While Mad City Music X and Strictly Discs decided to close down due to the Coronavirus issues, Dubuque contined on. Moondog Music and Books A Million were open and also CDs 4 Change. Moondog kept their doors open, even after Hy Vee and Fareway closed shop at 7. So basically I decided to postpone Madison instead.
Books A Million is discontinuing their CD section, with 75 percent off all stock. I managed to get Lindsay Buckingham's Greatest hits along with The Delfonics and Parliament best of, and the Muff's first album for 8 dollars total. A couple years ago, BAM decided to do a cash for your music deal but that didn't pan out, so technically they are doing away with that and CDs and just going with vinyl. In the meantime, I went to Moondog Music and they politely removed 74 dollars from me on new releases from Chris Knight, Gordon Lightfoot and Drive By Truckers and a Lee Brilleaux best of. Plus 14 scratchy 45s as well. However, with the clerk hacking n coughing, I decided to head home and wash my clothes, since Dubuque County has no reported cases of Corvid 19. However we had two co workers that got affected by loved ones but were not at work.
Goodwill was open too, till 6 PM as well as Stuff Etc. But nothing was found at those locations and i found a couple of 45s and George Strait's 50 Number 1 hits on 2 CDs for a dollar. I tend to think we will have plenty of cheap cds to be found, even if BAM is joining the ranks of Best Buy of not selling them. Moondog Music is doing quite nicely thank you.
After 25 years, Second Spin is closing up their online store. I guess CDs ain't selling like they used to. Back in the early 2000's Second Spin was one of my go to online stores for new music but the prices of late have been outrageous and I don't think I ordered from them in over 10 years. They have 40 percent off as we speak but I doubt if i'll find anything of value. But I'll miss them just the same.
Reviews:
Gordon Lightfoot-Solo (Warner Music 2020)
At 81 years old, Gordon really has nothing left to prove, but for his first album since 2004, it's Gordon alone with guitar in hand and 10 songs, mainly unpolished and a bit rough but the guitar is steady as she goes, clocking just over 33 minutes and no one song goes over 3:48 He's done better of course, but the one that stands out the most is Just A Little Bit, a list of questions, but the line Are you getting tired of hearing me whine or are you getting tired of hearing this song., or something to that effect, which got me laughing on that one. Solo is isn't vintage Gordon, his voice and whistling does betray him a bit, but it's reveals that he's human. Be glad he's still around
Grade B
Drive By Truckers-The Unrevealing (ATO 2020)
The DBT's frustrate me. In their 30 year existence they have made classic albums and threw them in flimsy digipaks, and in this case another flimsy digipak and the worst recording, a sound that is so damn compressed and too much bass that we really don't hear the songs as they're intended to be. Mexico can't seem to make remastered CDs worth the shit but great songs such as Thoughts & Prayers and Everybody Is Back In Town. I also find their 9 minute finale Another Resurrection is a chore to listen through. If any band out there outside of Neil Young, that can trash the occupant of the White House it would be these guys. This ends up being their answer to Living With War, another underachieving album credited to Mr. Young. Their worst.
Grade B-
A Introduction To Montrose (Rhino) 2019
A Introduction To Doctor John (Atco/Rhino) 2019
At this point and time of the dying CD era, The Introduction series from Warner Music is mostly a 10 song afterthought mixtape. The Gordon Lightfoot Introduction is the better buy had you not have the Complete hit singles CD and has less filler to contend with. I find the Doctor John Introduction to be worthwhile and slightly better than the Rhino Best Of, that this replaced. It has the hit Right Place, Wrong Time, and Such A Night, and if anything Iko Iko proves that Gumbo, his 1972 New Orleans tribute album is his best. You also get the voodoo Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya, and Mama Roux, and of course I Walk on Guided Splinters, to which Humble Pie turned into a 21 minute snoozefest. I think this finish strong with Everybody Wanna Get Rich Rite Away.
As for Montrose, 4 songs are from their classic debut album, a template for Van Halen to copy Ronnie Montrose's guitar play and Eddie Van Halen turning it into something different. Paper Money, the followup, suffered greatly but the two best tracks I Got The Fire and Paper Money are present. The last four come from the Bob Evans' led band and the quality falls greatly, I'm not a big fan of All I Need but the last two from Jump On It are the better two than WB Presents Montrose, but if anything, that cover art of WB Presents is a classic. I think back in 1990 these introduction at a cheap price would have worked better than stuffed Very Best of both Dr John and Montrose If anything A Introduction To Montrose will keep me to rebuying the uneven Paper Money.
Both albums B+
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