Random Record Pick: Margie Meinert, Crazy Calliope Music

Vinyl record of Margie Meinert, Crazy Calliope Music.
For more photos, connect to @afrancisb on Instagram.

Random Record Pick is a way to organize and archive an always-growing collection of vinyl records. Each record is randomly picked from a shelf or crate or dusty corner of my house, a photo is taken of the cover, and then the entire record is played all the way through, even if it’s terrible. 

Random Record Pick: King Oliver’s Jazz Band, 1923

Vinyl record of King Oliver's Jazz Band, 1923.
For more photos, connect to @afrancisb on Instagram.

Random Record Pick is a way to organize and archive an always-growing collection of vinyl records. Each record is randomly picked from a shelf or crate or dusty corner of my house, a photo is taken of the cover, and then the entire record is played all the way through, even if it’s terrible. 

New Song: What’s always in my dreams

Well, here’s another song I wrote on my trip out to New Jersey. This one I wrote in an airplane way up high on my way back to Chicago after spending some time way up high on a mountaintop in the middle of the Catskills in Upper State New York.

It’s another train song. Been writing a lot of those lately. Most of them have nothing to do with a train, though.

Anyway, it’s a new song and I like it. This’ll be one that I commit myself to learning. I’ll add mouth harp. I’ll play it with conviction. So much conviction that whenever I play it I’ll just start to giggle in the middle of the tune. So watch closely for that.

New Song: Don’t you see?

And here’s the final new song recording for the night. This caps off the three tunes I wrote on my way out to New Jersey to visit some very close personal friends.

The third verse of this one needs a lot of work. Maybe even some completely different words.

But overall, I like this tune the best of the three I recorded tonight. That’s it.

New Song: That confuses me too

This one is just ridiculous.

I had to edit it, slightly, which is why it took a little bit to record. Meaning…it took 29 minutes to:

  1. adjust some of the lines so they fit better in the rhyme scheme and the whole song flowed a little better
  2. Press record and hope I got through all the words
  3. Press record 3 more times after flubbing lines part way through the song
  4. Write this
  5. Press “Publish”
  6. Go back and add this numbered list
  7. Press “Save Post”

The end.

Songwriting, home recording and vinyl records from Chicago folk singer and songwriter Andrew Francis.