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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.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. We’ve had some beautiful weather here in Raleigh recently and it’s finally feeling like spring a little bit. As I’m writing this, it’s about 75 out and I’ve got my windows open, so I can’t complain too much. Sometimes you wanna just listen to something short, sweet and fun, so this morning I’ve been listening to the Rotary Club - American Tower 7”, which clocks in at under four minutes, one song on each side. Sometimes that’s all you need though, some crisp vocals and some catchy lyrics and riffs, all delivered to you faster than you can say “damn this is good who is this?” I’m a big fan of the B side on here, Planet 67, as someone who made many prank phone calls when I was younger with the ol’ reliable *67 trick.

Honestly, it might not have anything to do with that, but with the telephone imagery on the cover and the name Rotary Club, I’m gonna choose to believe that’s where it comes from. I was lucky to snag a copy as we sold out almost immediately when we put them up, but you can listen on streaming services or their bandcamp.

What’s up Sorry State readers? I hope everyone has had a nice week. This week I’d like to talk about something you probably never expected to read about in the newsletter, gospel and folk music. Specifically, I’d like to talk about this tape, Who’s This Living In My Soul?, a compilation of songs from artists ranging from North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. This tape was lovingly put together by friend of Sorry State, Grant Bisher, with the tracks taken from his extensive collection of gospel, folk, and bluegrass records. Something I really love about this tape is that it includes an insert with all the track listing info, complete with the artist’s hometown. I really enjoy knowing where the music comes from when I’m listening to it, as it adds a lot of insight, especially when it’s from local artists in small mountain towns around North Carolina. It sounds amazing too. Even though a lot of these songs are pulled from records that are 50+ years old at this point, it still sounds crisp. There’s some really great banjo and fiddle playing on some of these tracks, which I’m always here for. The title for this tape is pulled from the lyrics of a song on here I’m particularly a fan of, If God Is Dead by Peggy Caudill. Most of this music isn’t even available to listen to anywhere online, so it’s nice to have a tape compiling all these rare deep cuts you normally would never hear. I’ve really enjoyed listening to this in the morning while having my coffee. It’s a real peaceful start to the day. Something about it just feels good. If this sounds like anything you would be interested in at all, I highly recommend you pick up a copy while we have some. I promise you won’t be disappointed by it.

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone has had a nice week. This year feels like it’s already flying by. I can’t believe it’s already the end of January. We’re doing our 2022 year end round ups here at Sorry State, so today I just wanted to list some of my favorite releases from ‘22 and also mention some of my favorite records I picked up last year. It was a great year for me, I started at Sorry State back in May and it’s been a blast working here and getting to discover so much different music. Me and Dominic listen to just about anything you can imagine in the store and he’s introduced me to so much amazing stuff. I think my love for bluegrass might’ve rubbed off a little bit on him too. Not to mention all the great punk and hardcore music I’ve been introduced to while I’ve been here. Anyways I’m gonna get on with my list now starting with my favorite new releases.

Favorite Releases of 2022

Personal Damage: Ambush 7”

Yambag: Strength in Nightmares 7”

Zanjeer: Parcham Buland Ast 7”

Scarecrow: Crisis 7”

Mock Execution: Killed By Mock Execution 12”

Savageheads: Service to Your Country 12”

Yleiset Syyt: Toisten Todellisuus 12”

Indre Krig: Destroyer 7”

Sirkka: Viivyttely 7”

Peace de Résistance: Bits and Pieces 12”

Favorite Records I Purchased in 2022

S.I.B: The Third World War 12”

I had never heard this album before till one day Daniel was in his office and was showing me how to do something on his computer. He had this album playing quietly while he was explaining something to me, but I kept catching little parts of the songs and thought to myself “man this is really good.” As luck would have it, a couple months later it received its first repressing ever and Sorry State got copies! I’ve been in love with this record ever since and anytime I’ve ever played it, someone who’s never heard it before inevitably asks what it is. I think there’s a song on this album for everybody.

Stereolab: Serene Velocity 12”

This is a great anthology album from 2006 containing some real choice cuts. I can throw this on anytime and listen to it and be happy. Definitely has become one of my go to’s to throw on for background music whenever I have people over.

Fela Kuti: Beasts of No Nation 12”

Not much to say about this one other than the music on here sounds amazing. This man knew how to make a 22 minute song the right way.

Doc Watson: Old Timey Concert 12”

I found this one just about a month or two ago over at this antique store here in Raleigh. Man, do I love me some Doc Watson. Listening to his music just makes me feel happy. This is a double LP of a live show and it’s got a bunch of my favorite tracks on here. It’s been heavily featured in my morning rotation since I picked it up.

Herbie Hancock: Sunlight 12”

I traveled out of the country over to Europe for the first time in my life this past year. It was probably the most fun two weeks I’ve ever had and I have so many great memories from it. When I was over there, I listened to the first two songs on this album on repeat, especially during my morning walks. Now whenever I hear this album it takes me back to Madrid and the feeling I had being over there for the first time and it puts a smile on my face.

Black Flag: Live at the On Broadway - 23 July 1982 12”

A great sounding bootleg of a live show from an awesome Black Flag era featuring some colorful commentary throughout the show.

Manu Dibango: Soul Makossa 12”

Best bargain bin find ever. I just threw this on one day randomly at the store and have loved it since. It instantly grabbed me with the opening song New Bell. You can’t fight the groove. Always a party pleaser.

Various: Risky Blues 12”

A compilation of the horniest blues songs you’ve ever heard, what else needs to be said? Featuring aptly named tracks such as Big 10 Inch Record, It Ain’t the Meat, Somethin’s Gone Wrong With My (Lovin’ Machine), Keep On Churnin’, and 60 Minute Man. What could be better.

What’s up Sorry Staters? I hope everyone has had a nice week. Last week in the store, we put out a bunch of 60s-70s garage singles in our 7” section. Naturally, me and Dom gave them all a listen, but the one that really stood out to me was Undecided by The Masters Apprentices, which also featured “Wars, Or Hands Of Time” on the B-side. Originally released on Astor Records in 1966, this was the first single released by the Australian group under their new name. The title comes from when the studio owner asked for a name for the track. No one had a solid answer, so they went with “Undecided.” It has that psychedelic garage sound that I really love mixed in with a bit of the blues. The band’s rhythm guitarist, Mick Bower, stated that the band’s sound was very influenced by blues artists like Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, and Robert Johnson. I really love the B-side on here. The fuzz, the drums, everything about it just sounds so amazing and it demands to be played multiple times in a row. It always blows my mind when music can stand the test of time so well and still sound so fresh today, and this is no exception.

What’s up Sorry State readers, I hope everyone has had a nice week. My listening has been all over the place, but like most weeks, there was some blues mixed in there. I was listening to Muddy Waters, and more specifically, Electric Mud. One of the most polarizing blues albums of all time, Muddy Waters was even quoted as describing the album as “dogshit.” Critics were harsh on the album when it released in 1968, stating that it didn’t sound like the traditional blues they were used to hearing from a Muddy Waters album and weren’t fans of this more psychedelic sound that was ripe with the use of fuzzboxes and wah-wah pedals. I on the other hand, love it, along with a lot of other people who enjoy this different take on some of these classic blues songs like Same Thing and Hoochie Coochie Man. According to a source close to him, Jimi Hendrix used to listen to Herbert Harper’s Free Press for inspiration before going on stage to perform. This album really flies by at about 37 minutes, but It’s so great from start to finish. He’s just really shredding on here. I also really love the picture printed on the inside of the gatefold jacket and the smug look he’s giving in it. This is the most recent 2017 pressing from Third Man Records, and it sounds amazing. We have a few copies still available online and in store, so if you don’t have a copy yet, I highly recommend it.

What’s up Sorry State readers? It’s been a couple weeks since my last entry here. I hope everyone had a nice holiday season and has been enjoying the new year. I travelled over to Memphis to visit my family for the holidays and had a nice time just relaxing at home for a few days. We were in the area that got hit by that crazy winter storm and for a lot of the time it was under 10 degrees, so we spent a lot of time just hanging out by the fireplace. When I drove back here to Raleigh, I decided to just do the 11 hour trip in one go instead of splitting it up. I’ve always enjoyed long road trips, so it was honestly kind of nice just driving on my own for that long. I just listened to whatever music I wanted to and could stop and take a break whenever. I feel like I still had another hour or two in me by the time I got back to Raleigh at 1AM. I almost took a detour just to keep driving for the hell of it. I listened to a lot of different stuff during my drive back, but I definitely spent a lot of time listening to some good ol bluegrass, from Doc Watson, Stanley Brothers, Old & in the Way, and everything in between. It’s nice to hear about songs about visiting home in Tennessee or the mountains and towns you’re driving through. I happened to find this Doc Watson record a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it. It’s on streaming services as well so I was listening to it during my trip. It’s from a live show recorded in 1967 for the Seattle Folklore Society and also features players Clint Howard and Fred Price. I really like the entire show, but some of my favorite tracks are Way Downtown, Slewfoot, and Rank Stranger. I always love the banter in between songs on these old live albums too. It really can make it feel like you’re there at the show. Anyway, I hope everyone has a great start to the new year, maybe listen to some Doc Watson if you feel so inclined.