ve wanted to go to a show out there, so it was awesome to finally have the opportunity to do so. What fun would a trip be without some bumps along the way, though? Upon arriving at my gate to fly out from Raleigh, my flight was delayed by 4 hours due to a tornado watch at the Denver Airport. No worries, as long as I make it over there I don’t mind. I finally make it to Denver and my buddy comes to pick me up and drive back to his place in Boulder and it’s pouring rain. He told me it’s been raining the last two days straight and it should let up tomorrow cause it never rains for that long there. It did not let up the next day. We ended up getting to the venue at about 6 for a 7:30 show time. We park and throw on all our protective layers, raincoats and ponchos and all. It was also about 40 degrees and windy up in the mountains, so not only was it gonna be wet, it was gonna be cold. We have a couple beers and grab some roadies for the long line ahead. We were hoping the rain would eventually let up some, but it honestly only got worse. By the time we got to the end of the line to get into the show, my water resistant boots and two layers of socks had already soaked through and my pants were drenched as well. Really, the only part that kept dry was my upper body cause I had about 6 layers on. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything else, though. It felt like a true journey just to get to the show and only the strong and willing had made it. The huge amphitheater was still packed out despite the weather. The sound of wind ripping through cheap plastic ponchos filled the air. Nary a joint could even be lit in the harsh conditions. But Billy and the boys finally rolled out onto the stage and the place erupted and the attendees who stuck it through were treated to an incredible show. The whole show was fine tuned and songs thoughtfully picked to address the weather, starting things off with Cold On The Shoulder, a song written by the late Gordon Lightfoot, who just passed away earlier this month. Shortly following this was a performance of Dreadful Wind and Rain (how could you not?), a more recent interpretation (made popular by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman) of a traditional murder ballad dating back to the 17th century. Before the end of the first set was also a performance of one of my favorite Doc Watson songs, Red Rocking Chair. Man, I love hearing them play Doc Watson tunes. Set break rolls around and when the music stops and you’re not dancing, that’s when you notice how bad the weather is. It was raining sideways. Sometimes you would think it was letting up, but then the lights would hit the right angle and you could see it was still pouring. It was like being a wet fish in water. The second set started off strong, but my favorite part of the show was when Billy mentioned how a lot of songs he plays were learned by way of Doc Watson and this next song is one Doc picked up from Mississippi John Hurt, which was Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor. I was so happy to finally get to hear Billy perform it, and at such an amazing venue. Like I’ve mentioned before, that’s the reason I love bluegrass and folk music so much, a song passed down from three of my favorite artists, always reaching a new generation. Another highlight of the show was the performance of It’s Raining Here This Morning, a song made popular by a favorite of Dom and I’s, the Stanley Brothers. I think you can pick up a theme for the show from the song titles. It’s cool to think how different the setlist would’ve been had the weather just been different, but having the rain pour on me at Red Rocks is a memory I won’t soon forget. Okay, I’m gonna do a shorter recap of the second night cause that was really long. The weather was amazing for this show. We ended up getting to the lot to hang out before the show at around 4. It was nice just chilling before the show up there in the mountains. We even saw an elk walking around the top of the venue. Hell, people just walked up to you and handed you free mushrooms. Colorado is a great place. I even got to meet up with one of my best buddies from Memphis who I haven’t seen in years, and he joined us for the show. The weather was great throughout the whole show, but compared to the weather the night before, it felt like the biggest luxury in the world. I’m pretty sure I saw a bunch of shooting stars and a UFO during the second set that night, but that’s still up for debate. Anyway, both nights were incredible, and it was such a fun trip out there. I always love visiting Colorado and hope to make it back to another Red Rocks show. Technically, this write up should be about my record of the week, so I’ve picked out this Doc Watson record Dominic got me for my birthday a couple weeks back, the appropriately titled Memories, which features the aforementioned song, Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor. As me and Dom like to say, you just gotta put it out there in the universe. Sometimes things just work out exactly as they should.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone is having a good week. The newsletter this week happens to fall on my birthday, woohoo! I thought it would be fitting to write about one of my favorite voices in all of music, Miss Dolly Parton. More specifically, The Monument Singles Collection 1964-1968, a record that actually came out this past Saturday for Record Store Day (I believe I mentioned it in my staff pick last week). This was one of the RSD titles I was really looking forward to and it didn’t disappoint. Since it’s a compilation of A-sides and B-sides throughout her early career before she was really established, there’s a lot of different sounding stuff on here you wouldn’t expect to find on a Dolly record. Busy Signal is one of the coolest Dolly songs I’ve heard with it being a more soul style, complete with background singers and someone making a busy signal sound throughout the song. It’s cool to hear her trying out these different styles early in her career to see what kinda sticks. Coincidentally, there happens to be a track on here titled Happy, Happy Birthday Baby, which I promptly listened to this morning with my coffee. Thanks Dolly, although unlike the person you’re singing to in the song, I’d never leave you for someone new. This past year has been really great and I think it also happens to be about a year now since I started working at Sorry State. I’ve learned so much and I’m very thankful for everyone here. I couldn’t ask for a better group of co-workers or boss. Dominic even gifted me some sweet Doc Watson records for my birthday. What a pal. It’s still pretty crazy to me to get to work at a job I actually really enjoy doing and don’t ever have to dread going into. Anyway I’m gonna go enjoy my birthday now and go eat Laotian food with my friends. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone is having a nice week and is ready for Record Store Day this Saturday. We’ve been gearing up for it here at Sorry State. There are a lot of great titles coming out this year. I’m personally most excited about the Dolly Parton record coming out, a compilation of her early work (‘64 -’68) on Monument Records. This past week I traveled home to Memphis to visit my mom. We decided to go on a road trip for a couple of days around Mississippi and Alabama and catch some Billy String shows. It was such a fun few days just hanging out with my mom and driving around and hanging out in Mobile. The Airbnb we stayed at also happened to coincidentally be less than a mile away from the old shack my great-grandparents lived in when they first got married, so we went by and checked it out. (I can’t believe it was still standing.) It was cool to see where they started from when they were probably about my age. I never met them, but it made me feel a little bit more of a connection to them to see that in person. The older I get, the more I appreciate learning about family history and stories from it. Anyways, I was a little curious about how much my mom would enjoy the shows. I knew she would have fun cause she loves live music, but Billy shows can get a little out there sometimes and usually go for about three hours. I got us tickets for both nights but I was kinda half expecting to only go to the first night. I wasn’t gonna drag her back for a second night if she didn’t love it. She ended up having a blast, and we danced together the whole night. After the show, we walked around downtown and ended up just walking three miles back to the Airbnb (with a stop at Taco Bell at 1AM naturally). I forgot my mom knows how to throw down; I was passing out before her that night. She insisted that we go back the second night and sneak back into the pit as we had seated tickets that night. Who am I to say no to my own Mom? We went back that night and snuck into the pit and even got up to the front row and danced again all night long. The highlight of the shows for me was during the second set of the second night, he performed a cover of Bob Dylan’s Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again. It was too fitting considering our road trip down from Memphis and me and my mom were just high fiving and hootin’ and hollerin’. Honestly, it’s probably one of my favorite memories ever. I had a smile so big I was like the guy on the Jamming With Edward cover who’s smiling so hard his face falls off. I’ve been to a good amount of Billy shows, but these two in Mobile with my mom are probably the most fun I’ve had at a show and I’m just happy I get to have all these great memories from this trip. I love my mama. Obviously, I was traveling, so I wasn’t listening to records, but before I left, I found myself listening to this Mississippi John Hurt record a lot. Why not listen to some Delta blues and folk if I’m gonna be traveling around the Delta? I love John Hurt’s music so much, it just sounds so comforting. I’ve mentioned many times before but blues and folk music is so awesome cause so many of these songs are like a century old but they still sound incredible and the feelings they convey are still relatable to this day. I love just about every song on here, but if I had to pick a couple of favorites I’d go with Salty Dog Blues, Make Me a Pallet on the Floor, Sliding Delta and Stagolee. Man, I had to cut that short. I realized I was typing out like half the track list. I guess to bring it all back and tie everything together, it was cool to travel with my mom for a concert down to where my great-grandparents are from and listen to Billy play some old ass folk songs they might’ve even listened to back then too. The power of bluegrass and folk baby, the circle is never broken.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone is having a nice week. My mind has been all over the place this week and sometimes when I find myself feeling this way, I like to listen to more instrumental music so I can kind of let my mind wander and think about different things. This week I found myself listening to an album I picked up a couple weeks ago, Ravi Shankar At The Monterey International Pop Festival. A lot of people have mixed feelings on live albums, but I’m personally a big fan of them. If your music doesn’t sound good live, then what’s the point of it? I love getting a new record that doesn’t sound like anything else I own already. I went over to a friend’s house the other week and brought some records to play, and at one point I pulled this one out and we listened to the whole thing and at the end my friend said “What do we even follow up with after that?” Probably just more Ravi Shankar records, but this is the only one I have for now, so I’m gonna have to just keep replaying it. As you could guess from the title, the music is taken from his performance at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival, the same festival where Jimi Hendrix famously lit his guitar on fire, which Ravi was “horrified” to witness. His performance took place on the third and last day of this festival, on Sunday afternoon after a rainy morning, in front of a bunch of weird ass hippies, which he wasn’t really a fan of. But he grew to like some of the people in the crowd that he could tell were really enjoying the music. That’s part of the reason I enjoy live albums so much, because I like learning about the history behind the show and what was happening at the time and how people were feeling, because it can really affect how the music sounds. Anyway, this record has quickly become one of my favorites and I hope to add some more of his to my collection.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. This beautiful weather we’ve been having here in Raleigh has put me in the mood to listen to some pretty music, and what better time to bust out this Cher record Dominic introduced me to a couple weeks ago. All I Really Want to Do is Cher’s debut solo studio album from 1965, when she was only twenty years old. It’s full of a lot of great covers like C.C. Rider and He Thinks I Still Care, but my favorite on here has to be her cover of Don’t Think Twice. I pretty much love any version of this song, but this one has grown to be one of my favorites since I heard it. Cher has such a great voice and I feel like it shines on this debut. The best part about this record is I got it out of the bargain bin, as it doesn’t command too high of a price. So many of my favorite records have just come from bargain bins and it blows me away when people kinda just skip that whole section of the store when they come in. One of my favorite things to do before I started working here at Sorry State was to come in and just dig around in the bins and see what I could find and I’d always walk away with some great stuff and spend less than $20. It makes it a lot easier tho when you have a coworker like Dom to point you in the right direction of the good shit. Anyway I’m gonna enjoy these blue skies, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone has been enjoying the first week of spring. This week I was struggling a little with my staff pick, maybe cause I was just listening to a lot of bluegrass in my free time (I’m not gonna bore y’all again with that quite yet) and in the store me and Dominic have been listening to a lot of different jazz records and stuff of that nature which I’ve been enjoying a lot, but nothing that jumped out and made me wanna write about it this week. Yesterday, I was working in the store and I realized whatever record I was playing was about to end, so I had to grab something real quick to throw on after. I was doing a scan around the store when the yellow cover of the new People’s Temple 7”, I’m With The… caught my eye. I decided I’d give that a spin since I hadn’t heard it yet and it’s been selling like hot cakes. Man, this thing fucking rips. Fast, loud, in your face hardcore from start to finish. The sign of a great 7” to me is that whenever I finish it, I just wanna flip it back to side A and listen to it all over again, and this record does just that. I don’t know what else to say other than this record is really fun to just blast at high volumes. Give it a listen today, you won’t regret it!

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone has had a nice week. Today I’d like to talk about biscuits, and not just any biscuits. I’m talking about Mother’s Best biscuits. More specifically, I’m talking about the Mother’s Best Flour show. This is another addition to the long list of things that Dominic has introduced me to. The show was a weekly 15 minute radio broadcast airing at 7:15 AM from 1949 to 1951 in Nashville, Tennessee, which featured the music of Hank Williams and his band. Throughout the show, Hank and the host are pedalling Mother’s Best products, such as flour, self rising cornmeal, and livestock feed, but they’re doing it in such a charismatic way, you don’t even mind. One of the things I love about old country and bluegrass shows is the funny and informal banter in between songs. It just adds a whole other element to it, and this radio show has plenty of that. I also love the short jingle they sing about biscuits every show about three times. It’s been stuck in my head all week. The show usually consisted of about three songs performed by Hank and his band. One thing I really like about it is he would perform some of his bigger hits, but he would also play older country and bluegrass songs from his childhood that he normally wouldn’t play live. There was a CD set released featuring a large collection of the shows, but all of them have been uploaded to youtube, which is what I use to listen to them. I feel like I say this a lot, but listening to one of these shows and having a cup of coffee is a great way to start the day. Maybe you’ll even end up cooking up a mess of Mother’s Best biscuits.

https://youtu.be/csktxveKcQ0

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone had a nice week. Last Friday, March 3rd, would have been Doc Watson’s 100th birthday, whom I’ve talked about many times here in the newsletter. To celebrate the life of such an amazing artist and North Carolina legend, Billy Strings performed two nights in Winston-Salem here in North Carolina, about an hour and a half from Deep Gap, the town where Doc was born and spent most of his life. The first night (Friday) was a tribute to Doc and the music he loved to play, featuring lots of guests, including some pickers that used to play with him back in the day. It was an incredible show, three and a half hours of straight flatpicking, no set breaks or anything. He ended up playing 45 songs the first night, which blew my mind. I could have listened to him play 100 of them though… I was having such a great time. I got to hear so many songs I’ve only dreamed about being able to hear live, like Otto Wood the Bandit, the true story of a one-armed bandit from North Carolina who escaped jail over ten times till they finally locked him up in Central State Prison here in Raleigh, just down the road from Sorry State, where he escaped four separate times before finally being shot down by the sheriff the final time he escaped on December 31st, 1930. That’s why I love folk and bluegrass music so much, cause there’s so many songs that tell crazy stories about stuff that happened right down the road from where you. Another favorite of mine that was played the first night was Tom Dooley, an old, true story about a man who was hanged for killing his mistress, but many people believe it was his wife that killed her and he was framed for the crime. North Carolina had some crazy shit going on back in the day and it’s so cool to hear someone still perform these songs and tell these stories to an arena full of thousands of people. The second night was also a great show, more of a return to a regular Billy show, but was mostly his own original music since the night prior was all covers. The encore, though, is what really did it for me, when he busted out Tony Rice’s old 1935 D28 guitar and he and the band all gathered around one mic and played a couple of Tony Rice tunes. All in all it was a great trip, but I’ve gotta say that first night was probably my favorite show I’ve ever been to and it’ll be hard to top it. Thank you for your music Doc Watson, here’s to 100 more years of it.

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone has been having a nice week. Once again, I’m gonna mention how nice the weather has been here in Raleigh, especially the last three days. Lately in the morning I’ve been opening up my living room window and letting the breeze in, and I’ve been playing this record by The Upsetters, Return of the Super Ape. Dominic has introduced me to the world of dub music since we’ve been working together at the store and sometimes it just really hits the spot when nothing else can. I was pretty stoked when a copy of this record came through the store recently. It’s definitely been on heavy rotation since I picked it up. My favorite track on here would probably be Crab Yars. I love just a real deep, slow burning instrumental track. It just sounds so soothing. I also always love Lee Perry’s production and all the weird sounds and noises he adds in. I’ve really been enjoying diving into the genre recently. There’s a lot of really good mixes on youtube that compile tracks from the mid 70s - mid 80s and I’ve found a lot of great songs and artists from those, and obviously whatever Dominic recommends and plays. Next time you get some nice, warm weather wherever you live, take a long walk and listen to some dub.

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone has had a nice week. I feel like I talk about the weather a lot when I’m writing my staff picks but that’s cause it really does affect what I’m listening to. We had some nice spring days here in Raleigh this past week and whenever the weather’s in the 70s, me and Dom like to crack the door open at the store and let the breeze in. Yesterday was one of the closest it’s felt to spring in a while cause a lot of the flowers are starting to bloom, so there are all kinds of spring scents in the air. I found myself playing through the first three Blondie albums and I was reminded how much I love listening to them. Debby Harry has one of my favorite voices of all time and it hits just right on a warm spring day. Sometimes it takes a while to gain an appreciation for a song even if you’ve heard it a bunch of times, not that it’s bad or anything, but sometimes a song just doesn’t really jump out at you. Yesterday while listening I gained a new appreciation for the song Rip Her to Shreds off the first album. It’s just a fun song to listen to. Also on the most recent episode of Dom’s radio show, Worldy, he played (I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear and it made me realize how much I like that song too. It’s always nice to go back to an album you really enjoy and find a new reason as to why you love it. Go listen to some Blondie.