Record stores are my favourite places to spend time. I have the benefit of travelling extensively in my day job and make a point of hitting as many stores as I can in my travels. Here are a few I’ve been to recently and some of the gems I’ve picked up.
Heritage Posters and Music (Calgary)
- A blue vinyl Japanese pressing (limited edition of 500) of Michael Bloomfield and Charlie Musselwhite, Live in Chicago 1964.
- The Ike & Tina Turner Story 1960-1975, a three-CD boxed set from Time Life Records. Great liner notes by Colin Escott.
- Vinyl copies of re-issues of the first two Small Faces albums.
- Wes Dakus & The Rebels Vol. 2, great Edmonton ’60s band recorded in Clovis, N.M. Re-issued on CD.
- Great for picking up Texas music. I found a British vinyl copy of Jimmie Vaughan’s Plays More Blues, Ballads & Favorites and a Bug Music CD publisher’s sampler of 20 Jimmie Vaughan recordings – promo only.
- Bobby Charles’s ’78 RPM of “Later Alligator” on Chess.
- Note: Mike Buck (original Fabulous Thunderbirds drummer) works at the store, as does Eve Monsees from the Austin band Eve and the Exiles.
- Best local store for blues CDs. Picked up Johnny Winter’s latest, Roots. They go to great lengths to track things down.
- They’ve purchased the entire CBC Calgary record library (62,000 albums and CDs) and are putting them out over time. Unlike some radio record library collections I’ve seen, CBC Calgary put minimal stickers on the album sleeves, making the covers still reasonably authentic and collectable.
- The three Amoeba stores in California are essential stops. The L.A. location is the biggest music store you’ve ever seen. I picked up an O.V. Wright album, a Lucinda Williams Folkways re-issue and about a dozen more. During one of my stops Norah Jones was doing an in-store. She performed and signed her latest CD.
Related Links:
The Vinyl Countdown: It's Record Store Day!
Record Store Day: Permanent Records has best blues section in Edmonton
Record Store Day 2012 across Canada