(If you’re not familiar with my newly-found record collecting habits, you might want to read this entry first.)
The thing about Grace Records is you’d never imagine it being a decent store — if you’re judging record stores based solely on location. It sits in between a Hot Topic or a Box Lunch or a Sephora or a Victoria’s Secret…which is kinda by a Macy’s and just a few blocks from a Dick’s Sporting Goods which is right down the street from Joanne’s…or a Target.
In other words, smack dab in the middle of Suburbia, USA — which is where I now call home.
But the buyers at Grace do a good job — and not only with RSD and new releases. Recent finds include a second pressing of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music (all three volumes with the ephemera laid in all three boxes!), some great Blue Notes, as well as the 7th and 8th records in my now-resuscitated-but-limited-to-10 record collection: Diet Cig’s Do You Wonder About Me? (in the limited-edition “baby pink” pressing) and Martin Frawley’s Undone at 31 (pressed in blue-marbled vinyl).
Not that it takes a record buying genius with Diet Cig and Frawley. I found them in the price-reduced bin, and since I had never heard of either act, I gave both records a shot. Besides, I liked the album art.
But you know the old saying — never judge a book by its cover. Which isn’t to say either record was bad; in fact, one of the two is going to make a nifty present under the tree for my 17-year-old niece.
Which will bring me back to 7 records.
