Still Amazing

Opportunities to dig for records in our corner of Wisconsin run in streaks. We ride out long dry spells, waiting for a month like this:

— Turns out our local used record emporium — Amazing Records — won’t be closing as quickly as first thought. Jim still plans to head home to northern California, but now it might be the end of May before he takes all the collectible records off the wall and loads up the U-Haul to go west. He still has more records to sort through, to toss into the bins.

— In the mail yesterday was a postcard from my friend Jim in Appleton, a half-hour away, announcing a “Huge $1 Tent and Indoor Sale!!” This Jim is the guy who hauls boxes of $1 LPs out to the back yard of his tiny duplex, throws up a tent around the tables and lets you go at it.

— Today, I stopped at the Exclusive Company, which is as close to an indie record store as we get. Stapled to the bulletin board was a flyer announcing a “HUGE Record Sale.” This is still another friend named Jim, who will throw up his garage door and put out his crates.

— Tom, who runs our Exclusive Company store, handed me a flyer for Record Store Day on the way out. Nine bands, six DJs (including local punk legend Rev. Nørb) and special deals. I’m there.

— On the flip side of the flyer, my friend Jeff — who organizes the spring and fall record shows in Green Bay — announces he’s having a record sale on Record Store Day. too.

Here’s hoping there are records as cool as these to be found. I bought both of these from Jim the garage sale guy at shows organized by Jeff.

“Instant Groove,” King Curtis, from “Instant Groove,” 1969.

This is a fierce sax-driven dance scorcher on which the King commands:

“Now how we start to whip up the groove, we want everybody to come on out here and do your thing. And everybody got a thing. We want you come on out here and do it now. ‘Cause that’s when everybody is doing their own thing. That’s what I want to see you do right now.”

Our friend Larry over at Funky 16 Corners wrote earlier this year about the basic backing guitar track on “Instant Groove,” tracing it to a 1966 tune called “Help Me (Get the Feeling)” by Ray Sharpe.

“Lift Your Love Higher,” Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose, from “Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose,” 1972. It’s out of print, and I can’t find this cut on any greatest-hits compilation.

You’ll hear echoes of “Treat Her Like A Lady,” the smash 1971 single by this Miami pop-soul quartet. They really were brothers and sisters, Eddie and Carter and Rose and Billie Joe.

Midnight Tracker update: There’s a new post over at our companion blog, The Midnight Tracker. It’s a double shot of J.J. Cale and Billy Preston (and Sly Stone). Enjoy!