Frank Gutch Jr: Fall On Deaf Ears? Not These Albums….. Plus Voluminous Notes of Questionable Character

Fall is a beautiful time of year.  Leaves turn color, the air gets crisp.  It’s football time and the kids return to school.  Hunting season is just around the corner.  I have lived through more than a few and can attest to the fact that it is not like any other season, but then I say that about all the seasons.  I love them all but I learned to love Fall best when I worked retail in the old music stores of my past for that was the time record labels came alive.  It was their last chance to release the albums they wanted to push before Christmas needing the two or three months to gain traction for the big push, for there was no other season like Christmas season when it came to hawking music wares.  Well, those days are past but it seems like they are back because some of the best have chosen this Fall to release their new albums and, man, am I pumped!

Frank Gutch Jr: Before Radio Was Radio, It Was Television (Plus Notes)

In a way.  In a very meaningful way, too.  It changed the world.  More specifically, it changed the United States.  I’m convinced.  I studied it in college.  I have been studying it ever since, though now it is called communications (or do they have some other newfangled name) and includes the Internet and God knows what else.  As much as some of my friends think I was there at the beginning, I was not.  I was there when it was forced to adapt to the new kid on the block, television, though, and I hung on as long as I could.  The idiot box was unfortunately too strong and kicked radio to the curb where it reinvented itself into a provider of music, sports and talk— mostly music.  Without the radio, the music business might have been just another part of the entertainment conglomeration, but for awhile, in spite of the attempts to push it into the background, it ruled the roost.  There were reasons and it was regional, at first, but it did.  More on that later.

Frank Gutch Jr: Travels With Farley: Canada’s Legacy in Words— Plus Notes

I have this very large book sitting on my shelf titled Canada: A Modern History.  At the time I purchased it, I was beginning a journey into Canadian literature thanks to a bookstore in Seattle known as Magus, a large store in the University District of Seattle containing books of all sizes and flavors, mostly paperbacks.  I had stumbled upon this book quite by chance at the first Friends of the Library sale I attended upon arriving in Seattle and, having this unquenched thirst for what I now know as America’s Hat, purchased it on a whim.

Frank Gutch Jr: RIP Steve Young; The Minnows and Their On-the-Money Video; Annabel (lee); Bongo Boy Making Their Move; and a Plethora of Videos…

Although I don’t know how much more.  The wind was taken out of my sails last week when I found out that Steve Young had died.  The musician and not the football player— jeez, I have said that so many times over the years but always with a chuckle.  Not this time.  Steve is really gone and things just don’t feel right.

Frank Gutch Jr: 1971: It Was a Very Good Year… Plus Notes

But first, Brian Cullman has a pretty cool video I would like you to watch.  He just released his first album in some years (The Opposite of Time) and is actually attempting to put a band together to play a few live gigs.  This is something you don’t want to miss, though the audience may be limited to New York where Brian lives.  Anyway, just so you know what Brian has to offer, watch this!