HOMEGROWN MUSIC . . . AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENT!

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ANOTHER GOOD NAME

You know, with the "replace it every two years" philosophy that's come to dominate consumer spending habits in this country, it's pretty danged difficult to maintain any continuity in our musical traditions . . . since cultural trends tend to come and go as quickly as car models. Perhaps that helps explain why rock-and-roll, with its strong roots in the blues and country genres, is already being considered "traditional" by many folks, in spite of its being a relative newcomer on the American music scene.

At any rate, I was pleased—recently—to find an independent music company producing records of original, pure rock . . . or "rockabilly", as it's often called. Rollin' Rock Records is devoted to early rock-and-roll (before the era of fuzz-tone devices and outsized amplifiers), with its fresh, raw energy and sense of joy. One particularly good release from these folks is Rockabilly Fools by the Magnetics, a disk of good, clean, irresistible dancing music. And that's not all! Rollin' Rock has over 50 singles and some 32 albums in its catalog. . . which you can receive by writing to Rollin' Rock, Dept. TMEN, 6918 Peach Avenue, Van Nuys, California 91406.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL HOMEGROWN RECORD DEALER

Small record companies — of which both Kicking Mule and Rollin' Rock are examplesare often forced to sell primarily by mail, because the large-scale distributors aren't generally willing to take any risks on what they consider to be "unvarnished" music with limited appeal. For that very reason, it's important that we — the traditional music fans — support those "little guys" to improve their chances of survival in the cutthroat business of recording.

And you can help by looking for ads placed by small, homegrown record companies (or reading about some of the outfits in my columns in MOTHER NOS 54, 60, and 66), writing for their catalogs, and ordering some of their one-of-a-kind albums. Even if you're just a listener, there's a lot of good music to be experienced in the world of homegrown recordings!

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