Black Sabbath playing “War Pigs” live. Still one of the greatest anti-war songs. (That drummer, folks. They don’t make them like that anymore.)

I love vinyl records too, but you know what’s cheap and plentiful for the person who wants to own their music? CDs. My local record store had a huge selection but half price books and thrift stores have just as many with even lower prices. And CD players are cheaper than record players right now.

Now spinning: Beach Boys compilation “Endless Summer.” Not my usual music but it caught the attention of my teenage daughter. I came into the room and found her taking a video of it playing.

Now spinning: the Abyssinian Baptist Choir led by Professor Alex Bradford. Liner notes by no less than Langston Hughes.

Parker Millsap

Sometimes I remember. Sometimes I feel the magic.

Amen, Parker.

I’ve been listening to Colter Wall’s “Western Swings & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs” on repeat for days now. This is proper country music. Favorite song: “Big Iron”. Rachel (who is the real country music fan in the family) thought she had heard it before and figured out it was a cover of Marty Robbins. Superior to the original, in my opinion.

Three songs so miserably sad it’s hard to listen to them more than once:

• Keith Whitley, “Don’t close your eyes”
• George Jones, “He stopped loving her today”
• Jason Isbell, “If we were vampires”

Others that fit the description?

Some music from this evening:

• Townes Van Zandt sings “Pancho and Lefty”
• Iris DeMent sings “God Walks the Dark Hills”
• Rising Appalachia sings “I Shall Be Released”

“The first commercially-available CD (Billy Joel’s 52nd Street) was released forty years ago yesterday.” And today, by coincidence, I bought a CD for the first time in many, many years.