The Record Collector

Jon Ward
12" x 12"
oil on luan, 2013

I used to think of myself as a record collector but now I merely consider myself as someone who collects records. Being a blogger, and looking at blogs of people that are serious collectors, I've come to realize what it means to be a real record collector. In the old days my Top 100 depended on my own modest collection and those of my friends but now I can browse almost any collection, of anyone who's serious about collecting, and—a lot of them do—shares their findings on line. So, as I did last year, I'd like to forward a top 8 of music blogs I have been following in 2012. Nearly 50% of the music in this year's list I found on one of the many music blogs available on the web. 10% came from Excavated Shellac, a blog written by Jonathan Ward, collector of old 78 discs from around the world. The discs he writes about are pretty obscure and hardly ever is a picture of the musician available. For illustrating these then, I have to revert to appropriate approximates. In the case of a recording by Rizeli Sadik (Top 100 2012, #18) I chose to paint Jon Ward himself. And rather than writing something about Sadik's song Erkek Kadin Oyun Havasi, I'll link you to the post in Excavated Shellac that deals with it, and let Mr. Ward explain all about the record in his own words. Besides being an awesome record collector he is also an excellent writer.

The following then is my new Top 8 music blogs, the ranking is based on the Top 100 2012 list (last year's ranking in parenthesis):

1. (–) Excavated Shellac by Jonathan Ward
2. (–) The World's Jukebox by Gadaya
3. (5) Bodega Pop by Gary Sullivan
4. (3) Awesome Tapes from Africa by Brian Shimkovitz
5. (1) Tools and Techniques by Lightactivity
6. (6) Ghost-Capital by Nick Barbery
7. (–) Musical Thrift Store Treasures (my own music blog)
8. (4) Friends and Wieners by Ryan J