Shellac Bash!

geeks rule / new album / ohio & wv gigs

What Ho!

I’m freshly home from attending the Asheville Shellac Bash (which is a meetup for collectors of 78rpm records), and goodness gracious do I wish everyone could experience something like that. Not that there IS anything else quite like that. But there’s a particular energy in a gathering where a shared niche focus is all that’s important and whatever your demographic or “real life” might be is entirely irrelevant. It felt medicinal to go into that kind of bubble for a weekend.

shellac bashin'

My dear old friend Sarah Bryan is the one who prodded me to make the trip. She lives in Durham, and we rarely have a chance to hang out in person; Asheville is a handy midpoint for meeting up, and she knew I’d dig the Bash. Sarah’s an actual collector of 78s (and other cool stuff), while I’m just someone who enjoys them. (I have had great times hunting for records, but almost all the 78s I own were gifts.) But this get-together was right up my alley. Folks had come in from all over the country to buy, sell, swap, listen to, and generally geek out over old records. The entertainment on Friday and Saturday evening was part live music (featured bands were The Forty Drop Few and The New North Carolina Ramblers, both fab) and part shellac-spinning. It was profoundly charming to not only hear the wonderful records people chose to share, but also to see how universally enthusiastic the crowd reactions were. It was a big ol’ pile of affirmation of everyone’s peculiar interests. Though I think Sarah succeeded in shocking the room with her downright subversive choice to spin Elvis’s “Mystery Train” from—*gasp*—1955-!

Sarah’s scandalous record

A huge bonus was getting visiting time with various inspiring collectors/curators/sharers of old music—April and Lance Ledbetter (the forces behind the phenomenon that is Dust-to-Digital), Jonathan Ward (Excavated Shellac), and Marshall Wyatt (Old Hat Records), among others. I’m so glad Sarah roped me in for the fun!

Sarah & me & tea between shellac events. (Photo by Jonathan Ward)

KKRG Happenings

Kieran and I released a whole new album!

Volume 4 came out on April 11th. You can listen wherever you stream stuff, and/or order a physical copy directly from us.

And… we have shows this week and next!

• May 8: Natalie’s Grandview / Columbus, OH

• May 9: The G.A.R. Hall / Peninsula, OH

• May 18: Mountain Stage / Charleston, WV

Miscellaneous

• I’ve added some new tunes to my online fiddle tune video archive

• As I attempt to be a good citizen in these strange days, one simple and satisfying thing I’ve landed on is signing up for automatic monthly donations to some spots I care about, like my local public radio station (WPLN, so amazing) and the Marshall Relief Alliance. Highly recommended.

• Speaking of… don’t forget about the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene.

• I enjoyed this interview Tom Power did with Anoushka Shankar

• Some Substackers I dig: Paul Brown, Dust-to-Digital, Gabriel Kahane, DJ Shotski

• Have you signed up for KKRG News? It’s almost notes-from-the-cabin time…

• Here are some doodles:

Stay Tuned

There’s plenty more to come!

In the meantime, I’m sending you my full endorsement of your geekiest curiosities and pleasures. Go deep! Get weird! The world needs it.

Thanks so much for reading —

xoxo rayna

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