PART 4: DEPARTURE AND RETURN   Lack of money meant little time was spent clubbing in those early days, although I’d occasionally go to the Cue Club in Paddington (run by Count Suckle) and on a few occasions the Scotch of St James (which was hideously expensive). I was willingly dragged to the latter by Aaron Williams of the Merseybeats whom I had befriended, and I’d nurse a beer for hours in his company, and the likes of Viv Prince, the Pretty Things drummer and a few others.

My first day on the job was spent sleeving ILP 922 - the Larry Williams LP that had just come out. For some reason they had not been sleeved at the factory. It was a job that seemed to go on forever. The stores were dank and rather dark, and whatever bits of wall showed thru the racks and shelves, were covered in egg cartons, as was the ceiling. Turns out the room had previously been a studio run by Sonny Roberts - he of Planetone Records.

My dear friend Rusty Zinn, the musician who is equally at home playing blues or reggae, recently posted this memory of Sly Dunbar on Facebook. Sly's partnership with Robbie Shakespeare was truly legendary - the two of them formed one of the most enduring partnerships in Jamaican music, and played together in literally countless sessions. Rusty was fortunate to know and play with Sly. As Facebook is a kind of 'here today, gone tomorrow' type of media, I asked Rusty if it was O

And a few, those with an eye to the moment and that moment's place in time, haul a camera around with them to shows, to attempt to capture, in the words of the late Alan Lomax, that instance when the artist ‘is spinning at the apex of creation’. Just such a fellow is Joseph A. Rosen, known simply as Joe by those of us lucky enough to call him a friend.

Photographer unknown So now the New England music scene has lost another one. As most of you will know by now, Bob Angell passed away on December 6th - he had been suffering from cancer.  Bob was not just a musician leading his long-established group Blues Outlet, he wrote for the Providence weekly The New Paper, he taught English - in short, he was a regular Renaissance man. He was also a tireless evangelist for the blues.  As a journalist, he knew the importance of publiciz

Photo by Ken Kay Like everyone who knew him, I was horrified to learn over the weekend that Rory MacLeod,  while out walking his dog, had been killed by an out-of-control automobile driven by an out-of-control woman early on Saturday morning, December 6th. in Hopkinton, RI. Doug James, the baritone saxophonist for Roomful of Blues, introduced me to Rory shortly after I started working with Roomful in 1981, and our mutual interest in music drew us together immediately. Rory wa

Jimmy's groundbreaking album on Trojan Records The news of Jimmy Cliff’s death on Monday, November 24th, 2025 buried me in a veritable blizzard of emotions, memories, and long-forgotten scenarios, in all of which his music had been the soundtrack.   My first job at Island Records in 1965, looking through the racks of 45s down in the basement at 108 Cambridge Road, and noting the titles by him, ‘Hurricane Hatty’, ‘Miss Jamaica’, ‘Since Lately’, ‘One Eyed Jacks’, ‘King of Kings

by Opal Louis Nations and Bob Bell A short note here: As Opal writes below, the first installment of this piece ran in Blues and Rhythm 155, over twenty years ago. Opal and I brought it up to date and submitted it to B & R who unfortunately re-ran the first piece instead of this one. This is what can happen in these days when cyber files are tossed around like paper aeroplanes. This listing does not purport to be definitive in any way at all - first of all, the entries here

Good sounding Califone in excellent working order. Plays 16, 33, 45 and 78rpm records. Comes with 12" speaker, with ability to connect a second speaker. Has an input for a microphone or guitar lead. This player is LOUD. The speaker has a 25' cord. These players were designed for schools and community centers, with the purpose of filling a large room with sound. This player has a good cartridge, with 45/33 and 78 styli. I also have for sale twin Califone Speakers for $50 a pai

A fine Califone classroom / community center record player cum PA system, that will play all speeds of records (16, 33, 45 and 78) with binputs for a microphone or guitar lead, plus outputs for two speakers. The player comes with one 12" speaker, with a 25' cord. I have separately for sale 2 12" Califone speakers for $50 that will work with this player. Check out my other Craigslist ads to see them. This player is in good working order with a cartridge that has both 78 and LP

A nice matching pair of Califone 12" speakers for use with a Califone Record player / PA system. They clip together to make a simple and...

From the early 1950s, this is one of the best record players out there for playing vintage 78s, 45s and LPs. It has a tube amp, that has...

Made in 1954, this little beauty has a Styron plastic case, a mighty one-tube amplifier and, contrary to its name, Tri-O-Speed, boasts...

The short story of my Austin Champ, licensed in the UK as MYA 713E, and ruminations upon both the joy and the despair of owning it. When,...

Letters, I used to get tons of them. Nowadays it’s emails, texts, messages and a zillion electronic missives. Emails I dig, they being...

A MODERN 78RPM READER THE LUST FOR SHELLAC: Confessions of an addict, Part 2. My good friend Josh Rosenthal who heads Tompkins Square...

A MODERN 78 RPM READER THE LUST FOR SHELLAC: Confessions of an addict, Part 1. My good friend Josh Rosenthal who heads Tompkins Square...

Rhode Island guitarist and singer Duke Robillard, a musician steeped in the blues, has teamed up with Rhode Island’s Soulshot, a band steeped in Jamaican music, to make one of the year’s most interesting, listenable and danceable records, ‘Two Guitars - One Sound’, a mainly instrumental album featuring Andy Bassford and Mark Berney.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuIscCrlrCo Rusty Zinn is one of those musicians, whether singing or playing the guitar, who has perfect...

A living archive of post-war music of America, from blues to San Francisco psychedelia, and a whole bunch of entertaining tales along the...