Met Jackson Browne at Amoeba Records in Hollywood a while back, when he was promoting his then-new album Time the Conqueror. I brought that CD along—and also had him sign his classic Running on Empty.

The real treat was that he took the stage and performed songs from Time the Conqueror for about 30 minutes. Afterward, he sat at a table and met everyone one-on-one. No rushing, no pretense—just fully present, gracious, and genuinely engaged in conversation. An incredibly human experience with an artist whose work has meant a lot over the years.

I was at one of my favorite local antique stores this week, and the owner gave me this Elvis CD for free! He said that a lady recorded the songs on the CD, so for copyright purposes, he couldn’t sell it, but he could give it away. So, I got this for my Elvis collection, just in time for Christmas!

Seen here is a sealed CD demo of Public Enemy’s 1991 single “By the Time I Get to Arizona.” The song was Chuck D’s request (demand?) that Arizona formally recognize Martin Luther King Jr Day. The middle of the song features a beat changeover that’s haunting, militant, and timeless. I place this one among the top three in PE’s catalogue.

Everyone that knows me knows that Counting Crows are my favorite all-time musical group. Even many Crows fans don’t realize that before they were Counting Crows, we are talking mid to late 1980s, Adam Duretz and some of the members of the current band had a band called the Himalayas. A couple of their songs made it into Crows albums over the years some, did not. Adam‘s voice is young and raw on these tracks, but it’s still worth a listen!

I recently nabbed this CD longbox from Public Enemy’s 1988 album “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back”. These are difficult to find in any condition, let alone good condition, and I also got it for a low price.

Some of the younger crowd might be asking ‘What’s a CD longbox?’ In short, when the music industry was transitioning from vinyl records to CDs in the 1980s, music companies packaged CDs in longboxes so stores could continue using vinyl racks and also because it made it tougher to steal the CDs (which were expensive). They were phased out in the early-‘90s and most people chucked or destroyed the longboxes after purchase so they’ve become a nice collector’s item.