{Photograph} by Tim E. White/Getty
My month-to-month ritual in school was a drive into Atlanta to make the rounds of the wealthy array of document shops throughout town. My favourite hang-out was Peaches, a warehouse-sized retailer that prided itself on having the again catalog of nearly each music artist conceivable.
This was lengthy earlier than iTunes and Spotify. There was a way of exploration and discovery from strolling right into a document store that’s sadly absent within the digital age. Most frequently, I had a few goal albums I knew I needed; after that, I may spend an hour or extra flipping via the bins of albums searching for one thing that may catch my eye. The shop additionally had an space for “cutouts,” albums that had flopped available on the market and could possibly be had for a buck or two.
I’d normally stroll out with 5 or 6 albums: a few certainties I knew had been good and the remainder experiments. That’s how I found Lucinda Williams early in her profession, when she was nonetheless on an obscure indie label. I used to be pulled in by the album cowl. It had a glowing blurb from Rolling Stone, and she or he seemed significantly good sporting a black leather-based jacket within the photograph. That was cause sufficient to take it house.
There have been two major sources for maintaining with present music: Rolling Stone, with its intensive record-review part, and the radio. Lots of the Atlanta FM stations nonetheless had a free-form format that allowed the disc jockeys to play what they needed to play, a mix of hits and deep album cuts.
At a sure level, a part of my ritual started to incorporate listening to the Saturday evening jazz program on WABE as I drove into town. I knew little about jazz, however I used to be drawn to it. The host of that present was a deep-voiced man named H. Johnson. He shared his encyclopedic information of jazz between songs, usually naming the musicians who performed on a track and sharing tales about them.
He additionally had the annoying behavior of beginning a track, then turning down the music to speak over the document for a minute or so to share a tidbit he’d forgotten to say throughout the intro. However the high quality of songs he performed made {that a} forgivable sin.
One explicit evening, I had simply reached what I known as “Six Flags Hill,” with its superb panoramic view of town skyline, when H. Johnson placed on a track that immediately touched one thing in my soul. It was a singer I didn’t acknowledge, and she or he had one of many strongest, most soulful voices I’d ever heard. It featured an extended solo part, and I knew I had a goal album to search out that night at Peaches.
There was only one downside: H. Johnson usually performed six or seven songs back-to-back in a section, then recognized all of the artists on the finish. This track was at first of a type of segments.
By the point I pulled into the Peaches car parking zone, the music was nonetheless enjoying, and he had but to determine the vocalist. I sat in my automobile and waited, pissed off. Lastly, his voice returned, and I discovered the singer was Dinah Washington and the track a Duke
Ellington composition: “I Let a Music Go Out of My Coronary heart.”
I walked into the shop, proceeded on to the jazz part, and located the album. Rating. It’s nonetheless one among my favourite information.
Many years later, H. Johnson stays a mainstay of WABE, with a blues present on Friday nights and the jazz present nonetheless on Saturdays. He’s a practice as wealthy as any within the metropolis, and that’s why we characteristic him on this month’s cowl package deal on the explanations we love Atlanta.
These month-to-month journeys into Atlanta started my bond with town. I explored document outlets, bookstores, and music golf equipment. It provided a world far past what I may discover in my sleepy hometown.
I’ve lived in numerous locations, however Atlanta stays singularly distinctive. Learn on to find our favourite issues in regards to the metropolis. It’s our valentine to Atlanta.
This text seems in our February 2025 concern.
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