I am completely hooked on Mack Stevens YouTube channel (I Buy Old Records) this past few months. I can happily spend hours watching him riffle through the little ones with the big holes at thrifts and antique malls in Texas, Oklahoma, and all States south. The volume of stuff (granted a lot of it is 70s Country and Pop chuff) he seems to be able to dig through in these places is impressive, and somewhat galling when compared to the meagre pickings available to us in the UK where chazzas are the only real option for real world year round digging (I don't count record shops). There are a few tip shops and consignment shops here but they are few and far between really.
He tends to be on the lookout for rockabilly, country boppers, loner country, white gospel, that sort of thing – and 78s, but his antennae twitch for soul and garage too (he knows his stuff, turning records for a living). To me it doesn't really matter that his “gold” is typically not aligned to my taste, nor in genres I know much about, it is his unfailing documentation of “the chase” and the occasional thrill that entails that has me completely hooked. All this and Mack is a funny guy and a great raconteur too; and I get to enjoy the sunshine and the off highway open road of the southern USA. Whenever I tire of trawling around the same old chazzas on my patch I know I can happily go virtual digging with Mack.
Anyway, I had my very own Mack Stevens moment (in microcosm) back in late September when in a Bristol suburb chazza I found a copy of a 1961 New York Doo Wop record. You have to agree that doesn't happen every day here in Blighty. A rare find and, although not a valuable one in monetary terms, a find like this is priceless in other ways. How it managed to find its way into a stack of the usual 60s-70s-80s UK pop detritus I have no idea - as is usually the case with finds like this nothing remotely like it was keeping it company.
Doing a bit of research – as you do - The Craftys were better known as The Halos and at one time included JR Bailey in their ranks who went on to release some mighty fine soul 45s and one killer (and rare) album in the 70s.
This is a styrene copy - I hadn't realised styrene was already well established by the early 60s.
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