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Vinyl Hunter 23: Is this just a record collecting blog now?

Making music has taken a back seat to buying music lately. I haven't gotten much playing time in over the last couple months, but I have another stack of records to share with you. That is, if you're willing to take a peak at the latest additions my collection. 

While I do have a cool vintage vinyl release to share, it seems that 2025 has become the year of 78 rpm records for me. I've added another 10 records on shellac since my last post, although not all of them fall into the old-time / hillbilly realm. 

Let's start with the vinyl. I saw an online listing for the two-LP set of The Hammons Family, A Study of a West Virginia Family's Traditions, released by the Library of Congress in 1973. The exciting thing about this particular copy was that it was still sealed! The box set includes two records and a 36-page booklet about the Hammons family of Pocahontas County. This collection features music by Burl Hammons, Maggie Hammons Parker, and Sherman Hammons, recorded by Alan Jabbour, Carl Fleischhauer, and Dwight Diller. I've been wanting this album for a long time, and I couldn't resist a sealed copy. 

And now, the 78s! I've been homing in on baseball-themed records from the shellac era. I picked up "Joltin' Joe Di Maggio" / "Nickel Serenade," by Les Brown and His Orchestra (Okeh, 1941), and "Doby's Boogie" (dedicated to Cleveland Hall of Famer Larry Doby) / "Hog Head," by the Freddie Mitchell Orchestra (Derby, 1949), both in separate eBay orders. However, along with "Doby's Boogie," I also bought two hillbilly records, with "Cripple Creek" / "Sugar in the Gourd," by Fiddlin' Powers and Family (Victor, 1924), and "Cindy" / "Little Brown Jug," by Riley Puckett and Clayton McMichen (Columbia, c. 1928). 


And just this past weekend, I went to the second annual ShellAkron record show in Akron, Ohio. This was my first time attending a record show that was primarily focused on the 78 rpm era, although there were some 45s and LPs too. I ended up spending $23 and walking out with eight records, five 78s, two 45s and an LP. Five of my pickups fell into the old-time realm. 

On 78, I got "Poor Ellen Smith" / "Frankie," by Dykes' Magic City Trio (Brunswick, 1927), "John Makes Good Licker" / "Moonshine Kate," by Fiddlin' John Carson (Okeh, 1928), and "Waiting for a Train" / "Blue Yodel No. 4 (California Blues)," by Jimmie Rodgers (Victor, 1928). 

As for the 45s, I found two Tommy Jackson square dance records on Dot from 1955. The first one had a photo cover and features "Forked Deer," "Tom and Jerry," "Sally Johnson," and "When the Leaves Begin to Turn Brown." The second had a cartoonish portrait of Jackson and features "Ricket's Hornpipe," "I Don't Love Nobody," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and "Two O'clock." Sadly, no "Tomahawk." 

The other three records I got were outside the purview of this blog (i.e., jazz and Hawaiian music). Although not all of my shellac pickups this year have been old-time / hillbilly / county, etc., my 78s collection has more than doubled this year. It's been fun delving more into these records that are 70 to 100 or more years old.

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