A tribute to Danny Thompson from the Sun Ra Arkestra, an interview with record cover painter Sara Kolp, an interview with 92 year old Gospel musician
Hello all, Welcome to the first ever Mississippi Records Newsletter. This issue features four articles we hope you'll enjoy - a tribute to Danny Thompson from the Sun Ra Arkestra, an interview with record cover painter Sara Kolp, an interview with 92 year old visionary Gospel musician Theotis Taylor, and a story about the time I met MIchael Jackson and he ruined my life. We also included links to our free music sources and ways you can support the store and label throughout these times. We hope you enjoy this Newsletter. We would prefer to produce a print version (in fact graphic artist Dana Slattery laid out a beautiful version of what's below in the style of the Whole Earth catalog, but it was too graphicly poppin' for the pathetic internet, so we'll save it for when this becomes a print publication in the near future.) Please spread this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested and feel free to repost it anywhere.
A quote from Sun Ra -
"If death is the absence of life, then death's death is life.... When the music stops the earth will stop and everything upon it will die.”
Maybe a little heavy handed, but as with everything Sun Ra said, it has some serious kernel of truth to heed. So, here I am, not able to gather with others, speeding towards broke, worried about the health of the vulnerable people in our community and worried about all of our ability to endure economically. I find myself turning to music more than ever. We have to think about food, shelter, and health before art. But - while we are attending to these needs, we have to keep fueled. That's where music comes in. I recommend heavy doses. Overall, this music diet is keeping me positive. During the next few weeks, Mississippi Records will try to double down on making music available. While we still firmly believe that records and cassettes are by far the greatest way to spread music through the land, we acknowledge that is not entirely practical for everyone at this moment. So, we plan on working with what we got and using the internet, hell or high water. For the duration of our shut in, Mississippi Records (the label and store) will be all over the internet. We’ll be producing a weekly newsletter, daily youtube mixes, radio shows produced for KBOO, free access to Bandcamp streaming and maybe even a podcast. Beyond all these free services, the record shop will try to stay in business by selling gift certificates and selling stock records as well as holy totems from our personal archive though discogs. The label will soldier on by selling our releases off our website, selling downloads on bandcamp and continuing the CSR subscription service. Normality was taken for granted. I hope your loved ones feel more dear, your usual food tastes better, and your usual music sounds better than ever. Music is still out there operating as death's death. (life)
All the love, Eric
Mississippi YouTube Mixes Because I have lost the luxury of DJing records in my record shop for a captive audience all day, I am now creating daily "youtube mixes" - 10 songs a day as long as this shut in continues https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt2giAvNmgcm-wnnCIlcmXA/playlists?view_as=subscriber Mississippi March Mixtape We sent this out with the last update, but in case ya missed it, here are some tracks from forthcoming Mississippi releases, including the otherworldly gospel of Brother Theotis Taylor, rare soul gems from the upcoming 5th Cairo Records compilation, the incredibly potent harmonies of Kalama's Quartet, an unreleased gem from Frank and His Sisters, and more. Please pass it on to those who might enjoy! https://we.tl/t-xuLZ5ljlTM
Mississippi Store Gift Certificates Support the shop while we're closed with gift certificates by mail. Each gift certificate comes with special offers (see dropdown menu below).
Here's how it works: If you paypal, please include an address for us to send the gift certificate to. No need to specify what bonus prize you want until you come to the shop. Same if you mail us a check (Mississippi Records 5202 N Albina Ave Portland OR, 97217). You will only get the gift certificate by mail. Once we are re-opened, you can come in to redeem it for records and collect your bonus prizes. Gift certificates cannot be spent on our discogs store, website or bandcamp. (AND THANKS TO ALL WHO ALREADY PURCHASED THESE!)
Gift Cards + Prizes
Mississippi Records Website Visit our site to get our label's records and tapes directly from us, as well as some favorite labels we distribute. We will continue to ship packages on a weekly basis as long as it's safe to do so. We're also happy to hold orders til the coast is clear. www.mississippirecords.net Temporary Mississippi Discogs We'll be adding at least 200 records to the site weekly. This online store will disappear the minute this pandemic is over. https://www.discogs.com/seller/mississippi-records/profile
Mississippi Records Bandcamp There are hours and hours worth of albums available for free listening, and a whole lot of the releases are "pay what you want" if you want to download em. Check it out - https://mississippirecords.bandcamp.com/ Mississippi Records CSR Our Community Supported Records program directly supports the label. Get each Mississippi LP at a discount as it's released, no matter how limited, plus special schwag and gifts on occasion. Limited to 300 spots. The CSR contributions help us pay for record pressings and generally stay afloat. More details here: https://sites.google.com/site/mississippicsr/ Toody Cole / Junkstore Cowboy Toody Cole will be shuttering her Junkstore Cowboy Shop in our basement until the record shop reopens, but that does not mean you can't get your Dead Moon / Pierced Arrows / Rats / Range Rats / Tombstone schwag and records still from her badass online store. Dead Moon shirts look just as good on you around the house as out in the world - https://www.deadmoonusa.com/ KBOO Radio For those who need even more music, the best of community radio: https://kboo.fm/
Mississippi Records Newsletter
Volume One - March 28, 2020
Table of Contents: I. Fate In A Pleasant Mood Can Change Your Destiny - In Memory of Danny Ray Thompson II. The Art of Sara Kolp III. "When your spirit hits, you put it on some reel-to-reel tape" Conversations with Brother Theotis Taylor IV. Record Store Stories: Volume 1- Michael Jackson: My Personal Apocalypse
From left to right - Eric, Michael Jackson, Omar, Chuck and Sean at Saturn Records, 1999.
