Marcia Ball – Gatorhythms

In these crazy times when we can’t really get together with friends or family, when we can’t casually go out and enjoy ourselves at will, and when my wife is subject to some rather extreme dietary restrictions that would keep us from going out to dine anyway, we’ve developed a tiny little comfort ritual and date night combined in one. Once we finally felt like maybe it was semi-safe to go to an indoor establishment that wasn’t vital to survival, like a grocery store or pharmacy, I really really really wanted to go to a record store. I picked a time when I thought MaTones in Collegeville, small but diverse, was unlikely to have much traffic, on a Friday around 5 pm. We combined that with a necessary run to Kimberton Whole Foods, our local grocery group (unrelated to the Amazon-owned Whole Foods), which is the only reliable source for the free-of-nearly-everything autoimmune protocol diet that she needs, and which is close to MaTones. The first week she joined me in the record store for a while, but that’s mostly a me thing and once she got bored she decided to walk down to KWF, and I would drive down and meet her there when I was done rummaging through the bins. Then we did the same ting the next Friday, and the Friday after that, and so on. It became a thing. It also became a thing where I mostly picked up Melanie records, but we’ll have to get into that later on in this blog. M is a long way away.

I was a little familiar with Marcia Ball years back, as she was featured on a couple of blues compilations I picked up on CD. Always liked the songs I heard, but never sought out her discs. Story of my life. So when I saw this 1989 release in the bins at MaTones, I thought I should give it a home. She’s got a more bayou blues sound than I normally go for, but I like it quite a bit. It’s hard to go wrong with good blues.

Originally posted 10-29-20