Pay a dollar, take a chance

Isn't this intriguing album art? I thought so. I was at a yard sale, poking through a box of meaningless 80's compilations and cookie-cutter hip hop CDs, and I found this. Never heard of Libby Kirkpatrick before, but hell, it was only $1. So that was last week, and it's lived in my car CD player up until yesterday, when something else interesting came along...more on that later. Anyway, this CD grabbed my right from the opening notes (a bass intro, so no surprise there) and Libby's voice reminds me at different moments of Sheryl Crow, Jewel, Rickie Lee Jones, and several other people all rolled into one. And words...lots of words. Folk-ish music, sometimes jazzy, sometimes not so much. I really got my dollar's worth, and I would dispute the adage that you can't judge a book by its cover.

So then this week, poking through another box of CDs. I think between me and my son, we have just about all of them. Mars Volta, Wallflowers, Goo Goo Dolls, J. Mascis...and wait! There were two Dream Theater CDs I hadn't heard yet! I can't really say I'm a "fan" of Dream Theater. It's kind of hard to explain, except to say that for me, I have to take them on a CD by CD basis. A band that's been together for 25 years goes through a lot of changes and not all of them pleasant to hear. For me. But I was excited, because I am a fan of Mike Portnoy (who after 25 years has left the band, unfortunately). As drummers go, he's a beast. So I popped it into the player, and as the second track started I thought, wow, that's a shameless ripoff of "funeral for a friend" by Elton John. Checked out the album notes and what do you know? That's exactly what it was. Awesome job by DT, and the album (Change of Seasons, BTW) is mostly covers...Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Kansas...wow. A real gem, and for 50 cents! Anybody who sticks their nose in the air at yard sales doesn't know what he's missing.