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Private Press Article (NYT R)

UnherdUnherd 1,880 Posts
edited October 2006 in Strut Central
Neat.... On their Numero Group label, Mr. Shipley, 29, and his partner, Rob Sevier, 27, have released an anthology of 70???s private-press recordings by some Joni Mitchell clones titled ???Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies From the Canyon.??? Mr. Shipley said he became interested in private-press records after a friend sent him a mixtape that included an acoustic track by someone named Becky Severson.???Becky just blew me away,??? said Mr. Shipley. ???And it piqued my interest. I wanted to know if there were other records like this around.???He began scouring Salvation Army outlets and thrift stores within a 100-mile radius of Chicago, looking for strange records with eccentric handmade covers or pictures of grizzled folkies, hoping to find a decent track or two. Months of detective work yielded a handful of interesting discoveries. So Mr. Shipley and Mr. Sevier began searching for Ms. Severson and the other artists in the hopes of putting together the compilation that would become ???Wayfaring Strangers.???It took a lot of patience and fortitude, but Mr. Shipley and Mr. Sevier finally found Ms. Severson through Ken Scott, a specialist on private-press Christian folk music who had put together a mammoth self-published discography called ???The Archivist.??? It was Mr. Scott who tracked down Ms. Severson in her hometown, St. Cloud, Minn.The label owners began calling every Severson in Minnesota phone books, and on the 24th try, Mr. Shipley said, ???I asked the man on the other line if he knew of a Becky Severson, and he said, ???I???m her father.??? ???Ms. Severson???s story is typical of many private-press artists. In 1971, when she was 19, she recorded a sweet folk song called ???A Special Path,??? based on a passage from the Bible. Her brother-in-law financed the pressing of 1,000 copies, which were given to family members and fellow parishioners at her church. And that was that. Or so she thought.???Becky and her family were completely blown away by our interest,??? Mr. Shipley said. ???Her father still had 200 copies of her record in the attic.???

  Comments

  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    it's not fucking neat, it's awful. "bedroom beck's"... dear lord, gimme a break. This guy needs to stick to covering Weezer concerts and Rod Stewart new CD's. $1,000 says he'd never heard of Garry Higgens or any of this shit 'till he "did research" for the story.

  • anthonypearsonanthonypearson 2,442 Posts
    " Mr. Shipley said he became interested in private-press records after a friend[/b] sent him a mixtape that included an acoustic track by someone named Becky Severson. "

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    I mean don't get me wrong, it's great that Numero is getting press in the NYT, but this article is trash.
  • UnherdUnherd 1,880 Posts
    Fair enough, i don't think neat is the ringing endorsement you think it is...
  • kalakala 3,361 Posts
    it's not fucking neat, it's awful. "bedroom beck's"... dear lord, gimme a break. This guy needs to stick to covering Weezer concerts and Rod Stewart new CD's. $1,000 says he'd never heard of Garry Higgens or any of this shit 'till he "did research" for the story.



    crinky
    how come you let this stuff piss you off so much ???
    i mean ....yes fuck the NYT every which way from sunday but didn't you see it coming?
  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    Of course I saw it coming. This is the music I've literally devoted my whole life to for the past 2 years. I just hate to see it co-opted by, aimed at, and dumbed down for a bunch dickheads who really aren't going to "get it" anyhow. I'm honestly happy to see new people who enjoy this kind of music turned on, and decent labels make some loot, but turning this into a trend is ultimately destructive. Surely everyone who's been into music for a few years has seen/experienced this phenomenon.
  • drewnicedrewnice 5,465 Posts
    How mad would you be if they had mentioned: http://www.weirdrecordsthatsuck.com?
  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    How mad would you be if they had mentioned: http://www.weirdrecordsthatsuck.com?

    That they did not just proves how truely disconnected from tha_game they are.
  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts
    Of course I saw it coming. This is the music I've literally devoted my whole life to for the past 2 years. I just hate to see it co-opted by, aimed at, and dumbed down for a bunch dickheads who really aren't going to "get it" anyhow.

    Good heavens--you sound just like Archaic.

    All that's missing is a threat of physical violence.
  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    Are you challenging me to a battle rap???
  • JLRJLR 3,835 Posts
    disabled people record cover collecting on the cover of Time magazine, that's the day I would start to worry.
  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    disabled people record cover collecting on the cover of Time magazine, that's the day I would start to worry.

  • JLRJLR 3,835 Posts
    disabled people record cover collecting on the cover of Time magazine, that's the day I would start to worry.


    Holy shit
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