Collectible Minnesota Black Gospel LPs

Please post any additions in the comments, and I’ll update the list.

Thelma Buckner and The House of Refuge Choir Reach Me a Hand LP Narthex Records 827N-4579/80

The Cantinos Vol. I LP

The Cantinos Touch Me LP

Sam Davis and The Gospel Ensemble Keep on Praising Him LP 1981 Cada Records 8005

Sam Davis and The Twin Cities Gospel Ensemble I’ve Been Changed LP 1980 Cada Records 3-79

Evangelist Crusaders a good source claims there is one more records released previous to these:

Evangelist Crusaders In The Beginning God LP Univeral Audio Corporation UAS-542-48690

Evangelist Crusaders Just Jesus LP 1979 Browntown Records 2000

Gospel Choirs United I’ll Be a Witness LP Cada Records 8002

Gospel Crusaders Quartet Present Go Down To Jordan KNOF Records SKR-LP 1016

Gospel Swanns Gospel Singers There’s Going to be a Pay Day LP Gospel Time Records 00109

Greater Sabathani Baptist Church Mass Choir The Little Church with the Big Heart LP no label

Danny L. & The Brewerettes As For Me And My Household — We Will Serve The Lord LP no label or number

Metropolitan Male Chorus of Minnesota He Has Done Great Things LP no label 11370

Minneapolis Gospel Temple House Of Refuge LP KNOF Records SKR-LP-1159

Mount Olivet Celestial Choir Sings LP Sound 80 Records 853-37805

James Murray Command Performances LP Narthex Records 7506

John Patton Black Spirituals and Art Songs LP Narthex Recording Records 4582

Sounds of Blackness Images of Blackness LP Sound 80 Records 719-35765

Sounds of Blackness Images II LP no label 08116

Sounds of Blackness The Night Before Christmas- A Musical Fantasy LP ASI Records 398

Tom Tipton Hymns My Mother Taught Me LP Sparrow Productions 217

Special thanks to Mark Trehus & Eric Foss for filling in some detail here. Y’all got the spirit!

Hollies LP defaced by The Hells Angels of Baltimore!

thanx, Greg.

Hard rockin’ vinyl LP by Minnesota band ROXX from 1976

Bassist Paul Tobako recently shed some light on this enigmatic record. Paul and drummer Tim Flaherty were both from Brooklyn Center, the other band members were from various parts of town. Roxx were based on a farm on the east side of the Twin Cities metropolitan area for awhile, some members lived there from time to time. Paul claims he auditioned for the band there, when there was three feet of snow on the ground. The farm was “run down, but still nice enough”.  They played quite a bit in Canada, traveling Highway 1 all the way from Thunder Bay to Edmonton. During a residency in St Louis, the band stayed in a condominium-like complex, and the songs for ‘Get Your Roxx Off’ were written in the pool room there. The band eventually got a vehicle for transport, a used Old Dutch Potato Chips delivery truck.

Thanks to Paul for giving me the go-ahead to present this stuff. Paul and Tim put out a CD in the early 1990s under the name Coldfire, here is some to check out on YouTube.

Born to Roam

Boogie Rock and Roll

Don’t Need You Girl

The Gallery of Defaced Album Covers part one

I’ve wanted to post this for a very long time. Drew Miller, the man who makes computer dreams come true, today found this set of photos taken about ten years ago. I had been setting aside the defaced albums that I had found while collecting records, intending to document them someday somehow. Along comes blog culture and retirement, and viola! I am so glad that Drew is organized enough to find these when inspired to do so. THANK YOU (AGAIN), DREW MILLER! I have literally hundreds more to present, so we are back at someday, at least we now have the somehow.

Note: sometimes the defacing job itself is subtle, but it can be verrrry effective this way.

Hats off to Ron Rooks, ex-owner of The Music Exchange record store in Kansas City. Ron was certainly larger than life; he dreamed of publishing a coffee table book of his defaced album cover collection. He had some doozies himself. Thanx Ron for the idea.

Another blog like this: Defaced Value

Early 1980s hard-rock/boogie vinyl LP recorded in St Paul: ZINK

The ZINK LP was a studio project by some Minnesota bar band and studio veterans, recorded at Fed DeVir’s basement studio in St Paul, MN. Written and put together by deft guitarist Steve Wellens, it also featured vocals and drums by Paul “Rock” Ducharme, who was Warren Kendrick’s ‘hired gun’ drummer at Warren’s Audio City Studio a few years earlier. Steve was in a couple of bar bands Runner and Brazz (see the song “Bolero for Brazz” on the Zink LP), and Paul was in Rigel from 1977-81, and played on the ZOSER 7″ “Dark of the Morning” that Warren released on the Hexagon label, which also released the second Litter LP. Paul has some recent recordings made in his home studio up on SoundCloud here. Here is what Steve is up to now.

Thanks to Steve and Paul for the go-ahead to post these songs, what a cool obscure Twin Cities LP!

Coffee Can Do It

Home Tonight

Bolero for Brazz

Mutations

Tribute to the Minnesota Record Man- a paean to the hustler

The land of 10 billion records has some tall characters with their wondrous tales of record exploitation. Their genius and flaws shine brightly with an luminance of comedy and tragedy; their stories project theater of the mind at its highest form. Online or in person- they are the modern equivalent of the dime-store novel’s outlaw gunfighter, the Italian mobster, or the 6AM stoned rhyming pimp. The crowd hushes to a whisper as they enter the Record Show- it’s him! he’s here! The Record Man!

Here is a link list of all Minnesota’s trve playas (*brick and mortar included):

Hall of Fame

Heilicher Brothers
Don Leary’s Record Shop
Oar Folkjokeopus
Root Cellar
Kent Hazen
Treehouse Records*
Let it Be
Oldsberg
Roadrunner/Land Speed*
Hymie’s*
Cheapo/Landfill*
Freddy Fresh
tjnovak
Electric Fetus*
Young at Heart

The Rest

Extreme Noise*
Eclipse*
Yeti*
Shuga*
SwordKillers*
Tune Town*
Tim’s Music Shop
riffsahoy!
The Corduroy Carrot
Safe as Milk
grooves_in_orbit
Jayhawk1996
RockSale
Taly Ho Enterprises
Record Highs
Mr Zeros*
Vintage Music*
Omnidrew
royalslim
Car and Record Heaven
sanpeeps
adamtzolkin
Fifth Element*
Urban Lights*
Vital*
Know Name*
Down in the Valley*
Hi Fi Sound*
Discland*
Record Collectors CoOp*
minnman83
Jeffs Music Exchange
Tonka Tunes*
Rice Street Music*
Best of Times*
Homestead Pickin’ Parlor*
Laurie Booksellers*
Book House Dinkytown*
B-Squad Vintage*
Curb Browse and Buy*

The Ferrets “Record Man”