About
My name is Jackson. Record collecting has been my passion for the past three or so years now. This blog is here to help spread the passion with others. My sophomore year of high school, for some reason still unknown to me, I became obsessed with the song "The Ocean" by Led Zeppelin. Something about Jimmy Page's guitar work and that monster of a riff just caused me to listen to that song over and over. This song was a huge part of what made me realize that music was going to play a huge role in my life. Up to that point, I still had plenty of experience with music and its influence. I have played guitar since fifth grade and played clarinet and alto saxophone in my school bands. My parents and siblings are all extremely talented musicians as well, so music just seems to run in my family. Winter of my sophomore year, I visited a local record store in my hometown of Rockford, Illinois called Toad Hall. I figured if I really want to become interested in music, what better place to visit than a record store? I went in unsure what to expect. I was mostly just looking for new CD's to buy, but quickly realized this store had much more to offer. This store is filled to the roof with 8-tracks, cassettes, CD's, but most notably, vinyl records. I truly believe you could think of any artist and Toad Hall would have it. Every genre, decade, artist, and format is available there. New or used, they have it. So, just for the hell of it, I bought a copy of "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull because I liked the title track. Eventually, a sporadic purchase (or so I thought) quickly became a huge part of my identity. I started buying records every week from every store in town. I couldn't wait to make my next trip to the record store. I loved feeling the cover, reading the liner notes, and getting lost in the artwork. Every record is a piece of history, and being able to listen to and own a piece of that history is what keeps me interested. So, thanks to a musically inclined family and one fantastic guitar riff, I have become obsessed music. And what better way to feed that obsession than writing about it?